首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
According to reports in major news outlets, a study published last week included a startling discovery: the nation’s Jewish popu
According to reports in major news outlets, a study published last week included a startling discovery: the nation’s Jewish popu
admin
2010-05-14
80
问题
According to reports in major news outlets, a study published last week included a startling discovery: the nation’s Jewish population is in shrinking. The study, the National Jewish Population Survey, found 5.2 million Jews living in the United States in 2000, a drop of 5 percent, or 300,000 people, since a similar study in 1990. What’s truly startling is that the reported decline is not tree. Worse still, the sponsor of the $6 million study, United Jewish Communities, knows it.
Both it and the authors have openly admitted their doubts. They have acknowledged in interviews that the population totals for 2000 and 1990 were reached by different methods and are not directly comparable. The survey itself also cautions readers, in a dauntingly technical appendix, that judgment calls by the researchers may have led to an undercount. When the research director and project director were asked whether the data should be construed to indicate a declining Jewish population, they flatly answered no. In addition, other survey researchers interviewed pointed to other studies with population estimates as high as 6.7 million.
Despite all this, the two figures --5.2 million now, 5.5 million then --are listed by side in the survey, leaving the impression that the population has shrunk. The result, predictably, has been a rash of headlines trumpeting the illusionary decline, in turn touching off jeremiads by rabbis and moralists condemning the religious laxity behind it. Whether out of ideology, ego, incompetence or a combination of all three, the respected charity has invented a crisis.
United Jewish Communities is the coordinating body for a national network of Jewish philanthropies with combined budgets of $2 billion. Its population surveys carry huge weight in shaping community policy. This is not the first time the survey has set off a false alarm. The last one, conducted by a predecessor organization, found that 52 percent of American Jews who married between 1985 and 1990 did so outside the faith. That number was a fabrication produced by including marriages in which neither party was Jewish by anyone’s definition, including the researchers.
Its publication created a huge stir, inspiring anguished sermons, books and conferences. It put liberals on the defensive, emboldened conservatives who reject full integration into society and alienated ordinary folks by the increasingly xenophobic tone of Jewish communal culture. The new survey, to its credit, retracts that figure and offers the latest survey has spawned a panic created by the last one.
So why did the organization flawed figures once again? Some scholars who have studied the. survey believe the motivation then came partly out of a desire to shock straying Jews into greater observance. It’ s too early to tell if that’ s the case this time around. What is clear is the researchers did their job with little regard to how their data could be misconstrued. They used statistical models and question formats that, while internally sound, made the new survey incompatible with the previous one. For example, this time the researchers divided the population of 5.2 million into two groups--"highly involved" Jews and "people of Jewish background"- and posed most questions only to the first group. As a result, most findings about belief and observance refer only to a subgroup of American Jews, making comparisons to the past impossible.
We can’ t afford to wait a decade before these figures are revised. The false population decline must be corrected before it further sours communal discourse. The United Jewish Communities owes it to itself and its public to step forward and state plainly what it knows to be true: American Jews are not disappearing.
How does the population survey get it wrong in 2000?
选项
A、The population total in 2000 was reached by different method from that in 1990.
B、There might be some problems with the judgment calls by the researchers.
C、United Jewish Communities offered not enough financial support to the survey.
D、It is the result of the rash of headlines leaving the impression that the population has declined.
答案
B
解析
答案在第二段:judgment calls by the researchers may have led to an undercount.
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/1OqO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
HungerandfoodinsecurityhavebeencalledAmerica’s"hiddencrisis."Atthesametime,andapparentlyparadoxically,obesity
Iwanttodiscusssomeideasabouthowwemanageunderground【B1】______.Ifweonlytakeasmuchoutascomesin,we’renotgoing
Ifirstly【B1】______towritetheletterwhentheproducercalledbecauseFOOCwasaboutotherpeople’s【B2】______and【B3】______.
A、TheUSplanofdeployingamissiledefenseshieldinCentralEurope.B、ThedevelopmentinAfrica.C、Tran’snuclearprogramand
OnDecember5,1945,at2:00pm,agroupof【C1】______tookoffinperfectweatherforapracticeflightovertheAtlanticOcean.
A、Americanspecialenvoys.B、America’smoneyandcommitment.C、America’ssupportinbringingthepartiestogether.D、Americango
A、TheUSProtectionandInvestigations(USPI).B、Talibanmilitants.C、AUSsecuritycompanyinKandaharprovinceofsouthernAfg
TheBritishpublic’svotetoleavetheEUhassetoffpoliticalandscientificshockwavesthatcouldroilEuropeandtheworld
为了看日出,我常常早起。那时天还没有大亮,周围非常清静,船上只有机器的响声。天空还是一片浅蓝,颜色很浅。转眼间天边出现了一道红霞,慢慢地在扩大它的范围,加强它的亮光。我知道太阳要从天边升起来了,便目不转睛地望着那里。果然过了一会儿,在那个地方出现了太阳的小
Chileisdisadvantagedinthepromotionofitstourismby______.ManyofChile’stouristsusedtocomefromEXCEPT______.
随机试题
选题包括两方面的含义,一是确定科学研究的方向,二是确定要研究的_________。
所有游离香豆素均可溶于热的氢氧化钠溶液,是由于其结构中存在
急性肺炎病程为
A.下蹲时减弱,立位时增强B.上半身前倾坐位C.仰卧位深吸气D.右侧卧位E.左侧卧位听诊二尖瓣狭窄的舒张期杂音,应选取的体位是()
A.附子理中丸B.济生肾气丸C.都气丸D.左归丸E.右归丸治疗虚劳脾阳虚证,应首选
组织内各岗位制定的考核标准包括()。
某企业去年的销售净利率为5.73%,资产周转率为2.17;今年的销售净利率为4.88%,资产周转率为2.88。若两年的资产负债率相同,今年的净资产收益率比照去年的变化趋势为上升。()
厂商生产鞋子时,在保持产量不变的情况下,增加1单位的人工劳动,则必须要减少2单位的资本投入,这种情况下劳动对资本的边际技术替代率为()。
网球比赛的规则是5局3胜制,甲、乙两人每局比赛获胜的概率分别为,前2局中乙以2:0领先,则最后乙获胜的概率为().
Thenormalhumandailycycleofactivityisofsome7-8hours’sleepalternationwithsome16-17hours’wakefulnessandthatthe
最新回复
(
0
)