56. What has the US Census Bureau revealed?
(A) An equal number of Southeast Asians and whites finish high school.
(B) A great number of Southeast Asians than whites finish high school.
(C) There is no difference in the number of Southeast Asians and whites who finish high school.
(D) Fewer Southeast Asians than whites finish high school.
(D) Population growth is one of the biggest problems facing the world today. However, many developed countries are facing the opposite problem as birth rates fall to extremely low levels. One such place is Taiwan, whose birth rate is now one of the lowest in the world.Since so few babies are being born, in 10 to 15 years, there will not be enough young people entering the job market to replace retirees. This is made worse by the fact that most of Taiwan’s Asian competitors have better birth rates and will have larger work forces available. Furthermore, fewer young people mean that each of them will have to pay a higher proportion of the cost of caring for the elderly. Taiwanese economists and politicians warn of a looming aging crisis.No one is quite sure why younger Taiwanese are having so few babies, but several explanations are usually put forward. First, having children is increasingly costly. Not only do the costs for child care and education add up, but parents lose considerable amounts of money by staying home to care for their babies rahter than working. Second, more and more Taiwanese women are university-educated and work-focused. They do not want to risk their careers by taking several years out of their lives to have a baby, so nearly a third are choosing not to get married at all. Finally, many observers say that the new generation is just too selfish to endure the disruption a baby would bring to their lives.Naturally, stopping this trend is highly important to the Taiwanese government. They have already made laws to ensure that companies support their workers while they have families. They are even offering a bonus to new parents and subsidizing some of their hospital stays. Whether this will be enough to solve the problem of the falling birth rate, however, is something only time will tell. (教三)