Task 1Directions: After reading the following passage, you will find 5 questions or unfini

Task 1

Directions: After reading the following passage, you will find 5 questions or unfinished statements, numbered 36 through 40. For each question or statement there are 4 choices marked A, B, C, and D. You should make the correct choice.

The population of a given place can grow in three ways: by extension of its borders to include nearby land and people; by natural increase—an excess of births over deaths; and by migration—an excess of in-migrants over out-migrants. Between the Civil War and the early 1900s, many cities joined nearby suburbs, thereby increasing their populations. The most notable union occurred in 1898 when New York City, which had consisted only of Manhattan, united with four surrounding boroughs and grew overnight from 1.5 million to over 3 million people. Although annexation(合并) did increase urban populations somewhat, its major effect was to enlarge the physical size of cities. As death rates declined in the late nineteenth century, the populations of most cities increased naturally, and urban birthrates also fell steadily throughout the nineteenth century. As a result, in most cases natural increase did not account for very much of any given city's population growth during the period. Migration and immigration made by far the greatest contribution to urban population growth. In fact, migration to nearby cities matched the migration to the West that was occurring at the same time. Each year millions of people were on the move, many of them attracted by the cities' promise of opportunity. Urban newcomers arrived from two major sources: the American countryside and Europe. Asia, Canada, and Latin America also supplied immigrants, but in smaller numbers.

The phrase "a given place" in this passage refers to ______.

A．America

B．any area in the world

C．the American countryside

D．any American city