Something significant is happening to the world population-it is aging. The median(中位数的)age of an American in 1950    1    (be)30-today it is 41 and is expected    2    (increase)to 42 by 2050. For Japan, the    3    (number)are more striking-22 in 1950, 46 today and 53 in 2050. In 2015, one in 12 people around the world were over 65；by 2050, it will be one in six.

This aging of the population is driven    4    two factors. The first is declining birthrates, which means old generations are large    5    (compare)to younger generations, and so, on average, the population becomes    6    (old)than before. This is    7    (particular)true in the US. The second reason is that people are living longer. A child born in the US today has    8    very realistic chance of living beyond 100 and needs to plan accordingly.

People tend to focus on the first factor. However, greater attention should    9    (place)on longevity(长寿). It isn't just that people are, on average, living longer. It's also that they are on average healthier    10    more productive for longer. Therefore, they can work for longer, consume more and in general be a boost to the economy.

The Internet is an     1     (amaze) information resource. Students, teachers     2     researchers use it as     3     important tool. Journalists use it to find information for stories. Doctors use it to learn more about unfamiliar diseases and the     4     (late) medical development. Ordinary people use it for shopping, banking, bill-paying, and communicating with family and friends. People all over the world use it     5     (connect) with individuals from other countries and cultures. However, while there are many positive developments associated with the Internet, there are also certain fears and     6     (concern). One concern is a lack of control over what     7     (appear) on the Internet. With television and radio the editors will check the accuracy of the contents of programs, and with television there are limits on what kinds of programs can     8     (broadcast) and at what time of the day. However,     9     the help of the Internet, parents can check a published guide to determine what     10     (suit) for their children to see.

Have you ever asked yourself why children go to school? You will     1     (probable) say that they go to learn languages, history, science and some other knowledge. That’s quite true, but do you know why they learn these     2     (thing)?

We send our children to school to prepare them    3     the future when they grow up and have to work for     4     (they). Nearly everything they study at school has some practical use in their life. But is that     5     only reason why they go to school?

Actually, there is more in education than just    6     (learn) facts. We go to school above all to learn how to learn, so that when we graduate we can continue to learn.     7     a man really knows how to learn, he will be     8     (success). Because when he has to do something new, he will not only be able     9     (do) it well himself, but he will also be able to teach others how to do it in the     10     (good) way. So the purpose of schools is not to teach languages, history, science, etc., but to teach students the way to learn.

Is It the Pig from Angry Birds?

An ancient clay pig statue has become     1     hot topic, for it looked exactly like Green Pig, a main character in Angry Birds, a popular mobile game. The artwork     2     (discover)under the ruins of an ancient settlement     3     (date)back nearly 5,000 years in south-western China.

Archaeologists(考古学家）found the tiny pig statue     4     (accident)while digging in the remains of a small ancient community outside Guanghan in Sichuan province.

The village was situated about eight kilometres outside Sanxingdui, a Bronze Age kingdom.     5     likely came into being around 5,000 years ago, and the pig statue is thought to be 3,200 years old. The pig statue has been described     6     “cute,vivid and delicate” by the researchers, who say it represents the advanced standards of the region’s prehistoric residents.

Chinese Internet users expressed their amazement. On Weibo, one person expressed his     7     (admire) excitedly: “It is the pig from Angry Birds!” Another commenter joked: “The pig in Angry Birds. You have infringed (侵犯) the copyright.”

The research team claimed     8     (find) tracks of continuous human activity on this site from 5,000 years ago to the    9     (dynasty) of Ming and Qing. Officials plan to dig 7,000 square metres of the site, which is officially named Guanghan Joint Ruins. By the end of June, they     10     (dig) 4,500 square metres.

Tibetan antelopes live on the plains of Tibet, Xinjiang, and Qinghai.     1     (watch) them move slowly across the green grass, I’m struck by their     2    (beautiful). At the same time, I’m also reminded     3    the danger they are in. They    4    (hunt), illegally, for their valuable fur. Zhaxi, a villager from Changtang, works at the Changtang National Nature Reserve. “We’re not trying to save the animals,” he says. “    5     (actual), we’re trying to save ourselves.”

The 1980s and 1990s were bad times for the Tibetan antelope. Hunters were shooting antelopes     6    (make) profits. Their habitats were becoming     7     (small) as new roads and railways were built. In order     8     (save) them, the Chinese government placed them under national protection. The measures were     9    (effect). The antelope population     10     (recover) and in June, 2015, the Tibetan antelope was removed from the endangered species list.

Ask someone what he has done to help the environment, and he will almost certainly mention recycling. Recycling around the home is, of course, very important. However,     1    (force) to recycle often means we already have more material than we need. We are dealing with the results of that over-consumption in the greenest way possible, but it would be far better     2     we did not need to bring so much material home in the first place.

The total amount of packaging increased     3     12 percent between 1999 and 2005. A large number of companies believe that they can attract customers’ attention and stimulate their purchasing desire by over-packaging their goods, thus     4    (gain) more profits.

Too much packaging is doing damage to the environment. If such packaging     5    (burn), it will give off greenhouse gases which go on to cause the greenhouse effect. Recycling helps,     6     the process itself uses energy. The solution is to stop producing such items in the first place. Food waste is a serious problem, too. Many supermarkets encourage customers to buy more than they need. Fortunately, a few of them are coming round to the idea     7     this cannot continue, encouraging customers to reuse their plastic bags, for example.

Yet this is not just about supermarkets. It is about all of us. We have learned to associate packaging with quality. We have learned to think that     8     without packaging is of poor quality. This is especially true of food, but it applies to a wide range of consumer products,     9     often have far more packaging than necessary.

There are signs of hope. As more of us recycle, we are beginning to realize just how much unnecessary material we are collecting. However, despite the ongoing campaigns     10    (promote) consumers’ green awareness, we still have a long way to go.