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  3. In the early 1950’s historians who studied pre-industrial Europe (which we may define here as Europe in the period from roughly

In the early 1950’s historians who studied pre-industrial Europe (which we may define here as Europe in the period from roughly

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问题    In the early 1950’s historians who studied pre-industrial Europe (which we may define here as Europe in the period from roughly 1300 to 1800) began, for the first time in large numbers, to investigate more of the pre-industrial European population than the 2 or 3 percent who comprised the political and social elite; the kings, generals, judges, nobles, bishops and local magnates who had hitherto usually filled history books. One difficulty, however, was that few of the remaining 97 percent recorded their thoughts or had them chronicled by contemporaries. Faced with this situation, many historians based their investigations on the only records that seemed to exist: birth, marriage, and death records. As a result, much of the early work on the non-elite was aridly statistical in nature; reducing the vast majority of the population to a set of numbers was hardly more enlightening than ignoring them altogether. Historians still did not know what these people thought or felt.
   One way out of this dilemma was to turn to the records of legal courts for here the voices of the non-elite can most often be heard, as witnesses, plaintiffs, and defendants. These documents have acted as "a point of entry into the mental world of the poor." Historians such as Le Roy Ladurle have used the documents to extract case histories, which have illuminated the attitudes of different social groups (these attitudes include, but are not confined to, attitudes toward crime and the law) and have revealed how the authorities administered justice. It has been societies that have had a developed police system and practiced Roman law, with its written depositions, whose court records have yielded the most data to historians. In Anglo-Saxon countries hardly any of these benefits obtain, but it has still been possible to glean information from the study of legal documents.
   The extraction of case histories is not, however, the only use to which court record may be put. Historians who study pre-industrial Europe have used the records to establish a series of categories of crime and to quantify indictments that were issued over a given number of years. This use of records does yield some information about the non-elite, but this information gives us little insight into the mental lives of the non-elite. We also know that the number of indictments in pre-industrial Europe bears little relation to the number of actual criminal acts, and we strongly suspect that the relationship has varied widely over time. In addition, aggregate population estimates are very shaky, which makes it difficult for historians to compare rates of crime per thousand in one decade of the pre-industrial period with rates in another decade. Given these inadequacies, it is clear why the case history use of court records is to be preferred.
Which of the following did most historians who studied pre-industrial Europe do before the early 1950’s according to the author?
选项 A、They failed to make distinctions among members of the pre-industrial European political and social elite.
B、They used investigatory methods that were almost exclusively statistical in nature.
C、They inaccurately estimated the influence of the pre-industrial European political and social elite.
D、They confined their work to a narrow range of the pre-industrial European population.
答案D
解析 根据文章第一段第一句“In the early 1950’s historians who studied pre-industrial Europe(which we may define here as Europe in the period from roughly 1300 to 1800)began，for the first time in large numbers，to investigate more of the pre—industrial European population than the 2 or 3 percent who comprised the political and social elite；the kings，generals，judges，nobles， blshops and local magnates who had hitherto usually filled history books．”可知，在20世纪50 年代早期，曾经研究过前工业化时代的欧洲(大约1300年到1800年之间的欧洲)状况的历 史学家首次大规模地对占前工业化时代欧洲人口的2%至3%的政治社会精英之外的人口展开 集体研究。这些政治社会精英包括国王、将军、法官、贵族、主教和当地富豪，他们常常充 斥着历史教科书。由此可知，早期的研究工作主要局限于占前工业化时期欧洲人口的很小一部分的精英群体。据此判断，答案是D。
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