单选题
Not too many decades ago it seemed "obvious" both to the general public and to sociologists that modern society has changed people"s natural relations, loosened their responsibilities to kin and neighbors, and substituted in their place superficial relationships with passing acquaintances. However, in recent years a growing body of research has revealed that the "obvious" is not true. It seems that if you are a city resident, you typically know a smaller proportion of your neighbors than you do if you are a resident of a smaller community. But, for the most part, this fact has few significant consequences. It does not necessarily follow that if you know few of your neighbors you will know no one else.
Even in very large cities, people maintain close social ties within small, private social worlds. Indeed, the number and quality of meaningful relationships do not differ between more and less urban people. Small-town residents are more involved with kin than are big-city residents. Yet city dwellers compensate by developing friendships with people who share similar interests and activities. Urbanism may produce a different stifle of life, but the quality of life does not differ between town and city. Nor are residents of large communities any likelier to display psychological symptoms of stress or alienation, a feeling of not belonging, than are residents of smaller communities. However, city dwellers do worry more about crime, and this leads them to a distrust of strangers.
These findings do not imply that urbanism makes little or no difference. If neighbors are strangers to one another, they are less likely to sweep the sidewalk of an elderly couple living next door or keep an eye out for young trouble makers. Moreover, as Wirth suggested, there may be a link between a community"s population size and its social heterogeneity. For instance, sociologists have found much evidence that the size of a community is associated with bad behavior including gambling, drugs, etc. Large-city urbanites are also more likely than their small-town counterparts to have a cosmopolitan outlook, to display less responsibility to traditional kinship roles, to vote for leftist political candidates, and to be tolerant of nontraditional religious groups, unpopular political groups, and so-called undesirables. Everything considered, heterogeneity and unusual behavior seem to be outcomes of large population size.
单选题
Which of the following statements best describes the organization of the first paragraph?
单选题
One of the consequences of urban life is that impersonal relationships among neighbors ______.
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】[解析] 细节题。关键词是consequences、impersonal relationships among neighbors(邻居之间没有感情的关系)，根据原文第三段第二句：如果邻居们互相都不认识，那么他们就不太可能为居住在隔壁的老夫妇打扫人行道，或者注意小淘气鬼们。该句的条件关系是一个重要的考点，经常转化成考查因果关系。因此C项正确答案。A项的错误在于并不是邻居之间的冷漠破坏了人们之间的自然关系，两者间不存在因果关系；同样，邻居关系的疏远也不是他们担心犯罪的原因，也没有造成邻里之间互相猜疑，故选项B、D也不对。
单选题
It can be inferred from the passage that the bigger a community is ______.
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】[解析] 推断题。根据题干中的关键词the bigger a community is可确定它与第三段有关系。第三段的观点句与题干有关的有两句。一句在中间，由Moreover引出：一个社区的人口和它的社会多样性之间可能有联系；另外是最后一句(seem to be)多样化和与众不同的行为看起来是人口规模大所带来的后果。作者还举例说明：大城市居民与和他们地位相似的小城镇居民相比，大城市居民们更可能有见多识广的见解，对传统的亲戚关系的作用也表现出较少的责任感，更可能选举左翼的政治候选人，更可能容忍非传统的宗教团体，不受欢迎的政治团体和所谓的不受欢迎的人。从各方面考虑，多样化和异常行为看来是大的人口规模带来的后果。综上所述，C项“更加容忍、思想开明”，是对这些句子的最好概括，故C项为正确答案。