7 January, 2014
A new report says more and more international students are attending colleges and universities in the United States. It also notes a large increase in the number of international students from China.
These findings are from the latest Open Doors Report. The report documents the record number of international students in the United States during 2012, 2013 school year. It says more than seven hundred sixty-four thousand four-hundred such students were attending American colleges and universities during the last two years. That represents an increase of almost six percent than one year earlier. On the other hand, the number of Americans studying overseas(海外) increased by one percent, which reached nineteen thousand this year.
The report says one hundred ninety-four thousand students at American colleges and universities were from China .That is an increase of more than twenty-three percent over the year before. Peggy Blumenthal, an expert(专家)of international education, described the effect of the increase in Chinesestudents.
"Now they have been coming for some time. But this year was the highest level ever." She says many Chinese families are able to pay for the highest-quality education for their children. The children mainly choose to study in America.
"We know many of them have enough income to be able to afford to send them anywhere in the world if they want to go. And for the most part, looking around the world, Chinese students still prefer to come to the United States as their choice."
Chinese students are not the only ones who want to attend American colleges and universities. After China, India sends the second largest number of students to the United States for higher education. India has about one hundred thousand students in American schools. South Korea is third with about seventy-two thousand students.
Why do so many foreign students study in the United States? Peggy Blumenthal provides one reason.
"The advantage America has is that we have a huge system (系统)and a very perfect system. So there are over four thousand universities and colleges in the United States. Among them are some top ones in the world, and what that tells us is there is still a lot of room to host international students.
Foreign students represent less than four percent of the total student population in American higher education. And from Learning English, that's the VOA Special English Education Report. I'm Bob Doughty. Thanks for listening. Bob Doughty seems to be ________.
A.an exchange student from the USA |
B.an expert of international education |
C.a viewer of VOA |
D.a reporter from VOA |
Which country below has the fewest students studying overseas?
A.South Korea | B.India | C.China | D.America |
Which is NOT the reason why so many Chinese students go to the USA for further study?
A. Lots of Chinese families are able to pay for the highest-quality education for their children
B. The USA has a huge and a very perfect education system.
C. There is a lot of room to host international students in the USA.
D. The USA has some top universities and colleges in the world.Which of the following statement is true?
A.China has 122,000 more students than South Korea at American colleges and universities. |
B.The number of Americans studying overseas is becoming smaller and smaller. |
C.The number of Asian students has an increase of 6% over the past two years. |
D.Most of the international students in the United States are Chinese. |
Happy English Center Courses: Developing listening & speaking skills Time: Whole day classes on weekend Price:3 months (700 yuan) Place: 8﹣minute walk from the school Tel: 88992023 |
Modern Language School Courses: Developing reading & writing skills Time: Sat.& Sun. from 2:00 p.m.~ 5:00 p.m. Price: 3 months (1050 yuan) Place: 12﹣minute from the school Tel: 88992126 |
New Century English Training Center Courses: Developing listening & speaking skills Time: Evening classes on weekdays Price: three months and a half (900 yuan) Place: 10﹣minute walk from the school Tel: 88993123 |
International House of English Courses: Developing reading & writing skill Time: 2:00 p.m.~5:00 p.m.on weekdays Price: 3 months (600 yuan) Place: 15﹣minute ride from the school Tel: 88993231 |
(1)How far is it from Happy English Center to the school?
A. |
8﹣minute walk. |
B. |
10﹣minute walk. |
C. |
l2﹣minute walk. |
D. |
15﹣minute walk. |
(2)Susan wants to have listening on weekdays, She can call for further information;
A. |
88992023 |
B. |
88993123 |
C. |
88992126 |
D. |
88993231 |
(3)Mike wants to develop his reading skills on weekends, he should choose .
A. |
Happy English Center |
B. |
International House of English |
C. |
Modern Language School |
D. |
New Century English Training Center |
(4)If you want to develop writing sills on weekdays, you will pay .
A. |
700 yuan |
B. |
900 yuan |
C. |
1050 yuan |
D. |
600 yuan |
(5)Which will be the best title for the four ads?
A. |
The importance of leaning English |
B. |
How to improve listening skills |
C. |
Information about English Training |
D. |
How to improve reading skills |
How would you feel if moving to a new town meant losing track of your friends? What if the only way of getting news from faraway friends was writing letters that took ages to be delivered(递送)? This was how things worked not very long ago. Thanks to advances in technology, how we make friends and communicate with them has changed greatly.
Nowadays, we can move around the world and still stay in touch with our friends.Social media tools (社交媒体工具) let us see what our friends are busy with and maintain friendships.
The digital(数字)age also enables us to find people who share our interests.Whatever our hobbies are,the Internet can connect us with others who also enjoy doing them, even if they live on the other side of the world.
But when you"friend" people online, does this mean that they really are your friends? It depends.
If people always exchange true personal information online, then yes, these friendships can be real and meaningful. But we need to remember that what we see on social media is often not the whole truth about a person. Sometimes smiling photos can hide real problems.On the Internet,nobody knows you're a dog. A young person could be old; a woman could be a man; we could even be sharing our information with criminals.
But this doesn't mean that we should throw the baby out with the bathwater. Although technology has changed the way we acquire (获得) friends, the meaning of friendship and our longing for friends remain the same. As Aristotle said, no one would choose to live without friends,even if he had all other goods.
(1)Ways of making friends and communicating with them have changed greatly because of .
(2)To stay in touch with our faraway friends, we can .
(3)Online friendships can be real and meaningful if people with each other.
(4)The phrase "throw the baby out with the bathwater" means" " in Chinese.
(5)This passage mainly talks about of making friends online.
Nirmal Purja has set several world records after climbing the world's 14 highest mountains in less than seven months.
(1) Though he was born 1,600 meters above sea level,he didn't climb any serious mountains until he was 29.
But Mr. Purja, now 36, was trained to be strong. He used to be a soldier in the British army, where he had special training for fighting in very cold weather.(2)
There are only 14 mountains in the world that are higher than 8,000 meters. Mr.Purja had already climbed several of them.(3) The old record for climbing the 14 mountains was seven years,ten months and six days. It was set by South Korean climber Kim Chang﹣ho in 2013.
Mr.Purja named his challenge"Project Possible".(4) On October 29,just a little more than six months after he started, Nirmal Purja had finished climbing the 14th mountain.
Though Mr. Purja completed his challenge unbelievably quickly,it wasn't easy.For example,during one day of climbing Shishapangma, Mr. Purja and his team climbed for 15 hours nonstop.
(5) Mr.Purja believes his strong physical condition and his training as a soldier helped him.He hopes his efforts will inspire others."People are only limited(限制) by their imagination," he says."If you don't dream, then you won't do it"
A. Mr. Purja was born in Nepal, in the Himalayas. B. He had completed five more climb in Pakistan. C. He began on April 23, by climbing Annapurna in Nepal. D. His goal was to climb all of them in less than seven months. E. They had to deal with winds as fast as 75 kilometers per hour. F. In 2018, he left there to follow his dream of mountain climbing. |
In the town of Lampang in northern Thailand, there is an unusual group of musicians. They play many different kinds of music﹣ ﹣from traditional Thai songs to music by Beethoven. Both children and adults love this group. What makes themso popular? Is it their music? Their looks?Yes, it's both of these things,but it's also something else: they're elephants.
These musical elephants are from the Thai Elephant Conservation Center (TECC) in Lampang. The TECC protects elephants. It teaches people to understand and care for these huge,but gentle, animals.And, like many zoos around the world, the TECC encourages elephants to paint.
Richard Lair works with the TECC. He knew that elephants hear better than they see.So he had an idea:if elephants are intelligent and they have good hearing, maybe they can play music.To test his idea,Lair and a friend started the Thai Elephant Orchestra. During a performance, the elephants play a variety of instruments, including the drums and the xylophone. The animals also use their voices and trunks to make sounds.
But can elephants really make music properly? Yes, says Lair. They 're very creative. Humans may encourage the animals to play instruments, but the elephants make their own songs; they don't just copy their trainers or other people. There are now CDs of the group's music, which make money for the TECC. And the music these artists create is pretty amazing.
(1)What can be the best title for the passage?
A. |
Musical Elephants |
B. |
An Introduction to the TECC |
C. |
Richard Lair's Achievements |
(2)What does the underlined word "them" refer to in the passage?
A. |
Musicians. |
B. |
Children. |
C. |
Adults. |
(3)What can be inferred (推断) from the passage?
A. |
Richard Lair started the Thai Elephant Orchestra by himself. |
B. |
The elephants in the TECC can only play traditional Thai songs. |
C. |
The CDs of the Thai Elephant Orchestra are popular with people. |
(4)The writer wrote this passage to .
A. |
ask people to save the elephants |
B. |
invite more people to join the TECC |
C. |
introduce the elephants' special talents to people |
(5)Where can we most probably read this passage?
A. |
A medical newspaper. |
B. |
An animal magazine. |
C. |
A story book. |
An Experiment Report on Growing Potato Plants
Things prepared:
a potato that has sprouts
a flower pot with soil
a camera to record progress
Observation:
Day One
The color of the soil looks darker because I have just watered it. In the center of the pot, I can see a tiny sprout that has grown from the potato under the soil. I'll call it Buddy. Buddy is green and yellow. I wonder how fast it will grow.
Day Six
Without much change in the past six days, I finally see some new progress on Buddy as it has grown taller It's exciting to see new life like this. I hope Buddy can grow faster.
Day Eleven
Buddy is getting larger! Three more new sprouts have grown around Buddy! Green leaves have grown on the new sprouts, but they have not fully grown yet. I guess I need to be a bit more patient.
Day Thirteen
Buddy continues to grow taller. The leaves on the new sprouts have grown a bit.I'm also excited to see more new sprouts that have grown from under the soil.
Day Fifteen
Finally, the leaves on the other sprouts are 3 cm tall. They' re so green. I hope they will soon grow into new potatoes.
What I have learned
It's really interesting to grow potatoes. During these fifteen days, I have learned that growing potato plants needs plenty of water. If the soil is dry, the potato will fail to grow. I have also learned that the temperature needs to be right. If it is too cold, it won't grow.
I feel that growing plants is just like trying to succeed with anything in life ﹣ it takes not only time, but also lots of efforts and patience.
(1)The reading material is an experiment report about .
A. |
chemistry |
B. |
physics |
C. |
biology |
(2)How many things did the writer prepare before her experiment?
A. |
Three. |
B. |
Five. |
C. |
Seven. |
(3)How did the writer feel when she saw the progress of the potato plants?
A. |
Excited. |
B. |
Nervous. |
C. |
Surprised. |
(4)What can we know from the writer 's experiment report?
A. |
"Buddy" grew very fast in the first six days. |
B. |
Plenty of water is necessary for growing potato plants. |
C. |
The writer got new potatoes on the fifteenth day of the experiment. |
(5)What has the writer learned from the experiment?
A. |
Old habits die hard. |
B. |
Rome wasn't built in one day. |
C. |
Knowledge comes from questioning. |