2 . A baby born in India has been declared the world's seven billionth person by child rights group Plan International. Baby Nargis was born at 07:25 local time (01:55GMT) in Mall village in India's Uttar Pradesh state. Plan International says Nargis has been chosen symbolically as it is not possible to know where exactly the seven billionth baby is born. In addition to baby Nargis in India, Bangladesh, the Philippines and Cambodia have all identified seven billionth babies. The United Nations estimated that on Monday 31 October, the world's population would reach seven billion.

Populations are growing faster than economies in many poor countries in Africa and some in Asia. At the same time, low birth rates in Japan and many European nations have raised concerns about labor shortages.

Population experts at the United Nations estimated that the world reached six billion in October 1999. They predict nine billion by 2050 and ten billion by the end of the century. China's population of one and a third billion is currently the world's largest. India is second at 1.2 billion. But India is expected to pass China and reach one and a half billion people around 2025.

India will also have one of the world's youngest populations. Economists say this is a chance for a so-called demographic dividend. India could gain from the skills of young people in a growing economy at a time when other countries have aging populations. But economists say current rates of growth, although high, may not create enough jobs. Also, the public education system is failing to meet demand and schooling is often of poor quality. Another concern is health care. Nearly half of India's children under the age of five are malnourished.

Michal Rutkowski, the director of human development in South Asia at the World Bank, says reaching seven billion people in the world is a good time for a call to action. He says, "I think the bottom line of the story is that the public policy needs to become really, really serious about sex equality and about access to services -- to fight against malnutrition, and to provide for access to health services, water and schooling."

1. What is true about the world's seven billionth person?

A．Bangladesh, the Philippines and Cambodia have all declared Baby Nargis as the seven billionth baby.

B．Baby Nargis has been chosen carefully so it is exactly the seven billionth baby

C．Baby Nargis is not the only child chosen as the seven billionth baby.

D．The United Nations declared Baby Nargis born in India's Uttar Pradesh state as the world's seven billionth person.

2. Which of the following problems do many European countries worry about?

A．Schooling of poor quality.	B．Poor health care.
C．Not enough jobs.	D．Labor shortage.

3. According to population experts, how long will it take for population to grow from six billion to nine billion?

A．About 50 years.

B．About 40 years.

C．About 12 years.

D．About 110 years.

4. What does the underlined phrase “demographic dividend” in the fourth paragraph refer to?

A．Possibility of lower birth rate.	B．Disadvantages caused by aging population.
C．Chances for more employment.	D．Benefit gained by working age people

5. Which of the following public policies does Michal Rutkowski call on?

A．To improve health and education.	B．To reduce world’s population.
C．To gain economic equality.	D．To encourage late marriage.

3 . Why is the world’s population growing?     1    . The reason for the explosion is not that people have been reproducing like rabbits, but that people have stopped dropping dead like flies. In 1900, people died at the average age of 30. By 2000 the average age was 65. But while increasing health was a typical feature of the 20th century, declining birth rate could be a defining one of the twenty-first century.

Statistics show that the average number of births per woman has fallen from 4.9 in the early 1960s to 2.5 nowadays. Furthermore, around 50% of the world’s population live in regions where the figure is now below the replacement level (i.e. 2.1 births per woman) and almost all developed nations are experiencing sub-replacement birth rate.     2    , but you’d be wrong. Declining birth rate is a major problem in many developing regions too, which might cause catastrophic global shortages of work force within a few decades.

    3    What does it imply? First, China needs to undergo rapid economic development before a population decline hits the country. Second, if other factors such as technology remain constant, economic growth and material expectations will fall well below recent standards and this could invite trouble.

Russia is another country with population problems that could break its economic promise. Since 1992 the number of people dying has been bigger than that of those being born by a massive 50%. Indeed official figures suggest the country has shrunk by 5% since 1993 and people in Russia live a shorter life now than those in 1961.     4    Nobody is quite sure, but poor diet and above all long-time alcoholism have much to do with it. If current trends don’t bend, Russia’s population will be about the size of Yemen’s by the year 2050.

    5    As for the USA, it is almost unique among developed nations in having a population that is expected to grow by 20% from 2010—2030. Moreover, the USA has a track record of successfully accepting immigrants. As a result it’s likely to see a rise in the size of its working-age population and to witness strong economic growth over the longer term.

A．Why is this occurring?

B．How can the problem be solved?

C．The answer is not what you might think.

D．You might think that developing nations would make up the loss.

E．One solution obviously to import foreign workers via immigration.

F．A great decline in young work force is likely to occur in China for instance.

G．In 2030, a sixth of the country's potential work force could be totally uneducated.

4 . The survey about childhood in the Third World shows that the struggle for survival is long and hard. But in the rich world, children can ________ from a different kind of poverty — of the spirit. _________, one Western country alone now sees 14, 000 attempted suicides ( 自杀 ) every year by children under 15, and one child ______five needs psychiatric (心理上的) advice.

There are many good things about ________ in the Third World. Take the close and constant relation between children and their parents, relatives and neighbors for example. In the West, the very nature of work puts distance between _________ and children. But in most Third World villages mother and father do not go miles away each day to work in offices. __________, the child sees mother and father, relations and neighbors working __________and often shares in that work.

A child _________ in this way learns his or her role through joining in the community's _________: helping to dig or build, look after animals or babies -- rather than _________ playing with water and sand in kindergarten, keeping pets ________ playing with dolls.

These children may grow up with a less oppressive sense of space and time than the ________ children. Their sense of days and time has a lot to do with the change of seasons and positions of the sun or the moon in the sky. Children in the rich world, _________, are provided with a watch as one of the _______ signs of growing up, so that they can _________ along with their parents about being late for school times, meal times, bed times, the times of TV shows …

Third World children do not usually ________ to stay indoors, still less in high-rise apartments. Instead of dangerous roads, "keep off the grass" signs and "don't speak to strangers", there is often a sense of ________ to study and play. Parents can see their children outside rather than observe them ________ from ten floors up.

______ , twelve million children under five still die every year through hunger and disease. But childhood in the Third World is not all __________.

1.

A．come

B．suffer

C．learn

D．survive

2.

A．For instance

B．As usual

C．In fact

D．In other words

3.

A．in

B．by

C．to

D．under

4.

A．poverty

B．childhood

C．spirit

D．survival

5.

A．fathers

B．adults

C．neighbors

D．relatives

6.

A．Anyhow

B．However

C．Still

D．Instead

7.

A．away

B．nearby

C．along

D．alone

8.

A．working

B．living through

C．playing

D．growing up

9.

A．work

B．life

C．study

D．party

10.

A．at

B．through

C．in

D．with

11.

A．and

B．or

C．but

D．so

12.

A．Eastern

B．good

C．poor

D．Western

13.

A．at any moment

B．on the other hand

C．at the same time

D．on the whole

14.

A．easiest

B．quickest

C．happiest

D．earliest

15.

A．care

B．fear

C．hurry

D．worry

16.

A．dare

B．expect

C．have

D．require

17.

A．control

B．danger

C．disappointment

D．freedom

18.

A．anxiously

B．eagerly

C．impatiently

D．proudly

19.

A．Above all

B．Of course

C．In the end

D．What's more

20.

A．good

B．bad

C．rich

D．poor

5 . Figures published by the UK government in 2006 revealed that: 42% of marriages in the UK end in divorce: 24% of children grow up in single-parent families: the average number of children in a British family is 1.9.     1     Is it an endangered species?

With the average number of children in a British family falling beneath an average of 2.0, the population of the UK has been falling for quite a few years. The size of the British workforce is declining and the average age of the workforce is rising.     2    

Why aren’t the British having as many children as they used to?     3     One of them is that British people are now having their children at a much older age than previously, meaning they have fewer years in which they can have children.

    4     Well, houses are incredibly expensive in the UK, so many people are forced to stay with their parents early in their careers. And no one wants to start a new family when they are still living with their parents! So it’s not until people are about 30 years old that they can afford to move out, buy their own home, and then they can start to think about setting down and having children.

So what is Britain doing to try and save the British family?     5     There have been increases in Child Benefit money families can claim from the state. Also, there is an increasing amount of government subsidy (补贴) for nursery schools, so that parents do not need to pay so much for childcare. In addition. there are now laws allowing parents to take more time off work so that they can look after their children themselves rather than having to pay others to do it.

A．Well, there is a whole range of reasons.

B．So what is happening to the British family?

C．What about marriage and buying a home?

D．This trend is quite worrying for the British economy.

E．It’s a bad “work-life balance” and is damaging British society.

F．First of all, the government is trying to make it cheaper to have children.

G．The main reason is that it is relatively expensive to bring up a child in the UK.

6 . People are making more and more demands on the world’s natural resources. If babies born in 1991 live for eighty years, the human population of the world may be anything from twice to three times the present total by 2070. In other words, they will have to share what is left of the earth’s resources with 15 billion other people. But hopefully there will be a significant decrease in the growth of population. What if this does not happen? The answer is that by the time before the babies born in 1991 reach the age of 40 they could be sharing resources with as many as 10 billion other people.

Limiting the pollution of water and the atmosphere, controlling the output of the chemicals that may be causing the global warming and climate change, and eating less meat may go some way to help, but can anyone seriously imagine that these are going to solve the problems of the“baby class”of 1991?

There is no getting away from the fact that people are responsible for the present state of the world, and only people can solve the problems. The decisions have to be taken by people as members of national and local governments, as leaders and decision-makers in industry; as scientists and technologists; as professional engineers and designers; as religious leaders and individual citizens.

1. Which of the following can be the best title of the passage?

A．Making More Demands on the Natural Resources.

B．Limiting the Pollution of Air and Water

C．Reducing the World Population

D．Saving the Babies of 1991

2. What is meant by“the problems of the ‘baby class’of 1991”?

A．A large number of babies will be born after 1991.

B．Babies born in 1991 won’t live a long life.

C．The children of 1991 are not given good education.

D．The problems caused by babies born in 1991.

3. This short passage is probably taken from

A．a news report

B．a science fiction

C．an article by a medical worker

D．a government report

4. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the last paragraph as people responsible for the present state of the world?

A．Officials.	B．Industrialists.
C．Businessmen.	D．Scientists.

7 . 阅读下面短文，根据其内容写一篇60词左右的内容概要。

Why is the world’s population growing？The answer is not what you might think.The reason for the explosion is not that people have been reproducing like rabbits，but that people have stopped dropping dead like flies.In 1900，people died at the average age of 30.By 2000 the average age was 65.But while increasing health was a typical feature of the 20th century，declining birth rate could be a defining one of the 21st.

Statistics show that the average number of births per woman has fallen from 4.9 in the early 1960s to 2.5 nowadays.Furthermore，around 50% of the world’s population live in regions where the figure is now below the replacement level (i.e.2.1 births per woman) and almost all developed nations are experiencing sub-replacement birth rate.You might think that developing nations would make up the loss (especially since 80% of the world’s people now live in such nations)，but you’d be wrong.Declining birth rate is a major problem in many developing regions too，which might cause catastrophic global shortages of work force within a few decades.

A great decline in young work force is likely to occur in China，for instance.What does it imply？First，China needs to undergo rapid economic development before a population decline hits the country.Second，if other factors such as technology remain constant，economic growth and material expectations will fall well below recent standards and this could invite trouble.

Russia is another country with population problems that could break its economic promise.Since 1992 the number of people dying has been bigger than that of those being born by a massive 50%.Indeed official figures suggest the country has shrunk by 5% since 1993 and people in Russia live a shorter life now than those in 1961.Why is this occurring？Nobody is quite sure，but poor diet and above all long-time alcoholism have much to do with it.If current trends don’t bend，Russia’s population will be about the size of Yemen’s by the year 2050.

In the north of India，the population is booming due to high birth rates，but in the south，where most economic development is taking place，birth rate is falling rapidly.In a further twist，birth rate is highest in poorly educated rural areas and lowest in highly educated urban areas.In total,25% of India’s working-age population has no education.In 2030，a sixth of the country’s potential work force could be totally uneducated.

One solution is obviously to import foreign workers via immigration.As for the USA，it is almost unique among developed nations in having a population that is expected to grow by 20% from 2010—2030.Moreover，the USA has a track record of successfully accepting immigrants.As a result it’s likely to see a rise in the size of its working-age population and to witness strong economic growth over the longer term.

8 . A research by the National Center for Health Statistics is seen as an important confirmation of the “Hispanic mortality paradox (西班牙裔死亡率悖论).”

On average, Hispanics outlive whites by 2.5 years and blacks by 7.7 years. Their life expectancy at birth in 2006 was 80.6 years, compared with 78.1 for whites, 72.9 for blacks and 77.7 years for the total population.

The report shows that the Hispanic population has higher life expectancy at birth and at almost every age despite a socioeconomic status lower than that of whites. “Mortality is very correlated with income, education and health care access,” says Elizabeth Arias, author of the report. “You would expect the Hispanic population would have higher mortality, in line with the black population.”

The Hispanic paradox has been documented for more than two decades, but this is the first time the government has had enough data to issue national numbers. Researchers are struggling to explain why Hispanics live longer.

“We don’t know,” says David Hayes-Bautista, director of the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine. “We thought it was a problem in the data, but we can pretty much say this is real.”

Potential factors:

·Culture and lifestyle. Support from extended family and lower rates of smoking and drinking. Latino groups in particular have very strong family and social ties.

·Migration. The “healthy migrant effect” argues that healthy people are more likely to emigrate. And when immigrants become ill, they might return home and die there.

“Solving the puzzle may help the nation deal with health care issues because Hispanics use health services less—they make fewer doctors visits and spend less time in hospitals,” Hayes Bautista says. “It’s clearly something in the Latino culture,” he says.

1. In 2006, Hispanics’ life expectancy is years longer than the average of the total population.

A．2. 5

B．7. 7

C．2. 9

D．80. 6

2. What does the underlined word “outlive” in the second paragraph probably mean?

A．To live longer than.

B．To live shorter than.

C．To die out.

D．To expect to live.

3. What is the main idea of paragraph three?

A．Hispanics were born better than whites.

B．Morality is closely related with health care access.

C．Whites should have longer life expectancy.

D．Even experts can’t explain the phenomenon.

9 . People have always been defined by their generation. We had the baby boomers of the 1960s, followed by Generation X and then Generation Y, often referred to as millennials, and the new kids on the block are Generation Z - aged between 16 and 22. It's easy to classify these young people as all being the same, sharing the same attitudes towards life—but is that fair?

People from Generation Z, informally called "Z-ers", may be viewed by others as digital natives, incapable of real-world friendships. But they actually view themselves as hardworking, ambitious and about to change the world for the better. The previous generation, born between the mid-1980s and late 1990s - the millennials were also thought to have these characteristics. But many people view this new generation as “mini-millennials" because Z-ers are different and they have their own set of values and preferences which consumer brands need to cater for.

It's true to say that technology is playing an important part in the lives of Generation Z, particularly in the area of social media. In fact, they have not known life without it and using it to communicate, share ideas and campaign is second nature. It means they have more of a say on what we eat, drink and buy than any generation before them. These young people certainly need to be listened to by retailers （零售商） and businesses - they are the people with time on their hands and money.

But being a Z-er comes with pressure. One young person says "Many people in Generation Z have mental health issues because they're unsure what the future will bring." The future always brings uncertainties but maybe there is pressure for this generation to be the most successful ever.

1. When was a Z-er likely to be born?

A．In 1964.	B．In 1975.
C．In 1987.	D．In 1999.

2. What do Z-ers see themselves as?

A．Diligent and ambitious.	B．Hardworking and incapable.
C．Promising and different.	D．Stressed and successful.

3. What're Paragraphs 2&3 trying to argue?

A．Z-ers have known life without social media.

B．Z-ers pay too much attention to digital devices.

C．Z-ers and the millennials have the same personality.

D．Z-ers become a key driving force in the consumer market.

4. What docs the author think is the real cause of the Z-ers' pressure?

A．Their ambition to be the best.

B．Their uncertainty of the future.

C．Their addiction to digital devices.

D．Their lack of real-world friendship.

10 . Agriculture plays an essential role in the rise of the human civilization. Even though agriculture is contributing to employment of a significant part of the population in majority nations, over the years, the percentage of workers has witnessed a steep decline. According to world-wide estimations, not even five percentage of the population in rich nations is employed in the agricultural sector.

Agriculture is still the backbone of the economy in several nations of Africa. According to data released by the World Bank in 2017, the top ten countries where agriculture plays a vital role in employment are in Africa. Burundi, the landlocked nation on the eastern side of the continent, has 91% of its population dependent on it. However, only 15% of the total agricultural production goes to the market. Sweet potatoes, beans, bananas and corn, are some major crops produced on the land.

The second largest employment in agriculture was also registered in an African country； Chad with 87% population working on the field. Other nations which follow on the list are： Somalia, Central African Republic, Malawi, Eritrea, Guinea-Bissau, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Niger, Mauritania, Madagascar and Mozambique. Amid the developing countries of BRICS, it is India where more people are employed by agriculture. The agriculture in India can be traced back to the era of Indus Valley Civilization. By 2017, 43 % of the Indian population is dependent on the agriculture sector for employment.

Meanwhile, many developed countries witness less than 15 percent of their population engaged in the agriculture sector. These nations include Greece, Malaysia, Russia, New Zealand, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Australia, France, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and many others. At the bottom of the list stand United Arab Emirates , Singapore and Hong Kong, with 0 % of its people employed in agriculture.

1. What does the writer want to highlight in the first paragraph?

A．Agriculture is the foundation of civilization.

B．Agriculture is the main sector of employment.

C．Agriculture is the backbone of the economy.

D．The agricultural population is in sharp decline.

2. Most part of the agricultural produce in Burundi ________.

A．is for family use	B．goes to the market
C．is used for export	D．goes to the government

3. Where does Central African Republic rank in employment in agriculture in the world?

A．Second.	B．Third.
C．Fourth.	D．Fifth.

4. We can infer from the text that the larger population in agriculture ________.

A．the more developed the country	B．the less developed the economy
C．the more advanced the civilization	D．the longer the history of a country