2015考研英语阅读性别选择_大学英语阅读

2015考研英语阅读性别选择

　　男女比例为什么失衡，人们普遍观点认为东南亚人强调传统的重男轻女思想。家庭需要儿子来传宗接代，继承财产以及养老送终的职责。赫弗斯坦托尔女士的看法跟这个叙述几乎毫无共通之处。因为该叙述还是未能解释为什么印度和中国一些最富裕的，最开放的地方性别比例最不正常。根据她的解释，性别选择技术是在西方发明并被作为人口控制措施而采用的，而且被西方援助者和美国军官传播到了东亚。

　　The ultrasound and other technologies that identifythe sex of a fetus started out as diagnostic devicesto help people with sex-linked diseases, such ashaemophilia, conceive healthy children. They weregreeted rapturously in America in the 1960s. Ultrasound Device Takes Guessing Out ofPregnancy ran one headline. Control of Life:Audacious Experiments Promise Decades of AddedLife ran another.

　　在开始的时候，确认胎儿性别的超声波扫描和其它技术是作为诊断设备来帮助有伴性遗传的病人帮助孕育健康儿童，如血友病。美国20世纪60年代，这些技术得到了狂热的欢迎。报纸刊登标题为超声波设备使得怀孕期间无需再猜的文章。另一篇文章为生命控制：大胆创新的实验有望为人类增寿几十年。

　　But 1960s America was also a period of growing concern about population indeveloping countries. Policymakers, demographers and military men all thought rapidpopulation growth was the biggest single threat to mankind and that drastic measures wouldbe needed to rein it in. One such figure was Paul Ehrlich, whose book, The Population Bomb,became a bestseller in 1968. Mr Ehrlich pointed out that some Indian and Chinese parentswould go on having daughter after daughter until the longed-for son arrived. If, he argued,they could be guaranteed a son right away, those preliminary daughters would not be born, andpopulation growth would be lower. Sex selection became a tool in a wider battle to stopoverpopulation.