RMB appreciation can not bear the pain of the textile indust

Increasing affluence（富裕）and currency appreciation are behind the spike in Chinese students traveling abroad for their undergraduate studies, industry insiders said.
The Ministry of Education last month reported that a record 840,000 high school graduates did not register for the gaokao (university entrance exam) this year. Those numbers are fueling speculation that this was due to the increasing number of Chinese students wanting to study abroad.
The total number of students traveling abroad to study increased from 144,000 in 2007 to 170,000 last year. This figure will probably top 200,000 this year, said Feng Jishang, marketing manager of Wiseway, a consulting firm that advises students and their parents about overseas schools.
Years ago, most Chinese students who went abroad would first complete their undergraduate studies in China before applying to an overseas graduate school. But this traned is changing. According to industry estimates, the proportion of students seeking their first degree abroad has risen to 30 to 50 percent of all overseas-bound students. That means there could be as many as 60,000 to 100,000 such students this year—— triple the number in 2003.
Foreign college campuses are beginning to notice the trend. A source tat the University of San Francisco told China Business Weekly that the campus used to accept three or four Chinese undergraduate students every year. Today, the number has hit 80, the university source said.
Rapid economic growth, coupled with a currency that has risen by more than 20 percent against the US dollar over the last four years, is making an overseas education more affordable for Chinese students. That’s making US campuses such as the University of San Francisco, or USF, more of a bargain. “ Students used to tell me that they did not have the money to go to USF, and they needed full scholarships. That is not the case now,” said Stanley Nel, vice-president of international relations at the San Francisco campus.
Another reason is that there simply aren’t enough places in Chinese colleges, especially the higher-rated ones, to satisfy the demand for a university education. “ Four in ten students taking the gaokao won’t get university places. Furthermore, of those that do many don’t get into the schools of their choice. That is why more are going abroad,” Feng of Wiseway said.
A widespread perception among students is that going overseas for college improves their career prospects, sources said. “ For Chinese students, capability is not a problem, but they need work experience and communication skills,” said Alan McNeilly, assistant dean at Teeside University in the United Kingdom. “ If they get a degree overseas, they can expect higher salaries and better positions when they return,” McNeilly said. His university will set up an office in China next month to attract more students, Mc Neilly added.
1.More and more Chinese students have recently traveled abroad for studines because______.
A．they don’t want to take part in the gaokao
B．most Chinese students want to study abroad
C．many Chinese people become richer and US dollar has been devalued
D．it is easy to complete their undergraduate studies
2.Which of the following statistics-related statements is NOT true?
A．The number of students seeking their first degree abroad is around 20,000 to 33,000 in 2003.
B．The increment of the total number of students traveling abroad to study is probably bigger from 2008 to 2009 than that from 2007to 2008.
C．The number of Chinese undergraduate students accepted at USF is about 20 to 26 times of that in the past.
D．200,000 out of the 840,000 high school graduates who did not take the gaokao this year started their undergraduate study abroad.
3.Students interested in studying abroad take the following factors into account EXCEPT_____.
A．financial affordability
B．work opportunities after graduation
C．accommodation standard
D．the chance of getting into a more desirable university
4.What can be inferred from this passage?
A．If the Chinese RMB decreases 20 percent against the US dollar, the number of Chinese students traveling abroad to study will decrease 20 percent.
B．If more universities are established in China, fewer students will choose to study abroad.
C．Teeside University will set up an office in China to attract those students who have been admitted to USF but have not been offered full scholarships.
D．Without a degree overseas higher salaries and better positions are not impossible if you are experienced and have outstanding communication skills.

Our love of music and appreciation of musical harmony is learnt and not based on natural ability, a new study by University of Melbourne researchers has found. The researchers said previous theories about how we appreciate music were based on the physical functions of sound, the ear itself and a born ability to hear harmony.
The study shows that musical harmony can be learnt, and it is a matter of training the brain to hear the sounds. So if you thought that the music of some foreign culture (or Jazz) sounded like the crying of cats, it’s simply because you haven’t learnt to listen by their rules.
The researchers used 66 volunteers with a range of musical training and tested their ability to hear combinations of notes(音符) to determine if they found the combinations familiar or pleasing. They found that people needed to be familiar with combinations of notes. If they found the notes unfamiliar they also found the sound unpleasant. This finding put an end to centuries of theories claiming that physical functions of the ear determine what we find attractive.
The study found that trained musicians were much more sensitive to unpleasant notes than non-musicians. When they couldn’t find the note, the musicians reported that the sounds were unpleasant, while non-musicians were much less sensitive. This shows the importance of training or nurturing(培养) the brain to like particular sound of combinations of notes, like those found in jazz or rock.
Depending on their training, a strange chord(和弦) sound was pleasant to some musicians, but very unpleasant to others. This showed us that even the ability to hear a musical note is learnt.
To confirm this finding, they trained 19 non-musicians to find the notes of a random selection of western chords. Not only did the participants’ ability to hear notes improve rapidly, afterward they reported that the chords they had learnt sounded more pleasant -- regardless of how the chords were played.
The question of why some combinations of musical notes are heard as pleasant or unpleasant has long been debated. “We have shown in this study that for music, beauty is in the brain of the beholder(观看者)”, a researcher said.
小题1:According to the study, people find foreign music quite unpleasant because_____.

A．they hear the music much too often

B．they don’t like the person playing it

C．they have no idea about how to listen

D．they have no born musical ability at all

小题2:Although non-musicians were less sensitive to music, they can still_____.

A．be trained to like particular music

B．make friends with real musicians

C．find the beauty of chords without training

D．enjoy the beauty of music when played by musicians

小题3:The 19 non-musicians were trained in order to show_____.

A．the brain likes particular combinations of notes

B．not a strange note was pleasant to all musicians

C．how the chords were played was very important

D．people’s ability to hear a musical note can be learnt

小题4:What is the main idea of the passage?

A．Love of musical harmony can’t be taught.

B．Love of music is not natural but nurtured.

C．Listening to music can improve your brain.

D．You can be a musician without being trained.