Some nations think they must have more and more babies, more and more people, if they are to remain strong and free.

Actually, this is not so. Very often in history, small nations have conquered large ones. It’s not so much the size of the army as its organization and the technical level of its weapons. Thus, Greece took over Persia in the 300s B.C., Great Britain took over India in the 1700s, even though Persia and India had far bigger population than Greece and Great Britain.

If a nation wishes to avoid being dominated by its neighbors, its best chance is to raise its standard of living and its level of technology.This can be done best by not allowing its population to grow to such a point that it is sunk in misery and poverty. In fact, the worst way in which a nation can try to avoid being dominated by its neighbor is to increase its population to the point of misery and poverty.

If every nation tries to compete with its neighbors by raising its population, then the whole world will be sunk in misery and poverty. The nations will become weak in a disaster that will leave nothing behind that is worth dominating. No one will have gained anything. Everyone will have lost everything.

Once all this is understood, and people generally agree that population growth must not be allowed to continue, they must also come to understand how that growth can be stopped. Population grows because more people are being born than are dying. There are two ways, then, in which the growth can be stopped. You can increase the number of people who die until it matches the number of people who are being born. Or else you can decrease the number of people who are born until it matches the number of people who are dying.

The first method—increasing the death rate—is the usual way in which population is controlled in all species of living things other than ourselves, but we don’t want that, for disaster lies that way. The intelligent way is to reduce the birth rate. But how can the birth rate be reduced?

1. In paragraph 3, the word “This” refers to ______.

A．avoidance of poverty                    B．improvement of life and technology

C．growth of population                     D．enhancement of living standard and competition

2. It can be inferred from the passage that if a country had fewer people, ______.

A．it could still remain strong                 B．it would be defeated by a strong neighbour

C．its standard of living could be high           D．its people would live misery

3. What might the author be further discussing after the passage?

A．Needs to balance population.              B．Problems involved in birth control.

C．Methods of decreasing population.          D．Opposition from some nations.

4. The passage mainly focuses on ______.

A．why we must control population            B．where we can find a solution

C．how to stop population growth             D．how to become a strong nation

A

Pronouncing words of a language is a skill. Every normal person is expert in the skill of pronouncing their own language; but few people are ever skilled at pronouncing foreign languages. Now there are many reasons for this, some obvious, some perhaps not so obvious. But I suggest that the reason why people in general do not speak foreign languages much better than they do their own language is that they fail to grasp the true nature of the problem of learning to pronounce, and never set about solving it in the right way. Far too many people fail to realize that pronouncing a foreign language is a skill-one that needs careful training of a special kind, and one that cannot be gained by just leaving it to take care of itself. I think even teachers of language, while recognizing the importance of a good accent, tend to neglect(忽略), in their practical teaching, the branch of study which has something to do with speaking the language. So the first point I want to make is that English pronunciation must be taught. The teacher should be prepared to devote some of the lesson time to this, and by his whole attitude(态度)to the subject should get the student to feel that here is a matter worthy of receiving close attention, thus when other aspects(方面)of English, such as grammar or spelling, are allowed for the moment, to take second place, there is something else.

Except for the question of time given to pronunciation, there are two other requirements for the teacher: the first, knowledge; the second, technique.

1. Why don't people speak a foreign language better than they speak they native language?

A. Because they can't grasp the nature of the problem of learning to pronounce.

B. Because they think pronouncing a foreign language is a impossible.

C. Because they never solve the problem in any way.

D. Because they pay more attention to pronunciation than anything else.

2. What is the passage mainly about?

A. Grammar should be paid no attention to.

B. Pronunciation is the most important aspect in learning a foreign language.

C. Spelling should not be taught in class.

D. Knowledge and technique are unnecessary in learning a foreign language.

Spelling  5%

1.She hadn’t read the letter and so was unaware of its c______.

2.U______, my computer system broke down again.

3.He e______ us for hours with his stories and jokes.

4. You’ll need to c______ them of your enthusiasm for the job.

5.Traffic is bad, p______ in the city centre.

6.The competition attracted over 5,000 athletes r______ 18 countries.

7. The school has decided to adopt a different a______ to discipline (纪律).

8.There must be some m______ --- I thought I ordered the smaller model.

9.Despite the power cuts, the hospital continued to f______ normally.

10.Well, really and t______, things weren’t quite how she described them.

In a great many cities, hundreds of people ride bikes to work every day. In New York, some bike riders have even formed a group called Bike for a Better City. They declare that if more people rode bikes to work, there would be fewer automobiles in the downtown part of the city and so less dirty air from car engines．

For several years, this group had been trying to get the city government to help bike riders． For example, they want the city to draw special lanes(车道) for bikes on some of the main streets, because when bike riders must use the same lanes as cars there are accidents. Bike for a Better City feels that if there were special lanes, more people would use bikes．

But no bike lanes have been drawn. Not everyone thinks it is a good idea—they say it will slow traffic. Some store owners on the main streets don’t like the idea—they say that if there is less traffic, they will have less business．

The city government has not yet decided what to do． It wants to keep everyone happy. On weekends, Central Park—the largest place open ground in New York— is closed to cars, and the roads may be used by bikes only．

1.In New York, a group of bike riders__________．

A．are keeping practicing for health

B．have no cars of their own

C．are complaining there are not enough buses

D．are trying to settle the problem of air pollution

2.The bike riders suggest that __________．

A．bikes should be used instead of cars

B．bike lanes should be drawn

C．fewer buses or cars should be used

D．the number of special lanes should be decreased

3.The advantage of the special lanes is that__________．

A．they will make cars and buses run slowly

B．they will make it easier for bike riders to go to parks

C．they will make the city more beautiful

D．they will prevent accidents

第一节：阅读表达(共5小题;每小题3分，共15分)

阅读下面的短文，并根据短文后的要求答题(请注意问题后的英文提示和字数要求)。

[1]I remember a time I went shopping on my first visit to Macau．Coming from

cold and cloudy England. I was prepared for the sun and dressed in a T-shirt and a short

skirt．Not having much chance to enjoy the sun in the UK and having naturally fair

skin，my legs are very white．In the UK this is not a fashionable(时尚的)look at all．

Most women spend every sunny day out in the sun trying to get darker skin．The darker　　

　　　　　　　　　　　.

[2] As 1 walked around one shop，the two shop assistants didn’t take their eyes off

me the whole time，talking quietly in Chinese．I began to feel uncomfortable and asked

my friend if we could leave．After we left the shop，she asked me what was wrong．I

told her 1 was embarrassed that they were talking about my white skin．My friend

laughed．“They weren’t laughing at you．They were saying how nice your legs are．

Many Chinese women want to have white skin like yours．In fact，there are many beauty products in the shops to make skin whiter and a lot of money is spent on them．”

[3]It just goes to show that we always think what others have is better．The grass

is always greener on the other side．If the women of the West and East thought the

same way，Western women wouldn’t spend so much money on cream that makes skin

darker and women from the East wouldn’t need to use cream that makes skin whiter．   

Fill in the blank in Paragraph 1 with proper words．(Please answer within 6

words．)

Why did the writer wish to 1eave the shop as soon as possible?(P1ease answer 

within 15 words．)  

Which sentence in the text is the closet in meaning to the following?

We always think what others have is better．(You cannot just repeat the same

sentence．)

What is the main idea of Paragraph 37(Please answer within 20 words．)

Translate the underlined sentence in Paragraph 1 into Chinese．