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  3. People in the United States in the nineteenth century were haunted by the prospect that unprecedented change in the nation’s eco

People in the United States in the nineteenth century were haunted by the prospect that unprecedented change in the nation’s eco

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问题      People in the United States in the nineteenth century were haunted by the prospect that unprecedented change in the nation’s economy would bring social chaos. In the years following 1820 after several decades of relative stability the economy entered a period of sustained and extremely rapid growth that continued to the end of the nineteenth century. Accompanying that growth was a structural change that featured increasing economic diversification and a gradual shift in the nation’s labor force from agriculture to manufacturing and other nonagricultural pursuits.
     Although the birth rate continued to decline from its high level of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries the population roughly doubled every generation during the rest of the nineteenth century. As the population grew, its make up also changed. Massive waves of immigration brought new ethnic groups into the country. Geographic and social mobility — downward as well as upward — touched almost everyone. Local studies indicate that nearly three quarters of the population in the North and South, in the emerging cities — the Northeast and in the restless rural counties of the West — changed their residence each decade. As a consequence, historian David Donald has written, "Social atomization affected every segment of society," and it seemed to many people that "all the recognized values of orderly civilization were gradually being eroded.
     Rapid industrialization and increased geographic mobility in the nineteenth century had special implications for women because these changes tended to magnify social distinctions. As the roles of men and women played in society became more rigidly defined, so did the roles they played in the home. In the context of extreme competitiveness and dizzying social change, the household lost many of its earlier functions and the home came to serve as a haven of tranquility and order. As the size of families decreased, the roles of husband and wife became more clearly differentiated than ever before. In the middle class especially, men participated in the productive economy while women ruled the home and served as the custodians of civility and culture. The intimacy of marriage that was common in earlier periods was rent, and a gulf that at times seemed unbridgeable was created between husbands and wives.
What does the passage mainly discuss?
选项 A、The economic development of the United States in the eighteenth century.
B、Ways in which economic development led to social changes in the United States.
C、Population growth in the western United States.
D、The increasing availability of industrial jobs for women in the United States.
答案B
解析 主旨大意题。如果用一个短语来回答What is the passage about?的话，那应该是“社会变化”。文章的第一句话讲到人们的担心：史无前例的社会变更会带来社会动荡，接着文章讲述了美国社会各方面的变化，如经济的增长、人口及其结构的变化、妇女在社会及家庭中角色的变化等。四个选项中只有B 的中心内容是社会变化。第一段提到过经济的增长，但选项A明显与文章中心相去甚远；选项C是部分信息，即第二段的部分内容，选项D 所讲的工作变化可以从第一段最后一句推断出来，但远远不是中心内容。
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