[問題]考古題 1995年8月 reading Q10-Q21

[molecular]

有數個問題想要請教:
(1)Basic to any understanding of Canada in the 20 years after the Second World War is the country's impressive population growth. (2)For every three Canadians in 1945, there were over five in 1966. In September 1966 Canada's population passed (3)the 20 million mark. Most of this surging growth came from natural increase. The depression of the 1930's and the war had held back marriages, and the catching-up process began after 1945. The baby boom continued through the decade of the1950's, producing a population increase of nearly fifteen percent in the five years from 1951 to 1956. This rate of increase had been exceeded only once before in Canada's history, in the decade before 1911. when (4)the prairies were being settled. Undoubtedly, the good economic conditions of the 1950's supported a growth in the population, but the expansion also derived from a trend toward earlier marriages and an increase in the average size of families. In 1957 the Canadian birth rate stood at 28 per thousand, one of the highest in the world.

After the peak year of 1957, the birth rate in Canada began to decline. It continued falling until in 1966 it stood at the lowest level in 25 years. Partly this decline reflected the low level of births during the depression and the war, but it was also caused by changes in Canadian society. (5)Young people were staying at school longer; more women were working; young married couples were buying automobiles or houses before starting families; rising living standards were cutting down the size of families. (6)It appeared that Canada was once more falling in step with the trend toward smaller families that had occurred all through the Western world since the time of the Industrial Revolution.

Although the growth in Canada's population had slowed down by 1966 (the increase in the first half of the 1960's was only nine percent), another large population wave was coming over the horizon. It would be composed of the children of the children who were born during the period of the high birth rate prior to 1957.

(1) 紅字部分的basic to any understanding是什麼意思呀
(2) For every three Canadians in 1945, there were over five in 1966. 這句話完全看不懂它是啥意思
(3) the 20 million mark 此句中的mark作什麼解? 這整句話要如何解釋?
(4) the prairies were being settled 這句話中每個單字我都看得懂, 但不是非常確實明白意思
(5) 藍字的這個部分, 為什麼要用進行式呢? 有什麼特殊的意思嗎? 是指這段時間裡, staying..., working..., buying...., cutting down...這些動作是持續如此的意思嗎?
(6) over the horizon是不是指超過了當前的程度的意思呢
謝謝回答

[micki]

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