单选题 European countries are confronted by two global forces: atmospheric pressures that, as it were, change the weather, silently transforming societies and the assumptions of public policy. One is climate change. The other is demography. The two have a lot in common. Both are easily recognised but less easily understood. Both are products of complex forces and inconspicuous influences. Both create huge effects from tiny and gradual changes. A rise in global temperature by one degree or a fall in fertility by one point may sound trivial but, over 100 years, will make the earth unbearably hot, or reshape the size and composition of societies.
It would be too much to say Europe"s population is back on the rise. But its long-term decline is starting to bottom out, and is even rising in a few places. On its face, this seems an odd assertion. In 1957, every one of the 27 countries that are now EU members had fertility rates above 2.1. Now, none does. 2.1 is the replacement level, the point at which the population stabilises.
Received opinion holds that "demography is destiny". American observers from Walter Laqueur, an academic, to Mark Steyn, a conservative thinker, argue that Europe is fast becoming a barren, ageing, enfeebled place. The combination of low fertility, longer life and mass immigration will put intolerable pressure on public health, pensions and social services, leading (probably) to upheaval.
There are several possible objections to that gloomy forecast. One is that a growing population is not, of itself, necessarily a good thing, nor a falling one unambiguously bad. Another is that there is no short-term correlation between population change and wealth: Japan and South Korea have even lower fertility than Europe. But there is a simpler objection: the picture of relentless decline is wrong, or, to be accurate, half wrong. Europe is not in decline. Rather, as Jitka Rychtarikova of the Charles University in Prague argues, it no longer makes sense to talk about Europe as a single demographic unit at all. There are two Europes.
One is the familiar place of low fertility and population decline. The low fertility belt runs from the Mediterranean to central and eastern Europe, embracing both old and new parts of the continent. The other, surprising Europe is a place of recovering fertility and rising population. It stretches from Scandinavia to France. Here, countries have escaped the fertility trap and the childbearing rate is around 1.8—not high, but higher than it was, and, in some cases, reaching the magic replacement level.
Europeans are only starting the process of recovery. Compared with America, even the growing parts of the continent have modest fertility rates and high dependency ratios. But if Europe has a demographic future it lies in Britain, France and Scandinavia, not across the Atlantic.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 所谓“人口结构就是命运”大概的意思就是：其他因素——如政治的和经济的因素——不重要，人口因素起着更大的决定作用。在第三段中，这句话应该放在上下文中理解，这里显然是说欧洲的出生率出了问题，未来将带来不可估量的坏影响。在第四、五段，根据捷克学者分析，东欧、中欧和地中海地区的部分国家人口仍然处于下降中。因此，用“人口结构就是命运”这种悲观的说法只能描述东欧目前的人口状况。