判断正误:Reporting sales figures
After a slow start at the beginning of the year when sales started out at $ 9 million and rose to $ 10 million for the month of January, there was a slight increase in February when sales went up to $ 14. 5m. Then in March we had a dramatic increase when sates shot up to a staggering $ 34m. This was after the big Trade Fair in Hong Kong, where we managed to promote our new products and capturé the SE Asin market: The-increase continued in April when sales peaked at $ 38. 5m. There was slight fall for the month of May, which was only to be expected after the rush of interest after Hong Kong, and figures hit the $ 30m. mark. They seem to stabilise there, as the June figures were much the same at $ 31. 4m. We have every to expect them to continue at this rate for the next few munths, but our target for the end of the year is to chase the $ 40m+ mark with a very aggressive marketing policy over the summer and the autumn.
16. The product under discussion is not stated.
17. The year started with a rush.
18. January saw a decline in sales.
19. In February sales declined slightly.
20. In March sales reached $34m.
21. The Hong Kong Trade Fair made little effect on sales.
22. In May the sales figures exceeded those of March.
23. The June figures were similar to the May figures.
24. If the business reaches $ 40 +, the target for the end of the year will have been reached.
25. There would be more ups than down in a chart of the January to June' figures.
One reason for the stabilizations of divorce is the reduction in the risk factors—fewer teenagers marrying, fewer early births in marriage, fewer pre-marital(婚前的) conceptions.
Another reason which was aired at the annual conference of the British Society for Population Studies, was the increase in cohabitation. Some speakers argued that the increase in cohabitation has meant that marital couples are now much more familiar with each other before marriage and therefore less likely to separate.
One out of four couples who marry today have lived together and in the older age groups the proportion is much higher. Some 34 percent of women aged over 25 who marry have cohabited, and over 50 percent of women who are marrying a divorced man or who have been divorced themselves, cohabit before marriage.
Cohabitation in Britain, however, is still considerably lower than in many European states and was described by the demographers as "essentially a part of contemporary courtship". Only a small proportion of people who cohabited had children whereas in Sweden some 40 percent of births were now outside formal marriage. The British rate was 13 percent.
Kath Kiernan of the Centre for Population Studies noted that the present statistics suggested that there was a marginally higher risk of separation for couples who had cohabited, but this could possibly be explained by the fact that the statistics covered a period when cohabiting had not become as socially acceptable as it was today.
A third reason why the demographers thought the divorce rate could stabilize was the economic squeeze(利润等的缩减) and the recession(暴跌), which would mean there was less opportunity to separate because of the lack of housing and employment.
The phrase "levelled off" (Para. 1) most probably means ______.
A.increased
B.decreased
C.fluctuated
D.became stable
The first statement comes from 2005, the second from 1830. On both occasions, the object of scorn was a parliamentary bill that promised to sweep away " antiquated" licensing laws. As liberal regulations came into force this week, Britons on both sides of the debate unwittingly followed a 19th-century script.
Reformers then, as now, took a benign view of human nature. Make booze cheaper and more readily available, said the liberalisers, and drinkers would develop sensible, continental European-style. ways. Nonsense, retorted the critics. Habits are hard to change; if Britons can drink easily, they will drink more.
Worryingly for modern advocates of liberalisation, earlier doomsayers turned out to be right. Between 1820 and 1840, consumption of malt (which is used to make beer) increased by more than 50%. Worse, Britons developed a keener taste for what Thomas Carlyle called "liquid madness"—gin and other spirits.
The backlash was fierce. Critics pointed to widespread debauchery in the more disreputable sections of the working class. They were particularly worried about the people who, in a later age, came to be known as "ladettes". An acute fear, says Virginia Berridge, who studies temperance at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, was that women would pass on their sinful ways to their children.
In the 19th century, temperance organisations set up their own newspapers to educate the public about the consequences of excess. That, at least, has changed: these days, the mainstream media rail against the demon drink all by themselves.
According to the text, the phrase "the second" in the second paragraph refers to______.
A.the statement by a critic
B.the increase of drunkenness
C.the decline of immorality
D.the assertion by a politician
The central concern of the writer is ______.
A.the increase of cars
B.the increase of population
C.the expansion of nuclear power
D.the possible environmental pollution
Our environment ______ (get)worse and worse with the increase of the world population.