The economic expansion prompted by the Second World War triggered a spectacular population boom in the West. Of course, the region was no stranger to population booms. Throughout much of its history, western settlement had been characterized by spurts, rather than by a pattern of gradual and steady population growth, beginning with the gold and silver rushes of the 1850's and 1860's. The decade after the First World War - the 1920's - witnessed another major surge of people pouring into the West, particularly into urban areas. But the economic depression of the 1930's brought this expansion to a halt; some of the more sparsely settled parts of the region actually lost population as migrants sought work in more heavily industrialized areas. By 1941 when the United States entered the Second World War and began to mobilize, new job opportunities were created in the western part of the nation.

If the expansion of industries, such as shipbuilding and aircraft manufacturing, was most striking on the pacific coast, it also affected interior cities like Denver, Phoenix, and Salt Lake City. Equally dramatic were the effects of the establishment of aluminum plants in Oregon and Washington and the burgeoning steel industry in Utah and California. The flow of people into these areas provided an enormous impetus to the expansion of the service industries - banks, health care services and schools. Although strained to the limit by the influx of newcomers, western communities welcomed the vast reservoir of new job opportunities. At the same time, the unprecedented expansion of government installations in the West, such as military bases, created thousands of new civilian openings. As land had served as a magnet for western migrants in the late nineteenth century, so wartime mobilization set in motion another major expansion of population. Indeed, it could be said that the entire western United States became a giant boomtown during the Second World War. This was especially true of California. Of the more than eight million people who moved into the West in the decade after 1940, almost one-half went to the Pacific coast. In fact, between 1940 and 1950, California's population surged by more than three million people.

The word “it” in paragraph 2 refers to ................

Câu hỏi liên quan

• Why does the couple exchange garlands?

• What is the meaning of “waterproof” in the second paragraph?

• According to the passage, what did people have to do first to settle an area?

ZUNIA12

• The underlined word “demise” is closest in meaning to .............

• In the passage, the author gives the explanation of the concept of mandatory volunteer programs by ______.

• The main idea of the passage is that in America's frontier days ..............

• The man mentioned in the passage, who used his cell phone too often, ...........

• The word “checked” in the second paragraph is closest in meaning to ______.

• The word “their” in paragraph 3 refers to ______.

• Why does the author believe that the Mandans were skilled farmers?

• The four boys of the Beatles .................

• Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage as full-time university students?

• The word "grip" in the passage means to ..........

• According to the passage, which of the following is true?

• The word “vital” in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to______

• According to the text, people could come to live in the future city in the year ............

• The phrase "split off" in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to ........

• Why did the teachers ask each band to play two songs?

• The passage discusses a way to deal with an offensive noise by_________.

• The latter half of the last sentence in paragraph 3, “or one tourist for every person living in Spain” means .........