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
2013-11-29
39
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 true. 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/2yZO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
ThebiggestproblemfacingChileasitpromotesitselfasatouristdestinationisthatitisattheendoftheearth.Itisto
ThebiggestproblemfacingChileasitpromotesitselfasatouristdestinationisthatitisattheendoftheearth.Itisto
AccordingtoOxfordEnglishDictionary,bookis"awrittenorprintedtreatiseorseriesoftreatises,occupyingseveralsheets
WhichofthefollowingcitiesislocatedontheeasterncoastofAustralia?
AccordingtoSaussure,therelationbetweenbookandtheothersinthesentence"Iboughtanewbooktoday"is
______isHawthsrne’smasterpiece,whichestablishedhimastheleadingAmericannativenovelistofthe19thcentury.
Theword_____isusuallyNOTusedbyBritishpeople.
O’Neill’sTheIcemanComethhasgaineditsstatusasaworldclassicandsimultaneouslymarksthecomingofageofAmerican
Anystudentsettingoutonacademiccareerinscienceislikelytobecomeincreasinglyseparatedfromhumanitiesandsociety.Ev
Anystudentsettingoutonacademiccareerinscienceislikelytobecomeincreasinglyseparatedfromhumanitiesandsociety.Ev
随机试题
胰头癌的典型表现,最主要的是
属于弥漫性结缔组织病的是下列哪种
患者,女,67岁,高血压20余年。突然剧烈头痛、呕吐、迅速昏迷。护理体检:有三偏征,瘫痪肢体肌张力降低,腱反射消失。该病人忽然呼吸变慢乃至停止,两侧瞳孔不等大。护士应考虑其发生了()
位于市区的某居民企业为增值税一般纳税人。主要生产销售同一型号的热水器。热水器单台销售成本0.1万元,市场不含税销售价格0.18万元。2017年度企业财务核算反映信息为:销售热水器共计3万台,取得不含税销售收入5400万元,取得直接投资居民企业的股息收入40
注册会计师对被审计单位实施销售业务截止测试,主要目的是为了检查()。
【2016年济南市济阳县】相对于学科课程而言,综合实践活动课程是一门经验性课程。()
下列与“昭陵六骏”有关的人物是()。
星期五下午,社里召开作者坐谈会。到会的有十五、六人。会议的主题是如何迎接市场挑战?五德生教授首当其充。他说:“作者即要有文化意识,也要有市场意识。把读者的心理不把握准,就很难谈得上驾驭市场。”成潜教授刚刚从北京甫抵上海。他在发言中强调出版社要提高主体意识,
使用最小变化法测定阈限时,控制练习误差和疲劳误差的方法是
j是舌尖、不送气、清、塞擦音,z是舌面前、不送气、清、塞擦音。()
最新回复
(
0
)