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

阅读理解：

　　In Europe, men do not usually wear skirts. But the Scottish national clothing for men is a kind of skirt. It is called a kilt. The Scottish like to be different. They are also proud of their country and its history, and they feel that the kilt is part of that history. That's why the men still wear kilts at traditional (传统的) dances and on national holidays. They believe they are wearing the same clothes that Scottish men always used to wear.

　　That's what they believe. However, kilts are not really so old. Before 1730, Scottish men wore a long shirt and blanket around their shoulders. These clothes got in the way when the men started to work in factories. So, in 1730 a factory owner changed the blanket into a skirt; the kilt. That's how the first kilt was made.

　　Then, in the late 1700s Scottish soldiers in the British Army began to wear kilts. One reason for this was national sentiment ( = feelings) . The Scottish soldiers wanted to be different from the English soldiers. The British Army probably had a different reason. A Scottish soldier in a kilt was always easy to find! The Scottish soldier fought very hard and became famous. The kilt was part of the fame, and in the early 1800s men all around Scotland began to wear kilts.

　　These kilts had colorful stripes (条纹) going up and down and across. In the 1700s and early 1800s, the color of the stripes had no special meaning. Men sometimes owned kilts in several different colors. But later the colors became important to the Scottish families. By about 1850, most families had special colors for their kilts. For example, men from the Campbell family had kilts with green, yellow and blue stripes. Scottish people often believe that the colors of the kilts are part of their family history. In fact, each family just chose the color they liked best.

　　This is not the story you will hear today if you are in Scotland. Most Scottish people still believe that kilts are as old as Scotland and that the colors are as old as the Scottish families. Sometimes feelings are stronger than facts!

1．This text is mainly about ________.

2．Which of the following is true according to the passage?

A．The English soldiers were the first to wear kilts.

B．It was hard then to tell the Scottish soldiers from the English ones apart from the clothes.

C．Colors were specially designed in the first kilts.

D．The factory owner made the first kilt from long shirts to make his workers different from others.

3．Scottish soldiers were dressed in kilts partly because of ________.

4．The colors of the kilts are ________.

[　　]

A．not part of the Scottish family history

B．older than the Scottish family history

C．for the Campbell family only

D．mainly green, yellow and blue

5．From the last paragraph we can infer that ________.

[　　]

A．the European people are full of strong feelings

B．there are no stories about kilts in Scotland today

C．the British like to do things on feelings, not on facts

D．the Scottish prefer to keep their tradition rather than believe the fact

根据短文内容，从短文后的七个选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。

It’s not just women who wear skirts.   1    In Scotland, men wear a kind of skirt called kilt. The kilt is their national dress and an important part of their tradition.

A kilt is a colored skirt reaching down to the knees. It has checks（格子）on it with different colors, like red and blue.    2    

    3    There are many stories about it. One story is that kilt was invented in the 1720s by an English factory owner, Thomas Rawlinson.

Thomas Rawlinson had a number of Scottish workers in his factory and he thought their clothing got in the way of their work.     4     

Today, most Scotsmen look the kilt as formal dress. They usually only wear them at wedding or big dinner.    5   

A. Each family in Scotland has it’s own colors.

B.There are only a few men who still wear a kilt every day.

C.How did the Scots start to wear skirts ?

D.It was important for Scots to wear skirts at any time.

E.So he cut their long clothes into shorter skirts.

F.Wearing skirts is very beautiful for women.

G.Men can wear them, too.

第二部分 阅读理解

（共25小题。每一节每小题2分，第二节每小题1分；满分45分）

第一节  阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

It was a spring day for end-of-the-year conferences. Mrs. Lake reminded everyone that both parents and students should take part in these important progress report, 20minutes for each family.

Lauri’s name was at the end of the list. But it didn't matter much to her. Despite the many phone calls her teacher had made, Lauri knew her parents would not be coming. Her father always got drunk , and her mother could do nothing but cry and quarrel with him.

Now Lauri watched all day long as each child went to the door leading into Mrs. Lake’s office, where parents would greet their sons and daughters with proud smiles. Lauri imagined how it might feel to have her parents greet her at the door. When at last everyone else’s name had been called, Mrs. Lake opened the door and signed for Lauri to come in. Silently Lauri went in and sat down on a chair. As she felt rather uneasy that her parents had not come, she looked down. Mrs. Lake had Lauri raise her face so she could see her in the eye. “First of all,” the teacher began, “I want you to know how much I love you ,”Lauri saw things she’d never seen: kindness.

“Second,” the teacher continued, “you need to know-it is not your fault that your parents are not here today.” Again Lauri looked into Mrs. Lake’s face. No one had ever talked to her like this. No one.

“Third,” she went on, “you deserve（应得）to hear how well you are doing and how wonderful I think you are. ”In the following minutes, Mrs, Lake held a conference just for Lauri. She showed Lauri her grades, papers and projects, praising her efforts. She had even saved a pile of watercolors Lauri had painted.

Lauri didn’t know exactly when, but at some point in that conference she heard the voice of hope in her heart. And somewhere a change started. It was then that Lauri realized, for the first time in her life, that she was lovable.

1. Parents were required to take part in the conferences to           .

A. see how important it was to encourage their children

B. learn how their children had performed in their studies.

C. report to the teacher how their children were doing at home.

D. see how their children were getting along with their classmates

2. Lauri’s name was at the end of the list probably because_______.

A. she was shy and didn’t have courage to meet the teacher first

B. Lauri’s parents were always the last to come to the conference

C. Mrs. Lake knew that only Lauri didn’t care about it

D. Mris. Lake wanted to leave time to have a good talk with her

3. How did Lauri feel at the end of the conference?

A. Encouraged   B. Ashamed  C. Satisfied  D. Disappointed.

4. We can learn from the text that______.

A. Lauri didn't expect her parents to attend the conference

B. Lauri was not a hard-working student before

C. Mrs. Lake filled Lauri with hope and self-respect

D. Mrs. Lake was more strict with lauri than any other student,

Every year, as Spring Festival draws near, most Chinese people will get excited to make preparation for the most important festival and make plan for the winter break. It is a little like Christmas in the United States, but there are some differences between the two festivals.

Both the major Chinese and the major Western holidays come during the cold season, and special food is expected. In western countries, cookies and cakes begin just after Thanksgiving in November and show up everywhere. Turkey, potatoes and other food come later. Similar thing happens in China. Entering lunar December, most families will make shopping plans for the coming big day and food is certainly one of the most important things to be considered. At the end of the month, both parents in each family will be very busy---the father is busy buying food while the mother is busy cooking.

A deeper similarity (相似处) is tradition. Christmas, as the letters “Christ” suggests, began as a holiday to celebrate the birthday of Jesus Christ. Many people pray (祈祷) on this day. In China, people living in cities or towns, though they don’t plan to sow seeds（播种） this month, still celebrate on the big day for farmers.

Followers of both holidays are also different from each other. While Chinese people travel to the homes of elder relatives, Americans usually call or send cards. Westerners prefer Christmas carols to fireworks. In Christmas, many family gifts come together instead of one by one, since adults may have only one day free to celebrate.

But the most curious difference is about students. Chinese students going home for Spring Festival sometimes report that they get bored by the end of vacation, yet American students seldom get bored around Christmas and western New Year.

Not everyone enjoys classic holiday traditions. Students in western countries may get upset, as too much homework, travel or bad family relations may destroy the short holiday season. In China, more and more college students choose to travel or work during the winter holiday instead of going home to stay with their families. It’s against the tradition but many people accept it.

1.What does “the coming big day” (Paragraph 2) refer to?

A．Christmas                             B．Thanksgiving Day

C．the New Year’s Day                     D．the Spring Festival

2.The second and the third paragraphs mainly talk about ________.

A．the similarities between Christmas and the Spring Festival

B．the differences between Christmas and the Spring Festival

C．the preparations for Christmas and the Spring Festival

D．the history of Christmas and the Spring Festival

3.What does the writer mainly want to tell us in this passage?

A．Food in different festivals.

B．Differences between two festivals.

C．Festivals in China and western countries.

D．Traditional celebrations in different countries.