首页
登录
职称英语
Passaqe Three (1) One of the paradoxes of human biology is that the ric
Passaqe Three (1) One of the paradoxes of human biology is that the ric
游客
2024-11-03
3
管理
问题
Passaqe Three
(1) One of the paradoxes of human biology is that the rich world has fewer children than the poor world. In most species, improved circumstances are expected to increase reproductive effort, not reduce it, yet as economic development gets going, country after country has experienced what is known as the demographic transition: fertility (defined as the number of children borne by a woman over her lifetime) drops from around eight to near one and a half. That number is so small that even with the reduced child mortality which usually accompanies development it cannot possibly sustain the population.
(2) This reproductive collapse is particularly worrying because it comes in combination with an increase in life expectancy which suggests that, by the middle of the century, not only will populations in the most developed countries have shrunk (unless they are propped up by historically huge levels of immigration) but also that the number of retired individuals supported by each person of working age will increase significantly. If Mikko Myrskyla of the University of Pennsylvania and his colleagues are correct, though, things might not be quite as bad as that. A study they have just published in Nature suggests that as development continues, the demographic transition goes into reverse.
(3) Dr. Myrskyla compared two things. One was the total fertility rate (the number of children that would be born to a woman in a particular country over the course of her life if she experienced the age-specific fertility rates observed in that country during the calendar year in question). The other was the human development index for that country. The HDI, a measure used by the United Nations, has three components: life expectancy; average income per person; and level of education. Its maximum possible value is one.
(4) Back in the 1970s, no country got anywhere near one. Of the 107 places the researchers looked at, the best was Canada, with an HDI of 0.89. By 2005, however, things had improved markedly. Two dozen of what were now 240 countries had HDIs above nine—and something else remarkable had happened. Back in 1975, a graph plotting fertility rate against the HDI fell as the HDI rose. By 2005, though, the line had a kink in it. Above an HDI of 0.9 or so, it turned up, producing what is known in the jargon as a "J-shaped" curve (even though it is the mirror image of a letter J). In many countries with really high levels of development (around 0.95) fertility rates are now approaching two children per woman. There are exceptions, notably Canada and Japan, but the trend is clear.
(5) Why this change has come about, and why the demographic transition happens in the first place, are matters of debate. There are lots of social explanations of why fertility rates fall as countries become richer. The increasing ability of women in the developed world to control their own reproductive output is one, as is the related phenomenon of women entering the workplace in large numbers. The increasing cost of raising children in a society with more material abundance plays a part. So does the substitution of nationalised social-security systems for the support of offspring in old age. Falling rates of child mortality are also significant. Conversely, Dr. Myrskyla speculates that the introduction of female-friendly employment policies in the most developed countries allows women to have the best of both worlds, and that this may contribute to the up tick.
(6) No doubt all these social explanations are true as far as they go, but they do not address the deeper question of why people’s psychology should have evolved in a way that makes them want fewer children when they can afford more. There is a possible biological explanation, though. [br] What is the role of Para. 4 in the development of the topic?
选项
A、To illustrate that fertility rates in some highly developed countries began to rise.
B、To show that countries like Canada and Japan remain low fertility rates.
C、To explain how demographic transition occurred from 1975 to 2005.
D、To indicate that the trend of HDI is unrelated to fertility rates.
答案
A
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3829756.html
相关试题推荐
A、Aclassonphysics.B、Aclassonbiology.C、Aclassonscience.D、Aclassons
PassaqeTwo(1)Oneoftheobviousproblemswithpredictingthefuture
PassaqeTwo(1)Oneoftheobviousproblemswithpredictingthefuture
PassaqeTwo(1)Oneoftheobviousproblemswithpredictingthefuture
PassaqeThree(1)Oneoftheparadoxesofhumanbiologyisthattheric
PassaqeThree(1)Oneoftheparadoxesofhumanbiologyisthattheric
PassaqeThree(1)Oneoftheparadoxesofhumanbiologyisthattheric
PassaqeThree(1)High,highabovetheNorthPole,onthefirstdayof
PassaqeThree(1)High,highabovetheNorthPole,onthefirstdayof
PassaqeThree(1)High,highabovetheNorthPole,onthefirstdayof
随机试题
Manypeoplehavediscoveredthathobbiescanbeprofitableaswellas【T1】____
Wouldyouknowhowtohelp?Everyyear,thousandsofdriversandpasseng
某系统中仅有5个并发进程竞争某类资源,且都需要3个该类资源,那么至少有()个该
信用是市场的基石,完善的旅游信用体系是旅游服务质量提升的重要指标。( )
商业银行采用操作风险标准法计算监管资本时,将所有业务分为八个业务线,操作风险对应
“手推磨产生的是封建主的社会,蒸汽磨产生的是工业资本家的社会。”这说明(??)A
证券公司从事证券自营业务的,应当按照《证券公司证券自营业务指引》,根据公司经营管
利用E花环沉降法可将下列哪两种细胞分离A、单核与淋巴细胞B、浆细胞与粒细胞C
患者女性,26岁。全血细胞减少,骨髓有核细胞增生低下,粒系、红系低下,巨核细胞缺
《城市供热管网工程施工及验收规范》(CJJ28-2004)中规定的热力管道施焊单
最新回复
(
0
)