Text 4
Increasingly, historians are blaming diseases imported from the Old World for the great disparity between the native population of America in 1492--new estimates of which jump as high as 100 million, or approximately one-sixth of the human race at that time—and the few million full-blooded Native Americans alive at the end of the nineteenth century. There is no doubt that chronic disease was an important factor in the sharp decline, and it is highly probable that the greatest killer was epidemic disease, especially as manifested in virgin-soil epidemics.
Virgin-soil epidemics are those in which the populations at risk have had no previous contact with the diseases that strike them and are therefore immunologically almost defenseless. That virgin-soil epidemics were important in American history is strongly indicated by evidence that a number of dangerous maladies—smallpox, measles, malaria, yellow fever, and undoubtedly several more&mdash
A. demonstrate the impact of modern medicine on epidemic disease.
B. refute allegations of unreliability made against the historical record of colonial America.
C. advocate new research into the continuing problem of epidemic disease.
D. confirm the documentary evidence of epidemic disease in colonial America.
Text 4
Increasingly, historians are blaming diseases imported from the Old World for the great disparity between the native population of America in 1492--new estimates of which jump as high as 100 million, or approximately one-sixth of the human race at that time—and the few million full-blooded Native Americans alive at the end of the nineteenth century. There is no doubt that chronic disease was an important factor in the sharp decline, and it is highly probable that the greatest killer was epidemic disease, especially as manifested in virgin-soil epidemics.
Virgin-soil epidemics are those in which the populations at risk have had no previous contact with the diseases that strike them and are therefore immunologically almost defenseless. That virgin-soil epidemics were important in American history is strongly indicated by evidence that a number of dangerous maladies—smallpox, measles, malaria, yellow fever, and undoubtedly several more&mdash
A. recur more frequently than chronic diseases.
B. involve populations with no prior exposure to a disease.
C. usually involve a number of interacting diseases.
D. are less responsive to medical treatment than are other diseases.
Text 3
Historians have only recently begun to note the increase in demand for luxury goods and service that took place in eighteenth century England. McKendrick has explored the Wedgwood firm’ s remarkable success in marketing luxury pottery; Plumb has written about the proliferations of provincial theaters, musical festivals, and children’ s toys and books. While the fact of this consumer revolution is hardly in doubt, three key questions remain: Who were the consumers What were their motives7 And what were the effects of the new demand for luxuries
An answer to the flint of these has been difficult to obtain. Although it has been possible to infer from the goods and services actually produced what manufacturers and servicing trades thought their customers wanted, only a study of relevant personal documents written by actual consumers will provide a precise picture of who wanted what. We still need to know how large this consumer market was and
A. investigate the extent of the demand for luxury goods
B. classify the kinds of luxury goods desired by eighteenth century consumers
C. explain the motivation of eighteenth century consumers to buy luxury goods
D. establish the extent to which the tastes of rich consumers were shaped by the middle classes in eighteenth century England
Text 4
Historians may well look back on the 1980s in the United States as a time of rising affluence side by side with rising poverty. The growth in affluence is attributable to an increase in professional and technical jobs, along with more two career couples whose combined incomes provide a" comfortable living". Yet simultaneously, the nation’ s poverty rate rose between 1973 and 1983 from 11.1 percent of the population to 15.2, or by well over a third. Although the poverty rate declined somewhat after 1983, it was still held at 13.5 percent in 1987, comprising a population of 32:5 million Americans.
The definition of poverty is a matter of debate. In 1795, a group of English magistrates decided that a minimum in come should be "the cost of a gallon loaf of bread, multiplied by three, plus an allowance for each dependent". Today the Census Bureau defines the threshold of poverty in the United States as the minimum amount of money
A. 259 million.
B. 117 million.
C. 175 million.
D. 240 million.
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