The divorce rate in Britain has levelled off—to roughly one marriage in three—and shows no sign of reaching the much higher American rate, according to the demographers(人口统计学者) assembled in Bath last week for a conference on the family. There has been no increase in the rate in the last three years and although many expected it to rise a few more percentage points in the next decade, none believed it would reach the 50 percent that exists in America.
One reason for the stabilizations of divorce is the reduction in the risk factors—fewer teenagers marrying, fewer early births in marriage, fewer pre-marital(婚前的)conceptions.
Another reason which was aired at the annual conference of the British Society for Population Studies, was the increase in cohabitation. Some speakers argued that the increase in cohabitation has meant that marital couples are now much more familiar with each other before marriage and therefore less likely to separate.
One out of four couples who marry today have lived together and in the older age groups the proportion is much higher. Some 34 percent of women aged over 25 who marry have cohabited, and over 50 percent of women who are marrying a divorced man or who have been divorced themselves, cohabit before marriage.
Cohabitation in Britain, however, is still considerably lower than in many European states and was described by the demographers as "essentially a part of contemporary courtship". Only a small proportion of people who cohabited had children whereas in Sweden some 40 percent of births were now outside formal marriage. The British rate was 13 percent.
Kath Kiernan of the Centre for Population Studies noted that the present statistics suggested that there was a marginally higher risk of separation for couples who had cohabited, but this could possibly be explained by the fact that the statistics covered a period when cohabiting had not become as socially acceptable as it was today.
A third reason why the demographers thought the divorce rate could stabilize was the economic squeeze(利润等的缩减) and the recession(暴跌), which would mean there was less opportunity to separate because of the lack of housing and employment.
Which of the following statements is true

A:The divorce rate in Britain would reach 50 percent. B:Some 34 percent of women have cohabited. C:Over 50 percent of women cohabit before marriage. D:13 percent of births were outside formal marriage in Britain.

Text 3

Which of the following statements is true

A:The divorce rate in Britain would reach 50 percent. B:Some 34 percent of women have cohabited. C:Over 50 percent of women cohabit before marriage. D:13 percent of births were outside formal marriage in Britain.

Exercise Lowers Employers’ Health Costs
Companies can save millions in health-care costs simply by encouraging their employees to exercise a little bit, researchers reported on Friday.
They said obese (肥胖的) employees had higher health-care costs, but lowered those expenses by exercising just a couple of times a week — without even losing any weight.
Feifei Wang and colleagues at the University of Michigan studied 23,500 workers at General Motors.
They estimated that getting the most sedentary (惯于久坐的) obese workers to exercise would have saved about $790,000 a year, or about 1.5I percent of health-care costs for the whole group.
Company-wide, the potential savings could reach $7.1 million per year, they reported in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
Of the whole group of workers, about 30 percent were of normal weight, 45 percent were overweight (超重的), and 25 percent were obese. Annual health-care costs averaged $2,200 for normal weight, $2,400 for the overweight, and $2,700 for obese employees.
But among workers who did no exercise, health-care costs went up by at least $100 a year, and were $3,000 a year for obese employees who were sedentary.
But adding two or more days of light exercise — at least 20 minutes of exercise or work hard enough to increase heart rate and breathing — lowered costs by on average $500 per employee a year, the researchers found.
"This indicates that physical activity behavior could reduce at least some of the harmful effects of excess body fat, and in consequence, help lower the health-care costs," Wang and colleagues wrote.
How many workers in General Motors were NOT of normal weight

A:Seventy percent. B:Thirty percent. C:Forty-five percent. D:Twenty-five percent.

Central heating became popular only after the Civil War. Typically, coal-burning furnaces (火炉) fueled the early systems. Natural gas had developed into the leading fuel by 1960. Its acceptance resulted in part from its wide uses. Because it comes primarily from U.S. and Canadian fields, natural gas is also less vulnerable (脆弱的) than oil is to War. Oil remains the most important fuel in a few areas, such as New England.
Electric heating dominates most areas with mild winters and cheap electricity, including the South and the Northwest. It was made popular at least in the South by the low cost of adding electric heating to new houses built with air-conditioning. Bottled gas, which is somewhat more expensive than utility gas, is the fuel of choice in rural areas not served by utility pipelines. Wood is the leading heating fuel in just a few rural counties.
Home heating, which accounts for less than 7 percent of all energy consumed in the U.S., has had a commendable (值得赞扬的) efficiency record: from 1978 to 1997, the amount of fuel consumed for this purpose declined 44 percent despite a 33 percent increase in the number of housing units and an increase in house size. The U.S. Department of Energy, however, forecasts that energy used in home heating will rise by 14 percent over the next two decades. That rise is small considering an expected 21 percent increase in the number of houses and the trend toward larger houses.
Natural gas and electricity will probably dominate the home heating market for the next two decades. Solar (太阳的) heating never became popular because of cost and limited winter sunlight in most areas; in 2000 only 47,000 homes relied on it.
According to paragraph 3, energy consumed in home heating over the next two decades will increase by ______.

A:33 percent B:31 percent C:21 percent D:14 percent

{{B}}第三篇{{/B}}

How many workers in General Motors were NOT of normal weight?

A:Seventy percent. B:Thirty percent. C:Forty-five percent. D:Twenty-five percent.

Home Heating
Central heating became popular only after the Civil War. Typically, coal-burning furnaces (火炉) fueled the early systems. Natural gas had developed into the leading fuel by 1960. Its acceptance resulted in part from its wide uses. Because it comes primarily from U.S. and Canadian fields, natural gas is also less vulnerable (脆弱的) than oil is to war. Oil remains the most important fuel in a few areas, such as New England.
Electric heating dominates most areas with mild winters and cheap electricity, including the South and the Northwest. It was made popular at least in the South by the Iow cost of adding electric heating to new houses built with air-conditioning. Bottled gas, which is somewhat more expensive than utility gas, is the fuel of choice in rural areas not served by utility pipelines. Wood is the leading heating fuel in just a few rural counties.
Home heating, which accounts for less than 7 percent of all energy consumed in the U.S., has had a commendable (值得赞扬的) efficiency record: from 1978 to 1997, the amount of fuel consumed for this purpose declined 44 percent despite a 33 percent increase in the number of housing units and an increase in house size. The U. S. Department of Energy, however, forecasts that energy used in home heating will rise by 14 percent over the next two decades. That rise is small considering an expected 21 percent increase in the number of houses and the trend toward larger houses.
Natural gas and electricity will probably dominate the home heating market for the next two decades. Solar (太阳的) heating never became popular because of cost and limited winter sunlight in most areas; in 2000 only 47, 000 homes relied on it.
According to paragraph 3, energy consumed in home heating over the next two decades will increase by

A:33 percent. B:31 percent. C:21 percent. D:14 percent.

Girls as young as 10 years old are dieting and in danger of developing unhealthy attitudes about weight, body image and food, a group of Toronto researchers reported Tuesday.
Their study of 2,279 girls aged 10 to 14 showed that while the vast majority had healthy weights, nearly a third felt they were overweight and were trying to lose pounds. Even at the tender age of 10, nearly 32 percent of girls felt" too fat" and 31 percent said they were trying to diet.
McVey, a researcher at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, and her colleagues analyzed data collected in a number of surveys of southern Ontario school girls between 1993 and 2003, reporting their findings in Tuesday’s issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
Nearly 80 percent of the girls had a healthy body weight and only 7.2 percent were considered overweight using standard weight-to, height ratios. Most researchers suggest the rate of overweight children in this country is several times higher than that figure.
Nearly 30 percent of the girls reported they were currently trying to lose weight, though few admitted to dangerous behavior such as self-induced vomiting.
Still, a test that measured attitudes towards eating showed 10.5 percent of survey participants were already at risk of developing an eating disorder.
"We’re not talking about kids who’ve been prescribed a diet because they’re above average weight or overweight. We’re talking about children who are within a healthy weight range. And they have taken it upon themselves to diet to lose weight," McVey said, acknowledging she found the rates disturbing. She said striking a balance between healthy weights and healthy attitudes towards food and body image is a complex task, with no easy solutions.
What percentage of the girls considered themselves overweight

A:Nearly 80 percent. B:7.2 percent. C:Nearly 30percent. D:10.5 percent.

第二篇 　　 Declining Interest in Developing Foreign Language Skills 　　Australians’ foreign language skills are declining, Voice of America has reported. New figures show that only 13 percent of high school graduates can speak a foreign language. But four decades ago, 40 percent had foreign language skills. 　　Professor Elise Tipton, from the University of Sydney, says increasingly students do not feel the need to learn another language to boost their career. She believes that Australia’s economic boom, which is driven by red-hot demand for its minerals, is helping mask serious deficiencies (缺陷) in its language skills 　　Australia does business very successfully in English with most of its trading partners. But as the world’s economic power shifts to emerging regions such as Asia, its language gap could soon be exposed. According to the new figures, less than 6.5 percent of high school graduates are proficient in an Asian language. Academics worry that this means Australia will increasingly be isolated from its economically important Asian neighbors. Dilip Dutta, from the economics and business faculty at Sydney University, says language skills can enhance trading opportunities. If Australians want to trade with Asian countries, it is very important for them to learn the language that will help them to get closer to the culture. 　　But students have different opinions about Asian language learning. Pippa McCowage, a 22-year-old Australian student, says many young Australians have a half-hearted approach to foreign languages, and the language curriculum is often weak. "While we’re encouraged in high school to learn another language, it’s not really apparent to me as a realistic expectation that you will have to speak it," said McCowage. "For example, I learned Japanese in high school. When I went on an exchange in Year 10, I found that the Japanese students of my age had a much greater proficiency in English than I did in Japanese. So in that sense, it almost discourages you." 　　At present, about 70 percent of Australia’s major exports go to Asia and the Australian government has been keen on developing closer economic and diplomatic ties with Asia. Academics say that, as Asia becomes one of the world’s economic　powerhouses (经济体), Australia needs to improve its language skills if it is to take full advantage of the business opportunities on its doorstep. What percentage of high school graduates were proficient in foreign languages forty years ago?

A:70 percent. B:13 percent. C:40 percent. D:6.5 percent.