WASHINGTON?Laura Straub is a very worried woman.  Her job is to find families for French teenagers who expect to live with American families in the summer.

It’s not easy, even desperate.

    “We have many children left to place: 40 out of 75,” said Straub, who works for a Paris based foreign exchange programme called LEC.

    When exchange programmes started 50 years ago, more families were willing to help others. For one thing, more mothers stayed home.

    But now, increasing numbers of women work outside the home. Exchange student programmes have struggled in recent years to sign up host families for the 30,000 teenagers who come from abroad every year to have some courses for one year in the United States. as well as the thousands more who take part in summer programmes.

School systems in many parts of the US,unhappy about accepting non?taxpaying students, have also strictly limited the number of exchange students they accept. At the same time, the idea of hosting foreign students is becoming less exotic (异国情调的).

In searching for host families, who usually receive no pay, exchange programmes are increasingly broadening their requests to include everyone from young couples to the retired.

“We are open to many different types of families.” said Vickie Weiner, eastern regional director for ASSE, a 25-year-old programme that sends about 30,000 teenagers

on one-year exchange programmes worldwide.

For elderly people,exchange students “keep up young——they really do,” said Jean Foster,who is hosting 16-year-old Nina Porst from Denmark.

5.Foreign teenagers come to American families wilh the purpose of .

  A.finding thier parents in America         B.finding good jobs in America

C.learning the culture of America          D.enjoying the life of America

6.In the past, Straub’s job was easy, because American families .

  A.needed more money to live              B.had fewer children to support

 C.had spare rooms to rent                 D.were not as busy as now

7.To deal with the problem in recent years, Straub and her workmates have to .

A.ask different kinds of families for help    B.limit the number of the exchange students

C.borrow much money to pay for the costs  D.force some families to accept students

8.From the last paragraph we can conclude that __________.

A.exchange students are welcome in America

B.exchange students must pay much money to the host families

C.American students don’t want to join the exchange programmes

D.old Americans can benefit from hosting exchange students

第二节：完形填空(共20小题；每小题1分，满分20分)

    阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从21—40各题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中，选出最佳选项，并在答题纸上将该选项标号涂黑。

     I will never forget the year I was about twelve years old. My mother told us that we would not be   21   Christmas gifts because there was not enough money. I felt sad and thought, "What would I say when the other kids asked what I'd   22   ?" Just when I started to   23  that there would not be a Christmas that year, three women  24   at our house with gifts for all of us. For me they brought a doll. I felt such a sense of  25   that I would no longer have to be embarrassed when I returned to school. I wasn't   26  . Somebody had thought   27   of me to bring me a gift.

     Years later, when I stood in the kitchen of my new house, thinking how I wanted to make my   28   Christmas there special and memorable, I   29   remembered the women's visit. I decided that I wanted to create that same feeling of   30   for as many children as I could possibly reach.

     So I   31   a plan and gathered forty people from my company to help. We gathered about 125 orphans (孤儿) at the Christmas party. For every child, we wrapped colorful packages filled with toys, clothes, and school supplies,   32   with a child's name. We wanted all of them to know they were.  33  . Before I called out their names and handed them their gifts, I   34   them that they couldn't open their presents   35   every child had come forward. Finally the   36   they had been waiting for came as I called out, "One, two, three. Open your presents!" As the children opened their packages, their faces beamed and their bright smiles   37   up the room. The   38   in the room was obvious, and   39   wasn't just about toys. It was a feeling — the feeling I knew   40   that Christmas so long ago when the women came to visit. I wasn't forgotten. Somebody thought of me. I matter.

21. A. sending          B. receiving          C. making            D. exchanging

22. A. found           B. prepared           C. got               D. expected

23. A. doubt           B. hope              C. suggest            D. accept

24. A. broke in         B. settled down        C. turned up          D. showed off

25. A. relief           B. loss               C. achievement        D. justice

26. A. blamed         B. loved              C. forgotten           D. affected

27. A. highly          B. little               C. poorly             D. enough

28. A. present         B. first                C.. recent            D. previous

29. A. hardly          B. instantly            C. regularly          D. occasionally

30. A. strength        B. independence         C. importance        D. safety

31. A. kept up with     B. caught up with       C. came up with       D. put up with

32. A. none           B. few                C. some              D. each

33. A. fine            B. special              C. helpful            D. normal

34. A. reminded       B. guaranteed           C. convinced          D. promised

35. A. after           B. until                C. when              D. since

36. A. chance         B. gift                 C. moment            D. reward

37. A. lit             B. took                C. burned             D. cheered

38. A. atmosphere      B. sympathy           C. calmness           D. joy

39. A. it              B. such               C. something          D. everybody

40. A. by             B. till                 C. for                D. from

Amy joined a painting group but didn’t seem to _____, so she left.

1. A.
   show off
2. B.
   go up
3. C.
   fit in
4. D.
   come over

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 ef??forts to reduce birth rates, Brazil had better results without re??ally trying, says George Martine at Harvard.

Brazil’s population growth rate dropped from 2. 99% a year between 1951 and 1960 to 1. 93% a year between 198 land 1990, and Brazilian women now have only 2. 7 chil??dren 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 (肥皂剧) and installment (分期付款) plans introduced in the 1970s. Both played an important, although indirect, role in low??ering the birth rate. Brazil is one of the world’s biggest produc??ers of soap operas. Globo, Brazil’s most popular television net??work, shows three hours of soaps six nights a week, while three others show at least one hour a night. Most soaps are based on wealthy characters living the high life in big cities.

Although they have never really tried to work in a mes??sage towards the problems of reproduction, they describe mid??dle and upper class values: not many children, women work??ing, says Martine. They sent this image to all parts of Brazil and made people conscious (有意识的) of other patterns of behaviour and other values, which were put into a very attrac??tive package.

Meanwhile, the installment plans tried to encourage the poor to become consumers. " This led to an enormous change in consumption (消费) patterns and consumption was incom??patible (不相容的) with unlimited reproduction," says Mar??tine.

9. According to the passage, Brazil has lowered its population growth ________.

A. by educating its citizens                B. by careful family planning

C. by developing TV programmes                     D. by chance

10. According to the passage, many Third World countries

A. haven’t given much attention to birth control

B. would soon join Brazil in controlling their birth rate

C. haven’t yet found an effective measure to control their population

D. haven’t realized the importance of TV plays in family planning

11. Soap operas have helped in lowering Brazil’s birth rate be??cause ________.

A. they keep people sitting long hours watching TV

B. they have gradually changed people’s way of life

C. people are drawn to their attractive package

D. they popularize birth control measures

12. What is Martine’s conclusion about Brazil’s population growth?

A. The increase in birth rate will increase consumption.

B. The desire for consumption helps to reduce birth rate.

C. Consumption goes with reproduction.

D. A country ‘s production is limited by its population growth.

I think they failed to accomplish the task, ______?

    A．do I        B．don't I    C．did they      D．didn't they