单选题
The world' s population continues to grow. There now
are about 4 billion of us on the earth.That could reach 6 billion by the end of
the century and 11 billion in another 75 years. Experts longhave been concerned
about such growth. Where will we find the food, water, jobs,
houses,schools and health care for all these people? A major
new study shows that the situation may he changing. A large and rapid drop in
theworld's birth rate has taken place during the past 10 years. Families
generally are smaller now thanthey were a few years ago. It is happening in both
developing and industrial nations. Researchers said they found
a number of reasons for this. More men and women are waitinglonger to get
married and are using birth control devices and methods to prevent or
delaypregnancy. More women are going to school or working at jobs away from
their homes instead ofhaving children. And more governments, especially in
developing nations, now support familyplanning programs to reduce
population growth. China is one of the nations that has made greatprogress in
reducing its population growth. China has already cut its rate
of population growth by about one half since 1970. China nowurges each family to
have no more than one child. And it hopes to reach zero population growth,the
number of births equaling the number of deaths, by the year 2000.
Several nations in Europe already have fewer births than deaths. Experts
said that thesenations could face a serious shortage of workers in the future.
And the persons who are workingcould face much higher taxes to help support the
growing number of retired people.
单选题
In the sentence "Experts long have been concerned about such growth" of
Paragraph 1,the phrase "concerned about" is similar in meaning to______
A. worried about
B. related to
C. engaged in
D. made a study of
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】[解析] A项worried about表示“担心”；B项related to表示“有联系”；C项elagagedin意思为“参与”；D项made a study of意思为“做调查”。因此A项为正确答案。
单选题
"Family planning programs" means______
A. birth control policy in a country
B. economic policy in a family
C. TV programs designed for a family
D. economic policy in a country
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】[解析] 从第3段最后一句可知，计划生育是减少人口增长的手段，A项正确。
单选题
The world' s birth rate has dropped because______
A. people marry at a much later time
B. more birth control devices and methods have been used
C. women would rather go to study or work than have children
D. all the above reasons are true
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】[解析] 本题问世界人口增长率降低的原因。从第3段可知D项为正确答案。
单选题
By the year 2000, the number of births and the number of deaths in
China will______