4. What can we infer from the passage? A: The state should provide protection for all the old people. B: The state has to create a suitable framework to restrict the private pensions. C: The state should protect those who can’t support themselves. D: The state will play a secondary role in pensions due to more private pensions.

Which of the following is INCORRECT about Greece’s adjustment A: Public sector wages will be reduced. B: Pensions will be reduced. C: VAT will keep unchanged. D: Low paid and low pensions will keep unchanged.

From the passage, which of the following is NOT included in the disadvantages of living in a big city A: excessive rents B: burglars' threat C: housing pensions D: the high cost of living

Opponents of the retirement policy say A: it gives more leisure to old people than they know how to use. B: it costs too much money in the form of retirement pensions. C: it is too rigid and flexibility should be integrated into it. D: retirement should be practiced only in the public sector.

The strike for Wednesday and Thursday has been called by the two big unions that cover public and private sector workers. The 48-hour strike comes as parliament prepares to vote on the latest round of austerity measures, including more tax hikes, pay cuts and job losses. There have been lightning strikes across virtually every sector of the economy, with rubbish not collected and government ministries blocked by their own workers. Government departments, businesses, offices and stores are all expected to be shut, with small business owners and shopkeepers taking part in strike action for the first time. Air traffic controllers will stage a 12-hour walk-out. Trains, buses, taxis and lorries will not be operating. Law-makers are voting on two bills on Wednesday and Thursday that include cuts to the pay and pensions of public sector workers, higher taxes and the suspension (暂停) of collective labor agreements. Greece finds itself with rising unemployment and a stalled economy, with a government debt that is 162% of its gross domestic product. The long-term bond markets have shut Greece out over fears that it can no longer meet its debt obligations. The EU and the IMF have stepped in with two rescue packages but the second has not been finalised. Meanwhile, Greece says it needs further help in installment from the first package of assisting loans agreed last year or it will run out of money to pay its bills in November. With fears the problems besetting (包围，困扰) Athens might spread to other eurozone countries with heavy debts such as Spain and Italy, EU leaders meeting this weekend are struggling to forge a plan that will protect the region from a Greek default. Measures could include propping up banks exposed to Greek debt and enlarging the eurozone's rescue fund.

The population is growing more quickly in some parts of the world than others. The continents with the fastest growth rates are Latin America (2.9 percent) and Africa(2.6 percent), Asia comes third(2.1 percent), but because its present population is so large it is three that by far the greatest number of people will be added in the next decade. The main reason is not so much a rise in birth rates as a fall in death rates as a result of improvements in public health services and medical care. Many more babies now survive infancy, grow up and become parents, and many more adults are living into old age so that populations are being added to at both ends. In Europe and America the death rate began to fall during the Industrial Revolution. In the developing countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America the fall in death rate did not begin until much later and the birth rate has only recently begun to fall. This sudden increase in the population of the developing countries has come at a difficult time. Even if their population had not grown so fast they would have been facing a desperate struggle to bring the standard of living of their people up to the point at which there was enough food, housing, education, medical care and employment for everyone to have a reasonable life. The poor countries have to run faster and faster in their economic activity in order to stay in the same place, and the gap in wealth between rich and poor countries grows wider every year. Statistics show that rapid population growth creates problems for developing countries. So why don’t people have fewer children? Statistics from developed countries suggest that it is only when people’s living standards begin to rise that birth rates begin to fall. There are good reasons for this. Poor countries cannot afford social services and old age pensions, and people’s incomes are so low they have nothing to spare for savings. At a result, people look to their children to provide them with security in their old age. Having a large family can be a form of insurance. And even while they are still quite young, children can do a lot of useful jobs on a small farm. So poor people in a developing country will need to see clear signs of much better conditions ahead before they will think of having smaller families. But their conditions cannot be improved unless there is a reduction in the rate at which population is increasing. This will depend on a very much wider acceptance of family planning and this, in turn, will mean basic changes in attitudes. 16. Which continent has its fastest growth rate of population?