In a recent study, David Cressy examines two central questions concerning English immigration to New England in the 1630’s: what kinds of people immigrated and why? Using contemporary literary evidence, shipping lists, and customs records, Cressy finds that most adult immigrants were skilled in farming or crafts, were literate, and were organized in families. Each of these characteristics sharply distinguishes the 21,000 people who left for New England in the 1630’s from most of the approximately 377,000 English people who had immigrating to America by 1700.
With respect to their reasons for immigrating, Cressy does not deny the frequently noted fact that some of the immigrants of the 1630’s, most notably the organizers and clergy, advanced religious explanations for departure, but he finds that such explanations usually assumed primacy only in retrospect (in retrospect: 回顾, 回顾往事;检讨过去). When he moves beyond the principal actors, he finds that religious explanations were less frequently offered and he concludes that most people immigrated because they were recruited by promises of material improvement.
24. In the passage, the author is primarily concerned with
(A) summarizing the findings of an investigation
(B) analyzing a method of argument
(C) evaluating a point of view
(D) hypothesizing about a set of circumstances(A)
(E) establishing categories
25. According to the passage, Cressy would agree with which of the following statements about the organizers among the English immigrants to New England in the 1630’s?
I. Most of them were clergy.
II. Some of them offered a religious explanation for their immigration.
III. They did not offer any reasons for their immigration until some time after they had immigrated.
IV. They were more likely than the average immigrant to be motivated by material considerations.
(A) I only
(B) II only
(C) II and III only
(D) I, III, and IV only(B)
(E) II, III, and IV only
26. According to the passage, Cressy has made which of the following claims about what motivated English immigrants to go to New England in the 1630’s?
(A) They were motivated by religious considerations alone.
(B) They were motivated by economic considerations alone.
(C) They were motivated by religious and economic considerations equally.
(D) They were motivated more often by economic than by religious considerations.(D)
(E) They were motivated more often by religious than by economic considerations.
27. The passage suggests that the majority of those English people who had immigrated to America by the late seventeenth century were
(A) clergy
(B) young children
(C) organized in families
(D) skilled in crafts(E)
(E) illiterate