One reason for hope in 2020 is that homelessness in the United States eontinues to diminish. In 2009, near the end of the Great

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问题     One reason for hope in 2020 is that homelessness in the United States eontinues to diminish. In 2009, near the end of the Great Recession, about 630,000 people were homeless, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness. By 2018 that number had shrunk to a little more than 550,000. While a healthy economy has helped, so too have innovative efforts by cities and states to solve what is too often seen as an intractable problem.
    Some places, such as Houston, have made great progress. That city has cut its homeless population by more than half since 2011. Yet in many other places, the number of those living on the street keeps growing. Houston has relied on an approach called "housing first" that places stable housing as an early step, even before tackling the many reasons behind homelessness. In many other locations this strategy has been less effective.
    Part of the reason may be that homelessness defies simple explanations or causes. Drugs and alcohol abuse are often factors, as well as mental illness. Some homeless people are unemployable due to physical disabilities. Some hold jobs but can’t afford the cost of housing near those jobs. Others may be escaping from abusive situations in their former homes.
    Recently the U. S. Supreme Court refused to hear arguments asking to overturn an appeals court ruling on homeless people. That ruling stated that homeless people can’t be removed from the street unless proper housing for them is provided. "The government cannot criminalize indigent, homeless people for sleeping outdoors, on public property, on the false premise they had a choice in the matter," wrote one of the three judges for the 9th U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The condition of homelessness itself is not a crime. Nor does removing homeless people from public view alone solve the problem.
    In Minneapolis a homeless encampment along a major commuting highway into the city became an unsightly reminder of the city’s problem. "Everyone going downtown saw ’the camp’ day after day after day and heard the stories," says Patina Park, executive director of the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center. " It made it a real issue rather than just another homeless report with statistics. "
    Recently Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced that a broad public-private partnership had raised nearly $5 million to combat homelessness, including increased shelter capacity. The plan is to eventually double that amount. "Homelessness is solvable," Governor Walz says. "It is a math problem, not a character problem. It is a math problem, and we are prepared to solve that problem. " Each city may find that it needs to customize its approach to homelessness to find what works. An approach based on compassion, twinned with the firm conviction that the problem is solvable, can lead to success.
According to Paragraph 1, the homelessness in the United States_________.

选项 A、has vanished due to relentless efforts by cities
B、has been deteriorating since the Great Recession in 2009
C、has been gradually declined during economic revival
D、has been regarded as an insoluble problem

答案C

解析 细节题。根据题干提示可定位至第一段第一句“homelessness in the United States continues to diminish”。即“美国的无家可归者继续减少”,故选项[C]为正确答案。本段第二句和第三句提到“在2009年大萧条即将结束时,约有63万人无家可归。到2018年,这个数字已经减少到55万多一点儿”,情况在好转,故选项[B]与原文意思相反。情况虽有好转,但并未完全消失,因此选项[A]错误。本段最后一句中提到an intractable problem.intractable的意思为very difficult to deal with“棘手的”,insoluble的意思为cannot be solved or explained“无法解决的”,故选项[D]也错误。
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