TOEFL Readings 5

The changing profile of a đô thị in the United States is apparent in the shifting

definitions used by the United States Bureau of the Census. In 1870 the census

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officially distinguished the nation's “urban” from its “rural” population for the first

Line time. “Urban population” was defined as persons living in towns of 8,000 inhabitants

(5) 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 tướng take

account of the new vagueness of đô thị boundaries. In addition to tướng persons living in incorporated units of 2,500 or more, the census now included those who lived in

(10) 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).

(15) Each SMSA would contain at least (a) one central đô thị 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 đô thị is located, and adjacent counties that are found to tướng

(20) be metropolitan in character and economically and socially integrated with the county

of the central đô thị. By 1970, about two-thirds of the population of the United States was

living in these urbanized areas, and of that figure more than vãn half were living outside the

central cities.

While the Census Bureau and the United States government used the term SMSA

(25) (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 tướng be simple “towns” and “cities”. A host of terms came into use : “metropolitan regions,”

“polynucleated population groups,” “conurbations,” “metropolitan clusters,” “megalopolises,” and ví on.

39. What does the passage mainly discuss?

(A) How cities in the United States began and developed

(B) Solutions to tướng overcrowding in cities

(D) How the United States Census Bureau conducts a census

40. According to tướng the passage, the population of the United States was

first classified as rural or urban in

(A) 1870

(B) 1900

(D) 1970

41. The word “distinguished”in line 3 is closest in meaning to

(A) differentiated (B) removed