More and more American parents, students, educators, political and business leaders have come to see the importance of Chinese on the world stage. As a result, Americans hoping to learn Chinese are growing in number though they face a lot of difficulties.
Liu Chuansheng, chairperson of the University Council at Beijing Normal University, talked about this situation. “There have been 300 million Chinese learning English, and I know that there are more and more Americans beginning to learn Chinese. I remember when I came to the U. S. there were only 250 schools offering Chinese classes; when I left in 2005, there were already 2,400 schools hoping to offer Chinese classes. Today more than 700 schools are offering Chinese classes, and 4,500 are planning to do so.”
“This is an important time in America. We have suffered from an economic crisis; there is swine flu(猪流感) ---- all part of our lives. We need to be competitive to deal with the world and make an effort to understand each other,” said Shuhan Wang, head of Chinese Language Initiatives at Asia Society. “The number of Chinese language teachers remains the key bottleneck,” she said. “And the need for specialized teachers becomes greater, as there is increasing popularity of early language learning ---- kindergarten through 8th grades.”
Jon M. Huntsman Jr., governor(州长) of Utah, has led his state to the front in teaching Chinese. “While math and science remain main studies,” he said, “language is going to be an important drive in education. Next year 82 schools will offer Chinese to 6,000 students.”
64. It is implied in the passage that the number of Americans learning Chinese is growing mainly because _______.
A. more and more Americans face a lot of difficulties
B. the number of Chinese learning English is growing
C. Chinese is widely used by actors all over the world
D. China is playing a more important role in the world
65. Liu Chuansheng’s talk mainly shows us _______.
A. how Americans are learning Chinese B. why Americans are learning Chinese
C. that Chinese becomes popular in America D. that China offers more Chinese classes there
66. The biggest problem with Americans learning Chinese is that _____.
A. the Chinese language is too difficult for them to learn
B. they don’t have enough teachers of Chinese in the USA
C. American children are not good at learning languages
D. teachers won’t work in kindergartens or primary schools
67. The proper title for the passage is _______.
A. Americans show great interest in learning Chinese
B. Americans show less interest in math and science
C. Chinese teachers get new chance to work in America
D. Chinese is widely used in some states of America
