44. Where do you think the official named Mary works?

A.In Minneapolis Airport               B.In the US Consulate

C.At the Customs in Acapulco           D.In Detroit Airport

B

Don’t go to Kauai. Go to any of the other Hawaiian Islands—Maui, Lanai, the Big Island—but leave Kauai for us. The weather on Kauai is so unpredictable that sometimes it rains all day—in fact, it’s the second –wettest spot on the earth. Yes, there are giant double rainbows all the time, and the sunlight through the clouds is magical. But if you are not interested in these, go somewhere else. You just can’t control the nature on Kauai, and who wants to surrender to the nature when you could be at a fine hotel, lying in a comfortable chair next to a swimming pool, with food served upon request?

So what if Kauai produces surf champions the way Texas produces cowboys? Most of its 300 white-sand beaches are unmarked. Unless you connect with the local people, the hidden spots are hard to find. While Hanalei is the most beautiful town you’ve ever dreamed of, you can forget about discos and clubs. Worse, it doesn’t have one single four-star restaurant. What it does have is the original drive- through places where you pass by a rambutan tree (红毛丹树)，and pick a piece of fruit.

Shopping in Kauai? Forget it—unless you are interested in shell necklaces and beautifully carved wood bowls. Kauai is not about pampering. It’s about going natural and finding the nature within you. It’s a do-it-yourself place that offers walking along the coast, driving and swimming in the Pacific Ocean, and lying on the beach.

Don’t go to Kauai unless you have a lot of time, because there’s only one road, which can be slightly dull. It winds through the beautiful scenery of waterfalls, rivers flowing into the ocean, and taro(芋头)fields. You have no choice but to look at everything, because the speed limit is 35 m.p.h.

If you’re not interested in color, don’t bother with Kauai, because that’s what you get—red roads, blue oceans, and a hundred different shades of green. It’s like diving on land. Many people on Kauai believe that this is Lemuria—a lost island in the Atlantic. Can you imagine? Those Hawaiians, surfers, New Agers, and people who love nature and beauty and want a different quality of life—what do they know, anyway? Forget about it—you’re not going to like it. Go somewhere else. Leave Kauai for us.

45. After reading the text, we come to know that it is              .

A.a piece of shocking news

B.an exciting story

C.an interesting introduction

D.a moving advertisement

46. It can be learned from the text that              .

A. Kauai is an island near the Hawaiian Islands

B. Kauai is another name of the Hawaiian Islands

C. Kauai is one of the Hawaiian Islands

D. Kauai doesn’t belong to the Hawaiian Islands

47. In the writer’s opinion, Kauai            .

A. is not worth visiting at all         B. is well worth visiting

C. is not a beautiful island           D. is a dangerous island

48. Who would like to visit Kauai?

A.Those who love nature.

B.Those who love city life.

C.Those who love the comfort in a fine hotel.

D.Those who love going shopping.

C

The American baby boom after the war made unconvincing U.S. advice to poor countries that they limit their births. However, there has hardly been a year since 1957 in which birth rates did not fall in the United States and other rich countries, and in 1976 the fall was especially sharp. Both East Germany and West Germany have fewer births than they have deaths, and the United States is only temporarily able to avoid this condition because the children of the baby boom are now an exceptionally large group of married couples.

It is true that Americans do not typically plan their births to set an example for developing nations. We are more affected by women's liberation: once women see interesting and well-paid jobs as careers available, they are less willing to provide free labor for child raising. From costing nothing, children suddenly come to seem impossibly expensive. And to the high cost of children are added the uncertainties, introduced by divorce; couples are increasing to subject children to the terrible experience of marriage breakdown and themselves to the difficulty of raising a child alone.

These circumstances-women working outside the home and the instability of marriage, trend to spread with industrial society and they will affect more and more countries during the remainder of this century. Along with them goes social mobility, ambition to rise in the urban world, a main factor in bringing down the births in Europe in the 19th century.

Food shortage will happen again when the reserves resulting from the good harvests of 1976 and 1977 have been consumed. Urbanization is likely to continue, with the cities of the developing nations struggling under the weight of twice their present populations by the year 2000. The presently rich countries are approaching a stable population largely because of the changed place of women, and they incidentally are setting an example of restraint to the rest of the world. Industrial society will spread to the poor countries, and ambition will exceed resources. All this will lead to a population in the 21st century that is smaller than that was feared   a few years ago. For those anxious to see world population brought under control, the news is encouraging.

49. During the years from 1957 to 1976, the birth rate of the United States _____.

A. increased                                  B. was reduced

C. experiences both falls and rises      D. high divorce rate

50. What influences the birth rate most in the United States is _____.

A. highly paid jobs                     B. women's working for independence

C. expenses of child raising          D. high divorce rate

51. The sentence "From costing nothing, children suddenly come to seem impossibly expensive" implies that _____.

A. food and clothing for babies are becoming incredibly expensive

B. prices are going up dramatically all the time

C. to raise children, women have to give up interesting and well-paid jobs

D. social development has made child-raising inexpensive

52. A chief factor in bringing down the births in Europe in the 19th century is_____.

A. birth control                   B. women’s strong desire for working

C. the instability of marriage     D. the changed place of women

53. The population in 21st century, according to the writer _____.

A. will be smaller than a few year ago       B. will not be as small as people expect

C. will prove to be threat to the world   D. will not continue as serious a problem as expected