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  3. Population growth has long been a controversial issue in economic circles, yet, surprisingly enough, the actual study of its eff

Population growth has long been a controversial issue in economic circles, yet, surprisingly enough, the actual study of its eff

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问题     Population growth has long been a controversial issue in economic circles, yet, surprisingly enough, the actual study of its effects is fairly well established and universal. One advantage in studying the phenomena is that wild fluctuations of populations have occurred in history, and their resulting economic impacts have been accurately recorded for analysis and dissemination by economists of future generations. The most revealing incident, no doubt, is the case of the Black Plague.
    The Black Plague, which swept through Europe and robbed it of a quarter of its population, was a tragic event of its time, but yielded the ideal environment for retrospective study of population economics. The initial result that was observed was that, with the death of so many, the work force was horrendously reduced, leaving many to believe that productivity would plummet and resources would sit idle. By that reasoning, forecasters of the period predicted a catastrophic blow to the European economy from which full recovery was only a slight possibility.
    The result of the devastation left in the plague’s wake, however, was much different. While the labor force did indeed decrease dramatically in numbers, the efficiency of each individual worker improved, due to the lessened effects of economies of scale. Although total output dropped, output per capita actually increased, since each laborer was now producing more and there were less consumers to share the output. Also, resources did remain unused, but after an initial period of waste, the costs that those wasted resources represented lowered when businesses adapted to the situation by investing in the policy of buying less resources. Thus, the overall economic result was that workers were more productive, businesses were more efficient and there was more output per person in Europe.
    Wages rose as well, since the demand for labor far exceeded the supply. Nevertheless, despite these seemingly positive results, the net effect of the Black Plague in Europe was an almost undisputedly negative one. The per capita increases were more than offset by the aggregate loss in total product. From this, the keen economist must learn that the distinction between macro and micro levels of economics must be observed to obtain an accurate picture, especially when dealing with a central element of the economy as population.
This text is mainly about______.
选项 A、the economic effects of the Black Plague in Europe
B、economic principles of population decline
C、the positive effects of one incident of population loss in Europe
D、the distinction between macro and micro economics in regard to population
答案C
解析 属主旨思想题。文章第一段指出：人口增长一直是经济学界中一个颇有争议的问题。……研究这一现象的一个好处就为未来的经济学家的分析和信息传播工作开启了方便之门。第二、三段以黑瘟疫事件为例进行了详细说明，最后一段总结上文，提出建议。由此可见，选项C正确。选项A、B、D都是文中细节，不能概括全文。
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