Passage 3 (1) Brazil has become one of the developing world's great successes at reducing population growth—but more by accident than design. (2) 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 (通俗電視連續(xù)劇) and instalment (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. Globo, Brazil's most popular television network, 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.
(3) "Although they have never really tried to work in a message towards the problems of reproduction, they describe middle and upper class values—not many children, different attitudes towards sex, women working," says Martine. "They sent this image to all parts of Brazil and made people conscious of other patterns of behaviour and other values, which were put into a very attractive package."
Meanwhile, the instalment plans tried to encourage the poor to become consumers. (4) "This led to an enormous change in consumption patterns and consumption was incompatible (不相容的) with unlimited reproduction," says Martine.
Answer Key Passage 1 1．在五十年代我的童年時(shí)期沒(méi)有冰箱，我吃得好也很健康。
2．冰箱的發(fā)明對(duì)于食品保鮮術(shù)幾乎沒(méi)有什么作用（貢獻(xiàn)）。
3．冷藏術(shù)確實(shí)促進(jìn)了銷(xiāo)售—在世界范圍內(nèi)銷(xiāo)售硬件和電力，銷(xiāo)售軟飲料，銷(xiāo)售動(dòng)物的尸體以賣(mài)出一個(gè)好價(jià)錢(qián)。
4．所以世界上的大部分冰箱在有用的熱帶地區(qū)找不到，在從氣候上來(lái)說(shuō)幾乎不必要的溫帶富裕國(guó)家卻比比皆是。
5．冰箱對(duì)于環(huán)境的影響是顯而易見(jiàn)的，但它對(duì)人類(lèi)幸福的貢獻(xiàn)卻是微不足道的。
Passage 2 1．幾乎所有（狗的）行為問(wèn)題都是完全正常的行為，只是它們發(fā)生在錯(cuò)誤的時(shí)間或地方，或指向錯(cuò)誤的事情。
2．預(yù)防或解決行為問(wèn)題的關(guān)鍵在于學(xué)習(xí)教狗把它正常的行為重新指向在家庭環(huán)境中可以接受的目標(biāo)。
3．通過(guò)教狗對(duì)你表示服從，你可以教它認(rèn)識(shí)自己的從屬地位。
Passage 3 1．在降低人口增長(zhǎng)方面，巴西取得了發(fā)展中國(guó)家巨大的成功之一，但這一成功更多地是出于偶然，而不是出于計(jì)劃。
2．印度等國(guó)家作出了聯(lián)合努力來(lái)降低出生率，而巴西根本不用任何努力就得到了更好的結(jié)果。
3．“雖然它們（肥皂劇）從來(lái)都沒(méi)有真正表達(dá)出關(guān)于生育問(wèn)題的信息，但它們描述了中產(chǎn)階級(jí)和中上階級(jí)的價(jià)值觀—沒(méi)有很多孩子，對(duì)性的不同態(tài)度和婦女參加工作。”
4．“分期付款使消費(fèi)模式產(chǎn)生了巨大的改變，而消費(fèi)和不加節(jié)制的生育是不相容的。”
