George Williams, one of Scottsdale’s last remaining cowboys, has been raising horses and cattle on his 120 acres for 20 years. T

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问题     George Williams, one of Scottsdale’s last remaining cowboys, has been raising horses and cattle on his 120 acres for 20 years. The cattle go to the slaughterhouse, the horses to rodeos. But Mr. Williams is stomping mad. His problems began last year when dishonest neighbours started to steal his cattle. Then other neighbours, most of them newcomers, took offence at his horses roaming on their properties.
    Such grumbles are common in Arizona. The most recent Department of Agriculture census shows that 1,213 of Arizona’s 8,507 farms closed down between 1997 and 2002. Many cattlemen are moving out to remoter parts of the state.
    Doc Lane is an executive at the Arizona Cattlemen’s Association, a trade group. He says Arizona’s larger ranch owners are making decent profits from selling. It is the smaller players who are the victims of rising land values, higher mortgages and stiffer city council rules. What happens all too often is that people move in next to a farm because they think the land pretty. But soon they start complaining to the council. In Mr. Williams’s case it was the horses that annoyed them. Other newcomers don’t like the noise, the pesticides and the smell of manure.
    Locals worry about the precious, dwindling cowboy culture. Arizona’s tourism boards like to promote a steady interest in all things about cowboy and western. Last year more British and German tourists came than usual, and many of them were looking precisely for that. Arizona’s Dude Ranch Association fills its $350-a-night luxury ranches most of the year; roughly a third of the guests are European.
    Many of the ranchers themselves see all this tourism as a cheeky attempt to commercialise a real and vanishing culture. In Prescott, estate agents promote "American Ranch-style" homes with posters of horse riders. On the other side of the street is Whiskey Row, a famous strip of historic cowboy bars. But in Matt’s Saloon on Saturday night, real cattlemen could not be found.
    Farm folk like Mr. Knox and Mr. Williams are weighing up their options. Many will migrate to remoter places where land is cheaper and not crowded with city people. Younger ones take on side-jobs as contractors and are cattle-hands part-time. Older cowboys aren’t sure what to do.

选项 A、George Williams is a cowboy in Arizona.
B、more and more farms will be closed down in the near future.
C、newcomers are not as honest as cowboys.
D、the mode of life of cattlemen in Arizona is being destructed.

答案D

解析 第一段结尾和第二段:Then other neighbours...took offence at his horses roaming on their properties.Such grumbles are common in Arizona...1,213 of Arizona’s 8,507 farms closed down between 1997 and 2002.Many cattlemen are moving out to remoter parts of the state,本题要求对文章几个段落综合把握再归纳出一个观点。本文开头描述了亚利桑那州的一个牛仔在生活中遇到的种种尴尬情况,而且这一现象现在越来越普遍,牛仔们的生活方式正在受到新居民的影响而改变。A选项说乔治是个牛仔,此话没有错误,但仅仅是第一段的一个描述性语句,不具任何说明性,因此A不能选。文章第二段谈到1997年至2002年间,亚利桑那8,507家农场中有1,213家已经关闭,但不能说明其他农场在将来也倒闭,这是猜测。所以,B错误。文章中并未对新老居民做出比较,但我们要注意两个比较级结构。"not as...as"结构("not more than")和"no more than"的区别。"A is not more than B"表示"A不如B";"A is no more than B"表示"A和B一样不…"。
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