In Britain, children from the age of 5 to 16 can receive partly free education by law.（

What is said about the blocks of flats built in the past in Britain？

A．They were mostly inhabited by people who did not earn much.

B．They were usually not large enough to accommodate big families.

C．They were sold to people before necessary facilities were installed.

D．They provided playgrounds for children on the top of the buildings.

What is said about blocks of flats built in the past in Britain？

A) They were mostly inhabited by people who did not earn much.

B) They were usually not large enough to accommodate big families.

C) They were sold to people before necessary facilities were installed.

D) They provided playgrounds for children on the top of the buildings.

What is said about blocks of flats built in the past in Britain？

A．They were mostly inhabited by people who did not earn much.

B．They were usually not large enough to accommodate big families.

C．They were sold to people before necessary facilities were installed.

D．They provided playgrounds for children on the top of the buildings.

听力原文： The home is the central focus of most young people's lives in Britain, particularly for those who are still attending school. The majority rely upon their home environment as a place of security and upon theft parents as the main providers of food, money and other necessities of life—as well as general advice. Young people spend a large proportion of their leisure time at home with other members of their family or with friends.

After the home, school is the main social environment where children not only receive their formal education but also develop their identities within peer groups. All school children in Britain are encouraged to take up activities which complement their academic and vocational education end help to identify their individual talent, such as sports, drama, music and creative pursuits. Many of these form. part of the school curricula.

The personal development end informal social education of young people aged from 11 to 25 are also promoted by the Youth Service in Britain. The Service is a partnership between law authorities and a large number of voluntary organizations. A recent survey estimates that nearly six million young people in this age group are either current or past participants in the Service.

Youth clubs and centers are the most common types of Youth Service provision, encouraging their members to participate in sport, cultural and creative activities, and community service. Some also provide information and counseling. Youth clubs may be branches of national or international bodies or they may be entirely local institutions.

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A．At school.

B．At home.

C．At Youth Clubs.

D．At Youth Centers.

rly for those who are still attending school. The majority rely upon their home environment as a place of security and upon their parents as the main providers of food, money and other necessities of life—as well as general advice. Young people spend a large proportion of their leisure time at home with other members of their family or with friends.

After the home, school is the main social environment where children not only receive their formal education but also develop their identities within peer groups. All school children in Britain are encouraged to take up activities which complement their academic and vocational education and help to identify their individual talent, such as sports, drama, music and creative pursuits. Many of these form. part of the school curricula.

The personal development and informal social education of young people aged from 11 to 25 are also promoted by the Youth Service in Britain. The Service is a partnership between law authorities and a large number of voluntary organizations. A recant survey estimates that nearly six million young people in this age group are either current or past participants in the Service.

Youth clubs and centers are the most common types of Youth Service provision, encouraging their members to participate hi sport, cultural and creative activities, and community service. Some also provide information and counseling. Youth clubs may be branches of national or international bodies or they may be entirely local institutions.

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A．At school.

B．At home.

C．At Youth Clubs.

D．At Youth Centers.

in get？

M: Yes. I thought it was quite interesting, but I don't quite understand the column entitled change. Can you explain what it means？

W: Well, I think it means the change from the year before. I am not a mathematician, but I assume the rise from 70p to 90p is a rise of 25 percent.

M: Oh, yes, I see. And the inflation rate is there for comparison.

W: Yes. Why do you think the rise in pocket money is often higher than inflation？

M: I am sorry I've no idea. Perhaps parents in Britain are too generous.

W: Perhaps they are. But it looks as if children were not better off in 2001 than they were in 2002. That's strange, isn't it？ And they seem to have been better off in 2003 than they are now. I wonder why that is.

M: Yes, I don't understand that at all.

W: Anyway, if you had children, how much pocket money would you give them？

M: I don't know. I think I'll probably give them 2 pounds a week.

W: Would you？ And what would you expect them to do with it？

M: Well, out of that, they have to buy some small personal things, but I wouldn't expect them to save to buy their own socks, for example.

W: Yes, by the way, do most children in your country get pocket money？

M: Yeah, they do.

What is the table of figures about？

A．The pocket money British children get.

B．The annual inflation rate in Britain.

C．The things British children spend money on.

D．The rising cost of raising a child in Britain.

Are We Turning into a Nation of Loners？

Marriage is down, and so is childbirth. But divorce is up, along with single-person living. This is Britain today.

A period of unprecedented change in British family life, where adults lead more isolated lives, bringing up children on their own or not having them at all, is described in a report today. The independent Family Policy Studies Centre paints a picture of an evolving society with fewer children, fewer marriages, more divorces and more solo living, where "marriage and partnerships are much more fragile than they were".

Although the government has gone further than any other in developing explicit policies for parenting and marriage, ministers should become "more in tune with contemporary family life", it says. They need to consider the effect of these changes, the report says, not just on children affected by the breakdown of adult relationships, but on society as a whole and "right across the life cycle".

The report says it is still too early to talk of the death of the "traditional family", because four-fifths of dependent children still live in a family with two parents, and nine in ten of those parents are married. But other statistics included in the report demonstrate significant changes in family demographics (人口统计) with profound, often unexplored, consequences.

More than 6.5 million people in Britain—about 28% of households—now live on their own, three times as many as 40 years ago, the report says. Nearly a quarter of women born in 1973 will still be childless at the age of 45, compared with about one in ten of those born in 1943. Women are having children later, on average at 29 rather than at 26, as in the 1970s, and they are having fewer offspring. The average of 1.73 children per woman in the late 1990s, though higher than in most EU countries, is well below the 2.1 needed to retain the population at its present level in the long term.

Lone parents trebled

The 21% of dependent children living in lone parent households (the vast majority with their mother) has trebled (三倍) from the 7% in 1972. The number of lone parents has trebled in the past 25 years—there were about 1.6 million such parents and 2.8 million dependent children by the mid 1990s, compared with just over 500000 lone parents and 1 million dependent children in 1971. Within that 1.6 million, the fastest growing group is single, never-married lone mothers. Their proportion, 42% in 1997, is nearly double the proportion of 24% for 1984.

"Twenty years ago such women would have married only to see their relationship end in separation or divorce," the report says. "Single lone mothers should be seen as the modern equivalent of teenagers in earlier generations whose shotgun marriages (为怀孕所迫的结婚) failed."

The annual marriage rate is at its lowest level since records began 160 years ago. In 1961 approximately 330000 first-time marriages and 50000 remarriages took place. By 1997 these figures had dropped to fewer than 200000 first-time marriages and approximately 120000 remarriages. Of every five marriages, two will end in divorce. More than 150000 children under 16 experience the divorce of their parents, and if present rates continue, 28% of children under 16 will experience divorce. The cost of family breakdown to the public purse has been estimated at about 5 billion a year.

But marriage is still more stable than cohabiting, with couples who live together unmarried three or four times more likely to split up. Future research will show a rise in the proportion of cohabiting couples, from the one in ten in the most recently available figures. And the presence of children in a cohabiting relationship does not appear to reduce the breakdown rate significantly. Although the Centre itself devotes some space in its report to children, it says ministers should broaden their scope to

A．Y

B．N

C．NG

听力原文： About 25 million children in developing countries have no homes. So they live on city streets. Another 75 million children live at home but work on the streets. United Nations Children's Fund says most of these children do not receive education or health care. The private organization known as "Child Hope U. S. A." is trying to do something to help these children.

The group has many goals. Child Hope U.S.A. wants to halt the spread of AIDS and the use of illegal drugs among children. It wants to protect young girls from being mistreated sexually. It wants to teach children how to protect themselves, how to survive conditions on the streets and how to feel good about themselves. Child Hope U. S. A. is trying to establish educational programs for the children. It is working with local groups to get their help in protecting the rights of street children. And, it is trying to make international development groups more informed about street children.

Some children begin living on the streets when they are five years old or younger. Four-year-olds can be found selling goods on the street corner or begging for food and money. Some of these children have lost their families because of wars or natural disasters, such as earthquakes and floods. Some are helping their families earn enough money to survive. Studies show that more than one million children live and work on the streets in the Philippines. Seven million children live on the streets in Brazil. About 250 thousand children live on the streets in Mexico. About ten million Mexican children work on the streets.

Child Hope U.S.A. works closely with international children's groups, government agencies and other national and local groups. It has offices in Brazil, Guatemala, the Philippines, Britain, Canada and the United States. Child Hope U.S.A. also works to improve child labor laws. In 1992, Pakistan approved new laws to control child labor. The laws make it illegal for companies to lend money to families and let children repay the loan by working in factories. Yet, about eight million children are still working in Pakistan to repay loans. We will take more about the problems of children in developing countries next week.

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A．Government funded.

B．Private.

C．Political.

D．None of the above.

f building upwards, that is to say, of accommodating a considerable proportion of its population in high blocks of flats. It is said that the English man objects to this type of existence, but if the case is such, he does in face differ from the inhabitants of most countries of the world today. In the past our own blocks of flats have been associated with the lower-income groups and they have lacked the obvious provisions, such as central heating, constant hot water supply, electrically operated lifts from top to bottom, and so on, as well as such details, important notwithstanding (然而), as easy facilities for disposal of dust and rubbish and storage places for baby carriages in the ground floor, playgrounds for children on the top of the buildings, and drying grounds for washing. It is likely that the dispute regarding flats versus (对，对抗) individual houses will continue to rage on for a long time as far as Britain is concerned. And it is unfortunate that there should be hot feelings on both sides whenever this subject is raised. Those who oppose the building of flats base their case primarily on the assumption (设想) that everyone prefers an individual home and garden and on the high cost per unit of accommodation. The latter ignores the higher cost of providing full services to a scattered community and the cost in both money and time of the journeys to work for the suburban resident.

We can infer from the passage that ______.

A．English people like most people in other countries, dislike living in flats

B．people in most countries of the world today are not opposed to living in flats

C．people in Britain are forced to move into high blocks of flats

D．modem flats still fail to provide the necessary facilities for living

听力原文： There are many reasons why family life in Britain has changed so much in the last 50 years. The liberation of women in the early part of the 20th century and social and economic effects of the World War Two had a great impact on traditional family life. Women became essential to industry and the professions. During the war, they had worked in factories and proved their worth. Now, with the loss of millions of men, their services were indispensable to the nation. More recently great advances in scientific knowledge, and particularly in medicine have had enormous social consequences. Children are better cared for and are far healthier. Infant death rate is low. Above all, parents can now plan the size of their family if they wish through more effective means of birth control. Different attitudes to religion, authority and tradition generally have also greatly contributed to changes in family life. But these developments have affected all aspects of society. It is particularly interesting to know that the concept of the family as a social unit has survived all these challenges.

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A．The liberation movement of British women.

B．Rapid economic development in Britain.

C．Changing attitudes to family life.

D．Reasons for changes in family life in Britain.

听力原文： About 25 million children in developing countries have no homes. So they live on city streets. Another 75 million children live at home but work on the streets. United Nati6ns Children's Fund says' most of these children do not receive education or health care. The private organization known as "Child Hope U.S.A." is trying to do something to help these children. The group has many goals. Child Hope U.S.A. wants to halt the spread of AIDS and the use of illegal drugs among children. It wants to protect young girls from being mistreated sexually. It wants to teach children how to protect themselves, how to survive conditions on the streets and how to feel good about them. Child Hope U.S.A. is trying to establish educational programs for the children. It is working with local groups to get their help in protecting the rights of street children. And, it is trying to make international development groups more reformed about street children. Some children begin living on the streets when they are five years old or younger. Four-year-olds can be found selling goods on the street comer or begging for food and money. Some of these children have lost their families because of wars or natural disasters, such as earthquakes and floods. Some, are helping their families earn enough money to survive. Studies show that more than one million children live and work on the streets in the Philippines. Seven million children live on the streets in Brazil. About 250 thousand children live on the streets in Mexico. About ten million Mexican children work on the streets. Child Hope U.S.A. works closely with international children's groups, government agencies and other national and local groups. It has offices in Brazil, Guatemala, the Philippines, Britain, Canada and the United States. Child Hope U.S.A. also works to improve child labor laws. In 1992, Pakistan approved new laws to control child labor. The laws make it illegal for companies to lend money to families and let children repay the loan by working in factories. Yet, about eight million children still are working in Pakistan to repay loans. We will talk more about the problems of children in developing countries next week.

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A．25 million,

B．100 million.

C．50 million.

D．75 million.