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  3. Although social changes in the United States were being wrought throughout most of the nineteenth century, public awareness of t

Although social changes in the United States were being wrought throughout most of the nineteenth century, public awareness of t

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问题     Although social changes in the United States were being wrought throughout most of the nineteenth century, public awareness of the changes increased to new levels in the 1890’s. The acute, growing public awareness of the social changes that had been taking place for some time was tied to tremendous growth in popular journalism in the late nineteenth century, including growth in quantity and circulation of both magazines and newspapers. These developments, in addition to the continued growth of cities, were significant factors in the transformation of society from one characterized by relatively isolated self-contained communities into an urban, industrial nation. The decade of the 1870’s, for example, was a period in which the sheer number of newspapers doubled, and by 1880 the New York Graphic had published the first photographic reproduction in a newspaper, portending a dramatic rise in newspaper readership. Between 1882 and 1886 alone, the price of daily newspapers dropped from four cents a copy, to one cent, made posssible in part by a great increase in demand. Furthermore, the introduction in 1890 of the first successful lino-type machine promised even further growth. In 1872 only two daily newspapers could claim a circulation of over 100,000, but by 1892 seven more newspapers exceeded that figure. A world beyond the immediate community was rapidly becoming visible.
    But it was not newspapers alone that were bringing the new awareness to people in the United States in the late nineteenth century. Magazines as they are known today began publication around 1882, and, in fact, the circulation of weekly magazines exceeded that of newspapers in the period which followed. By 1892, for example, file circulation of the Ladies’ Home Journal had reached an astounding 700,000. An increase in book readership also played a significant part in this general trend. For example, Edward Bellamy’s utopian novel, Looking Backward, sold over a million copies in 1888, giving rise to the growth of organizations dedicated to the realization of Bellamy’s vision of the future.  The printed word, unquestionably, was intruding on the insulation that had characterized United States society in an earlier period.
Why does the author mention Edward Bellamy’s novel Looking Backward?
选项 A、To illustrate how advanced the technology of printing had become.
B、To emphasize the influence of the printed word on a society undergoing rapid change.
C、To document its prediction about the popularity of newspapers.
D、To demonstrate that books had replaced newspapers and magazines as the leading source of information.
答案D
解析
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