Greece today is a small country in southeastern Europe. The population is about nine million, and the capital city is Athens.

   High mountains with rich, fertile land between them cover northern Greece. The hilly southern part is a peninsula called the Peloponnesus. Hundreds of islands surround the mainland. The largest island is Crete.

    No part of the nation is far from water. The Ionian Sea and the Aegean Sea carved deep bays and gulfs into the long coastline. Greece has been a seafaring nation for centuries, and Greece is very well known for its shipping industry.

    More than three thousand years ago, the Greek people developed a very sophisticated society. They have a great civilization, one of the greatest that the Western would have ever seen. Greek architecture, thinking and art influenced other languages, including English. For example, the English words alphabet, democracy, and arithmetic come from Greek.

    Today Greece is one of the most popular nations with the tourists who visit Europe. Thousands of people are attracted to the country because of its beautiful scenery, magnificent ancient buildings, and its excellent summer weather.

A good title for this reading passage is _______

The Earliest Civilizations              B. The Influence of the Sea on Greece.

C. The Small but Important Nation of Greece  D. The Ionian Sea

The underlined word “carved” means _______

A. cut, made      B. said, told         C. lost, wasted       D. attracted

We may conclude that most of the food is grown in the _______.

A. north       B. east         C. south            D. west

Hills can be found _______.

A. in the southern part          B. on the Peloponnesus

C. both A and B               D. in the Aegean Sea

The Greeks had a great civilization around _______

A. 5000B.C.       B. 3000B.C.      C.1000B.C.     D.2000B.C.

Bolivia has a population of three and a half million. About one tenth of the total population are white; one-fourth are mixed Indians and white; and more than half are full-blooded Indians. The government and the industries are under the control of the white people.

The Indians today live in much the same way as their ancestors. Most of them are farmers. Many work in the mines, for mining is the most important industry on Bolivia’s. Of all the mining products, tin is the most important, which makes up three-fourths of all Bolivia’s exports. The eastern slopes of the Andes, since there are very few roads there, are fertile but not highly developed. The two primary means of transportation are river boats and porters. East of the hill region is the great plains where tropical plants are grown. A serious problem for Bolivia is the transport of food from the warm regions, where it is grown to the mountainous regions, where most of the people live.

Bolivia gained its independence from Spain about a hundred years ago. It has been slow in developing, but its rich resources promise a better future in it.

1..

 The majority of the Bolivian population are        .

   A. full-blooded Indians                        B. mixed Indian and white

   C. white citizens                              D. all whites and mixed-blooded people

2..

. The Indian’s way of life today is        .

   A. quite different from that of their ancestors  B. quite interesting

   C. almost the same as their ancestors’        D. very exciting

3..

 The main product Bolivia exports is         .

   A. tropical plants                                    B. gold and silver              C. tin                                                              D. food

4..

 Bolivia has been slow in developing, but it has hope for a better future because of its        .

   A. mining products                             B. rich resources

   C. independence from Spain                     D. two primary means of transportation

Poverty today is a major global issue. Although there are all kinds of definitions used to explain it, in simple words, it means the inability of a person to even get his basic needs of food, shelter, clothing, safe drinking water, health and education. Poverty can be found in each and every corner of the world, although the causes may differ from country to country. Given below are the main causes of poverty in the world today.
Overpopulation is one of the main causes behind the threatening of poverty on an individual level as well as a social level. This is simple math. If there are more mouths to feed and less income, definitely much will remain poor.
Another theory which is used as an explanation for poverty is lack of education. If you look at any of the underdeveloped countries, you will find that the level of education there is very low. Lack of education means lack of employment opportunities, thus leading to unemployment coupled with poverty in the future.
Moving away from one’s own homeland to another city or country in search of employment leads to poverty too. It may take these people a lot of time to find jobs. Meanwhile they live in bad conditions. The cost of living in the city or country is most of the time too high for them.
There may be other causes of poverty like the change in business. For example, in America, a couple of decades ago, heavy industry flourished, which employed a lot of African-American people. But now, the focus is more on information technology and health care, both of which employ only skilled and trained people. This has led to unemployment among African-Americans.
Poverty has many ill effects on society. That’s why steps should be taken to get rid of it!
【小题1】What’s the meaning of the underlined word “flourished” in Paragraph 5?
(No more than 5 words)
【小题2】Why is overpopulation a cause of poverty today?  (No more than12 words)
【小题3】What’s the situation of education in underdeveloped countries?  (No more than 8 words)
【小题4】What does the passage mainly talk about?   (No more than 10 words)
【小题5】In your opinion, what’s the most significant cause of poverty today? Please give your reason.  (No more than 25 words)

下面短文中有10处语言错误。请在有错误的地方增加、删除或修改某个单词。
增加：在缺词处加上一个漏字符号(∧)，并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线(\)划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写上修改后的词。
注意：1. 每处错误及其修改均仅限一词。
Today is Mother’s Day. I love mother so much that I’ve done many things for him. In the morning I buy some flowers with my pocket money and put them in a vase. In the afternoon, I went to buy some vegetable and cooked simple but delicious dinner for my family. After the meal, I gave mother a card what I made myself and said “Happy Mother’s Day” to her. Then I told her to pay more attention on her health and not overwork. I also promised to help her to do some housework from today on. Heard the words, mother was moved to tears.
Today is a specially day, warm but meaningful.

Chinese reports say the country’s vast pool of cheap labor is getting smaller, which could hurt an economy that heavily depends on labor-intensive manufacturing.

The academy’s research shows that China’s rural labor surplus, the source of migrant workers for the country’s factories, is about 50 million people—far less than the previously estimated 150 to 200 million.

Jonathan Unger, director of the Contemporary China Center at the Australian National University, says fewer rural residents are willing to leave their farms today. This is partly because there are more employment opportunities in rural areas, and because agricultural prices have gone up.

“And at the same time taxes in the countryside, fees in the countryside have gone down because of new sets of government policies,” he explained. “So people are not eagerly forced in the way they were five, six years ago to leave the farm in order to earn enough money for their families.”

The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences says another reason for the reduced labor pool is the country’s population policy, which allows city residents to have just one child, and farmers up to two if the first one is a girl.

A UN study predicts that China’s workforce will reach its top in 2015 and then gradually drop. Some of China’s major manufacturing areas, such as Guangdong Province, already face labor shortages.

Some economists think these shortages are, at least for now, a regional rather than a national problem. Sun Mingchun, an economist with investment bank Lehman Brothers in Hong Kong, points out that there are still millions of people in China who can not find work.

57. According to the academy’s research, China’ rural labor surplus today is about _______.

A. 150 million      B. 50 million      C. 200 million      D. 175 million

58. The reason why many rural residents don’t leave their farms today is ________.

A. the farmers are older than before.

B. the farmers are lazier than before

C. the farmers have much more money

D. there are more employment opportunities and agricultural prices have gone up

59. Which of the following is TURE according to the passage?

A. A study of UN estimates China’s workforce will come to the top in 2015.

B. No a study shows millions of people can’t find work in China.

C. The country’s population policy isn’t a reason for the reduced labor.

D. Five years ago, few farmers left their homes to earn money for supporting their families.

60. According to some economists, the shortage of Chinese workforce __________.

A. is a national problem                     B. is a regional problem

C. is not a problem                         D. can be solved easily