It is estimated that 11 seven hundred million people—about half of the world's population—are unable to read and write, and there are probably two hundred and fifty million more whose level of attainment is so slight that it 12 qualifies a literacy.
　　Recently the attack on illiteracy has been 13 up. A world plan has been drawn up by a committee of UNESCO experts in Paris, as part of the UNESCO Nations Development Decade, and an international conference on the 14 has also been held. UNESCO stresses that functional literacy is the aim. People must learn the 15 skills of responsible 16 : the ability to read notices, newspapers, timetables, letters, pricelists, to keep simple records and accounts, to17out the significance of the information gathered, and to fill in forms.
　　The18areas of illiteracy are in Asia, Africa, and Central and South America.   In Africa there are at least one hundred million illiterates,19 eighty to eighty-five per cent of the      20population.   In Europe the figure is about twenty-four million, most of them in Southern Europe, with Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Yugoslavia heading the list (the United Kingdom has about seven hundred thousand).

　　A.  basic      B.    citizenship     C.    stepped   D.   some
　　E.  major      F.    barely     G.   sort H.   membership
　　I.  superior   J.     entire     K.   scarcely  L.    constituting
　　M.  total      N.   subject   O.   comprising   

　　答案：11.  D   12. F  13. C  14. N  15. A  16. B  17. G  18. E  19. O  20. M