单选题
President Roosevelt's administration suffered a
devastating defeat when on January 6,1936, the Agricultural Adjustment Act was
declared unconstitutional. New Deal planners quickly pushed through Congress the
Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act of1935, one purpose of which was
conservation, but which also aimed at controlling surpluses by retiring land
from production. The law was intended as a stopgap measure until the
administration could formulate a permanent farm program that would satisfy both
the nation's farmers and the Supreme Court. Roosevelt's landslide victory over
Landon in 1936 obscured the ambivalent nature of his support in the farm states.
Despite extensive government propaganda, many farmers still refused to
participate in the Agricultural Adjustment Administration's voluntary production
control programs, and the burdensome surpluses of1933 were gone—not the result
of the AAA, but a consequence of great droughts. In February of
1937, Secretary of Agriculture Wallace convened a meeting of farm leaders to
promote the concept of the ever-normal granary, a policy that would encourage
farmers to store crop surpluses (rather than dump them on the market) until
grain was needed in years of small harvests. The Commodity Credit Corporation
would grant loans to be repaid when the grain was later sold for a reasonable
profit. The conference chose a Committee of Eighteen, which drafted a bill, but
the major farm organizations were divided. Since ten of the eighteen members
were also members of the American Farm Bureau Federation, the measure was
quickly labeled a Farm Bureau bill, and there were protests from the small, but
highly vocal, Farmers' Holiday Association. When debate on the bill began,
Roosevelt himself was vague and elusive and didn't move the proposed legislation
into the "desirable" category until midsummer. In addition, there were demands
that the New Deal's deficit spending be curtailed, and opponents of th bill
charged that the AAA was wasteful and primarily benefited corporations and
large-scale farmers. The Soil Conservation and Domestic
Allotment Act had failed to limit agricultural production as the administration
had hoped. Farm prices and consumer demand were high, and many farmers,
convinced that the drought had ended the need for crop controls, refused to
participate in the AAA's soil conservation program. Without direct crop
controls, agricultural production skyrocketed in 1937, and by late summer there
was panic in the farm belt that prices would again be driven down to
disastrously low levels. Congressmen began to pressure Roosevelt to place a
floor under farm prices by making loans through the CCC, but Roosevelt made such
loans contingent upon the willingness of Congress to support the
administration's plan for a new system of crop controls. When the price of
cotton began to drop. Roosevelt's adroit political maneuver finally forced
congressional representatives from the South to agree to support a bill
providing for crop controls and the ever-normal granary. The following year
Congress passed the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938.
单选题
The primary purpose of the passage is to______.
A.describe the events that led to the passage of the Agricultural Adjustment
Act of 1938
B.call attention to the economic hardship suffered by farmers during the
1930s
C.discuss the reasoning that led the Supreme Court to declare the
Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 unconstitutional
D.analyze the connection between changes in weather conditions and the
movement of agricultural prices
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】[解析] 本题的四个选项中，只有A项为正确答案。这可从文中的最后一句话“The following year Congress passed the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938”推知，即前文所描述的一系列事件都是导致这一结果的原因。
单选题
According to the passage, the Roosevelt administration wanted
agricultural legislation with all of the following characteristics EXCEPT______.
A.it would not be declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court
B.it would be acceptable to the nation's farmers
C.it would dismantle the Agricultural Adjustment Administration
D.it would provide loans to help farmers store surplus grain
单选题
The author implies which of the following conclusions?______.
A.The Commodity Credit Corporation was created to offer farmers incentives
for taking land out of production.
B.Secretary of Agriculture Wallace alienated members of the American Farm
Bureau Federation by proposing an ever normal granary.
C.The Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 was declared unconstitutional
because it was written by the Farm Bureau.
D.Roosevelt's ability to gain passage of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of
1938 depended on the large harvests of 1937.
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】[解析] 本题的四个选项中，只有D项为正确答案。这可从文中的“Without direct crop controls，agricultural production skyrocketed in 1937”推知，即正是农业的大丰收以及缺乏有效监控，使得农产品的价格不断下跌，引发危机。罗斯福抓住这一契机使得AAA在1938年获得通过。
单选题
It can be inferred from the passage that the Farmers' Holiday
Association opposed the bill drafted by the Committee of Eighteen because______.
A.the bill was not strongly supported by President Roosevelt
B.the Roosevelt administration had incurred excessive debt to finance its
New Deal
C.the Farmers' Holiday Association opposed the American Farm Bureau
Federation
D.its membership consisted primarily of large-scale farmers
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】[解析] 本题的四个选项中，只有C项为正确答案。这可从文中的内容推知，即委员会提出的草案对Farm Bureau Federation是有利的，Farmer’s Holiday Association之所以反对，是因为Farmer’s Holiday Association与Farm Bureau Federation的利益是对立的。
单选题
It can be inferred from the passage that under the policy of an
ever-normal granary______.
A.the Commodity Credit Corporation would lend more money to farmers in years
of good harvests than in years of bad harvests
B.the Commodity Credit Corporation would buy up crop surpluses in years of
good harvest and sell the surplus in yeas of bad harvests
C.the Commodity Credit Corporation would pay farmers the difference between
the actual market prices received the grain and the price needed to guarantee a
reasonable profit
D.farmers would be required by the government to store crop surpluses from
good harvests until that grain was needed in years of poor harvests