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OFFICIAL51 According to paragraph 4, famine became less of a problem in Western Europe during the nineteenth century because of

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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.

7.According to paragraph 4, famine became less of a problem in Western Europe during the nineteenth century because of

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正确答案:C
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【题目翻译】根据第4段,在十九世纪西欧,饥荒不再是一个问题是因为? A:营养不良的下降 B:建设更多的食品储存设施 C:更快的交通工具 D:东欧农业方法的改进 【判定题型】:题目问的是文章中的具体细节信息,故根据题目问法可以判断本题为事实信息题。 【关键词定位】我们根据题干中的关键词“famine”定位到第3句“ Famine (as opposed to malnutrition) became a thing of the past.”意思是:饥荒(与营养不良相对)已成为过去。 4、【逻辑分析】第四段主要描述交通运输的影响。再往前看,前面一句话说,通过火车和蒸汽船运输,人们可以迅速地将食物运输到西欧贫困地区。这说明交通运输的进步可以解决饥荒的问题。再结合定位句与上下文。 【选项分析】 A选项:营养不良的减少。“malnutrition”出现在这句话的括号内容里“Famine (as opposed to malnutrition) became a thing of the past.”是为了说明饥荒和营养不良是两个不同的概念,文中并没有提及营养不良情况的减少,故A选项为无关信息,排除。 B选项:建立更多的存储设施。第四段整段都没提及该信息,故排除。 C选项:更快的交通工具。交通运输的进步可以解决饥荒的问题。正确。 D选项:东欧的农业方式进步。错误,根据关键词“Eastern Europe”我们找到这句话“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……”这句话其实是在说明交通运输有利于粮食的进口,可以从东欧进口粮食,但并没有提及东欧农业方式的进步,故D选项排除。

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