B
While still in its early stages, welfare reform has already been judged a great success in many states — at least in getting people off welfare. It’s estimated that more than 2 million people have left the rolls（名册） since 1994.
　　In the past four years, welfare rolls in Athens Country have been cut in half. But 70 percent of the people who left in the past two years took jobs that paid less than $6 an hour. The result: The Athens Country poverty rate still remains at more than 30 percent — twice the national average.
　　For advocates（代言人）for the poor, that’s an indication much more needs to be done.
　　“More people are getting jobs, but it’s not making their lives any better,” says Kathy Lairn, a  policy analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington.
　　A center analysis of US Census data nationwide found that between 1995 and 1996, a greater percentage of single, female-headed households were earning money on their own, but that average income for these households actually went down.
　　But for many, the fact that poor people are able to support themselves almost as well without government aid as they did with it is in itself a huge victory.
　　“Welfare was a poison. It was a toxin（毒素）that was poisoning the family,” says
Robert Rector, a welfare-reform policy analyst. “The reform is changing the moral climate in low-income communities. It’s beginning to rebuild the work ethic（道德观）, which is much more important.”
　　Mr. Rector and others argued that once “the habit of dependency is cracked,” then the country can make other policy changes aimed at improving living standards.
45. From the passage, it can be seen that the author _______.
　　A. believes the reform has reduced the government’s burden
　　B. insists that welfare reform is doing little good for the poor
　　C. is overenthusiastic about the success of welfare reform
　　D. considers welfare reform to be basically successful
46. Why aren’t people enjoying better lives when they have jobs?
　　A. Because many families are divorced.
　　B. Because government aid is now rare.
　　C. Because their wages are low.
　　D. Because the cost of living is rising.
47. From the passage we know that welfare reform aims at _______.
　　A. saving welfare funds
　　B. rebuilding the work ethic
　　C. providing more jobs
　　D. cutting government expenses
48. According to the passage before the welfare reform was carried out, _______.
　　A. the poverty rate was lower
　　B. average living standards were higher
　　C. the average worker was paid higher wages
　　D. the poor used to rely on government aid

Since we are not wealthy now，we’d better take our daily expenses into________.

I think it a great honor ___________ to visit your country.

PALO ALTO, California------"Switching off the television may help prevent children from getting fatter------ even if they do not change their diet or increase the amount they exercise," US researchers said last week.
　　A study of 192 third and fourth graders, generally aged eight and nine, found that children who cut the number of hours spent watching television gained nearly two pounds(0.9kg) less over a one-year period than those who did not change their television diet.
　　"The findings are important because they show that weight loss can only be the result of a reduction in television viewing and not any other activity," said Thomas Robinson, a pediatrician(儿科专家) at Stanford University.
　　"American children spend an average of more than four hours per day watching television and videos or playing video games, and rates of childhood being very fat have doubled over the past 20 years," Robinson said.
　　In the study, presented this week to the Pediatric Academic Societies‘ annual meeting in San Francisco, the researchers persuaded about 100 of the students to reduce their television viewing by one-quarter to one-third.
　　Children watching fewer hours of television showed a significantly smaller increase in waist size and had less body fat than other students who continued their normal television viewing, even though neither group ate a special diet or took part in any extra exercise.
　　"One explanation for the weight loss could be the children unstuck to the television may simply have been moving around more and burning off calories," Robinson said.
　　"Another reason might be due to eating fewer meals in front of the television. Some studies have suggested that eating in front of the TV encourages people to eat more," Robinson said.
【小题1】The author tries to tell us in the first two paragraphs that ________.

The tea gardens in Sri Lanka are actually large estates(种植园). The best tea usually comes from plants grown on high grounds, the cool hilltops with rows and rows of tea plants. The plants are about one metre apart. The plant is often pruned so that it remains only 60 to 90 centimetres high. Pruning is important because it encourages the growth of tender hoots, or young leaves. It is from these shoots that the best in got.

Practically all the tea pickers are women. The estates like to employ women pickers because they are more careful. Their thin fingers can easily remove the twin leaves and new shoots from the plant, which are the parts used for processing(加工)tea. The pickers carry large baskets into which they throw their pickings. A skilled worker can harvest between 9 to 14 kilogrammes of tea leaves a day. Usually new shoots can be picked from the plants about every ten or fifteen days.

Processing tea shoots into the familiar dry tea leaves requires great care and skill. There are various methods of processing depending on the type of tea required. For black tea, the young green leaves are first spread out on shelves to dry. This process removes much of its water and the leaves become soft. After this, the leaves are passed through heavy rollers. This operation will press the leaves for juices which give the tea both its colour and taste. Then the leaves are spread out on floors and left to ferment(发酵)under wet conditions. Fermentation develops the rich taste of black tea. The fermented leaves are then dried with a hot­air blower until they become rolled­up black leaves. The final step is to sort and grade them before the black tea is ready for sale to countries all over the world.

1.In the first paragraph, the word“pruning”means______.

A．regular cutting of the plants.               B．frequent watering

C．regular use of chemicals                  D．growing the plants high in the mountain

2.One of the reasons why women are employed to do the picking is that________.

A．they work harder than men do in picking

B．they can throw their picking more easily into the baskets

C．their fingers fit them better for the job

D．they can move easily find the twin leaves

3.How many processing steps are mentioned in the last paragraph?

A．Three.　          B．Four.             C．Five.　           D．Six.

4.What's the writer's purpose in writing the passage?

A．To introduce various methods of tea processing.

B．To persuade readers to buy tea from Sri Lanka.

C．To tell a story that had happened in the tea gardens.

D．To inform readers of tea growing, picking and processing.