Question

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 44 to 50.

The changing profile of a city in the United States is apparent in the shifting definitions used by the United States Bureau of the Census. In 1870 the census officially distinguished the nation's “urban” from its “rural” population for the first time. “Urban population” was defined as persons living in towns of 8,000 inhabitants or more. But after 1900 it meant persons living in incorporated places having 2,500 or more inhabitants. Then, in 1950 the Census Bureau radically changed its definition of “urban” to take account of the new vagueness of city boundaries. In addition to persons living in incorporated units of 2,500 or more, the census now included those who lived in unincorporated units of that size, and also all persons living in the densely settled urban fringe, including both incorporated and unincorporated areas located around cities of 50,000 inhabitants or more. Each such unit, conceived as an integrated economic and social unit with a large population nucleus, was named a Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area (SMSA).

          Each SMSA would contain at least (a) one central city with 50,000 inhabitants or more or (b) two cities having shared boundaries and constituting, for general economic and social purposes, a single community with a combined population of at least 50,000, the smaller of which must have a population of at least 15,000. Such an area included the county in which the central city is located, and adjacent counties that are found to be metropolitan in character and economically and socially integrated with the county of the central city. By 1970, about two-thirds of the population of the United States was living in these urbanized areas, and of that figure more than half were living outside the central cities.

While the Census Bureau and the United States government used the term SMSA (by 1969 there were 233 of them), social scientists were also using new terms to describe the elusive, vaguely defined areas reaching out from what used to be simple “towns” and “cities”. A host of terms came into use: “metropolitan regions,” “polynucleated population groups”, “conurbations,” “metropolitan clusters,” “megalopolises,” and so on.

What does the passage mainly discuss?

A. How cities in the United States began and developed

B. Solutions to overcrowding in cities

C. The changing definition of an urban area

D. How the United States Census Bureau conducts a census

Answer 1

Đáp án C

Thông tin: The changing profile of a city in the United States is apparent in the shifting definitions used by the United States Bureau of the Census.

Dịch nghĩa: Hồ sơ đang thay đổi của một thành phố tại Hoa Kỳ là rõ ràng trong các định nghĩa thay đổi được sử dụng bởi Cục điều tra dân số của Hoa Kỳ.

Đây là câu chủ đề của cả bài đọc, sau đó bài đọc làm rõ hơn về sự thay đổi các định nghĩa của một khu vực thành phố.

Phương án C. The changing definition of an urban area = Sự thay đổi định nghĩa về một khu vực thành thị; là phương án chính xác nhất.

          A. How cities in the United States began and developed = Làm thế nào thành phố ở Hoa Kỳ bắt đầu và phát triển.

Không có thông tin như vậy trong bài.

          B. Solutions to overcrowding in cities = Giải pháp cho tình trạng quá tải ở các thành phố.

Không có thông tin như vậy trong bài.

          D. How the United States Census Bureau conducts a census = Cục điều tra dân Hoa Kỳ tiến hành một điều tra dân số như thế nào.

Không có thông tin như vậy trong bài.