The nation’s economic collapse jolted many New Yorkers into financial distress, driving some into poverty and dependence on food

admin2014-04-20  28

问题     The nation’s economic collapse jolted many New Yorkers into financial distress, driving some into poverty and dependence on food stamps and unemployment benefits and even altering their living arrangements between 2007 and 2009, according to census data released Tuesday that offered the first extensive measure of how the city weathered the recession.
    Although New York City has fared better than the country as a whole, recording smaller increases in poverty and smaller declines in household income, more subtle indicators, like the rise in the number of New Yorkers living in homes without kitchens, underscore the struggles confronting many.
    The Census Bureau’s 2009 American Community Survey also found that from 2007 to 2009, the income of single people in the city shrank the most among New Yorkers; the poverty rate edged up among people 15 to 64 years old; both parents were in the work force more often; home values dipped; the share of renters increased compared with owners; more renters were paying over 35 percent of their income on housing; and a smaller share said they owned two vehicles. The proportion of very rich and very poor New Yorkers rose slightly, and the gap between them remained higher in New York than in any other state, and, in Manhattan, higher than in any other county in the country.
    Earlier this year, the city said its own more sophisticated measure of poverty classified 22 percent of New Yorkers as poor in 2008, when the Census Bureau put the official figure at 17. 6 percent. Officials would not speculate on what the 2009 rate would be by the more complex measure that takes account of costs like commuting and day care and benefits like tax credits.
    "The official measure does not include much of what has been done to cushion the blow of the recession on low-income families," said Mark K. Levitan, poverty research director for the city’s Center for Economic Opportunity. " The new and expanded tax credits and the large increase in food stamp participation don’t get counted in the official measure; they will get counted in ours. "
    Joel Berg, executive director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, said the rising raw numbers and percentages of city residents living below the federal poverty line($ 17,600 for a family of three)and the shrinking income of many New Yorkers were "the latest proof that low-income, hungry and even middle-class New Yorkers are suffering mightily in this recession, even as the ultrarich become even wealthier. "  
What can we conclude from the text?

选项 A、The government may be over-optimistic about the situation.
B、Measure of poverty tends to be more complicated in the future.
C、New Yorkers are suffering more from the recession than expected.
D、The recession has confronted every stratum of American society.

答案B

解析 细节题。根据第四段最后一句话所述,2009年将交通和日托这些更复杂的因素计入生活成本,而将税收抵免计入收益,则官员们也无法推测出其结果了。可见贫困情况的统计因素呈现复杂多样的趋势。第五段还提到了食品券的扩大发放也应纳人计算之中。由此可见,统计测算有复杂化的趋势,故[B]为答案。政府对贫困率的统计虽然比纽约市的统计略低,但文章并没有提及政府由此做出了何种判断,因此说政府对形势过于乐观,不符合原文,故[A]错误。文章并没有谈到纽约市民对经济衰退影响的预期,故[C]称经济衰退影响超出预期显然是错误的。而[D]所述与全文最后一句话相抵触,因为Berg指出,虽然中低阶层普遍受到影响,但极富阶层财富增加,并没有影响,可见[D]也是错误的。
转载请注明原文地址:https://jikaoti.com/ti/kaYRFFFM
0

最新回复(0)