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  3. People in the United States in the nineteenth century were haunted by the prospect that unprecedented change in the nation’s eco

People in the United States in the nineteenth century were haunted by the prospect that unprecedented change in the nation’s eco

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问题      People in the United States in the nineteenth century were haunted by the prospect that unprecedented change in the nation’s economy would bring social chaos. In the years following 1820 after several decades of relative stability the economy entered a period of sustained and extremely rapid growth that continued to the end of the nineteenth century. Accompanying that growth was a structural change that featured increasing economic diversification and a gradual shift in the nation’s labor force from agriculture to manufacturing and other nonagricultural pursuits.
     Although the birth rate continued to decline from its high level of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries the population roughly doubled every generation during the rest of the nineteenth century. As the population grew, its make up also changed. Massive waves of immigration brought new ethnic groups into the country. Geographic and social mobility — downward as well as upward — touched almost everyone. Local studies indicate that nearly three quarters of the population in the North and South, in the emerging cities — the Northeast and in the restless rural counties of the West — changed their residence each decade. As a consequence, historian David Donald has written, "Social atomization affected every segment of society," and it seemed to many people that "all the recognized values of orderly civilization were gradually being eroded.
     Rapid industrialization and increased geographic mobility in the nineteenth century had special implications for women because these changes tended to magnify social distinctions. As the roles of men and women played in society became more rigidly defined, so did the roles they played in the home. In the context of extreme competitiveness and dizzying social change, the household lost many of its earlier functions and the home came to serve as a haven of tranquility and order. As the size of families decreased, the roles of husband and wife became more clearly differentiated than ever before. In the middle class especially, men participated in the productive economy while women ruled the home and served as the custodians of civility and culture. The intimacy of marriage that was common in earlier periods was rent, and a gulf that at times seemed unbridgeable was created between husbands and wives.
With which of the following opinions would the author be likely to agree?
选项 A、Women’s lives significantly improved as the United States economy expanded.
B、Women had more opportunities for employment in the western United States than in other regions.
C、The home after 1820 was a superior social entity to that of the eighteenth century.
D、Increased social fragmentation negatively affected middle class family.
答案D
解析 观点态度题。因为此题题干里没有特别提到对何种人、物、事等的观点、看法，所以必须对每个选项的关键词进行判断。选项A和B 都与妇女有关，文章最后一段讲妇女在社会、家庭中角色的变化，其角色有了更严格的定义，其空间变得更窄小，家庭失去了曾有过的亲密，夫妻之间出现了不可逾越的鸿沟。显然这些变化都是负面的，所以选项A和B 是不成立的。因此在这以后的家庭就不会是“更高级的社会单位”(superior social entity)，选项C也不成立。选项D 针对社会变革，其影响是负面的(negatively)，这就是作者在
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