Some nations think they must have more and more babies, more and more people, if they are to remain strong and free.

Actually, this is not so. Very often in history, small nations have conquered large ones. It’s not so much the size of the army as its organization and the technical level of its weapons. Thus, Greece took over Persia in the 300s B.C., Great Britain took over India in the 1700s, even though Persia and India had far bigger population than Greece and Great Britain.

If a nation wishes to avoid being dominated by its neighbors, its best chance is to raise its standard of living and its level of technology.This can be done best by not allowing its population to grow to such a point that it is sunk in misery and poverty. In fact, the worst way in which a nation can try to avoid being dominated by its neighbor is to increase its population to the point of misery and poverty.

If every nation tries to compete with its neighbors by raising its population, then the whole world will be sunk in misery and poverty. The nations will become weak in a disaster that will leave nothing behind that is worth dominating. No one will have gained anything. Everyone will have lost everything.

Once all this is understood, and people generally agree that population growth must not be allowed to continue, they must also come to understand how that growth can be stopped. Population grows because more people are being born than are dying. There are two ways, then, in which the growth can be stopped. You can increase the number of people who die until it matches the number of people who are being born. Or else you can decrease the number of people who are born until it matches the number of people who are dying.

The first method—increasing the death rate—is the usual way in which population is controlled in all species of living things other than ourselves, but we don’t want that, for disaster lies that way. The intelligent way is to reduce the birth rate. But how can the birth rate be reduced?

1. In paragraph 3, the word “This” refers to ______.

A．avoidance of poverty                    B．improvement of life and technology

C．growth of population                     D．enhancement of living standard and competition

2. It can be inferred from the passage that if a country had fewer people, ______.

A．it could still remain strong                 B．it would be defeated by a strong neighbour

C．its standard of living could be high           D．its people would live misery

3. What might the author be further discussing after the passage?

A．Needs to balance population.              B．Problems involved in birth control.

C．Methods of decreasing population.          D．Opposition from some nations.

4. The passage mainly focuses on ______.

A．why we must control population            B．where we can find a solution

C．how to stop population growth             D．how to become a strong nation

LONDON---A British judge on Thursday sentenced a businessman who sold fake（假冒的）bomb detectors（探测器）to 10 years in prison, saying the man hadn’t cared about potentially deadly consequences.

         It is believed that James McCormick got about $ 77.8 million from the sales of his detectors---which were based on a kind of golf ball finder---to countries including Iraq, Belgium and Saudi Arabia.

         McCormick, 57, was convicted（判罪）of cheats last month and sentenced Thursday at the Old Bailey court in London.

         “Your cheating conduct in selling a great amount of useless equipment simply for huge profit promoted a false sense of security and in all probability materially contributed to causing death and injury to innocent people,” Judge Richard Hone told McCormick. “You have neither regret, nor shame, nor any sense of guilt.”

         The detectors, sold for up to $ 42, 000 each, were said to be able to find such dangerous objects as bombs under water and from the air. But in fact they “lacked any grounding in science” and were of no use.

         McCormick had told the court that he sold his detectors to the police in Kenya, the prison service in Hong Kong, the army in Egypt and the border control in Thailand.

         “I never had any bad results from customers,” he said.

1.Why was McCormick sentenced to prison?

A. He sold bombs.                                          B. He caused death of people.

C. He made detectors.                                   D. He cheated in business.

2.According to the judge, what McCormick had done         .

A. increased the cost of safeguarding

B. lowered people’s guard against danger

C. changed people’s idea of social security

D. caused innocent people to commit crimes

3.Which of the following is true of the detectors?

A. They have not been sold to Africa

B. They have caused many serious problems.

C. They can find dangerous objects in water.

D. They don’t function on the basis of science.

4.It can be inferred from the passage that McCormick         .

A. solo the equipment at a low price

B. was well-known in most countries

C. did not think he had committed the crime

D. had not got such huge profit as mentioned in the text

I shall never forget those days _______ I lived in the army with the soldiers, _______ has a great effect on my life.

1. A.
   that ; which
2. B.
   when ; which
3. C.
   when ; that
4. D.
   which ; that

The name “cowboy” conjures up many different images from movies, songs and TV. These imagined cowboys range from white-hat-wearing heroes to gun-shooting hooligans(流氓).But, cowboys are actually real people from US history.

When the US Civil War ended, many soldiers had no place to call home. So, they began to drift to the country’s rural West. Ranchers(农场主) hired these men to take care of the cattle and work around the ranch. When the ranch owner wanted to sell the cattle, the cowboys would round up the herd from the open prairie(牧场) and drive the cattle miles to the market.

With the invention of barbed wire(铁丝网),the cowboy era(1865-1890) began to come to an end. But people in the East had always been curious about their lifestyle. Many country/western songs during this time tried to capture the true cowboy spirit. Newspapers published cowboy tales in serial form and adventure novels followed. The bigger the fiction,  the better the sales. These novels often portrayed cowboys as cruel and violent men. Cowboys carried the bad reputation for many years afterwards.

When movies began to be popular in the 1920s, the cowboy image changed again. Now, a cowboy became the great white knight(骑士) that loved his horse more than the beautiful ladies he rescued. As the cowboy of the “Old West” spent more time with his horse than the ladies, this era's image was not entirely false.

Then, in the 50s,Hollywood began producing so-called “spaghetti westerns(意大利西部片)”.They earned the nickname because Italian companies financed the films and TV shows. This started the decade’s “Cowboy Craze”. While this didn’t last long, it made modern country / western music, fashion and dance extremely popular.

In recent years, with the help of musicians, radio stations and bars, cowboy nostalgia(怀旧情绪) has returned. Even though his image is still changing — somewhere between ballad singing country boy and bar room fighter — there’s one thing for sure, you can’t keep the cowboy down.

1.The purpose of this story is to ______.

A．introduce cowboy movies and novels

B．introduce various productions associated with cowboys

C．show the cowboy's everlasting charm

D．inform us about the cowboy’s spirit

2.Before they became cowboys, they ______.

A．served in the army                      B．worked as bar-room fighters

C．owned ranches                         D．were adventurous explorers

3.During “the cowboy era” mentioned in the story, ______________.

A．the cowboy often came to the rescue of ladies in newspaper tales

B．the distant Wild West appealed to people in the East

C．cowboys were shown as cruel and violent men on the silver screen

D．country music started the cowboy craze which swept the whole country

4.By saying “you can’t keep the cowboy down”, the writer means that ______.

A．cowboys are real people in history          B．cowboys still fascinate people

C．you can't make cowboys unhappy           D．you can’t grasp the cowboy spirit

5.Which of the following statements would the writer agree to?

A．The cowboy has been presented in different lights in different eras.

B．Cowboys are gun-shooting hooligans, without doubt.

C．Cowboys have always been a passing phenomenon.

D．Cowboys enjoy Italian foods, for example, spaghetti.

In 1987, while serving as the public affairs officer at Fort Bragg, I would frequently visit the local high schools to speak to the students about the Army. As a lieutenant colonel(中校), I found it particularly rewarding to talk with the teenagers about the benefits of military service, if only for a few years of their lives.

During one of these visits, I reported to the secretary in the principal’s office to let her know that I was here for the third-period class. I was a little surprised when she told me. “The principal would like to see you before you go to the class.”

As I entered his office, I was greeted by a gentleman who appeared to be in his late thirties, and he welcomed me with a smile and a handshake. “You don’t remember me, do you?” he said.

I looked closely at the face again and could not recall where we may have met before.

“You were my company commander in basic training at Fort Jackson in 1970,” the principal said.

“Let me help you out,” he suggested. “You gave me a three-day pass to go home and see my newborn baby.” I immediately remembered the incident!

“Yes,” I said. “I remember now.” It was the only three-day pass I had issued because the soldiers were on their way to Vietnam immediately after they finished training. But I knew if I did not let him go home to see his son and something happened to him, I would regret denying the opportunity he had to be with his family.

“Come on, Colonel. I’d like to introduce you to ‘the baby’. He’s in your third-period class. By letting me go see him, you gave me a reason to stay focused and to come home safe from that war. Thank you , sir.”

It was the most rewarding class I had ever given, and I had no problem in telling the students about the bonds of friendship and the values that Army life can provide…and that can last a lifetime.

In the writer’s opinion, talking to teens about the Army is       .

A. a forced task                           B. a pleasant thing

C. an unavoidable duty         D. an embarrassing experience

Why did the principal want to see the writer?

A. He wanted to send his son to the Army.

B. He felt sorry for causing the writer trouble.

C. He was disappointed at the writer’s lecture.

D. He intended to express his thanks to the writer.

The underlined part in the text suggests that       .

  A. the son may die                          B. the son may become ill

C. the soldier may die in the war     D. the soldier may be hurt in the training

What might be the most suitable title for the text?

A. A soldier remembers.               B. A principal thinks

C. A baby grows                          D. A lecture continues