单选题 We enter the new millennium with more poor people than the world has ever known. Out of 6 billion now (compared with fewer than 2 billion in 1900), 1.3 billion are below the absolute poverty line, living on less than $ 1 a day, and 2.8 billion eke out survival on less than $ 2 a day.
Inequality has multiplied enormously. The gap between the one-fifth of the world' s people who live in the poorest countries and the one-fifth who live in the richest countries is now 71 to 1. In 1990 it was 60 to 1 and in 1960 it was 30 to 1.
Yet in Asia, the absolutely poor are now one-third of the total, compared with onehalf in 1970. Their average life expectancy is 65 years, compared with 48 years then, and 70 percent of adults are now literate, compared with 40 percent.
So there has been improvement. But excruciating misery is still with us, even as part of the world flushes with prosperity never known before.
For one thing, the wealthy countries have cut back severely on foreign aid since the end of the Cold War, and as income continues to rise in the richest countries, generosity continues to fall. But overwhelming poverty is no longer accepted by everybody as a fact of nature. Enough people have become convinced that something can be clone about it to organize a diverse array of projects, and most projects are no longer based on the idea of the virtue of giving bounty only to those who deserve it because "Poverty is largely manmade."
This is a dramatic new concept in the sweep of history. It is by no means taken for granted, but it is no longer inconceivable, as it was just a few years ago. In fact, even the word poverty is disdained by development specialists because of its implication of inferior capacity, beyond repair. The specialists prefer to speak of exclusion, which suggests a minority that has yet to be given its chance.
This chance is not merely aid. Aid can be perverted by mismanagement and bad ideas; it can support corrupt governments that exploit their people; it can be wasted in grandiose projects that fail to pay off.
In today's world, economic 15rogress is no longer mainly about heavy, visible things involving iron and steel and electricity. Progress in the 21~t century will be about light, invisible things like information technology, and will therefore necessarily be focused on the education and motivation of people.
Therefore this is a new concept of poverty. It not only admits the serious situation the world encounters, but also states that to fundamentally change it, we must not overlook the human factor, otherwise, theories, ideology, even balance sheets will turn out to be of no avail.

单选题 In the first paragraph, the phrase "eke out" probably means

A. to realize with strain.
B. to base on.
C. to suffer from.
D. to fail to get.

单选题 Compared with 1970, the number of Asian people who can read and write has gone up by

A. 70 percent.
B. 40 percent.
C. 30 percent.
D. 44 percent.

单选题 The undertone of the sentence "Poverty is largely man-made" (paragraph 5) most likely means that

A. inequality among countries is the main factor in world poverty.
B. poor countries should be responsible for their poverty.
C. man can make poverty so can he unmake it.
D. the world poverty is not the result of nature.

单选题 The basic idea of the new concept of poverty is

A. foreign aid must be used properly.
B. developing countries should learn how to use information technology.
C. poverty can be eliminated.
D. human factor should not be neglected in abolishing poverty.

单选题 Which of the following titles best fits the passage?

A. Improvement in World Poverty
B. Concept of Poverty Undergoes Radical Shifts
C. Foreign Aid Is Not the Final Solution of World Poverty
D. Rich Countries Should Be Responsible for World Poverty