A new report says African governments are ill prepared to handle the growing number of people over age 65. The population in Africa as in other parts of the world, is getting older. Currently, there are 36 million people on the continent 65 years and above. which is 3.6 percent of the population. up from 3.3 percent 10 years ago. That could rise to 4.5 percent by 2030 and 10 percent by 2050. The African development Bank is raising concerns over the shortage of health insurance and pensions (养老金).
The African Development Bank says. "Aging is highly linked with long-term physical and mental disability and a number of long-term chronic (慢性的) conditions."
"Africa is not well prepared to care for its aging population right now. And it needs to prepare for this fact." said Professor Mthuli Ncube. the African Development Bank's chief economist. African nations spend far less on healthcare than developed nations do___ about $26per person per year. Not so many countries have well developed medical aid plans for the elderly, whether they are privately provided plans or indeed government plans. If you look at the pension plans, you will find the pension industries are not well developed in some of the countries.
Professor Mthuli Ncube said African governments failed to take action on health insurance
and pensions because they were busy with economic reforms.
Another challenge for Africa is the worsening of informal systems of social protection. That is cash and support from both the extended family and community sources.
. The African Development Bank recommends governments help carry out health insurance and pension plans. Ncube said African governments didn't have to handle the health insurance burden alone. "It is not only a must but also an opportunity for private companies to add their bit in this regard", he said. The report also recommends that African governments consider providing ways of free health services. medications and long-term health care facilities for the elderly. From the first paragraph we know the facts except that ____
| A．the speed of people aging is becoming quicker |
| B．Africa has the largest aging population |
| C．African governments are not well prepared to deal with the aging population |
| D．the shortage of health insurance and pensions adds to African governments' difficulty in dealing With the aging population |
Which is not highly linked with the aging according to the passage?
| A．Long-term physical disability. | B．Long-term mental disability. |
| C．Long-term chronic illnesses. | D．Long-term shortage of care and love. |
What got in the way of developing health insurance and pensions in Africa?
| A．The economic reforms. | B．Too many old people. |
| C．The shortage of land. | D．The development of the economy. |
How can the aging problem be solved in Africa according to Ncube?
| A．African governments should spend as much money on healthcare as developed countries |
| B．African people should save enough money to insure their health. |
| C．African governments should combine with private companies to finish health insurance and pension pains. |
| D．Private sources should take the main responsibility to help the elderly. |
The article is most likely to be seen____
| A．in a story book | B．in a newspaper | C．on a TV program | D．in a textbook |
Anna Riviere was one of the most admired of 19th-century English sopranos(女高音). She was also one of the most adventuresome.
She was born in London on January 9th, 1810. She entered the Royal Academy of Music at the age of 14. Seven years later, just after her first show, Anna married Sir Henry Bishop, who was 24 years her senior. Her reputation as a singer grew rapidly, based largely on her tours with Sir Henry and harpist Nicholas Bochsa. After a tour of Dublin, Edinburgh, and London, Anna Bishop deserted her husband and three children and ran away with Bochsa.
From then on, Madame Bishop—as she continued to be known—traveled and sang as if her life depended on it. Between 1839 and 1843 she traveled to every major town in Europe, where she sang in 260 concerts. In the course of two years in Naples, she performed in 20 operas. In 1855 she and Bochsa sailed for Sydney, Australia. He died there the following year, and Anna went on to tour South America before returning to New York, where she married a diamond merchant.
Then she began what proved her most dangerous adventure. After another American tour in 1866, she and her husband set sail across the Pacific. They were shipwrecked on a small coral reef, and for more than a month they drifted in a small boat before they finally reaching Guam. She had lost her music, her wardrobe, and her jewelry, but Madame Bishop was not to be stopped. She went on to Manila and began a concert tour that led to Hong Kong, Singapore, and India before she went back to England. After another two-year world tour she returned eventually to New York, where she gave her last public performance in 1883—at age 73.
Meanwhile the husband she left behind, Sir Henry, had become famous for writing the music to lyrics that might eventually have been meaningful to Anna Bishop—“Home, Sweet Home.”Which of the following message about Madama Bishop is true?
| A．She became famous after her first show. |
| B．After her tour in Europe, she returned to New York. |
| C．She got married more than once. |
| D．The song “Home, Sweet Home” was meaningful to her. |
Sir Henry is a _____.
| A．poem | B．singer |
| C．writer | D．composer |
Which is the right order of the event？
a. Bochsa died in Australia.
b. Madama Bishop deserted her husband and three children.
c. Madama Bishop toured South America.
d. Madama Bishop and her husband, a diamond merchant, set sail across the Pacific.
| A．abcd | B．bacd | C．bcda | D．dcba |
The best title for this passage is_____.
| A．The English soprano |
| B．The soprano toured around the world |
| C．A soprano and her husband |
| D．The adventuresome soprano |
Single people, especially women, are stigmatized（指责） in our society: We’re all familiar with the image of a sad, lonely woman eating ice cream with her cats in her pajamas on Saturday night. But about 45 percent of US adults aren't married and around one in seven lives alone. This might be you. Research shows that young people's expectations about their marital status (e.g. the desire to be married by 30 and have kids by 32) have little or no relationship to what actually happens to people. So, go with the flow. And, if you're single, you're in good company. Single people spend more time with friends, volunteer more, and are more involved in their communities than married people. Never-married and divorced women are happier, on average, than married women. So, don't buy into the myth of the miserable singleton.
If you do get married, keep going with the flow. Relationship satisfaction, financial security, and happy kids are more strongly related to flexibility in the face of life's challenges than any particular way of organizing families. The most functional families are ones that can bend. So partnering with someone who thinks that one partner should support their families and the other should take responsibility for the house and children is a recipe for disaster. So is being equally rigid about non-traditional divisions of labor. It's okay to have ideas about how to organize your family but your best bet for happiness is to be flexible.
Buying a home is often taken for granted as a stage on the path to adulthood. But the ideal of universal home ownership was born in the 1950s. It's a rather new idea.With such a short history, it's funny that people often insist that buying a house is a fool-proof investment and the best way to secure retirement. In fact, buying a house may not be the best choice for you. The mortgage(按揭) may be less than rent, but there are also taxes, insurance, and the increasingly common Home Owners Association (HOA) fees. You may someday sell the house for more than you bought it but, if you paid interest on a mortgage, you also paid far more than the sale price. You have freedom from a landlord, but may discover your HOA is just as controlling, or worse. And then there's the headache: renting relieves you from the stress of being responsible for repairs. It also offers a freedom of movement that you might cherish.
So be wise and consider all your options.It can be inferred from the passage that_________.
| A．many Americans get married by 30 and have kids by 32 |
| B．married women have a happier life than those never-married |
| C．divorced women lives a miserable life |
| D．the society tends to have a wrong image about single women |
According to the passage, what can be a happy family？
| A．The happy family is flexible in the face of life’s challenges. |
| B．The happy family has particular way of organizing families. |
| C．The happy family believes the traditional divisions of labor. |
| D．The happy family has relationship satisfaction, financial security and happy kids. |
The purpose of paragraph 3 is to _______.
| A．tell people to rent a house rather than buy a house |
| B．ask people to think hard about whether to buy a house |
| C．show people buying a house is foolish |
| D．tell people buying a house may cost a lot of money |
The passage mainly tells us _______.
| A．how to have a happy family |
| B．what’s the life of American youth |
| C．what American youth should know for living a happy life |
| D．why American youth should be wise when making decisions |
As a health editor, I spend the majority of my day poring over content related to health. At HuffPost, we're lucky to talk to experts on a daily basis about how to live our best lives. It’s clear that life would be healthier if we would just do the following things. Sure, some of these are easier said than done.
1.Have a bedtime.
Sleep is considered the third pillar(支柱) of health, and for good reason. Research is only making it increasingly clear that not getting enough of the stuff can have serious health effects. Meanwhile, getting enough sleep is good for everything ranging from weight, to mood, to even the immune system. One of the simplest things you can do to ensure you get enough sleep each night is to set a bedtime. Forgive yourself if you can't meet it every night, but make a point to try to stick to it.
2. Cultivate your emotional intelligence
To have emotional intelligence means to be "confident, good at working towards your goals and adaptable. You recover quickly from stress." psychologist Daniel Goleman previously told HuffPost. It's made up of five parts: social skills, empathy, motivation, self-awareness and self-regulation. And fortunately, these are all traits you can cultivate. Be curious about things beyond yourself. Know what you're good at and where you can stand to improve. Try to improve your ability to pay attention.
3.
This is something I'm still working on. I'm an objectively fast person -- fast at walking, fast at eating, fast at talking. This also makes me very impatient, and also sometimes very unobservant -- stopping to smell the roses has never been my strong suit. But slowing down to appreciate life and all its little moments builds gratitude -- and that's a very healthy thing.
4. Find an exercise you actually enjoy
It's not exactly a secret how much I opposite-of-like running. I'll still do it, because of health, but there are certainly other ways I'd rather get my fitness in. And that's completely OK. Research has even shown that whether we think of fitness as "fun" or "exercise" affects how much we end up eating. For me, exercise is a pill best swallowed as volleyball. For you, it may be dancing, or swimming, or riding your bike. Don't think that just because you don't like "conventional" exercise -- running, going to the gym, etc. -- you're "bad at exercise." No such thing!Which of the following has something to do with the immune system?
| A．exercise | B．sleep |
| C．emotional intelligence | D．mood |
What can we infer from the passage?
| A．You should set a bedtime and stick to it no matter what happened. |
| B．Paying attention is not as important as other abilities for emotional intelligence. |
| C．The writer is no longer a fast person. |
| D．The exercise the writer likes most is volleyball. |
Emotional intelligence includes the following except______.
| A．confidence | B．motivation |
| C．stress | D．self-awareness |
The best title for the third tip is___________.
| A．Feel gratitude to life |
| B．Stop to smell the roses |
| C．Lead a simple life |
| D．Take a time to appreciate your life |
Most city parks are places where you can escape from big, ugly structures of metal and stone. The Manhattan High Line is different. Raised 25 feet above the ground, this large metal structure once supported a rail line. The line opened in 1934 to bring trains directly into factories. It was hardly used after the 1960s, and much of it was torn down. However, one part remained in a region of Manhattan called Chelsea. Chelsea was becoming high-class as restaurants, art galleries and apartments were built, but the ugly railway structure remained as a dead weight. Everyone knew that at some time, it would have to be removed.
But the High Line was not destroyed. In fact, now the old rail line serves as one of the most peaceful places in the city. It holds an elevated(高架的) park, with beautiful gardens and great views of the city. The idea to turn the rail line into a park came from Joshua David and Robert Hammond. In 1999, they attended a meeting to decide how to deal with the High Line. David and Hammond were the only people at the meeting interested in saving the historical structure. Later on, when they asked railway officials to take them up to look at the High Line, they saw a mile and a half of wild flowers growing in the middle of the city, and they realized that the High Line had potential(潜力) to become a park. There was growing interest in improving city centers, and so the project quickly developed and money for construction was easily collected.
The first section of the High Line opened in 2009 and immediately became popular with tourists and locals alike. Each part of the park has a different atmosphere. Some areas are like balconies(阳台) with wonderful city views. Where the rail line goes between buildings, trees are thickly planted. Other sections have wide lawns(草坪) and walkways planted with wild flowers. Only the final section remains the way it has been for the last fifty years.What is the text mainly about？
| A．Protection of cultural relics. |
| B．An unlikely place for a park. |
| C．Improving city transport. |
| D．Closing a train line. |
The underlined part “a dead weight” (Paragraph 1) means__________.
| A．something with potential to be better |
| B．something with historical interest |
| C．something useless which slows progress |
| D．something which is a danger to people |
Why did David and Hammond originally want to save the High Line?
| A．They thought it had historical value. |
| B．They thought it would make a good park. |
| C．They wanted to reopen the train line. |
| D．They were interested in improving the city. |
Why were people easily persuaded by David and Hammond’s idea?
| A．They wanted to see the wild flowers too. |
| B．They realized the High Line was historically important. |
| C．They wanted to make cities nicer places. |
| D．They knew the project would bring in much money. |
What can we learn about the High Line from the text?
| A．It was designed by David and Hammond. |
| B．It began to be popular in the 1960s. |
| C．Trains still use the line. |
| D．Only part of the line remains. |
For kids and many adults, a San Diego vacation means theme parks and other attractions. Before heading to a park, call or check its website for updated hours of operation; many parks have seasonal or holiday hours. Ticket prices listed here are for general admission(入场费), single-day use only.
SeaWorld San Diego
A 6-minute ride called Journey to Atlantis, which is to open in late May, tells the legend of the island nation. After the ride of Greek fishing boats, folks can visit a new exhibit of dolphins, which have not been on display at the park since 1998.
DETAILS: General admission is $46.95 for adults, $37.95for children aged 3-9, free for children 2 and younger. 1-800-380-3203 or www.seaworld.com
San Diego Zoo
There’s not much in the way of new attractions. The zoo has a new panda cub(幼兽), Mei Sheng. Nighttime Zoo, a program popular with families, starts June 26.
DETAILS: General admission is $21 for adults, $14 for children aged 3-11, free for children 2 and younger. 1-(619)-234-3153 or www.sandiegozoo.org.
Maritime(海的) Museum of San Diego
The HMS Surprise, the 18th-century British warship featured in the film Master and Commander, is on exhibit through Nov. 30.
DETAILS: The ship is available for tours from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. Admission is $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and children aged 13-17, $5 for kids aged 6-12, and free for kids 5 and younger. 1-(619)-234-9153 or www.sdmaritime.org.
Old Town Trolley Tours
Visiting relatives or friends in San Diego? They can get a hometown pass and ride for free with you paid admission.
DETAILS: The main ticket booth(售票亭) is in Old Town at 4010 Twiggs St. Hours are from 9 am to 5 pm, daily $25. www.historictours.com/sandiego.The purpose of this text is to ____________.
| A．warn | B．amuse | C．persuade | D．guide |
If you want to enjoy the performance of dolphins, you should go to __________.
| A．SeaWorld San Diego |
| B．San Diego Zoo |
| C．Maritime Museum of San Diego |
| D．Old Town Trolley Tours |
If a couple visits San Diego Zoo with their children, one aged 3 and the other 2, the admission will be ___________.
| A．$35 | B．$ 49 | C．$56 | D．$70 |
According to the text, Old Town Trolley Tours can be well described by the saying_________.
| A．“Love at first sight.” |
| B．“Kill two birds with one stone.” |
| C．“Easy come, easy go.” |
| D．“Strike the iron while it is hot.” |
It can be inferred from the text that ___________.
| A．San Diego Zoo will attract the largest number of children |
| B．there may be some stories about the island of Atlantis |
| C．tickets during the holidays are more expensive |
| D．the film Master and Commander can be seen in Maritime Museum of San Diego |