Brazil has become one of the developing world’s great successes at reducing population growth--but more by accident than design.

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问题    Brazil has become one of the developing world’s great successes at reducing population growth--but more by accident than design. While countries such as India have made joint efforts to reduce birth rates, Brazil has had better result without really trying, says George Martine at Harvard.
   Brazil’s population growth rate has dropped from 2.99% a year between 1951 and 1960 to 1.93% a year between 1981 and 1990, and Brazilian women now have only 2.7 children on average. Martine says this figure may have fallen still further since 1990, an achievement that makes it the envy of many other Third World countries.
   Martine puts it down to, among other things, soap operas and installment (分期付款)plans introduced in the 1970s. Both played an important, although indirect, role in lowering the birth rate. Brazil is one of the world’s biggest producers of soap operas. Globo, Brazil’s most popular television network, shows three hours of soaps six nights a week, while three others show at least one hour a night. Most soaps are based on wealthy characters living the high life in big cities.
   "Although they have never really tried to work in a message towards the problems of reproduction, they describe middle and upper class values-not many children, different attitudes towards sex, women working, "says Martine. "They sent this image to all pans of Brazil and made people conscious of other patterns of behavior and other values, which were put into a very attractive pack age."
   Meanwhile, the installment plans tried to encourage the poor to become consumers. "This led to an enormous change in consumption patterns and consumption was incompatible (不相容的) with unlimited reproduction," says Martine.
What is Martine’s conclusion about Brazil’s population growth?

选项 A、The increase in birth rate will promote consumption.
B、The desire for consumption helps to reduce birth rate.
C、Consumption patterns and reproduction patterns are contradictory.
D、A country’s production is limited by its population growth.

答案B

解析 根据文中分析,消费欲望可以降低孩子出生率。消费模式和生育模式,社会发展和人口增长并非水火不容的,关键在于比例适当,和谐发展,需要杜绝的是一方的畸形膨胀限制了另一方的正常发展。
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