Passage one: Questions are based on the following passage.
With a population of 320,000—just one tenth that of the Beijing district where it keeps its embassy to China—Iceland has recently become an object of inordinate interest to Chinese policymakers. The two nations signed a free-trade agreement on April 15th, China's first with any European nation. But with the inherently tiny potential of Iceland's market, and the lack of any roundabout low-tariff access to other European markets through this deal, trade alone cannot account for China's infatuation with Iceland.
The more likely attraction for China is access to improving shipping routes through the Arctic as that region warms due to climate change. Last month, one of China's top experts on polar policy predicted that, by 2020, as much as 15% of his country's trade would move through the Arctic's Northern Sea Route. Even if that estimate is exaggerated, there is no reason to doubt that continued shrinking of Arctic ice cover will enhance the area's importance.
Like South Korea and ?apan, China hopes next month to be approved for permanent observer status on the Arctic Council, an eight-member intergovernmental body that seeks to co- ordinate policy for the area. But odd-looking effort by a Chinese developer to build an “eco-golf course” and luxury resort on a 300 square km tract in Iceland’s desolate north-east comer also aroused suspicions about China’s strategic intentions in the region. The logic behind the proposal to create a haven of solitude and clean air for wealthy Chinese visitors failed to convince Icelandic officials, who did not agree to waive restrictions against foreign ownership of land.
The new trade agreement, signed during a five-day visit to China by Iceland’s prime minister, ?ohanna Sigurdardottir, will result in the waiver in coming years of most tariffs in the two countries’ bilateral trade, which last year rose to $424m, by Iceland’s reckoning.
But for China, the ability to import more Icelandic fish with lower tariff duties would seem to pale in comparison to the importance of enhancing its influence in the region.
According to Anne-Marie Brady, an expert at New Zealand’s University of Canterbury, current arrangements leave China shut out of multilateral decision-making about the changing Arctic environment. The desire to have a greater say, and assert its legitimate interests in the region, she recently wrote, is behind a curious new bit of official phraseology. China’s own experts have taken to calling it a “near Arctic state.”
What is the population of Beijing according to the text?
第一段的第一句提到， 冰岛的人口数为320,000， 是北京人口数的十分之一， 因此， 北京的人口数为3,200,000， 故选B项。
Why is it important for China to improve shipping routes through the Arctic?
第二段的最后一句提到， 北极冰盖的持续缩小将会增强该地区的重要性。 （continued shrinking of Arctic ice cover will enhance the area’s importance） ， 因此， 选A项。
Which of the following is NOT a permanent observer state of the Arctic Council?
第三段的第一句提到， 韩国、 日本和中国希望下个月能够成为永久观察员， （South Korea and Japan, China hopes next month to be approved for permanent observer） 。 由此可见， 韩国目前还不是永久观察员， 故选B项。
According to the text, the phrase “near Arctic state” indicates that: ________.
最后一段中提到“desire to have a greater say, and assert its legitimate interests in the region”表明中国想要扩大在北极地区的影响力， 因此选C项。
Which of the following statements is true according to the text?
第三段提到， “the Arctic Council, an eight-member intergovernmental body that seeks to co-ordinate policy for the area”与D项的表述基本相符， 因此选D项。