Some nations think they must have more and more babies, more and more people, if they are to remain strong and free.

Actually, this is not so. Very often in history, small nations have conquered large ones. It's not so much the size of the army as its organization and the technical level of its weapons. Thus, Greece took over Persia in the 300s BC, Great Britain took over India in the 1700s, even though Persia and India had far bigger population than Greece and Great Britain.

If a nation wishes to avoid being dominated by its neighbours, its best chance is to raise its standard of living and its level of technology. This can be done best by not allowing its population to grow to such a point that it is sunk in misery and poverty. In fact, the worst way in which a nation can try to avoid being dominated by its neighbour is to increase its population to the point of misery and poverty.

If every nation tries to compete with its neighbours by raising its population, then the whole world will be sunk in misery and poverty. The nations will become weak in a disaster that will leave nothing behind that is worth dominating. No one will have gained anything. Everyone will have lost everything.

Once all this is understood, and people generally agree that population growth must not be allowed to continue; they must also come to understand how that growth can be stopped. Population grows because more people are being born than are dying. There are two ways, then, in which the growth can be stopped. You can increase the number of people who die until it matches the number of people who are being born. Or else you can decrease the number of people who are born until it matches the number of people who are dying. The first method-increasing the death rate-is the usual way in which population is controlled in all species of living things other than ourselves, but we don't want that, for disaster lies that way. The intelligent way is to reduce the birth rate.

Report on Internet use of teenagers

6 . Directions: Read the following passage. Summarize the main idea and the main point(s)of the passage in no more than 60 words. Use your own words as far as possible.

Limitations of E-readers for Kids

A sizeable number of young kids will be getting e-readers this Christmas. Though some adults are avoiding them for their children even while they embrace (欣然接受) them for themselves, the appeal to parents is strong, especially when marketers pitch the devices as on-ramps to literacy.

What today’s gift-givers may not know is that the devices can unintentionally cause parents to hamper their child’s learning. This phenomenon first turned up a few years ago in research at Temple University on e-books for preschool and elementary school children. Instead of talking with their children about the content of the books, parents ended up saying time and again “do this, don’t do that” directives about how to use the devices. “Parents would put their hands over the kids’ hands,” said Julia Parish-Morris, the leader of the study at the University of Pennsylvania. “They were trying to control their children’s behavior to get them to move through the story in order of time,” she explained.

A more recent study, led by Gabrielle Strouse at Vanderbilt University, also shows how much it matters what parents say and do while their children watch. Strouse asked parents of 3-year-olds to watch scholastic books on video over several weeks, assigning the parents to “co-view” in different ways. She found that the children with mothers who merely pointed to something on screen or who didn’t talk at all showed fewer reading skills than those whose mothers were trained to ask questions about what might happen next and why. Strouse said it appeared that parents had to be trained on how to ask questions and prompt their children to talk about the video story, as it didn’t come naturally with the electronic version.

That conversational interaction, dubbed “dialogic reading” by Grover Whitehurst, director of education policy at the Brookings Institution, can be critical to learning. “The optimal situation is the back-and-forth interaction,” said Warren Buckleitner, an educational psychologist and editor of Children’s Technology Review, who led me to many YouTube videos of toddlers with their iPad-proud papas directing their every move. Several decades ago at Michigan State University, Buckleitner conducted studies on 3-to 5-year olds playing matching games on computers. His research showed that it’s not just commands from parents that can interfere with children’s engagement. Too many directives from software programs can have the same effect, ultimately shortchanging children’s learning. The best kids’ e-media, Buckleitner says, “lets children understand they are in the driver’s seat.” Which may be another limitation of e-readers for kids-sometimes it’s hard for parents to just hand over the keys when what they’re steering comes with electronic bells and whistles.

Taking a year off before college, commonly known as a gap year, is becoming more and more popular among American teenagers. According to a survey by the American Gap Association, enrollment (注册) in these programs grew 27 percent between 2012 and 2013. Some students use the year off to figure out what they want to do, travel the world, or save money for college.

Camden Olson, who graduated from Latin School of Chicago in the US last year, decided to spend a gap year raising a guide dog for Guiding Eyes for the Blind in Maine. Olson is using her time to pursue a passion she’s had since 7th grade. For years, she kept an eye on guide dog services until she came across the opportunity at Guiding Eyes. With support from her friends, family and teachers, Olson went for it.

Olson’s volunteer work centers around Derby, a 1-year-old black dog. “My job is to raise him to be well-mannered and socialized,” she said. “Guide dogs have to ignore any distractions (让人分心的事物). They go everywhere with their visually impaired handler. They give a blind person a lot of independence and emotional support, too.”

Of course, there’s an end in sight for Derby and Olson’s close bond. When Derby celebrates his own graduation, Olson will have to say goodbye to him.

“No doubt there will be tears, but, assuming he passes, I will be so happy for him to become a working dog,” she said.

While some look at gap years in a negative light, Olson said she’s seen major success. In fact, she’ll be attending Princeton University this fall and is thinking about majoring in ecology and biology.

“I think I’m already so much more mature than I was and aware of what really matters,” she said. “So many kids do come back from gap years a lot more focused and prepared.”