In the deep blue Indian Ocean, there’s a beautiful island (岛) country called Maldives(马尔代夫). It’s the smallest in population and area of all the Asian countries. It has an area of 90,000 km², but 99% of the area is covered by the sea. It has 1,190 islands and is about 820 km from North to South. People live on no more than 200 islands, while another 87 are visited by tourists. Some of the islands are only used for fishing or farming. The capital Maléis is on one of the middle islands, and about 75,000 people live there. The people there are friendly and welcoming. They use their traditional games to welcome people from all over the world. It is sunny on the islands almost every day, and makes them look so beautiful. People can enjoy lots of things in Maldives.
【小题1】How many people live in the capital Maléis?

Canada is a very large country. It is the second largest country in the world .By contrast it has a very small population. There are only about 29 million people there. Most Canadians are of British or French origin（后裔）, and French is an official language of Canada as well as English .About 45%of the people are of British origin, that is, they or their parents or grandparents, etc, come from British. Nearly 30% are of French origin. Most of the French–Canadians live in province of Quebec.
Over the years, people have come to live in Canada from many countries in the world .They are from many countries in the world .They are from most European countries and also from China, besides other Asian countries.
However, Canada was not an empty country when the Europeans began to arrive. Canadian Indians lived along the coast, by the rivers and lakes and in forests. Today, there are only about 350,000 Indians in the whole country, with their own languages. In the far north live the Inuit. There are only 27,000 Canadian-Inuit. Their life is hard in such a difficult climate.
【小题1】The phrase “By contrast” in the passage means ____.