1 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. absence	B. double	C. extended	D. functions	E. fund	F. outpaced
G. prospects	H. record	I. shifted	J. steady	K. upward

Japan births fall to record low as population crisis deepens

Japan saw 799,728 births in 2022, the lowest number on record. That number has nearly halved in the past 40 years; by contrast, Japan recorded more than 1.5 million births in 1982. Japan also reported a (n)    1    high for post-war deaths last year, at more than 1.58 million. Deaths have    2    births in Japan for more than a decade, posing a growing problem for leaders of the world’s third-largest economy. They now face a ballooning elderly population, along with a shrinking workforce to    3    pensions and health care as demand from the aging population increased.

Japan’ population has been in    4    decline since its economic boom of the 1980s and stood at 125.5 million in 2021. Its death rate of 1.3 is far below the rate of 2.1 required to maintain a stable population, in the    5    of immigration.

The country also has one of the highest life expectancies in the world ; in 2020, nearly one in 1,500 people in Japan were aged 100 or older. These concerning trends resulted in a warning from Prime minister that Japan is “on the edge of not being able to maintain social    6    ” and Japan “simply cannot wait any longer” in solving the problem of its low birth rate. A new government agency will be set up to focus on the issue, with Prime Minister saying that he wants the government to     7     its spending on child-related programs.

But money alone might not be able to solve the complex problem, with various social factors contributing to the low birth rate. Japan’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. Urban couples are also often far from     8    family in other regions, who could help provide support. In 2022, Japan was ranked one of the world’s most expensive places to raise a child. And yet, the country’s economy has slowed down since the early 1990s, meaning frustratingly low ages and little    9    mobility.

The average real annual household income declined from $50,600 in 1995 to $43, 300 in 2020. Attitude toward marriage and starting families have also     10     in recent years, with more couples putting off both during the pandemic.

2 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. double          B. intense          C. pressures       D. stock          E. agriculture       F. trapped G. withdrawal     H. availability   I. drive             J. expanding     K. rising

Throughout history, people have fought bitter wars over political ideology, national sovereignty and religious expression. How much more     1     will these conflicts be when people fight over the Earth’s most indispensable resource water? We may find out in the not-too-distant future if projections about the     2     of water in the Middle East and other regions prove correct.

Less than three percent of the planet’s     3     is fresh water, and almost two-thirds of this amount is     4     in ice caps, glaciers, and underground aquifers too deep or too remote to access. In her book, Pillars of Sand-Can the Irrigation Miracle Last, Sandra Postel outlines three forces that     5     tension and conflict over freshwater. Using up the water “resource pie”. In India, the world’s second-most populous nation, with over 1 billion inhabitants, the rate of groundwater     6     is twice that of recharge, a deficit higher than in any other country. Although water is a renewable resource, it is not a(n)     7     one. The freshwater available today for more than 6 billion people is no greater than it was 2,000 years ago, when global population was approximately 200 million. (The current U.S. population is 287 million.)

Global     8     accounts for about 70% of all freshwater use. In five of the world’s most water-stressed, controversial areas the Aral Sea region, the Ganges, the Jordan, the Nileland and Tigris-Euphrates population increases of up to 75% are projected by 2025. With the fastest rate of growth in the world, the population of Palestinian territory will more than     9     over the next generation. Most experts agree that, because of geography, population     10     and politics, water wars are most likely to break out in the Middle East, a region where the amount of available freshwater per capita will decrease by about 50% over the next generation.