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  3. In the two decades between 1910 and 1930, over ten percent to the Black population of the United States left the South, where th

In the two decades between 1910 and 1930, over ten percent to the Black population of the United States left the South, where th

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问题     In the two decades between 1910 and 1930, over ten percent to the Black population of the United States left the South, where the preponderance of the Black population had been located, and migrated to northern states, with the largest number moving, it is claimed, between 1916 and 1918. It has been frequently assumed, but not proved, that the majority of the migrants in what has come to be called the Great Migration came from rural areas and were motivated by two concurrent factors: the collapse of the cotton industry following the boll weevil infestation, which began in 1898, and increased demand in the North for labor following the cessation of European immigration caused by the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. This assumption has led to the conclusion that the migrants ’ subsequent lack of economic mobility in the North is tied to rural background, a background that implies unfamiliarity with urban living and a lack of industrial skills.
    But the question of who actually left the South has never been rigorously investigated. Although numerous inves- tigations document an exodus from rural southern areas to southern cities prior to the Great Migration, no one has considered whether the same migrants then moved on to northern cities. In 1910 over 600, 000 Black workers, or ten percent of the Black work force, reported themselves to he engaged in "manufacturing and mechanical pursuits," the federal census category roughly encom- passing the entire industrial sector. The Great Migration could easily have been made up entirely of this group and their families. It is perhaps surprising to argue that an employed population could be enticed to move, but an explanation lies in the labor conditions then prevalent in the South.
    About thirty-five percent of the urban Black population in the South was engaged in skilled trades. Some were from the old artisan class of slavery— blacksmiths, masons, carpenters—which had had a monopoly of certain trades, but they were gradually being pushed out by competition, mechanization, and obsolescence. The remaining sixty-five percent, more recently urbanized, worked in newly developed industries— tobacco,lumber, coal and iron manufac- ture, and railroads. Wages in the South, however, were low, and Black workers were aware, through labor recruiters and the Black press, that they could earn more even as unskilled workers in the North than they could as artisans in the South. After the boll weevil infestation, urban Black workers faced competition from the continuing influx of both Black and White rural workers, who were driven to undercut the wages formerly paid for industrial jobs. Thus, a move north would be seen as advantageous to a group that was already urbanized and steadily employed, and the easy conclusion lying their subsequent economic problems in the North to their rural background comes into question.
The material in the passage would be most relevant to a long discussion of which of the following topics?
选项 A、The reasons for the subsequent economic difficulties of those who participated in the Great Migration.
B、The effect of migration on the regional economies of the United States following the First World War.
C、The transition from a rural to an urban existence for those who migrated in the Great Migration.
D、The transformation of the agricultural South following the boll weevil infestation.
E、The disappearance of the artisan class in the United States as a consequence of mechanization in the early twentieth century.
答案A
解析 这篇文章可能和下面哪一个长篇讨论相关?A．大迁移的参加者随后产生经济困难的原因。正确。原文第一段的老观点根据他们的设想：大迁移的参加者主要是南部的农民，而推出一个轻率的结论：其随后经济上不灵活是由其农村背景引起的。作者在对这一设想的前提(大迁移的参加者是谁)给出了不同答案后，最后指出：这个轻率结论有些不合适。B．未提“effect of migration on the regional economies”。C．未提“the transition from a rural to an urban existence”。D．未提“the transformation of the agricultural South”。E．“disappearance”过重，原文只说这些人的行业受到过时的威胁。
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