Questions are based on the following passage.
It has become fashionable to issue dire projections of declining prosperity based on demographic aging. But is that really such a problem?
There is no doubt that all countries of the world are getting older, but they are at very different stages of the process. The median age in the United States 一 with half the population older and half younger 一 is currently 36. In Ethiopia, it's 18, owing to a higher birthrate and a lower life expectancy. In other African countries, it's even lower. The worlds oldest country is Germany, where the median age is 45.
The pattern is very clear: The young countries are poor, and the old countries are rich. So why do people fear population aging? I see two reasons. The first is psychological: The analogy to individual aging suggests that as populations get older, they grow frail and lose mental acuity. The second comes from economists and an indicator called the dependency ratio, which assumes that every adult below age 65 contributes to society, and everybody above 65 is a burden. And the proportion of people older than 65 is bound to increase.
Yet we also know that the productivity of some individuals is much higher than that of others, independent of age. Nothing is inherently special about the age of 65. Many people live longer and do so mostly in good health. The saying “seventy is the new 60” has a sound scientific basis. Meanwhile, education has been shown to be a key determinant of better health, longer life and higher productivity (not to mention open-mindedness). The active aging of better-educated populations can be an asset rather than a problem.
To appreciate how projections based on the simplistic dependency ratio can be misleading， consider the two population billionaires， China and India. In 2050 China’s population will be older than Indian because of its more rapid fertility decline. But so what? China's population is much better educated and therefore much more productive. Furthermore, only a minority of Chinese will retire at age 65. We can expect most Chinese to make meaningful contributions through work as long as they are in good health， particularly if they find their jobs interesting and satisfying. Again, this is largely a question of education. In India today, one out of three adults has never seen a school from the inside. In China only 8 percent, mostly elderly, have no schooling. In India, 50 percent of young women have less than a junior secondary education; in China, the figure is only 15 percent. Knowing how important education is to economic performance， who would seriously claim that India’s future is brighter than China's owing to slower aging?
Population aging is not irrelevant, but it should be seen in conjunction with other dimensions of human capital, especially education and health. Here the prospects are good. In most countries of the world — with the notable exception of the United States — the young are clearly better educated than the old and may thus compensate for their smaller numbers through higher productivity.
Viewing the quality of human capital as resting on a collection of elements,-many of them manageable, is something that the private sector has been doing for a long time. Every sizable business pays attention to human resource management. For governments, the equivalent would be a form of national human resource management that considers education, migration, family, labor, health, and retirement as components that interact richly — and together drive the richness of the future.
What can we learn from Paragraph 2?
比较判断。本段第一句 “all countries of the world are getting older, but they are at very different stages of the process” 为主题句，段落其余部分以年龄中位数为依据举例说明了这一论点，美国为36 ,埃塞俄比亚为18 ,非洲一些国家更低，德国为45, 而年 龄中位数越大，该国人均寿命越长，因此选项B 正确。
[知识拓展] 题干类似段落大意概括，但选项问的是具体数据。本段的篇章结构为主题句+阐证，所以例证部分为数据比较，可在阅读中勾画数据方便比较。另：第二段第二行末的破折号引出对年龄中位数的解释，即使不懂统计学术语，median为生词，也 可以根据补充解释判断其意。
Paragraph 3 mainly discusses________.
段落大意。题干问的是大意，所以浏览（skimming)段落逻辑可得答案。第三段 第二行提出问题“So why do people fear population aging” ，然后马上分析答案“I see two reasons. The first is ... The second comes...， 属于归因推理。
[知识拓展] 段落大意、结构或逻辑的判断和总结需要扫描关键句和关键词。事物的内 部联系包括因果关系、层递关系、主次关系、总分关系、并列关系等；认识事物或事 理的过程则指由浅入深、由具体到抽象等等。这些逻辑顺序在写作中得到广泛应用， 逆向思维可帮助归纳段落乃至篇章逻辑。
The word “acuity” underlined in Paragraph 3 means________.
词义界定。原句为 “The first is psychological: The analogy to individual aging suggests that as populations get older, they grow frail and lose mental acuity”，语境预设的 大框架为心理因素，具体问题是人越老，身体越弱，越容易丧失思维。而一般认为随 着年龄的增大，思维会逐渐迟钝，即失去敏锐的思维，故选B。
[知识拓展] 词义的确立主要依赖语境的提示，只有通过分析、比较词与词之间的语义 关系才能确定一个词的确切涵义。即，词只能作为“整体中的一个部分”才能有自己 的 “词义”，或者说词只有在“语义场” 中才能呈现出“意义”。
What is the main idea of Paragraph 4?
段落大意。从语篇连贯角度看，本段是为了驳斥上一段人们的误解，其根据有两 条：生产力因人而异，与年龄无关；教育程度也决定人的健康、寿命及生产力。
[知识拓展] 段落大意一般是整段的意义。本题涉及的段落讲了两个问题，个体差异和 教育程度与生产力的关系，而选项只针对其中的一个关系。本题命题思路比较新奇, 可作为以后阅读的新思路。
In the sentence “seventy is the new 60” underlined in Paragraph 4, the author uses a metaphorical device termed________.
修辞手段。本句大意为“六十始自七十岁” ，即人到七十，又是一个新的开始， 就像回到六十岁一样年轻。换言之，将两个本质上不同的事物就其共同点进行比较， 帮助说明道理或描述某种复杂情况。这种比喻形式称为analogy (类比）。
The old countries are booming because the elderly people________.
归因推理。根据第三段第一行 “The young countries are poor, and the old countries are rich” 和第四段提到的“ 人的生产力因人而异，与年龄无关，受到良好教育 的老年人依旧老有所为”，以及最后一句结论“The active aging of better-educated populations can be an asset rather than a problem” 可知，老年人对社会来说是一种财富。
归因推理题需要捕捉作者的论证思路。难度较大的归因推理不会只局限一 段，往往需要从几个连续或不连续段落中跟踪作者的写作逻辑，这是比较高级的命题 思路，能检验出读者更高的阅读水平。
What is true of the following statements when China is compared with India?
比较判断。第五段对中国和印度做了比较，要点如下：到2050年中国老龄化比 印度严重；中国教育程度比印度高，人民生产力更高；中国只有少数人在65岁之后退 休；中国教育普及程度远高于印度。显然，选项C对应比较要点。
[知识拓展] 比较判断需要勾画比较关键词，然后逐一比较。另一个技巧是先略读选项 中需要比较的项目，然后在原文中进行定位和验证。
The author mentions China and India to ________.
细节识别。第五段第一句 “To appreciate how projections based on the simplistic dependency ratio can be misleading, consider the two population billionaires, China and India” 为主题句，本段其余部分用具体事实证明该论点，所以选项D符合主题句句意。
[知识拓展] 细节识别题需要由大到小缩小范围：准确定位原文，然后根据关键词捕捉具 体信息。如本句的dependency ratio与选项D 对应，而 how ... misleading与 refote对应， 据此做出正确判断。
What can we infer from the last paragraph?
语义推理。以infer为核心词的问题均涉及语义推理。本段的核心词为human capital，整段就私企的作为和政府应承担的责任予以了阐述。由于第一句明确表示“ Viewing the quality of human capital as resting on a collection of elements, many of them manageable” ，所以基本不需推理也可与选项C对应起来。
语义推理指依据词项之间的语义关系而进行的推理。其形式主要有三类： ( 1 ) 同义关系推理； （2 ) 下义关系推理； （3 ) 反义关系推理。一般命题思路为：题 干给出一些前提和条件，要求结合特定的语境，根据它们之间的语义关联，推知可以 得出的结论。语义推理不依靠严格的逻辑推理形式，而主要通过揭示前提和条件之间 的语义关联。这是逻辑判断题的最常见命题思路。
The author believes that________.
论点概括。文章第一段提出问题“But is that (aging) really such a problem”， 经过中间两段的论述，第四段最后一句得出结论“The active aging of better-educated populations can be an asset rather than a problem”，然后本文继续讨论如何善待并有效 利用人力资源，因此，选项B符合作者的论点。
[知识拓展] 作者对于所述问题的论点可由分论点概括而来，也可根据论述逻辑推理而 来。本文的论点属于后者。