福建师范大学网络教育学院 大学英语1作业1.doc

PAGE PAGE 5 大学英语（1）第一次网络作业 (三次网络作业的平均成绩占期末考试成绩30%，请大家在认真复习好《大学英语》课本第一册第1-2单元的课文、词汇与短语后完成如下作业；作业一经批改评分，将不能修改；此次作业完成后应交到“在线作业”一栏本次作业界面中；作业必须按最后一页答卷表格格式作答，不要以附件形式缴交) 一. 阅读： （ 1 ） The world’s population continues to grow. There now are about 4 billion of us on earth. That could reach 6 billion by the end of the century and 11 billion in a further 75 years. Experts have long been concerned about such a growth. Where will we find the food, water, jobs, houses, school and health care for all these people? A major new study shows that the 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. It is happening in both developing and industrial nations. Researchers said they found a number of reasons for this. More men and women are waiting longer to get married and are using birth control devices and methods to prevent or delay pregnancy. More women are going to school or working at jobs away from home instead of having children. And more governments, especially in developing nations, now support family planning programs to reduce population grow. China is one of the nations that have made great progress in reducing its population growth. China has already cut its rate of population growth by about half since 1970. Each Chinese family is now urged to have no more than one child. And the hope is to reach a zero population growth with the total number of births equaling the total number of deaths by the year 2000. 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. And the persons who are working could face much higher taxes to help support the growing number of retired people. 1. The world’s population could reach ____________. a. 6 billion in 75 years b. 11 billion in 2075 c. 11 billion by the end of this century d. 600 million in 15 years 2. Wh