1998年考研英语阅读真题精解及高频词汇(6)

1996年对新闻报道的调查表明，反科学的标签也贴在了许多其他群体上，从提倡消灭所有现存的天花病毒的官方人士到倡议削减基础研究基金的共和党人。

将该词用在仇视现代文明的恐怖主义者身上，也不会引起多大争议，它在1995年公开发表蔑视科学、渴望回到前技术时代理想社会的声明。当然，这并不意味着，对不加控制的工业发展表示担忧的环境主义者也是反科学的，而去年5月份刊登在《美国新闻和世界报导》的一篇文章似乎有此暗示。

毫无疑问，环境主义者要对这些批评做出反应。作为环境研究的先驱者，斯坦福大学的保罗·埃利希认为，科学的真正的敌人是那些对支持全球变暖、臭氧层稀薄和工业增长带来的其他后果的证据提出质疑的人。

的确，一些观察者担心反科学这个词会失去意义。“ 反科学 这个词可以涵盖很多截然不同的东西”，哈佛大学的哲学家杰拉尔德·霍尔顿在其1993年的著作《科学和反科学》中写道：“它们惟一的共同点就是会激怒或威胁那些自以为比别人更有见识的人。”

1998 Text 4

Emerging from the 1980 census is the picture of a nation developing more and more regional competition, as population growth in the Northeast and Midwest reaches a near standstill.

This development — and its strong implications for US politics and economy in years ahead — has enthroned the South as America's most densely populated region for the first time in the history of the nation's head counting.

Altogether, the US population rose in the 1970s by 23.2 million people — numerically the third-largest growth ever recorded in a single decade. Even so, that gain adds up to only 11.4 percent, lowest in American annual records except for the Depression years.

Americans have been migrating south and west in larger numbers since World War II, and the pattern still prevails.

Three sun-belt states — Florida, Texas and California — together had nearly 10 million more people in 1980 than a decade earlier. Among large cities, San Diego moved from 14th to 8th and San Antonio form 15th to 10th — with Cleveland and Washington DC dropping out of the top 10. Not all that shift can be attributed to the movement out of the snow belt, census officials say. Nonstop waves of immigrants played a role, too — and so did bigger crops of babies as yesterday's "baby boom" generation reached its child-bearing years.

Moreover, demographers see the continuing shift south and west as joined by a related but newer phenomenon: More and more, Americans apparently are looking not just for places with more jobs but with fewer people, too. Some instances —

● Regionally, the Rocky Mountain states reported the most rapid growth rate — 37.1 percent since 1970 in a vast area with only 5 percent of the US population.

● Among states, Nevada and Arizona grew fastest of all: 63.5 and 53.1 percent respectively. Except for Florida and Texas, the top 10 in rate of growth is composed of Western states with 7.5 million people — about 9 per square mile.

The flight from over-crowdedness affects the migration from snow-belt to more bearable climates.

Nowhere do 1980 census statistics dramatize more the American search for spacious living than in the Far West. There, California added 3.7 million to its population in the 1970s, more than any other state.

In that decade, however, large numbers also migrated from California, mostly to other parts of the West. Often they choose — and still are choosing — somewhat colder climates such as Oregon, Idaho and Alaska in order to escape smog, crime and other plagues of urbanization in the Golden State.

As a result, California's growth rate dropped during the 1970s, to 18.5 percent — little more than two-thirds the 1960s' growth figure and considerably below that of other Western states.

63. Discerned from the perplexing picture of population growth the 1980 census provided, America in 1970s ________.

[A] enjoyed the lowest net growth of population in history

[B] witnessed a southwestern shift of population

[C] underwent an unparalleled period of population growth

[D] brought to a standstill its pattern of migration since World War II

64. The census distinguished itself from previous studies on population movement in that ________.

[A] it stresses the climatic influence on population distribution

[B] it highlights the contribution of continuous waves of immigrants

[C] it reveals the Americans' new pursuit of spacious living

[D] it elaborates the delayed effects of yesterday's "baby boom"

65. We can see from the available statistics that ________.

[A] California was once the most thinly populated area in the whole US

[B] the top 10 states in growth rate of population were all located in the West

[C] cities with better climates benefited unanimously from migration

[D] Arizona ranked second of all states in its growth rate of population

66. The word "demographers" (line 1, paragraph 7) most probably means ________.

[A] people in favor of the trend of democracy

[B] advocates of migration between states

[C] scientists engaged in the study of population

[D] conservatives clinging to old patterns of life

核心词汇

1. emerge 出现；emergence 出现；emergency 紧急情况

2. census 人口普查

3. competition 竞争

4. standstill 静止；still 静止的

5. implication 含义

6. enthrone 给予；授予

7. densely populated 人口稠密的

8. head counting 人口统计

9. numerically 数字上

10. annual 每年的

11. Depression years 大萧条年代(1929--1933)

12. migrate 迁移；移动；emigrate 迁出；immigrate 移入

13. In large numbers 大量地

14. pattern 方式；模式；

15. prevail 盛行；流行；prevalent 流行的；盛行的

16. shift 改变；转变

17. attribute to 归因于

18. snow belt 寒带

19. non-stop 不停地

20. paly a role 发挥作用

21. baby boom 婴儿潮

22. child-bearing 生育

23. demographers 人口统计学家

24. see…as 把…当做是

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