阅读理解     Historians may well look back on the 1980s in the United States as a time of rising affluence side by side with rising poverty. The growth in affluence is attributable to an increase in professional and technical jobs, along with more two career couples whose combined incomes provide a' comfortable living'. Yet simultaneously, the nation' s poverty rate rose between 1973 and 1983 from 11.1 percent of the population to 15.2, or by well over a third. Although the poverty rate declined somewhat after 1983, it was still held at 13.5 percent in 1987, comprising a population of 32:5 million Americans.
    The definition of poverty is a matter of debate. In 1795, a group of English magistrates decided that a minimum in come should be 'the cost of a gallon loaf of bread, multiplied by three, plus an allowance for each dependent'. Today the Census Bureau defines the threshold of poverty in the United States as the minimum amount of money that families need to purchase a nutritionally adequate diet, assuming they use one third of their income for food. Using this definition, roughly half the American population was poor in the aftermath of the Great Depression of the 1930s. By 1950, the proportion of the poor had fallen to 30 percent and by 1964, to 20 percent. With the adoption of the Johnson administration ' s antipoverty programs, the poverty rate dropped to 12 percent in 1969. But since then, it has stopped falling. Liberals contend that the poverty line is too low because it fails to take into account changes in the standard of living.
    Conservatives say that it is too high because the poor receive other forms of public assistance, including food stamps, public housing subsidies, and health care.
单选题     In which of the following years did the poor people constitute the largest proportion of the American population?______
 
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】考查学生对细节的了解。 根据第一段第三、四句,1983年的贫困人口比例是15.2%,1973年是11.1%,1987年是13.5%。从第二段我们知道,1969年是12%。
单选题     It can be inferred that poverty ______.
 
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】考查学生根据文章内容推理的能力。 文章第二段第一句指出,贫困线的确定是有争议的。但从第二段中提到的两个历史阶段所确定的贫困线来看,它们都有特别具体的规定,如1795年对贫困线的规定是:最低收入等于1加仑面包的价钱乘以3再加上每个受赡养者的补助。今天美国人口普查局将最低收入规定为:假设1/3用于购买食品,一个家庭的最低收入必须足以为家庭成员购得营养充足的食物。C不对。由以上的分析可见,最低收入不仅以实物(material)的形式确定,还以价格等形式确定。
单选题     Those who consider the poverty line high point out that ______.
 
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】考查学生对文章事实的理解。 根据文章最后一句得知他们的理由是:穷人还享受食品和住房补贴、公共医疗等其他形式的补助。
单选题     In the eighties, the Americans as a whole ______.
 
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】考查学生分析细节的能力。 文章第一句指出,美国的80年代可以被看作是贫富人口俱增的时代。第二句分析了富裕户增长的原因,第三句给出了贫困率增长的幅度。虽然存在着这两方面的倾向,但就其总体而言(as a whole,见提问),美国人的生活水平应该是提高了的。
单选题     How many people are there in the United States in 1987? ______
 
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】考查学生根据细节进行推理的能力。 根据第一段最后一句“尽管该比率在1983年后下降了一些,但到1987年,仍维持在13.5%,有32,500,000人”,可判断美国1987年有人口240,000,000。不难判断答案为D。