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OFFICIAL51 Directions: An introductory sentence for a brief summary of the passage is provided below. Complete the summary by selecting the THREE answer choices that express the most important ideas in the passage. Some sentences do not belong in the summary because they express ideas that are not presented in the passage or are minor ideas in the passage. This question is worth 2 points. Drag your answer choices to the spaces where they belong. To remove an answer choice, click on it. To review the passage, click VIEW TEXT. Western Europe experienced a tremendous growth in population in the nineteenth century.

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Population Growth in Nineteenth-Century Europe
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Because of industrialization, but also because of a vast increase in agricultural output without which industrialization would have been impossible, Western Europeans by the latter half of the nineteenth century enjoyed higher standards of living and longer, healthier lives than most of the world’s peoples. In Europe as a whole, the population rose from 188 million in 1800 to 400 million in 1900. By 1900, virtually every area of Europe had contributed to the tremendous surge of population, but each major region was at a different stage of demographic change.

Improvements in the food supply continued trends that had started in the late seventeenth century. New lands were put under cultivation, while the use of crops of American origin, particularly the potato, continued to expand. Setbacks did occur. Regional agricultural failures were the most common cause of economic recessions until 1850, and they could lead to localized famine as well. A major potato blight (disease) in 1846-1847 led to the deaths of at least one million persons in Ireland and the emigration of another million, and Ireland never recovered the population levels the potato had sustained to that point. Bad grain harvests at the same time led to increased hardship throughout much of Europe.

After 1850, however, the expansion of foods more regularly kept pace with population growth, though the poorer classes remained malnourished. Two developments were crucial. First, the application of science and new technology to agriculture increased. Led by German universities, increasing research was devoted to improving seeds, developing chemical fertilizers, and advancing livestock. After 1861, with the development of land-grant universities in the United States that had huge agricultural programs, American crop-production research added to this mix. Mechanization included the use of horse-drawn harvesters and seed drills, many developed initially in the United States. It also included mechanical cream separators and other food-processing devices that improved supply.

The second development involved industrially based transportation. With trains and steam shipping, it became possible to move foods to needy regions within Western Europe quickly. Famine (as opposed to malnutrition) became a thing of the past. Many Western European countries, headed by Britain, began also to import increasing amounts of food, not only from Eastern Europe, a traditional source, but also from the Americas, Australia, and New Zealand. Steam shipping, which improved speed and capacity, as well as new procedures for canning and refrigerating foods (particularly after 1870), was fundamental to these developments.

Europe's population growth included one additional innovation by the nineteenth century: it combined with rapid urbanization. More and more Western Europeans moved from countryside to city, and big cities grew most rapidly of all. By 1850, over half of all the people in England lived in cities, a first in human history. In one sense, this pattern seems inevitable growing numbers of people pressed available resources on the land, even when farmwork was combined with a bit of manufacturing, so people crowded into cities seeking work or other resources. Traditionally, however, death rates in cities surpassed those in the countryside by a large margin; cities had maintained population only through steady in-migration. Thus rapid urbanization should have reduced overall population growth, but by the middle of the nineteenth century this was no longer the case. Urban death rates remained high, particularly in the lower-class slums, but they began to decline rapidly.

The greater reliability of food supplies was a factor in the decline of urban death rates. Even more important were the gains in urban sanitation, as well as measures such as inspection of housing. Reformers, including enlightened doctors, began to study the causes of high death rates and to urge remediation. Even before the discovery of germs, beliefs that disease spread by "miasmas" (noxious forms of bad air) prompted attention to sewers and open garbage; Edwin Chadwick led an exemplary urban crusade for underground sewers in England in the 1830s. Gradually, public health provisions began to cut into customary urban mortality rates. By 1900, in some parts of Western Europe life expectancy in the cities began to surpass that of the rural areas. Industrial societies had figured out ways to combine large and growing cities with population growth, a development that would soon spread to other parts of the world.

14.Directions: An introductory sentence for a brief summary of the passage is provided below. Complete the summary by selecting the THREE answer choices that express the most important ideas in the passage. Some sentences do not belong in the summary because they express ideas that are not presented in the passage or are minor ideas in the passage. This question is worth 2 points. Drag your answer choices to the spaces where they belong. To remove an answer choice, click on it. To review the passage, click VIEW TEXT. Western Europe experienced a tremendous growth in population in the nineteenth century.

A.Agricultural failures became less damaging after 1850 because of advances in science and technology as well as improvements in the transportation and preservation of foods.

B.The development of better food-processing technologies allowed many Western European countries to grow their own food without having to import it from other countries.

C.High death rates in the cities began to decline as food supplies became more reliable and as reformers prompted improvements in sanitation and housing.

D.Although agricultural failures led to deaths and emigration population levels were restored within a short time.

E.As the population in the countryside began increasing faster than the supply of food and living space, people began moving to the cities in search of jobs and other resources.

F.The improvements in crop-growing methods created new jobs on the farms, causing people from the overcrowded cities to move to the countryside to fill those jobs.

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【题目翻译】说明:下面是文章的简要概括的介绍句。通过选择三个答案来完成总结,这三个答案表达了文章中最重要的观点。有些句子不属于摘要,因为它们表达了文章中没有呈现的想法,或者是文章中的次要思想。 十九世纪西欧的人口经历了巨大的增长。 A:1850年以后,由于科学技术的进步以及食品运输和保藏的改善,农业的失败造成的破坏越来越小。 B:更好的食品加工技术的发展使许多西欧国家无需从其他国家进口就可以自己种植食品。 C:随着食品供应变得更加可靠,以及改革者推动卫生和住房的改善,城市的高死亡率开始下降。 D:尽管农业的失败导致死亡和移民人口数量在短时间内得到恢复。 E:随着农村人口的增长速度开始超过食物和生活空间的供给,人们开始向城市迁移,寻找工作和其他资源。 F:农作物种植方法的改进在农场创造了新的就业机会,使得来自拥挤的城市的人们搬到农村去填补那些工作 【判定题型】:根据问题的提问方式和6选3的作答方式可以确定该题目为概要小结题。 【选项定位及分析】 A选项:由于科学技术、交通、和食物储存方法的进步,农业失败的影响在1850年后减弱。正确,对应原文三四段的内容。第三段讲的是科学技术的积极影响、第四段讲的是交通、食品加工设备的进步。故A选项是文章三、四段的概括总结,故为正确答案。 B选项:食品加工技术的发展使西欧国家不需要从其他国家进口食物,可以种植自己的农作物。B选项错误,第二段中提到“New lands were put under cultivation, while the use of crops of American origin, particularly the potato, continued to expand.”人们开辟土地,种植本土作物;而第四段中提到交通的发展,使西欧国家可以从其他国家进口食物。但这两个信息之间并没有逻辑关联,B选项编造了两者之间的逻辑,故B选项错误。 C选项:由于食物供应变得更可靠、改革者提高卫生水平并修缮房屋,使城市人口死亡率下降。C选项信息可以对应文章第六段的内容,是第六段论述的重点, 故C选项正确。 D选项:虽然农业的失败导致了人口死亡和迁移,但是人口数量短时间内就恢复了。错误,对应文章第二段的这句话“……and Ireland never recovered the population levels the potato had sustained to that point.”说明人口数量再也没回到之前的水平,故D选项与文章内容矛盾,排除。 E选项:乡村的人口数量增长比食物供应、生存空间增长的速度要快,所以人们搬到城市以寻求工作机会和其他资源。正确,对应文章第五段内容。 F选项:农作物种植方法的改善为农场制造了很多新的工作机会,促使人们从拥挤的城市搬到乡村。错误,全文只提及了人口从农村往城市迁移,故F选项在文中未提及,排除。

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