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  3. We can begin our discussion of "population as global issue" with what most persons mean when they discuss "the population proble

We can begin our discussion of "population as global issue" with what most persons mean when they discuss "the population proble

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问题     We can begin our discussion of "population as global issue" with what most persons mean when they discuss "the population problem": too many people on earth and a too rapid increase in the number added each year. The facts are not in dispute. It was quite right to employ the analogy that linked demographic growth to "a long, thin powder fuse that burns steadily and haltingly until it finally reaches the charge and explodes."
    To understand the current situation, which is characterized by rapid increases in population, it is necessary to understand the history of population trends. Rapid growth is a comparatively recent phenomenon. Looking back at 8,000 years of demographic history, we find that populations have been virtually stable or growing very slightly for most of human history. For most of our ancestors, life was hard, often nasty, and very short. There was high fertility in most places, but this was usually balanced by high morality. For most of human history, it was seldom the case that one in ten persons would live past forty, while infancy and childhood were especially risky periods. Often, societies were in clear danger of extinction because death rates could extend their birth rates. Thus, the population problem throughout most of history was how to prevent extinction of the human race.
    This pattern is important to notice. Not only does it put the current problem of demographic growth into a historical perspective, but it suggests that the cause of rapid increase in population in recent years is not a sudden enthusiasm for more children, but an improvement in the conditions that traditionally have caused high mortality.
    Demographic history can be divided into two major periods: a time of long, slow growth which extended from about 8,000 BC. till approximately AD. 1650. In the first period of some 9600 years, the population increased from some 8 million to 500 million in 1650. Between 1650 and the present, the population has increased from 500 million to more than 4 billion. And it is estimated that by the year 2000 there will be 6.2 billion people throughout the world. One way to appreciate this dramatic difference in such abstract numbers is to reduce the time frame to something that is more manageable. Between 8000 BC and 1650, an average of only 50,000 persons were being added annually to the world’ s population each year. At present, this number is added every six hours. The increase is about 80,000,000 persons annually.
The word "demographic" in the first paragraph means______.
选项 A、statistics of human
B、surroundings study
C、accumulation of human
D、development of human
答案A
解析 推断题。demographic本意是“人口统计学”，第一段中，作者将demographic growth比作细长的导火线，而文章主要讲的是人口增长问题，故demographic指的是人口统计数据。因此，正确答案是A。
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