1 . Falling birth rates are a major concern for some of Asia’s biggest economies. Government s in the region are spending hundreds of billions of dollars trying to reverse the trend. Will it work?

Japan began introducing policies to encourage couples to have more children in the 1990s. South Korea started doing the same in the 2000s, while Singapore’s first fertility (生育) policy dates back to 1987. China, which has seen its population fall for the first time in 60 years, recently joined the growing club.

While it is difficult to quantify exactly how much these policies have cost, South Korean President YoonSuk-yeol recently said his country had spent more than $200bn (£160bn) over the past 16 years on trying to boost the population. Yet last year South Korea broke its own record for the world’s lowest fertility rate, with the average number of babies expected per woman falling to 0.78. In neighbouring Japan, which had record low births of fewer than 800,000 last year, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has promised to double the budget for child-related policies from 10tn yen ($74.7bn; £59.2bn).

Having a bigger population who can work and produce more goods and services leads to higher economic growth. And while a larger population can mean higher costs for governments, it can also result in bigger tax revenues (税收). Also, many Asian countries are ageing rapidly. Japan leads the pack with nearly 30% of its population now over the age of 65 and some other nations in the region are not far behind. Compare that with India, which has just overtaken China as the world’s most populous nation. More than a quarter of its people are between the age of 10 and 20, which gives its economy huge potential for growth. And when the share of the working age population gets smaller, the cost and burden of looking after the non-working population grow. “Negative population growth has an impact on the economy, and together with an ageing population, they won’t be able to afford to support the elderly,” said Xiujian Peng of Victoria University.

1. Which Asian country first took measures to increase population in this passage?

A．Japan.

B．South Korea.

C．Singapore.

D．China.

2. What can we learn about the population of Asian countries from the passage?

A．Japan hit the lowest record of new-born babies last year.

B．India has the largest and youngest population in the world.

C．China’s population has been decreasing in the recent 60 years.

D．South Korea had the lowest population record last year in the world.

3. What can we infer from paragraph 4?

A．The economy of India will overtake that of Japan.

B．Negative population growth leads to an ageing population.

C．The larger the population is, the better the economy will be.

D．A bigger share of working age population helps support the elderly.

4. What’s the main idea of this passage?

A．Low birth rate is a negative factor for economy.

B．China is joining the countries of low birth rate.

C．Many Asian countries came to negative population growth.

D．Many Asian countries are trying all out to battle low birth rate.