gwd-7-28

Historian:  In the Drindian Empire, censuses were conducted annually to determine the population of each village.  Village census records for the last half of the 1600’s are remarkably complete.  This very completeness makes one point stand out; in five different years, villages overwhelmingly reported significant population declines.  Tellingly, each of those five years immediately followed an increase in a certain Drindian tax.  This tax, which was assessed on villages, was computed by the central government using the annual census figures.  Obviously, whenever the tax went up, villages had an especially powerful economic incentive to minimize the number of people they recorded; and concealing the size of a village’s population from government census takers would have been easy.  Therefore, it is reasonable to think that the reported declines did not happen.

In the historian’s argument, the two portions in boldface play which of the following roles?

1. The first supplies a context for the historian’s argument; the second acknowledges a consideration that has been used to argue against the position the historian seeks to establish.


2. The first presents evidence to support the position that the historian seeks to establish; the second acknowledges a consideration that has been used to argue against that position.


3. The first provides a context for certain evidence that supports the position that the historian seeks to establish; the second is that position.


4. The first is a position for which the historian argues; the second is an assumption that serves as the basis of that argument.


5. The first is an assumption that the historian explicitly makes in arguing for a certain position; the second acknowledges a consideration that calls that assumption into question.

答案是C,对这种问黑体字的题目总是做不对,这题选成B了,读了几次还是没有发现B错在哪里,C对在哪里,望NN指点,谢谢!

I am not a NN, but I know that when you are solving these problerms, an important thing is to find out the key words such as however, therefore, thus etc.  

In this question, there is no word to express the mean of but or however, so argue against in B is no reason.  The Therefore lead to a conclusion the historian support. So, C is the right answer.AB: against wrong; D: assumption wrong; E: call into question wrong

ai, biejiao yingyu,cou he zhe kan ba .  

一般来说，在段落最后，开始，或中后部会有作者的观点，结尾标志一般是therefore

中后部标志是however等转折词，这里第二个BOLDFACE是文章作者的观点，所以是

而不是argue against that position.在B中

B错在
        他不是consideration 应该是conclusion因为有therefore

整结构是
        历史学家提出人口普查可以决定每村庄人口大小
        这应该是一结论(立场)

然后提出village census records for the last half of the 1600’s are remarkably complete 是一支持结论的内容
        

中间是细节
        说明
        

最后
        提出一结论
        认为政府的人口普查的确可以隐瞒真实村庄人口
        决定村庄人口大小
        

所以是support 之前历史学家提出的论点