In the 1920s demand for American farm products fell, as European countries began to recover from World War I and instituted aust

admin2014-04-23  39

问题     In the 1920s demand for American farm products fell, as European countries began to recover from World War I and instituted austerity (紧缩) programs to reduce their imports. The result was a sharp drop in farm prices. This period was more disastrous for farmers than earlier times had been, because farmers were no longer self-sufficient. They were paying for machinery, seed, and fertilizer, and they were also buying consumer goods. The prices of the items farmers bought remained constant, while prices they received for their products fell. These developments were made worse by the Great Depression, which began in 1929 and extended throughout the 1930s. In 1929, under President Herbert Hoover, the Federal Farm Board was organized. It established the principle of direct interference with supply and demand, and it represented the first national commitment to provide greater economic stability for farmers.
    President Hoover’s successor attached even more importance to this problem. One of the first measures proposed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt when he took office in 1933 was the Agricultural Adjustment Act, which was subsequently passed by Congress. This law gave the Secretary of Agriculture the power to reduce production through voluntary agreements with farmers who were paid to take their land out of use. A deliberate scarcity of farm products was planned in an effort to raise prices. This law was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court on the grounds that general taxes were being collected to pay one special group of people. However, new laws were passed immediately that achieved the same result of resting soil and providing flood-control measures, but which were based on the principle of soil conservation. The Roosevelt Administration believed that rebuilding the nation’s soil was in the national interest and was not simply a plan to help farmers at the expense of other citizens. Later the government guaranteed loans to farmers so that they could buy farm machinery, hybrid (杂交) grain, and fertilizers.
The Supreme Court rejected the Agricultural Adjustment Act because it believed that the Act

选项 A、might cause greater scarcity of farm products
B、didn’t give the Secretary of Agriculture enough power
C、would benefit neither the government nor the fanners
D、benefited one group of citizens at the expense of others

答案D

解析 本题问美国最高法院反对农业调整法因为它认为此法案如何。利用查阅式阅读法,我们发现文章第二段第五句清楚地表明最高法院对这项法案的态度,最高法院认为此法案违反了宪法,理由是收缴的公众税款都被支付给了某一个特殊群体的人了。因此,本题的正确答案应是选项D“它认为此法案以牺牲别人的利益为代价,只有利于一个民众群体”。
转载请注明原文地址:https://jikaoti.com/ti/WbIYFFFM
0

最新回复(0)