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当前位置:Unit 13 The world's population
作者：未知来源：中央电教馆时间：2006/4/17 20:29:53阅读：nyq
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一．用形容词表达“约数”。常用的形容词有some, many, much, few, little, several, enough等。如：
Didn't he give you some money? 他难道没有给你一些钱？
My friend can speak several languages. 我朋友会说好几种语言。
Few people live to be 150, but a few people can live to be 100. 几乎没有人能活到150岁，但有人能活到100岁。
二．用副词表达“约数”。常用的副词有about, around, nearly, almost, hardly, some等。如：
We have about forty minutes to leave. 我们大约还有40分钟才离开。
The Great Wall is around 6,700 kilometres long. 长城大约有6700千米长。
It took us nearly two hours to find our neighbour's two little children. 我们用将近两个小时才找到邻居的两个小孩。
Almost no one took any rest. 几乎没有人休息。
三．用介词表达“约数”。常用的介词有above, over, below, under, past等。如：
There is nothing in this shop above five pounds. 这家商店没有售价超过5英镑的商品。
The building is over 200 metres high. 那座楼高200多米。
He must be well past forty. 他一定大超过40岁了。
四．用数词表达“约数”。常用的数词有tens, hundreds, thousands,
millions及billions等。在用这些数词表示约数时，其后通常跟介词of。
如：Tens of thousands of trees will be planted there. 那里将种植成千上万棵树。
Several millions of things are on show. 数百万件物品在展出。
The bright star has been there billions of years. 那颗明星已存在那里几十亿年了。
五．用词组表达“约数”。常用的词组有or so, more or less, a number of, less than, more than, a lot of, or more, or less, between…and等。如：
The car went more or less sixty kilometres. 这辆汽车走了60公里左右。
More than two months has passed. 已经过去两个多月了。
He lived for ninety years or more. 他活了90多岁。
I have one hundred yuan or less. 我有一百元，或者不到一百元。
The train will arrive at between seven and eight. 火车将在7点到8点之间到达。
另外，"or"接连两个数词或"a (an)+名词+or two (=one or two +名词)" 也可表达“约数”。如：
He will be back in a day or two/ one or two days. 他一两天就回来。
He may give me two or three hundred pounds for this stamp. 他可能会付给我二、三百镑来买这枚邮票。
He has been away one or two days. 他才去了一两天。
Important problems
One of the most important problems in the world today is the growing number of people. In 1968, for example, there were 3.5 billion people in the world, but toward the end of this century the world's population may be doubled and reach 7 billion. China has doubled its population within thirty years and it has now the world's biggest population. The number of people living there was already over one billion in 1982. The number of people in the United States is also growing daily. In the 1780s, there were only 3.5 million persons in the U.S., but a hundred years later the population was as big as 40 million, while another hundred years later, in 1982, there were more than 232 million people. Every day nearly a fifth of a million babies are born into our world. In the United States, about one third of its people are under 15 years of age and in China young people under 15 years old form one half of its population. In a way, we may say that with the birth of millions of new babies, our world is becoming younger and younger.
The world population
The world population may be the largest problem of the world today. In the past time, the world population grew quite slowly. 2000 years ago, there were 250 million people on the earth. 400 years ago, the number was over 500 million. In 1970 this number outstripped 3600 million. In 1990 the number surpassed 5 billion. It passed six billion at the end of the 20th century and people say that by the year 2010 the world population may be 7 billion. That means that in about 600 years, there will be standing room only on the earth. There will not be enough space for anybody else.
It is terrible! What’s more, the population can grow, but the earth cannot become bigger. We have to grow more food for more people. With more babies being born generation after generation we have to create more jobs for them and it is difficult for us to provide more houses and of course it will bring a lot of trouble, for example, water, energy, electricity, transportation, also society security.
China has got the largest population in the world. How important and vital for us to carry out the policy of family planning. If China can control the growth properly, it will be good not only for China, but also the whole world.
What large cities！
New York has a larger population than any other American city. In 1970, its population was about 8,000,000.
Chicago has the second largest population. More than 3,000,000 people lived in Chicago in 1970.
The third largest city is Los Angeles with the population of 2,810,000. Philadelphia is the fourth largest city. More than 2,000,000 people live in Philadelphia, the first capital of the United States.
New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Philadelphia are all larger than the nation’s capital city, Washington D. C. The population of Washington is more than 700,000, but several cities have a larger population than that. Washington is one of the most beautiful American cities, but it is only the ninth city in size.
Let’s honor mother and father
Mother’s Day is celebrated in U.S. It is on the second Sunday in May. It is a day to honor mothers. On that day mothers usually receive flowers and cards. On the cards, children will write “Thanks, Mom”, “To the best mother in the world” and so on.
Where does the idea for the holiday come from? We should thank Miss Anna M. Jarvis. It is she who brought up the idea of having such a day. She lived in West Virginia. Her mother died on May 9, 1905.
She had a deep love for her mother. She wrote letters to important persons, suggesting a public holiday to honor all mothers. Her love for her mother moved other people. In 1913 the United States Congress agreed that the second Sunday in May be made Mother’s Day.
On Mother’s Day, children give presents to their mothers, or the whole family go for an outing. They try to do whatever is nice for their mothers.
Then there is also a Father’s Day in the United States, which is on the third Sunday in June. People try to honor all the fathers as well.
Hong Kong
Hong Kong（香港）is part of China. It lies to the south of Guangdong Province（省）. It is made up of three parts —Hong Kong island, Kowloon（九龙） and New Territories（新界）. Hong Kong has a population of more than 6,300,00 people, they are mainly Chinese. The Chinese people play a very important part（起着很重要的作用）in building New Hong Kong. The people of Hong Kong love peace（和平）. Hong Kong was taken over（被接管）by our government on July 1st, 1997. This stands for（代表）the wish of the Chinese people, including（包括）the people of Hong Kong.
根据短文内容，判断下列各句正（T）误（F）
1.Hong Kong is a part of Guangdong Province.
2.The people of Hong Kong love peace.
3.The people of Hong Kong are all Chinese.
4. Hong Kong has been taken over by China.
5. Hong Kong lies in the south of China.
答案：1-5 FTFTT
The United States
The United States covers（占）a large part of the North America Continent（大洲）, In 1998, its population was about 267,000,000. Where did the people come from?
The first Americans were Indians（印第安人）. Today there are about 900,000 American Indians. There is one part of the country with an especially（特别地）large Indian population. That is southwest.
Negroes（黑人）first came to America from Africa（非洲）as slaves（奴隶）. President Lincoln（林肯）freed（使自由）the slaves in 1863. About eleven percent（百分比）of the population of the USA are Negroes.
The first immigrants（移民）in American history（历史）came from England and the Netherlands（荷兰）. Soon immigrants began to arrive from many other countries, and they are still arriving. In 1790 the new nation（国家）had fewer than four million people. Today there are more than 270 million. These include（包括）people from every part of the world.
1.Who were the natives of America?
A. The immigrants. B. Negroes C. Indians D. People from England
2.The earliest people from foreign countries in American history were from ______.
A. Africa B. England C. the Netherlands D. England and the Netherlands
3.There were ______people in the USA in 1998.
A. about 900,000 B. about 267,000,000 C. about 29 million D. about 4 million
4.This passage is mainly about ______.
A. how Negroes became slaves B. American history
C. the Indians in the USA. D. where the American people came from
5.Which is the right part of the country with an especially large Indian population in the following map?
答案：1-5 CDBDA