During the
nineteenth-century, occupational information about women that was provided by
the United States census—a population count conducted each decade—became more
detailed and precise in response to social changes. Through 1840, simple
enumeration by household mirrored a home-based agricultural economy and
hierarchical social order: the head of the household (presumed male or absent)
was specified by name, whereas other household members were only indicated by
the total number of persons counted in various categories, including
occupational categories. Like farms, most enterprises were family-run, so that
the census measured economic activity as an attribute of the entire household,
rather than of individuals.
The 1850 census,
partly responding to antislavery and women’s rights movements, initiated the
collection of specific information about each individual in a household. Not
until 1870 was occupational information analyzed by gender: the census
superintendent reported 1.8 million women employed outside the home in “gainful
and reputable occupations.” In addition, he arbitrarily attributed to each
family one woman “keeping house.” Overlap between the two groups was not
calculated until 1890, when the rapid entry of women into the paid labor force
and social issues arising from industrialization were causing women’s advocates
and women statisticians to press for more thorough and accurate accounting of
women’s occupations and wages.
238.
It
can be inferred from the passage that the 1840 United States census provided a
count of which of the following?
(A) Women who
worked exclusively in the home
(B) People
engaged in nonfarming occupations
(C) People
engaged in social movements
(D) Women
engaged in family-run enterprises（B）
(E) Men engaged in
agriculture
看og中的解释是：
Inference
Since this question asks for an inference,
the answer is not directly stated in the passage; it must instead be derived
from the information given. This question depends on a careful review of lines
5-15, which state that the 1840 census counted the head of the household as an
individual, and that it counted everyone else in the household by categories,
including occupational categories. Thus it is reasonable to infer that the 1840
census provided an overall count of people engaged in occupations, both farming
and nonfarming.
A Lines
24-29 reveal that a count of women who worked exclusively at home was not made
until 1890.
B Correct. The 1840 census categorized
household members by occupation, so it would have provided a count of people
working in nonfarming occupations.
C The
1840 census counted households by occupations, not by participation in social
movements.
D Lines
19-20 show that occupational categories were not analyzed by gender until 1870.
E Occupations
were analyzed by gender only in 1870 (lines 19-20).
The correct answer is B. 但是原文第一段里不是说“
whereas other household members were only
indicated by the total number of persons counted in various categories,
including occupational categories”。与我红色标出的部分没有冲突吗？
希望有人能帮我讲讲这篇文章提出的census的几个阶段的特点到底是什么样的啊？
谢谢了~~~~
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发表于 2008-7-29 11:41:00
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