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  3. They may not be the richest, but Africans remain the world’s staunchest optimists. An annual survey by Gallup International, a r

They may not be the richest, but Africans remain the world’s staunchest optimists. An annual survey by Gallup International, a r

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问题     They may not be the richest, but Africans remain the world’s staunchest optimists. An annual survey by Gallup International, a research outfit, shows that, when asked whether this year will be better than last, Africa once again comes out on top. Out of 52,000 people interviewed all over the world, under half believe that things are looking up. But in Africa the proportion is close to 60%—almost twice as much as in Europe.
    Africans have some reasons to be cheerful. The continent’s economy has been doing fairly well with South Africa, the economic powerhouse, growing steadily over the past few years. Some of Africa’s long-running conflicts, such as the war between the north and south in Sudan and the civil war in Congo, have ended. Africa even has its first elected female head of state, in Liberia.
    Yet there is no shortage of downers too. Most of Africa remains dirt poor. Crises in places like Cote d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe are far from solved. And the democratic credentials of Ethiopia and Uganda, once the darlings of western donors, have taken a bad knock. AIDS killed over 2 million Africans in 2005, and will kill more this year.
    So is it all just a case of irrational exuberance ? Meril James of Gallup argues that there is, in fact, usually very little relation between the survey’s optimism rankings and reality. Africans, this year led by Nigerians, are consistently the most upbeat, whether their lot gets better or not. On the other hand, Greece— hardly the worst place on earth—tops the gloom-and-doom chart, followed closely by Portugal and France.
    Ms James speculates that religion may have a lot to do with it. Nine out of ten Africans are religious, the highest proportion in the world. But cynics argue that most Africans believe that 2006 will be golden because things have been so bad that it is hard to imagine how they could possibly get worse. This may help explain why places that have suffered recent misfortunes, such as Kosovo and Afghanistan, rank among the top five optimists. Moussaka for thought for those depressed Greeks.
France is mentioned in the text with the aim to______.
选项 A、contrast Nigerians and French
B、defend Meril James’ remarks
C、attach importance to the gloom-and-doom chart
D、refute Ms James concept of religion
答案B
解析 这是一道细节推导题，测试考生准确识别和理解原文中句子之间关系的能力。本题的答案信息在第四段的第二句和尾句。“法国”(France)一词在第四段尾句出现，该句和第四段倒数第二句均是作者用来支持证明Meril James观点的例证。故本题的正确选项应该是B“defend Meril James’remarks”(支持Meril James的看法)。考生在阅读时要重视原文中句子之间的关联。
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