单选题Northern Ireland ______.A has a relatively minor problem with unemployment.B is enduring great economic loss at the moment.C is receiving more aid from EU.D is economically better off than the eastern European countries.

Directions:In this section, there is one passage followed by a summary. Read the passage carefully and complete the summary below by choosing no more than three words from the passage. Remember to write the answers on the Answer Sheet.　　Questions 1 - 5 are based on the following passage.The United Kingdom　　Britain (or Great Britain) is an island that lies off the north-west coast of Europe. The nearest country is France, which is 20 miles away and from which Britain is separated by the English Channel. The island is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and the North Sea to the east. It comprises the mainlands of England, Wales and Scotland, that is, three countries. Scotland is in the north, while Wales is in the west. Ireland, which is also an island, lies off the west coast of Britain. It consists of Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. Britain together with Northern Ireland constitute the United Kingdom (UK). Thus, the United Kingdom is composed of four countries, the largest of which is England. The capital city is London, which is situated in south-east England.　　The UK has a total area of about 244,100 square kilometres (94,248 square miles). About 70% of the land area is devoted to agriculture, about 7% is wasteland, moorland and mountains, about 13% is devoted to urban development, and 10% is forest and woodland. The northern and western regions of Britain, that is Scotland and Wales, are mainly mountainous and hilly. Parts of the north-west and centre of England also consist of mountains and hills.　　Britain has a generally mild and temperate climate. It is, however, subject to frequent changes. It has an average annual rainfall of about 120 centimetres (47 inches).　　In 1998 the population of the United Kingdom was nearly 59 million. The density of population was approximately 240 people per square kilometre. However, in England, where 83% of the population live, the density was much higher, about 363 per square kilometre.　　In the UK, English is the first language of the vast majority of people. However, in western Wales, Welsh is the first language for many of the people. In Scotland only a small number of people speak Gaelic.　　In Britain about 66% of the population say that they are Christian, while fewer than 5% say that they belong to other religions.　　Summary:　　Britain is an island that 　1　the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea. It comprises the mainlands of England, Wales and Scotland. Ireland 　2　the west coast of Britain. I 　3　Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. The United Kingdom consists of Britain together with Northern Ireland. The capital city is London which 　4　outh-east England.In 1998 the population of the UK was nearly 59 million. The density of population was 240 people per square kilometre. In the UK English is the first language of most people. In western Wales, Welsh 　5　many of the people, but few people in Scotland speak Gaelic.

______ our great surprise, our company has made much more profit than we expected lastyear.

A squeeze-grip type carbon dioxide portable fire extinguisher has been partially discharged. It should be（）.

The estimates in Economic Outlookshow that in rich countries ______.

The author most probably mentions the reactions of northern White writers to non-Europeanized “sorrow songs” in order to _____.

The estimates in Economic Outlook show that in rich countries ______.

Northern Ireland is small,but it is significant because of the（）

Aid for Africa　　The momentum is building ahead of next month’s G8 summit in Scotland where the leaders of the world’s richest nations will debate what they can do to help some of the world’s poorest. Africa is the priority and the politicians will discuss reducing the debt burden, ending trade regulations which put the continent’s economy at a disadvantage, and giving more aid. Mark Doyle, who’s reported from Africa for many years, looks at why aid is necessary, and why much of what’s been donated in the past has not worked.　　All around the edge of Africa-along the coastline, near the continents’ ports—are monuments to exploitation. On the island of Goree, for example, just off the coast of Senegal, there’s :the Slave House. This was the last place many Africans saw before being shipped off to a lifetime of slavery in American or, just as often, to death on the high seas.　　There are many more places like this dating from the three hundreds and fifty years or so of the African slave trade. When people wonder why Africa is so poor, they need look no further for the start of an explanation.　　The end of the slavery was followed by a century of colonialism. Some people argue that colonialism brought limited development—railways and schools and so on—the system was principally designed to turn Africa into a vast plantation and mining site for the profit of outsiders. Of course, some Africans gained from this period. Chiefs who sold their enemies to the European or Arab slavers, for example, and coastal people who creams a little off the colonial trade which flowed through their land.　　But on the whole, for almost half a millennium, the general rule was systematic exploitation.　　This must, surely, be the basic reason why Africa is poor. You could add that the climate .is punishing, that tropical diseases are fife, and that today’s independent African rulers are far from perfect, all true. But these factors, powerful in recent decades, seem marginal when set against to the pattern that was set for centuries.　　The solution, or at least, the project SOLD as the solution to, has been aid. Emergency aid, development aid, agricultural aid, economic advice. Billions of dollars worth of it. The problem with this solution is that, patently, is hasn’t worked.　　On the whole, Africa has got poorer.　　The failure hasn’t really been the idea of real aid but the misuse of that term. Clearly, if, in the famous phrases, you teach a man to fish you’re probably helping him.　　But most aid hasn’t been like that. Most of it has been top-down aid, money that’s given to African governments do the political bidding of the aid givers. A good proportion of it has been creamed off by the recipient government’s officials and another large chunk of it paid back to the so-called donors in consultancy fees, salaries, cars, houses and servants for aid officials, debt repayments and the purchasing of arms.　　And yet, to say aid hasn’t worked IN THE PAST is not the same thing as saying aid CAN’T work.

The passage supplies information for answering which of the following questions?