TEXT B Basic to any understanding
of Canada in the 20 years after the Second World War is the country’s impressive
population growth. For every three Canadians in 1945, there were over five in
1966. In September 1966 Canada’s population passed the 20 million mark. Most of
this surging growth came from natural increase. The depression of the
1930’s and the war had held back marriages, and the catching-up process began
after 1945. The baby boom continued through the decade of the 1950’s, producing
a population increase of nearly fifteen percent in the five years from 1951 to
1956. This rate of increase had been exceeded only once before in Canada’s
history, in the decade before 1911, when the prairies were being settled.
Undoubtedly, the good economic conditions of the 1950’s supported a growth in
the population, but the expansion also derived from a trend toward earlier
marriages and an increase in the average size of families. In 1957’ the Canadian
birth rate stood at 28 per thousand, one of the highest in the world.
After the peak year of 1957, the birth rate in Canada began to decline. It
continued falling until in 1966 it stood at the lowest level in 25 years. Partly
this decline reflected the low level of births during the depression and the
war, but it was also caused by changes in Canadian society. Young people were
staying at school longer; more women were working; young married couples were
buying automobiles or houses before starting
families; rising; living standards were cutting down the size of
families. It appeared that Canada was once more falling in step with the trend
toward smaller families that had occurred all through the Western world since
the time of the Industrial Revolution. Although the growth in
Canada’s population had slowed down by 1966 (the increase in the first half of
the 1960’s was only nine percent), another large population wave was coming over
the horizon. It would be composed of the children who were born during the
period of the high birth rate prior to 1957. According to the passage, Canada’s baby boom began ______.
A．after 1945 B．in the decade after 1911 C．during the depression of the 1930’s D．in 1966