The lifestyle of families has changed because of science and industry（工业）.

    More Americans used to live on farms, nearly each family had many children. In a farm family, parents and their children often lived with grandparents. Uncles and aunties often lived nearby, too. But when industry became more important than agriculture（农业）in American life, families became smaller, industry needs lots of workers. They must be ready and able to move off the land and move again whenever necessary. It isn't easier for large families to move from place to place as small families can. Today, more and more small families have appeared, smaller families may have no children and they may have only a man and a woman because keeping children is really hard work. It takes parents not only money and time, but also much more energy and makes young couples（夫妇）busy working, studying and enjoying their lives all day. They are probably not important in keeping children.

    That's why the increasing of population in most developed countries are becoming more and more slowly, In China today, each family has only one healthy child because of one-child policy.

    In this way, the country can develop farther than before and young children can have more opportunities to get education and to find suitable jobs.

(C)

配对阅读。左栏是5个人的活动计划。右栏是7个人的时间安排情况。请为左边的每个人选择最适合参加其活动计划的人。

Having a cheetah （猎豹）as a pet in the house? Does it sound scary to you? But for a family in South Africa， one cheetah is treated as a VIP (Very Important Person) in the house. The big cheetah is named Jolie, after the film star Angelina Jolie{#blank#}1{#/blank#}. She can often be found eating from the kitchen table, taking a short sleep on the sofa, or even sleeping on Lucy and Jeff's bed. The big cat also sleeps and plays with the Browns' other pet, the more usual one— a sheepdog{#blank#}2{#/blank#}

Having a cheetah as a pet is unusual. Atfirst，Mrs.Brown wasn't willing to keep a cheetah as a pet. She said,''{#blank#}3{#/blank#}. But we are now happy that we did it— she is part of the family.''

    Just like her name, four-year-old Jolie has achieved a celebrity(名人) status（地位）in the Browns' hometown. Fans often come to take pictures of her{#blank#}4{#/blank#}.

    However, a cheetah is always a cheetah{#blank#}5{#/blank#}. '' She makes a lot of mess in the house, urinating （小便）everywhere and chewing everything. It's her wild instincts (天性), said Mrs. Brown. There must be some problems of having a cheetah as a pet in the house, but some unusual fun must also be waiting ahead.

A. Interestingly, Jolie enjoys all the special attention that is paid to her.

B. An impossible friendship has happened between these two animals.

C. Though Jolie is now a pet in the home, she still has some wild habits.

D. She is surely the VIP at Lucy and Jeff Brown's home.

E. I was really against the idea of getting a cheetah as a pet.

    Once, a student complained to his teacher about his unhappy life. The teacher decided to teach him a lesson.

    One day, he asked the student to get some salt and a glass of water.

The student returned with a glass of clean water and a handful of salt. The teacher asked the young man to put the salt into the glass and drink it.

    "How does it taste?" the teacher asked.

    "It tastes bitter (味苦的)," the student replied.

    The teacher didn't say anything else, but asked the young man to get the same amount (数量) of salt and follow the teacher to a nearby lake.

    "Put the salt into the lake," the teacher said. The young man did what the teacher said.

    "Now, taste the water from the lake," the teacher said.

    As the water dropped down the young man's chin, the teacher asked, "How does it taste?"

    "Fresh and a bit sweet," the student said.

    "Do you taste the salt?" the teacher asked.

    "No," the young man shook his head.

    The teacher sat beside the young man and said, "The pain of life is like salt — no more, no less. However, the amount of bitterness you taste depends on the container (容器) you put the pain in." The amount of pain in life stays exactly the same. So when you are in pain, the only thing to do is to open up the mind. Stop being a glass, become a lake.

   In thetime it takes you to read this sentence, the population of the Earth will have grownby 10 people. That may not sound much, but it is about 14,000 people an hour. Thatis the same as adding most of the population of Germany to the world every year!

   Most of these new people are born in developing countries. These countriesare found in much of Africa, South America, and parts of Asia. In the developedcountries of Europe and North America, the population is growing very slowly. Thisis because women in these countries have, on average, only one or two children.In the developing countries, many women have five or more children. In 1950, aroundone quarter of the world's population lived in the developed countries. By 2050,these countries will be the home to only around one tenth of the world's people.

   In the developing countries, more than one billion people already live belowthe poverty line (贫困线).These people don't have enough food to eat and they live in poor housing;children get little or no time at school and suffer from many kinds of diseases.

   The United Nations (UN) tries to guess population growth. At the beginningof the 21st century, the world's population was around six billion people. The UNhas said that the world's population will level off at 12. 5 billion people by theyear 2100. Other people think the world's population will continue to grow, reaching14 billion people before it becomes stable or even falls.