49.Many girls are now likely to        .

     A. give up their jobs for good after they are married

     B. leave school as soon as they can

     C. marry so that they can get a job

     D. continue working until they are going to have a baby

48. According to the passage, it is now quite usual for women to         .

     A. stay at home after leaving school         

B. marry men younger than themselves

     C. start working again later in life          

D. marry while still at school

47.One reason why the woman of today may take a job is that she         .

     A. is younger when her children are old enough to look after themselves

     B. does not like children herself

     C. needn't worry about food for her children

     D. can be free from family duties when she reaches sixty

46. We are told that in a family in about 1900        .

     A. few children died before they were five

     B. seven or eight children lived to be more than five

     C. the youngest child would be fifteen

     D. four or five children died when they were five

45. C 词义题。作者先在第一句介绍，每个家庭至少买一份报纸；由此我们可以推出后面的一些家庭与三四份报纸的关系是“订阅（subscribe）”即agree to buy for a specified time。

B

    During the twentieth-century there has been a great change in the lives of women. A woman marrying at the end of the nineteenth century would probably have been in her middle twenties, and would be likely to have seven or eight children, of whom four or five lived till they were five years old. By the time the youngest was fifteen, the mother would have been in her early fifties and would expect to live a further twenty years, during which chance and health made it unusual for her to get paid work. Today women marry younger and have fewer children. Usually a woman's youngest child will be fifteen when she is forty-five and can be expected to live another thirty-five years and is likely to take paid work until sixty.

   This important change in women's life has only recently begun to have its full effect on women's economic position. Even a few years ago most girls left school and took a full-time job. However, when they married, they usually left work at once and never returned to it. Today the school-leaving age is sixteen, many girls stay at school after that age, and though women marry younger, more married women stay at work at least until shortly before their first child is born. Very many more afterwards return to full or part-time work. Such changes have led to a new relationship in marriage, with the husband accepting a greater share of the duties and satisfactions of family life.

44. A 细节题。从took months and even years to travel from one country to another知，500年前新闻从一个国家传到另一个国家需要很长时间。其它的都能从文中找到相应介绍支持。

43. C 推断题。根据it is worth the money for news of their products goes into almost every home in the country可知对广告商而言投入的广告费是“值得的（worthwhile）”；同时从后文可以知道其它选项不符合文意。

42. D 细节题。由The news passed by word of mouth and was never accurate可知，古代新闻是通过人与人之间的交谈口头传播的。

 45. Some people subscribe to as many as two or three different newspapers. Here the phrase "subscribe to"means           .

    A. contribute to                       B. write to

C. agree to buy for a specified time       D. appreciate

本文主要从新闻的来源和它的信息包含范围来说明它在人们日常生活生活中的重要性及人们订阅它的原因。