Brazil has become one of the developing world’s great successes at reducing population growth --but more by accident than design. While countries such as India have made joint efforts to reduce birth rates, Brazil has had better result without really trying, says George Martine at Harvard.
Brazil’s population growth rate has dropped from 2.99 % a year between 1951 and 1960 to 1.93 % a year between 1981 and 1990, and Brazilian women now have only 2.7 children on average. Martine says this figure may have fallen still further since 1990, an achievement that makes it the envy of many other Third World countries.
Martine puts it down to, among other things, soap operas (通俗电视连续剧) and installment (分期付款)plans introduced in the 1970s. Both played an important, although indirect, role in lowering the birth rate. Brazil is one of the world’s biggest producers of soap operas. Globe, Brazil’s most popular television network, shows three hours of soaps
A. by educating its citizens
B. by careful family planning
C. by developing TV programmes
D. by chance
Passage Three The winter in Iceland has been one 0f the worst ever. An animal that was born in Iceland and just returned there has enjoyed the weather. Keiko is a killer whale who is now living in a hidden bay. When Keiko was one or two years old, he was captured. This was in 1979. In 1982 he was moved to an amusement part in Ontario, Canada. Three years later another park took him to Mexico City. There, the 6.4-meter (21-foot) whale lived in a small pen with water that was too warm. In 1993 the "Free Willy" movie made people aware of his state. In 1996 the Free Willy Keiko Foundation moved him to a pool in an aquarium in Newport,Oregon. The foundation has spent over $12 million to return Keiko to Iceland, his home. Late last year the 40,000 -pound ( 18,0 -kilogram) whale was flown on a C-17 transport plane to pen near the Wesman Islands. Critics thought Keiko would suffer in the cold water. Instead, he is enjoying the cold and becomes more active. He likes to ju
A. give Keiko a simulated stay in the wild
B. immediately set him free
C. take him on a tour of Europe
D. move him to another aquarium
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