China may be the world's most populous country ,and it won the most gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. But its prowess at soccer is lamentable. China is ranked 84th in the sport's world standing.

Chinese are huge soccer fans, and hundreds of millions are expected to tune in to the World Cup, with all the matches broadcast live on public TV. But this time the Chinese don't have their own team to root for.

"Chinese have a reputation of being good at math, but they have trouble explaining why a population of 1.3 billion cannot produce a winning 11-member soccer team," said Xu Guoqi, a history professor at the University of Hong Kong. Journalists and soccer fans offer a number of reasons, most often money issues, politics, corruption(腐败)and culture, and sometimes a combination of the four.

Even though China now boasts wealthy companies and individuals who could sponsor(赞助) teams, there is little support as long as Chinese teams are perceived as perennial losers. "This is a very bad circle," Ma said. "No results, no money. No money, no results."

Few Chinese children are playing soccer. Some sports journalists and fans attribute the lack of interest partly to schools de-emphasizing sports in general and the lack of playing venues in the country's dense urban areas. "What can Chinese kids do?” said Fan Huiming, 61, a Chinese soccer fan who grew up watching matches at Beijing's Workers' Stadium, which was built in 1958 near his childhood home. "If they play soccer, the ball may fly directly into the glass of someone's home."

For young people, soccer has largely been eclipsed by basketball, thanks in part to Chinese NBA players who are treated like rock stars. Journalists and fans say NBA's aggressive campaign of marketing and merchandise in China has helped swell the popularity of basketball. By comparison, they noted that international soccer does not even have an office in China.

Rowan Simons, a Briton who came to China more than two decades ago and discovered he wasn't able to play weekend soccer, has been on a campaign to popularize the sport here. Simons said the main problem is that soccer elsewhere has traditionally started as a series of neighborhood clubs, but in China, "there's virtually no football at community level".

"Football in China can only succeed if it's a grass-roots activity organized by the people," he said.

This time the Chinese don't have their own team to root for in the World Cup because__________.

A.China is ranked 84th in soccer 's world standing.

B.they are angry about why China cannot produce a winning soccer team.

C.the Chinese huge soccer fans support other soccer teams.

D.the Chinese soccer team is not capable to go as far as the final part of the World Cup.

Why are few Chinese children playing soccer?

  A.No results, no money. No money, no results.

B.If the footballs fly directly into the glass of someone's home,they’ll be criticised.

C there is little support from wealthy companies and individuals sponsoring teams.

D.schools don’t pay much attention on sports and they lack playing venues in dense urban areas.

The underlined word“eclipsed”in the six paragraph can be replaced by      .

  A.occupied.                      B.beaten.                  C.led.                     D.compared.

According to Rowan,what can be inferred ?

  A.NBA players are more popular than soccer players in China.

B. The future of Chinese football is rather promising.

C. Chinese football should get into the life of ordinary people to survive.

D.Grass-roots Chinese football players can be popular .

With the theme "Cherishing the earth's resources, transforming the mode of development and living a low-carbon lifestyle," China's Ministry of Land and Resources held a ceremony this Thursday to mark the 41st World Earth Day, aims to generate new ideas of resource-saving, especially among the younger generation. In fact, Chinese young urbanities are turning to the seemingly trendy low-carbon lifestyle.

But for the country as a whole to achieve a low-carbon economy, it could mean ordinary people paying more for electricity, water, gas or simply every purchase. Of necessity, a low-carbon economy would be the basis of China's economic growth, yet it comes with a high price tag. Everybody longs for fresh air, clean water and healthy surroundings. But, who is going to pay for that?

For those who are still working hard for the basic necessities of life, sharing the cost of a greener environment can be taxing. For those who are already victimized by environmental pollution, additional expenditure for saving the environment is hard to bear. Behind all the lofty goals and loaded phrases of climate change negotiations, in everyday terms, the Chinese want to know whether companies will make them pay the cost of saving energy or whether government would come up with new levels.

They have reasons to worry. The recent hike in the charges of utilities, such as natural gas, water and electricity, have led to widespread public grievance(抱怨,牢骚), for the increases were imposed without proper public hearing. Besides the practice of monopoly State-owned enterprises raising prices at will does not seem to bode well for a low-carbon economy.

The government has a responsibility to strengthen regulation of utility charges and make the pricing mechanism more transparent. In the age of the low-carbon economy, the Chinese government needs to strike a new balance between public welfare and business competitiveness.

How far the initiatives toward a low-carbon economy succeed depends on whether they truly benefit ordinary people and is accepted by them. The majority cannot sacrifice their life to build a greener world for the few.

The author probably agrees to call on ____________.

A. more and more citizens to devote themselves to the “Low-carbon economy” for the sake of our earth immediately

B. the rich to generally pay for the bill, which aims at saving our planet.

C. our government to take proper measures to make the “Low-carbon economy” benefit more people

D. all the big enterprises to reduce their prices to build a greener world

According to the passage, which of the following statements is NOT TRUE?

A. Some people can’t afford their everyday expenses, let alone pay for a better environment.

B. Putting forward the “Low-carbon economy” costs much.

C. The balance between public welfare and business competitiveness in China now is not that good for the “Low-carbon economy”.

D. Now that it’s hard for us to make the “Low-carbon economy” into practice, our government should put it to an end.

The “Low-carbon economy” __________.

A. is beneficial only to the rich people

B. has led to widespread public grievance

C. can be realized when pigs fly in the sky

D. cannot be called success before it has been fully considered

What’s the best title of the passage?

A. China reaches out for younger generation to promote low-carbon lifestyle.

B. Low-carbon economy, acceptable or not?

C. Who will get the most benefit from the Low-carbon economy?

D. Put forward the new policy and save the world.

The world’s population continues to grow. There are about five billion of us on earth now. It could reach six billion in 10 years’ time, and eleven billion in another 75 years. Experts have long 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 situation may be changing. A large and rapid drop in the world’s birth rate has taken place during the past 10 years. Families generally are smaller now than they were a few years ago. This is happening in both developing and industrial nations. Scientists said they found a number of reasons for this. More men and women are waiting longer to get married. More women are going to school or working at jobs away from their home instead of having children. And more governments, especially in developing nations, now support family planning programs to reduce population growth.

China is one of the nations that have made great progress in reducing its population growth by about one half since 1970. China now urges each family to have no more than one child. And it hopes to reach zero population growth before long, that is, the number of birth equaling the number of death.

Several nations in Europe already have fewer births than deaths. Experts said that these nations could face a serious shortage of workers in the future.

1. In the sentence “Experts have long been concerned about such growth”, the phrase “concerned about” is similar in meaning to_____.

A. worried about      B. related to       C. busy working on     D. made a study of

2. “Family planning programs” means______.

A. economic policy in a country         B. economic policy in a family

C. TV programs for a family            D. birth control in a country

3. The world’s birth rate has dropped because_____.

A. people marry at a much later time

B. women would rather go to study or work than have children

C. some countries are carrying out the family planning programs

D. all the above

4. We hope that soon the number of birth and the number of death in China will_____.

A. be greatly different          B. be equal to each other

C. drop in great deal            D. become much larger

 

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