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  3. Even though the number of legal and illegal immigrants in the United States has risen sharply since the early 1990s, the size an

Even though the number of legal and illegal immigrants in the United States has risen sharply since the early 1990s, the size an

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问题     Even though the number of legal and illegal immigrants in the United States has risen sharply since the early 1990s, the size and condition of the economic underclass has not. In fact, by several measures the number of people in America living on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder has been in a long term decline. Moreover, those immigrants who populate the underclass appear on the whole to be more socially functional than their native-born counterparts.
    Consider the most basic measure of the underclass: the number of people subsisting below the official poverty line as measured by the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey(which measures all individuals residing in the United States, regardless of status). Between 1993 and 2007—that is, before the current recession took hold- the number of individuals living in poverty declined from 39 million to 37 million. The number of immigrants living in poverty increased by a million, but this was offset by a drop of 3 million in the number of native-born Americans in poverty. The period saw an increase of 1. 8 million in the number of Hispanics living in poverty, but this was dwarfed by the 3. 8 million decline among non-Hispanics, including a 1. 6 million decline among blacks.
    Another measure of the underclass is the number of adults without a high-school diploma. An adult or a head of household without a high-school education is almost invariably confined to lower-wage occupations with limited prospects for advancement. Sure enough, the trend in education follows that of poverty. From 1993 through 2006, the number of adults in America age 25 and older without a diploma declined from 32 million to 28 million. The number of adult Hispanic dropouts rose by 3. 9 million, much of that due to the progeny of low-skilled illegal immigrants from Mexico and Central America. Rut among the rest of the population, the number of dropouts plunged by 8. 1 million.
    Educational attainment by citizenship status covers a slightly different period but confirms the trend. From 1995 to 2004, the number of adults without a high-school diploma declined by 2. 9 million. An increase of 2. 4 million in the number of immigrant dropouts was overwhelmed by a decline of 5. 3 million in native horn dropouts. As a result of these underlying trends, the underclass in our society has been shrinking as its face has become more Hispanic and foreign-born.
Before 2008, poor people in America ______.
选项 A、increased by at least a million
B、decreased by as many as 3 millions
C、lived below the official poverty line
D、were obviously reduced by and large
答案D
解析 根据第二段中的“…before the current recession took hold—the number of individuals livingin poverty declined from 39 million to 37 million”，D应为答案。
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