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  3. In the 1920s demand for American farm products fell, as European countries began to recover from World War I and instituted aust

In the 1920s demand for American farm products fell, as European countries began to recover from World War I and instituted aust

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问题      In the 1920s demand for American farm products fell, as European countries began to recover from World War I and instituted austerity (紧缩) programs to reduce their imports. The result was a sharp drop in farm prices. This period was more disastrous for farmers than earlier times had been, because farmers were no longer self-sufficient. They were paying for machinery, seed, and fertilizer, and they were also buying consumer goods. The prices of the items farmers bought remained constant, while prices they received for their products fell. These developments were made worse by the Great Depression, which began in 1929 and extended throughout the 1939s.
    In 1929, under President Herbert Hoover, the Federal Farm Board was organized. It established the principle of direct interference with supply and demand, and it represented the first national commitment to provide greater economic stability for farmers. President Hoover’s successor attached even more importance to this problem. One of the first measures proposed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt when he took office in 1933 was the Agricultural Adjustment Act, which was subsequently passed by Congress. This law gave the Secretary of Agriculture the power to reduce production through voluntary agreements with farmers who were paid to take their land out of use. A deliberate scarcity of farm products was planned in an effort to raise prices. This law was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court on the grounds that general taxes were being collected to pay one special group of people. However, new laws were passed immediately that achieved the same result of resting soil and providing flood-control measures, but which were based on the principle of soil conservation. The Roosevelt Administration believed that rebuilding the nation’s soil was in the national interest and was not simply a plan to help farmers at the expense of other citizens. Later the government guaranteed loans to farmers so that they could buy farm machinery, hybrid (杂交) grain, and fertilizers.  
The Supreme Court rejected the Agricultural Adjustment Act because it believed that the Act
选项 A、might cause greater scarcity of farm products.
B、didn’t give the Secretary of Agriculture enough power.
C、would benefit neither the government nor the farmers.
D、benefited one group of citizens at the expense of others.
答案D
解析 第二段第七句“最高法院以普遍征收的税款只服务于一个特定人群为由宣布此法令不合法”，这与D项“牺牲其他公民的利益来满足一部分公民的利益”相符。再可结合第二段倒数第二句，从另一角度论证答案D项的合理性。A项中scarcity of farm products在上一句，不属本题要点范围，B项、C项明显不合理。
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