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  3. Americans used to stand tall as the people with the highest average height in the world. However, since the middle of this centu

Americans used to stand tall as the people with the highest average height in the world. However, since the middle of this centu

admin2010-08-04  52
问题     Americans used to stand tall as the people with the highest average height in the world. However, since the middle of this century, several Scandinavian (斯堪的那维亚的) countries have moved ahead and now have taller citizens on average than the United States.
    "One of the keys to understanding why America is falling behind other countries in terms of stature has to do with access to health care, particularly for children," said Richard Steckel, a professor of economics and anthropology at Ohio state university.
    "I suspect there are pockets of poverty in the United States where the lack of medical programs and nutritional programs may be factors in poor health, and the reason some people aren’t growing as tall as they might."
    "I think the countries that have surpassed the United States have done well in reaching nearly everyone with complete health and nutrition services."said Steckel. "The success of the Scandinavian countries in health care shows up in many measures, not just height, such as mortality rates(死亡率) and life expectancy(寿命)."
    Immigration to the United States of people with shorter average heights -- such as Asian -- can’ t explain why other countries have moved ahead in average height, according to Steckel. "In the past half century, the change in ethnic (种族的) composition hasn’t been enough to make a significant difference in the country’s average height."
    Steckel said he first began investigating height as an alternative way to measure the standard of living -- a traditional area of research for economists.
    Research has shown that average height is significantly associated with a country’s per capita (人均) income. But studying height has some advantages, Steckel said. For example, researchers have records of average height that go further back in history than do records of national income. Height also tells a slightly different story about the standard of living because it measures consumption of basic necessities, rather than output. Moreover, because growth occurs mostly in childhood, it allows researchers to look at how resources are allocated within families.
    "Studying height captures some things about the standard of living that income leaves out," Steckel said, "Economists need to take a multiple approach to studying the standard of living."
The reason that the average height of Americans is falling behind that of several Scandinavian countries is that______.
选项 A、Americans generally receive poorer medical care than those people in the Scandinavian countries
B、some Americans have inadequate access to medical care and nutrition
C、the living standards in those Scandinavian countries have greatly improved
D、the living standard in America has declined with shorter average
答案B
解析 细节题。该题问美国人身高落后于斯堪的那维亚国家的原因。答题依据在文章第二部分，具体地说在第二和第三段。第二段说到，儿童缺乏保健医疗卫生和营养。第三段说穷人缺医少药。综合二者，我们可以断定 [B](部分美国人没有足够的医疗和营养)为正确答案。[A]项不合题意，因为讲的是一般情况(generally)，范围太广。[C]和[D]说的都是“生活水准”，涵盖面也太大。而医疗卫生和营养只是生活水准的一个具体的方面。
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