Recent studies of the gender gap in the history of United States policies tend to focus on candidate choice rather than on registration and turnout. This shift in focus from gender inequality in political participation may be due to the finding in several studies of voting behavior in the United States that since 1980, differences in rates of registration and voting between men and women are not statistically significant after controlling for traditional predictors of participation. However, Fullerton and Stern argue that researchers have overlooked the substantial gender gap in registration and voting in the South. While the gender gap in participation virtually disappeared outside the South by the 1950s, substantial gender differences persisted in the South throughout the 1950s and 1960s, only beginning to decline in 1970s.
2. According to the passage, which of the following is true about recent studies of the gender gap in the United States politics?
A. They accurately depict voter preference in the South prior to 1980.
B. They have been unduly influenced by changes in voter preferences.
C. They fail to recognize important factors affecting levels of voter participation.
D. They do not pay sufficient attention to the effect regional differences have on voter preference.
E. They are more concerned with the choices that male and female voters make than with the frequency with which they vote.
首先明确一点,本文研究的是“gender gap in candidate choice” 和 “gender gap in registration and turnout”这两个东西。However之后是说:在the South,"gender gap in registration and voting"与其他地方不同。所以D选项错,因为应该是忽略了“gender gap in registration and turnour/voting”的地区差异,而非that of voter preference(显然,voter preference是candidate choice的同义替换).