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  3. The changing profile of a city in the United States is apparent in the shifting definitions used by the United States Bureau of

The changing profile of a city in the United States is apparent in the shifting definitions used by the United States Bureau of

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问题     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 country 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?
选项 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.
答案C
解析 主旨题。考生浏览全文，可以容易判定原文首段首句为全文的主题句，由The changing profile ofa city，shifting definitions等信息发现，本篇文章与city定义的变化有关，接着描述了1870年，1900年，1950年，1970年等时间对城市定义的变化，故本文主要内容是不断变化的城市地区定义。故答案为C。
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