Brazil has become one of the developing world' s great successes at reducing population growth but more by accident than design. While countries such as India have made joint efforts to【61】birth rates, Brazil has had better result without really trying, says George Martine at Harvard.

Brazil' s population growth【62】has dropped from 2.99% a year between 1951 and 1960【63】1.93% a year between 1981 and 1990, and Brazilian women now have only 2.7 children on average. Martine says this【64】may have fallen still further since 1990, an achievement that makes it the envy of many other Third World countries.

Martine puts it down to, among other things, soap operas (通俗电视连续剧)and installment (分期付款) plans introduced in the 1970s. Both played an important, although indirect,【65】in lowering the birth rate. Brazil is one of the world's biggest producers of soap operas. Globo, Brazil' s most popular television network, shows three hours of soaps six nights a week, while three others show at least one hour a night. Most soaps are based【66】wealthy characters living the high life in big cities.

"Although they have never really tried to work in a message towards the problems of reproduction, they describe middle and upper class values--not many children, different attitudes towards sex, women working," says Martine "They sent this image to all parts of Brazil and【67】people conscious of other patterns of behavior. and other【68】, which were put into a very attractive pack- age. "Meanwhile, the installment plans tried to【69】the poor to become consumers. "This led to an enormous change in consumption patterns and【70】was incompatible'(不相容的)with un- limited reproduction," says Martine.

(41)

A．increase

B．reduce

C．extend

D．improve

Brazil（）the World Cup five times.

Fred has a strong desire （) a doctor.

Oil has become a very precious commodity ___ a limited reserve.

With e-mails and telephones,（）has become easier,and the world is getting smaller.

After years of delay eh problem has now become urgent.（)
A.procrastination
B.dilation
C..dilution
D.sacrifice

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Tourism in Chile The biggest problem facing Chile, as it promotes itself as a tourist destination to be reckoned with, is that it is at the end of the earth. It is too far south to be a convenient stop on the way to anywhere else and it is considerably farther than a relatively cheap half-days flight away from other major tourist markets, such as Mexico. Chile, therefore, is having to fight hard to attract tourists, to convince travelers that it is worth coming halfway round the world to visit. But it is succeeding, not only in existing markets like the USA and Western Europe but in new territories, in particular the Far East. Markets closer to home, however, are not being forgotten. More than 50% of visitors to Chile still come from its nearest neighbor, Argentina, where the cost of living is much higher. Similar to all the other South American countries, Chile sees tourism as a valuable earner of foreign currency, although it has been far more serious than most in promoting its image abroad. Relatively stable politically within the region, it has benefited from the problems suffered in other areas. In Peru, guerrilla warfare in recent years has dealt a heavy blow to the tourist industry and fear of street crime in Brazil has reduced the attraction of Rio de Janeiro as a dream destination for foreigners. More than 150000 people are directly involved in Chiles tourist sector, an industry which earns the country more than U.S. $ 950 million each year. The state-run National Tourism Service, in partnership with a number of private companies, is currently running a world-wide campaign, taking part in trade fairs and international events to attract visitors to Chile. Chiles great strength as a tourist destination is its geographical diversity. From the parched Atacama Desert in the north to the Antarctic snowfields of the south, it is more than 5000 km long. With the Pacific on one side and the Andean mountains on the other, Chile boasts natural attractions. Its beaches are not up to Caribbean standards but resorts such as Vinadel Mar are generally clean and unspoiled and have a high standard of services. But the trump card is the Andes mountain range. There are a number of excellent ski resorts within one hours drive of the capital, Santiago, and the national parks in the south are home to rare animal and plant species. The parks already attract specialist visitors, including mountaineers, who come to climb the technically difficult peaks, and fishermen, lured by the salmon and trout in the regions rivers. However, infrastructural development in these areas is limited. The ski resorts do not have as many lifts as their European counterparts and part poor quality of roads in the south means that only the most determined travelers see the best of the national parks. (A)Air links between Chile and the rest of the world are, at present, relatively poor. (B)While Chiles two largest airlines have extensive networks within South America, they operate only a small number of routes to the U.S. and Europe while services to Asia are almost non-existent. (C)Internal transport links are being improved and luxury hotels are being built in one of its national parks. (D)Easter Island and Chiles Antarctic Territory are also on the list of areas where the government believes it can create tourist markets. But the rush to open hitherto inaccessible areas to mass tourism is not being welcomed by everyone. Indigenous and environmental groups, including Greenpeace, say that many parts of the Andes will suffer if they become over-developed. There is a genuine fear that areas of Chile will suffer the cultural destruction witnessed in Mexican and European resorts. The policy of opening up Antarctica to tourism is also politically sensitive. Chile already has permanent settlements on the ice and many people see the decision to allow tourists there as a political move, enhancing Santiagos territorial claim over part of Antarctica. The Chilean government has promised to respect the environment as it seeks to bring tourism potential. The government will have to monitor developments closely if it is genuinely concerned in creating a balanced, controlled industry and if the price of an increasingly lucrative tourist market is not going to mean the loss of many of Chiles natural riches.
The word reckon in Paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to ______.
A．realize
B．transform
C．activate
D．consider

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Will We Run Out of Water？Picture a "ghost ship" sinking into the sand, left to rot on dry
Will We Run Out of Water？
Picture a "ghost ship" sinking into the sand, left to rot on dry land by a receding sea. Then imagine dust storms sweeping up toxic pesticides and chemical fertilizers from the dry seabed and spewing them across towns and villages.
Seem like a scene from a movie about the end of the world？ For people living near the Aral sea (咸海) in Central Asia, it's all too real. Thirty years ago, government planners diverted the rivers that flow into the sea in order to irrigate (provide water for) farmland. As a result, the sea has shrunk to half its original size, stranding (使搁浅) ships on dry land. The seawater has tripled in salt content and become polluted, killing all 24 native species offish.
Similar largecale efforts to redirect water in other parts of the world have also ended in ecological crisis, according to numerous environmental groups. But many countries continue to build massive dams and irrigation systems, even though such projects can create more problems than they fix. Why？ People in many parts of the world are desperate for water, and more people will need more water in the next century.
"Growing populations will worsen problems with water," says Peter H. Gleick, an environmental scientist at the Pacific Institute for studies in Development, Environment, and Security, a research organization in California. He fears that by the year 2025, as many as one-third of the world's projected (预测的) 8.3 billion people will suffer from water shortages.
WHERE WATER GOES
Only 2.5 percent of all water on Earth is freshwater, water suitable for drinking and growing food, says Sandra Postel, director of the Global Water Policy Project in Amherst, Mass. Two-thirds of this freshwater is locked in glaciers (冰山) and ice caps (冰盖). In fact, only a tiny percentage of freshwater is part of the water cycle, in which water evaporates and rises into the atmosphere, then condenses and falls back to Earth as precipitation (rain or snow).
Some precipitation runs off land to lakes and oceans, and some becomes groundwater, water that seeps into the earth. Much of this renewable freshwater ends up in remote places like the Amazon river basin in Brazil, where few people live, In fact, the world's population has access to only 12,500 cubic kilometers of freshwater—about the amount of water in Lake Superior(苏必利尔湖). And people use half of this amount already. "If water demand continues to climb rapidly," says Postel, "there will be severe shortages and damage to the aquatic (水的) environment."
CLOSE TO HOME
Water woes(灾难) may seem remote to people living in rich countries like the United States. But Americans could face serious water shortages, too especially in areas that rely on groundwater. Groundwater accumulates in aquifers (地下蓄水层), layers of sand and gravel that lie between soil and bedrock. (For every liter of surface water, more than 90 liters are hidden underground.) Although the United States has large aquifers, farmers, ranchers, and cities are tapping many of them for water faster than nature can replenish(补充) it. In northwest Texas, for example, overpumping has shrunk groundwater supplies by 25 percent, according to Postel.
Americans may face even more urgent problems from pollution. Drinking water in the United States is generally safe and meets high standards. Nevertheless, one in five Americans every day unknowingly drinks tap water contaminated with bacteria and chemical wastes, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. In Milwaukee, 400,000 people fell iii in 1993 after drinking tap water tainted with cryptosporidium (隐孢子虫), a microbe (微生物) that causes fever, diarrhea (腹泻) and vomiting.
THE SOURCE
Where so contaminants come from？ In developing countries, people dump raw (未经处理的) sewage(污水) into the same streams and rivers from which they draw water for drinking and co
A．Y
B．N
C．NG

任务四 选择合适的句子填入②处，使文章合理通顺。从以下选项中选择正确的字母代号（）

Travelling at home and abroad has now become convenient and affordable.（）

Milk has become a popular drink for modem Chinese, not only is its nutritional（营养的) val
Milk has become a popular drink for modem Chinese, not only is its nutritional(营养的) value appreciated, it seems even to have taken the role making the whole nation strong. Milk industry has only about 180 years of history among the Hah people. For a long time, milk was considered a luxury(奢侈的) drink by common people. A widespread saying in the country was that Japan used a cup of milk to strengthen the constitution(体格) of its people. That sounds reasonable because the rich "Ca" in milk definitely benefits the constitution.
The average annual consumption per capita in Japan has risen from less than 10 kilograms immediately after World War II to 68 kilograms today. The average height of Japanese has increased by 11 centimeters during this period. The Chinese Government also hopes to improve the constitution of local people, and since milk is the most obvious nutritious food, it has naturally been picked up. But due to tradition, Chinese people are not in the habit of drinking milk regularly. The annual output of milk in the country is about 10 million tons, compared with an output of alcohol reaching 8 million tons. The annual milk consumption per capita is about 7 kilograms in China while the world's average is about 100 kilograms. The government has noticed the huge gap and plans to raise consumption to 10 kilograms per capita by 2005 and 16 kilograms by 2010. The government has also started plans for "school milk" since the beginning of this century.
Chinese government encourage people to drink milk and hope that ______.
A．the whole nation will become stronger
B．the milk industry will have a faster development
C．milk will no longer be considered a luxury drink
D．its nutritional value will be more appreciated

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Everyone seems to be in favor of progress. But " progress" is a funny word. It doesn't necessarily mean that something has become stronger, wiser, or better. It simply means changing it from being one thing to another and sometimes it turns out to be worse than before.
Consider medicine, for instance. No one can deny that medical progress has enriched our lives tremendously. Because of medical advances, we eat better, live easier and are able to take care of ourselves more efficiently. We can cure disease with no more than one injection or a pill. If we have a serious accident, surgeons can put us back together again. If we are born with something defective, they can repair it. They can make us happy, restore our normality, ease our pain, replace worn parts and give us children. They can even bring us back from the dead. These are wonderful achievements, but there is a price we have to pay.
Because medicine has reduced infant mortality and natural death so significantly, the population has been rising steadily, in spite of serious efforts to reduce the rate of population growth. Less than a century ago in the United Stales, infant mortality claimed more than half of the newborn within the first year of life. Medical advances, however, have now reduced that rate to nearly zero. A child born in the United States today has better than a 90% chance of survival. Furthermore, medical advances have ensured that most of these infants will live to be seventy years of age or more, and even that life expectancy increases every year. The result of this progress is an enormous population increase that threatens the quality of life, brought about by progress in the medical profession.
According to this passage, " progress" doesn't always mean that______.
A．something has become stronger and better
B．something has been changed from being one thing to another
C．something has become funny
D．something turns out to be worse than before