Question

阅读下面短文, 请根据短文后的要求进行答题。（请注意问题后的字数要求）

[1]With the average number of children in a British family falling beneath an average of two, the population of the UK has been falling for quite a few years．This trend is quite worrying for the British economy．

[2]Why aren’t the British having as many children as they used to? Well, there is a range of reasons．One of them is that British people are now having their children at a much older age than previously．Most young people today want a well-paid job, so they have to go to university．After years of study at university, they need a few years of work experience to get a job they want．They might then get married, but it’s incredibly expensive to buy a house in the UK．That explains why British young people now don’t move out of their parents’ home until they are around 30 years old．It is not until that age that they can afford to have their home, get married and start thinking about having a child．

[3]So a British person manages to get a job, get a home and get married．Why isn’t he or she having at least two children on average? The main reason is that it is relatively expensive to bring up a child in the UK．Both parents need to work just to pay for their home and living expenses, they then need to pay someone to _____________________ during the day．Paying for this child care is always expensive．

[4]The recent financial crisis is making things even harder for families, since unemployment is rising and even fewer people can afford to have children．

1．What is the text mainly about? （within 10 words）

2．Which sentence in the text can be replaced by the following one?

   British young people don’t have enough money for houses, marriage and raising a child until they are almost in their thirties．

3．Fill in the blank in Paragraph 3 with proper words or expressions．（within 8 words）

4．What do you think the text will probably talk about next? （within 15 words）

5．Translate the underlined sentence in the last paragraph．

Answer 1

1．The reason why the British population is falling/declining．/Why the British population is falling/ declining．/Why the British families are disappearing．

2．It is not until that age that they can afford to have their home, get married and start thinking about having a child．

3．look after/take care of/keep an eye on their child

4．It will probably talk about what the British government will do to save the British family /how the British government will solve the problem/measures the British will take to solve the  problem

5．最近的金融危机使家庭的状况变得更糟糕，由于失业率不断上升，使得更少的人能够养得起孩子。