China’s government has raised the child limit for couples from two to three as the country experiences lower birth rates. For many years, China enforced a one-child policy as a way to control the population. But that policy was replaced in 2016 with a two-child limit. That change was aimed at raising the number of births as the country faced a fast aging population. But birth rates have further decreased in recent years as the cost of raising children in Chinese cities remains high.

The latest measure to permit three children per family is meant “to actively deal with the aging population,” the official Xinhua News Agency reported. The decision came during a ruling Communist Party meeting led by President Xi Jinping, it said.

The policy includes what the government calls “supportive measures” to make it easier for families to have more children. The measures include plans to lower educational costs for families and increase tax and housing support. The government also said it would seek to educate young people “on marriage and love.”

Recent data showed that China’s fertility rate—the average number of births per mother—was 1.3 in 2020. That rate which is similar to aging nations like Japan and Italy is well short of the 2.1 needed to replace the population.

Yifei Li is a sociologist at New York University Shanghai. She said that most families did not hold back on having children in recent years because of the government’s two-child policy. Instead, she said they held off because of “the incredibly high costs of raising children in today’s China.” Zhang Xinyu is a 30-year-old mother of one from Zhengzhou in northeastern China. She said another problem was that women carried most of the responsibility for raising children. She added, “I don’t want to have a second child. And a third is even more impossible.”

Economists say that China, along with Thailand and some other Asian economies, faces concerns that it could grow old before it gets wealthy. The Chinese population of 1.4 billion was already expected to reach a high later this decade before starting to drop. But recent government data suggested that is happening faster than expected.

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1.What can we learn from Paragraph 1?

A Population aging is the biggest problem of China.

B China’s population policy is facing readjustment.

C There are still many problems to be solved in China.

D The high cost of raising children adds life difficulties.

解析：选B。B 细节理解题。根据文第一段China’s government has raised the child limit for couples from two to three as the country experiences lower birth rates.可知，由于出生率较低，中国政府已将夫妇生育限制从2个提高到3个。故选B。

2.Which of the following belongs to supportive measures?

A Raising individual wages.

B Ensuring housing supply.

C Solving the employment problem.

D Offering young people more training.

解析：选B。B 细节理解题。根据第三段The measures include plans to lower educational costs for families and increase tax and housing support.可知，这些措施包括计划降低家庭教育成本，加强税收和住房支持。故选B。

3.In Paragraphs 4 and 5, the writer expresses his/her ideas mainly by_______. a.giving reasons b.listing numbers c.using quotations d.comparing facts

A a;b;c

B a;b;d

C b; c ;d

D a;b;c;d

解析：选C。C 细节理解题。根据第四段和第五段可知，作者对2020年中国的生育率与日本和意大利等老龄化国家的生育率作了比较，列举了关键数据，此外作者还分别引用了上海纽约大学的社会学家李逸飞以及郑州张馨予女士的话。故选C。

4.What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A China has to take the aging of population seriously.

B Thailand faces the same problems as China in economy.

C The speed of China’s aging population is quite astonishing.

D Economic growth will certainly bring the aging population.

解析：选C。C 推理判断题。根据最后一段The Chinese population of 1.4 billion was already expected to reach a high later this decade before starting to drop. But recent government data suggested that is happening faster than expected. 可知，中国14亿人口在开始下降之前，就已经预计到本世纪末会达到一个高点。但最近的政府数据显示，这种情况发生的速度比预期的要快。由此说明中国人口老龄化的速度十分惊人。故选C。