1 . South Korea’s birth rate, already the world’s lowest, has dropped yet again in the latest setback to the country’s efforts to boost its declining population.

The national statistics body reported Wednesday that the birth rate fell to 0.72 in 2023—down from 0.78 the previous year. Countries need a birth rate of 2.1 to maintain a stable (稳定的) population, in the absence of immigration. South Korea’s birth rate has been falling since 2015 and the country recorded more deaths than births for the first time in 2020, a trend that has continued since. In 2022, the country recorded about 249, 000 births and 372,800 deaths. Meanwhile, Korean women are also having children later in life. The average age of childbirth in South Korea was 33.5 last year.

Similar population declines are being seen in several other Asian countries including Japan and China, raising concern that there will be too few people of working age to support the ballooning elderly population.

Experts say the reasons for these population shifts across the region include demanding work cultures, stagnating wages, rising costs of living, changing attitudes toward marriage and gender equality, and rising disappointment among younger generations.

But despite the economic factors at play, throwing money at the problem has proved ineffective. Last September, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol admitted that more than $200 billion has been spent trying to boost the population over the past 16 years. The South Korean government has introduced various initiatives such as extending paid paternity leave, offering monetary “baby vouchers” to new parents, and social campaigns encouraging men to contribute to childcare and housework. But experts and residents say more support is needed throughout a child’s life, as well as change on several deep-rooted social issues.

1. What do the data imply in Paragraph 2?

A．South Korea has a stable population.

B．The birth rate differs among countries.

C．The ideal birth rate is possible to reach.

D．South Korea’s birth rate declines seriously.

2. What does the word “ballooning” in paragraph 3 mean?

A．Increasing rapidly.	B．Staying unstable.
C．Decreasing slowly.	D．Remaining the same.

3. What measures may be taken by South Korea government in the future?

A．Solve various social issues.

B．Extend paid paternity leave.

C．Focus on a child’s life continuously.

D．Encourage men to take care of children.

4. What is the best title of the text?

A．Population crisis is worth public attention.

B．South Korea’s birth rate has become an emergency.

C．Efforts to increase population has paid off in South Korea.

D．Social problems result in population crisis in South Korea.

2 . South Korean government has tried everything to persuade women to have babies. Among their initiatives: sponsored housing for new couples, discounted after-childbirth care for new mothers, even a “baby payment” for each new born. Corporate South Korea is also getting in action, trying to delay a population crisis that could see the country’s workforce halve within 50 years.

“We will continue to do what we can as a company to solve the low-birth issue,” Lee Joong-keun, the chairman of Booyoung Group, a Seoul-based construction company, said this month after awarding a total $5.25 million to his employees for babies born since 2021. Other companies are offering payments, too. This development has come about as South Korea’s fertility rate (生育率) — the average number of children a woman has over her lifetime — has decreased to 0.78 in 2022. That means the population is aging rapidly. “The main reasons behind the falling birthrate are the financial burdens of child care and challenges of balancing work and family,” Lee said.

South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol praised companies that came up with “tax benefits and other various support measures to boost child birth,” according to his spokes-woman. Despite aggressive efforts, South Korea’s fertility rate is on course to sink further to 0.65 by 2025. This is largely because of the stress put on women, who face fierce workplace discrimination if they want to pursue a career while having children, experts say. South Kore a ranked 105th out of 146 countries in gender equality last year, according to the Global Gender Gap Report.

Whether financial bonus can have a positive impact on fertility remains an unanswered question. “Cash payouts are not affordable nor sustainable options for many companies,” said Yoon In-jin, a sociology professor at Korea University. “More importantly, South Korea’s male-dominated corporate culture has to fundamentally change in favor of working women,” he said. “Korean women will start having more babies if they don’t have to sacrifice their career for it.” Nearly 50% South Korean companies punished workers using parental leave, especially on promotions, according to Labor Ministry statistics.

1. What population problem is South Korea very likely to face in the future?

A．Its fertility rate will continuously decline.	B．Its population will halve within 50 years.
C．There will only be the aged very soon.	D．New-born babies will make up 65% by 2025.

2. What is the author’s attitude towards the current money-awarding measure?

A．Supportive.

B．Critical.

C．Far-sighted.

D．Uncertain.

3. What does academic Yoon In-jin support to do in boosting fertility rate?

A．Provide equal career security to women as men are enjoying.

B．Improve South Korea’s global rank in gender equality.

C．Remove women’s financial burdens and home-work balancing challenges.

D．Offer couples with new born babies more tax benefits and other supports.

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

A．The reasons why South Korean women are not having babies.

B．The policies South Kare a government applies to persuade women to have babies.

C．The measures corporate South Korea takes to promote birthrate.

D．The severe discrimination South Korean women are facing.

3 . In a policy address to lawmakers, Japan’s Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, said the country’s population problem was a case of solving the issue “now or never”, and that it “simply cannot wait any longer because it can affect social functions”.

“In thinking of the sustainability and inclusiveness of our nation’s economy and society, we place child care support as our most important policy,” he said, adding that he wants the government to double its spending on child-related programs, and that a new government agency would be set up in April to focus on the issue.

Japan has one of the lowest birth rates in the world, and it recorded fewer than 800,000 births in 2022 for the first time since records began in 1899. The country also has one of the highest life expectancies in the world; in 2020, nearly one in 1,500 people in Japan were age 100 or older, according to government data.

These trends have driven a growing population problem, with a rapidly aging society, a shrinking workforce and not enough young people to fill the gaps in the stagnating (停滞) economy. The country’s high cost of living, limited space and lack of child care support in cities make it difficult to raise children, meaning fewer couples are having kids. Experts point to the pessimism young people in Japan hold towards the future, many frustrated with work pressure and economic stagnation.

How about other parts of East Asia? South Korea recently broke its own record for the world’s lowest birth rate, with data from November 2023 showing a South Korean woman will have an average of 0.79 children in her lifetime — far below the 2.1 needed to maintain a stable population. Japan’s birth rate stands at 1.3, while the United States is at 1.6. Meanwhile, China’s population shrank in 2022 for the first time, adding pressure to its economic growth.

1. How does the Japanese government feel about the falling birth rate?

A．Surprised.

B．Confused.

C．Embarrassed.

D．Worried.

2. Which of the following has led the birth rate in Japan to decline?

A．The rapidly aging society.	B．The high life expectancies.
C．The shortage of workforce.	D．The various stresses of life.

3. What are the statistics in the last paragraph used to show?

A．Ignorance of the birth rate.	B．Serious population crisis.
C．Weak care services for children.	D．Potential harm to women’s health.

4. In which section of a newspaper may this text appear?

A．Society.

B．Health.

C．Education.

D．Science.

4 . 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.

5 . In 2050, one in four people will be over 60 in the Asia-Pacific region. Are countries there prepared to fully address the needs of older persons so that they age with dignity?

In the past, senior citizens might have been supported by their families and communities. Yet times are changing.

    1     Meanwhile, more and more governments are wrestling with increasing healthcare costs and a decreasing workforce.

More than ever, there is an urgent need for policy reform in addressing population aging. This must be driven by a shift in mindset to turn the challenges into a demographic opportunity.

    2     More and more people are living longer due to the advancements in health, nutrition, economic and social well-being.     3     This is due to a variety of reasons such as challenges in striking a work-life balance to not being able to afford having more children. However, low fertility and longer life expectancy are not the problem. The real problem is not being ready to face this rapidly changing demographic shift.

It is noteworthy that, in the Asia-Pacific, with more than half of the older population being women, it is crucial to adopt a life-cycle approach to population aging, grounded in gender equality and human rights. Investing in each stage of life determines the path of a woman’s life course. When a girl has access to quality education, it helps her make informed decisions about life-changing matters.     4    

While there is no single comprehensive policy that can address population aging, we need to take action now.     5     In so doing, countries in the Asia-Pacific region can hope for, and achieve, a better future for all, where no one is left behind.

A．Couples are having fewer babies.

B．Pensions are increasing, pressuring governments further.

C．We must rethink population aging, celebrating it as the victory of development.

D．Migration and urbanization have shifted traditional support systems for the elderly.

E．The decisions she makes paves the way towards a healthier and wealthier silver age.

F．We must invest in better policies that focus on the needs of people at every age of their life.

G．Life-long gender discrimination leaves women even more disadvantaged in an aging society.

6 . On November 15 in 2022, the United Nations (UN) reported that the number of people on Earth had grown to eight billion (8,000,000,000). That came just 11 years after the world reached seven billion people. The world faces challenges ahead as the population continues to grow.

The world’s population – the number of people on the planet – has grown rapidly over the last 200 years. In 1805, for the first time ever, the Earth had a billion people on it. It took over 100 years for that number to double to two billion. In less than 50 years, it had doubled again to four billion. Now, again in less than 50 years, the number has doubled once more to eight billion.

How fast local populations are growing depends a lot on where you are in the world. Typically, as countries become richer, their population growth slows. In some countries, like Japan, the number of people is actually shrinking. The greatest population growth these days is found in Asia and Africa.

Currently, China, with a population of 1.4 billion, is the country with the most people. That’s expected to change in the next year, when experts say India will pass China as the country with the world’s largest population. Other countries where rapid growth is expected through 2050 are the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Tanzania.

1. When did the world’s population reach 7 billion?

A．In 2022.

B．In 2011.

C．In 1905.

D．In 1805.

2. Which statement agrees with the UN’s report?

A．Japan’s population is increasing sharply.

B．Pakistan’s population keeps dropping slowly.

C．A country’s population completely relies on its richness.

D．The world’s population is growing more rapidly since 1950.

3. Which country will probably have the largest population in 2023?

A．China.

B．Nigeria.

C．India.

D．Egypt.

7 . The world’s population reached five billion on the day I was born. That was in Indonesia back in 1987, and my parents was shocked that there were so many people on the planet.     1     In October 2011, the seven billionth baby was born, and experts predict that there will be ten billion of us before the end of this century.

    2     If you said “hello to a different person every second, it would take you 222 years to greet everyone on the planet. If seven billion people made a human chain with their hands, the chain would go to the moon and back nine times.

The human population has never been bigger, but in some ways the planet seems to begetting unbelievably smaller. In the past, travellers from Europe to Indonesia spent months at sea. Now you just have to sit on a plane for a few hours. When you arrived in another country a hundred years ago, you saw unfamiliar styles of clothing and buildings and discovered a completely different culture. In many places today, clothing and new buildings are very similar, and people enjoy the same things.     3    

Even the languages that we use are becoming more global. There are around seven thousand languages in use today.     4     I grew up in a small village where everyone spoke Baras, one of Indonesia’s local languages. Today, like most of the youth from my village, I live in the capital, Jakarta, and speak Indonesian there. The only regular Baras speakers at present are the older people who have stayed in the country, so the language is threatened with extinction.

A．But the number is decreasing fast.

B．Although we are on different continents, we are starting to live the same lives.

C．The planet might be a lot more peaceful if that were the case.

D．However, since then the population has continued to increase at an alarming rate.

E．A number as big as seven billion is hard to imagine.

F．With only one language left, there will be no culture difference in the world.

8 . New research shows that the cost of raising a child in China is nearly seven times its GDP per capita (头数), far more than in the United States and Japan.

GDP, or gross domestic product, is the measure of the total value of goods and services in a country. GDP per capita is a measure resulting from GDP divided by the size of a nation’s total population.

The high cost of child-raising is one more difficulty Chinese policymakers face as they try to deal with quickly decreasing birth rates.

Experts warn China’s aging population will put pressure on its health and social security systems. A decrease in workers could also severely limit growth for the world’s second largest economy in the coming years.

New policies permit families to have as many as three children But China’s birth rate dropped to 7.52 births per 1,000 people in 2021. That is the lowest since the National Bureau of Statistics began recording the information in 1949.

The high costs of raising a child have caused officials in China to place restrictions (限制规定) on the private tutoring industry. Some areas have been giving couples money for having a second or third child.

The average cost of raising a child to the age of 18 in China in 2019 was 485,000 yuan for a first child. That is 6.9 times China’s GDP per capita that year. That information comes from a recent report from the YuWa Population Research Institute in Beijing.

China ranks second highest among the 13 countries included in the study. The country is behind only South Korea, which has the lowest birth rate in the world. The United States number, based on 2015 data, is at 4.11 times GDP per capita. Japan stands at 4.26, based on data from 2010.

Child raising costs are even higher in China’s major cities, reaching more than 1 million yuan in Shanghai and 969,000 yuan in Beijing. Birth rates in the two cities are even lower than the national average.

YuWa warned the decreasing birth rate would “profoundly (深刻地) affect” China’s economic growth potential, its ability to create and its welfare (福利) problems.

The study found that China would need to spend at least 5 percent of its yearly GDP to provide reasons for couples to have more children. That would include education funding (基金), special housing loan (贷款) rates and tax breaks. Other considerations include equal time for mothers and fathers to be away from their jobs and the building of more childcare centers.

1. Why do officials in China place restrictions on the private tutoring industry?

A．Because of the high cost of childcare.

B．Because there are too many extra-curricular tutoring classes.

C．Because the tutoring industry does not help students improve their grades.

D．Because many families want to give their children more leisure time.

2. What can we know from the passage?

A．China has the lowest birth rate in the world.

B．The cost of childcare in Beijing is higher than that in Shanghai.

C．The reduction of workers won’t limit China’s growth in the future.

D．The birth rate in 2021 has been the lowest since 1949.

3. What is the GDP per capita in 2019?

A．About 3,346,500 yuan.	B．Around 70,300 yuan.
C．Less than 50,300 yuan.	D．More than 80,000 yuan.

4. What is the last paragraph mainly about?

A．The measures that can reduce education costs.

B．The conclusion of the research by YuWa Population Research Institute.

C．The ways to increase the birth rate.

D．The impact of the decline of the birth rates.

9 . According to the recent (最近的) report, five of the ten most populous (人口众多的) countries are in Asia, three in the Americas, and one each in Europe and Africa. With over 1.4 billion people, China has the largest population in the world. India comes in second with 1.355 billion, and the United States comes in third with around 328 million. Indonesia comes in fourth and Pakistan comes in fifth of the world’s most populous countries.

However, China is facing a serious aging population problem now. To solve the problem, China began relaxing its family planning policy (生育政策) in 2012. It said that if either one of the couples was the only child of their parents, they could have two children in 2013. And in 2016, China further relaxed the two-child policy (二胎政策) to all couples. In 2021, China allowed all couples to have three children.

However, a good family planning policy alone is not enough. The government should find ways to lower the cost of raising children and improve the elderly care services. Also, a friendly social and cultural environment should be provided for couples who want to have three children.

1. Half of the ten most populous countries are in         .

A．The Americas

B．Asia

C．Africa

2. Which countries have a population of over 1 billion?

A．China and the US.

B．Indonesia and China.

C．India and China.

3. When did China relax the two-child policy to all couples?

A．In 2012.

B．In 2013.

C．In 2016.

4. What does the second paragraph mainly talk about?

A．The changes of China’s family planning policy.

B．The influence of China’s family planning policy.

C．The problem of China’s family planning policy.

5. To solve China’s population problem, the government         .

A．need more people’s help

B．need to do more work

C．should take care of elderly people

10 . New York, 11 July — The global population is projected to reach 8 billion on 15 November 2022, and India is projected to surpass China as the world’s most populous country in 2023, according to World Population Prospects 2022, released on World Population Day.

“This year’s World Population Day falls during a milestone year, when we expect the birth of the Earth’s eight billionth inhabitant. This is an occasion to celebrate our diversity, recognize our common humanity, and get amazed at advancements in health that have extended lifespans and dramatically reduced maternal and child mortality rates (孕妇及儿童死亡率),” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. At the same time, it is a reminder of our shared responsibility to care for our planet and a moment to reflect on where we still fall short of our commitments to one another,” he added.

World Population Prospects 2022 states that fertility (生育能力) has fallen markedly in recent decades for many countries. Today, two-thirds of the global population lives in a country or area where lifetime fertility is below 2.1 births per woman, roughly the level required for zero growth in the long run for a population with low mortality. The populations of 61 countries or areas are projected to decrease by 1 percent or more between 2022 and 2050, due to sustained low levels of fertility and, in some cases, increasing rates of emigration.

“The relationship between population growth and sustainable development is complex and multidimensional,” said Liu Zhenmin, UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs. “Rapid population growth makes removing poverty, combating hunger and malnutrition (营养不良), and increasing the coverage of health and education systems more difficult. On the contrary, achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, especially those related to health, education and gender equality, will contribute to reducing fertility levels and slowing global population growth.”

1. The underlined word “surpass” can be replaced by ______.

A．overtake

B．overlook

C．overcome

D．overwhelm

2. What can we learn from this passage?

A．The concern for global problems is a shared responsibility.

B．The only factor that affects those 61 countries’ populations is fertility.

C．The fertility has been decreasing in recent decades around the world.

D．The annual World Population Day is a milestone for global inhabitants.

3. How can we describe the relationship between population growth and sustainable development?

A．Critical and direct.	B．Difficult and apparent.
C．Urgent and ambiguous.	D．Significant and complicated.

4. What’s the passage mainly about?

A．The sharp decline of fertility.

B．The current world population situation.

C．The ways to achieve sustainable development goals.

D．The celebration of the birth of the Earth’s eight billionth inhabitant.