The document, entitled The Analysis of and Forecasts for Social Development (or the Blue Book on Chinese Society), said 38.4 percent of the 7,000 families interviewed had been affected by the unstable employment situation.

   In urban areas, the unemployment rate is now 9.4 percent, twice the registered rate of 4.5 percent released by the Human Resources and Society Security Ministry. Central and western parts of the country, which have less-developed economies, are facing a more severe unemployment situation than wealthy coastal areas, while big cities have a higher unemployment rate than small towns.

Natural disasters and rising costs due to the global economic slowdown have caused thousands of small and medium-sized firms to close down this year, leaving millions of migrant workers (农民工)jobless, the report said.

“The global financial crisis has had a profound(深远的) effect on the Chinese economy and society,” said Li Peilin, director of the CASS Institute of Sociology.

The report also said that the number of people graduating from college rose to a new high of 5.6 million this year. But as of August, just 70 percent of them had found work. By the end of the year, more than 1.5 million fresh graduates will be without a job, while 6.1 million others will enter the job market next year.

“The widening income gap between rich and poor will restrict the consumption power of middle and low-income families, especially during the economic recession(衰退).” Li Peilin warned. The average income of 20 percent of the richest families is 17 times higher than that of 20 percent of the poorest ones. The rich also own far more home appliances, such as refrigerators, mobile phones and computers. Just 4 percent of poor families have a computer, compared with 66 of rich families.

“It is very important to improve the income situation in China in order to promote domestic demand,” said Li Wei, a CASS researcher and one of the writers of the report.

A

★★☆☆☆

If youˈre ever invited to David George Gordonˈs house for dinner, you may be served bugs (小昆虫). What else would you expect from the author of The Eat-a-Bug Cookbook?

What was the first bug you ever ate?

A long time ago I went to a bug fair in Seattle, and at it they were serving crickets (蟋蟀). Iˈve eaten all sorts of unusual food, so they didnˈt seem that strange to me and I enjoyed eating them.

Whatˈs your favorite bug to eat? The best-tasting ones in my experience are called wax worms (蜡虫). They eat the wax from honeycombs, and when you cook them, they taste wonderful.

Whatˈs the worst-tasting bug youˈve ever eaten?

None, really. The ones that donˈt taste good go out of their way to tell us so. Theyˈre brightly colored, and in the bug world, bright colors mean “Hey! Back off!”

Where do you buy the bugs you eat?

You can buy crickets or wax worms at a pet store. Theyˈre good to experiment with because theyˈve been raised to be eaten by pets and theyˈre available year-round.

You do lots of bug-cooking shows at schools and museums. Once people try bugs, do they like them?

I serve everyone crickets, and Iˈve had people come back for fifth and sixth servings. One kid said, “Itˈs way better than anything my mom makes.”

Is there anything else we should know about eating bugs?

If youˈre going to eat bugs, donˈt eat them uncooked. And donˈt collect bugs from your backyard or under the fridge. Theyˈve probably been eating pesticides (杀虫剂), and you donˈt want to eat the pesticides that the bugs have eaten. Third, some people are actually allergic (过敏的) to bugs, especially people who are allergic to shellfish. You need to be careful.

This is the VOA Special English Education Report. A few weeks ago, we talked about the Test of English as a Foreign Language, or TOEFL. A listener in Cambodia named Thida asks if American colleges and universities also accept the IELTS exam. IELTS is the International English Language Testing System. It was developed by the University of Cambridge ESOL examiners.

Cambridge ESOL says the test measures true-to-life ability to communicate in English for education, immigration or employment. The IELTS tests listening, reading, writing and speaking skills. It uses a mixture of accents and spellings, including British English and American English.

The test is used by government agencies, schools and professional organizations in one hundred and twenty countries. And, yes, that includes the United States. The many American schools that accepted the IELTS can be found on the Web at ielts.org.

Some schools accept both the TOEFL and the IELTS, but the graduate school at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, for example, says it prefers the IEITS.

The listening and speaking parts are the same for everyone who takes the IELTS, but people have a choice of reading and writing tests—either academic or general training.

The listening test takes thirty minutes. There are forty questions based on a recording. The reading test takes sixty minutes. Students answer forty questions based on three written passages.

The writing test also takes sixty minutes. Students have to write two essays. One essay has to be at least one hundred and fifty words long and the other at least two hundred and fifty words. The shorter one is description of something; the longer one has to support and argument.

The speaking test takes less than fifteen minutes. The score is based on a recorded talk between the student and a test examiner.

And that’s the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. If you have a general question for our series, write to special@voanews.com. I’m Barbara Klein.

C

The following are three advertisements from different newspapers. Read them carefully and answer the following questions.

Adults：成年人  Seniors：高龄   except：除......之外

The Cambodian government says more than 378 people died and hundreds more were injured in a stampede(踩踏)during the celebrations of the annual Water Festival late Monday in Phnom Penh.

  
Less than 24 hours after the tragedy(悲剧), Cambodia’s most serious loss of life in decades(十年), the government founded an organization to investigate(调查)how so many died on what was meant to be one of the nation’s most joyous occasions.

Most of the victims(牺牲品)were young people in their teens and twenties. They were some of the estimated(估计)two million who had flooded to Phnom Penh for the Water Festival, which marks the end of the rainy season.

Most suffocated on the bridge, which thousands of people were using to leave Diamond Island, an entertainment(娱乐)area in the middle of the river. Others drowned(溺水)after jumping from the bridge into the water.

Buot Panha, 19, said shortly after 9. 30 on Monday evening he ended up trapped(围困)with his friends in the middle of the bridge, fighting to breathe while terrified people struggled all around him.

Being tall saved his life, since he could stretch(伸出)his neck to take in oxygen(氧气). Shorter people were unable to do that, he says, which may be why two-thirds of the victims were women.

He tried to help a woman who was trapped with two children near him. She was screaming for people to help. Being tall, Buot Panha grabbed(抓住)one child and pushed him above the crowd to help him breathe.

But then some of the young men were told to jump off the bridge into the river to make room. So he handed back the child, squirmed his way to the edge, and jumped.

Some like Buot Panha were fortunate, jumping into the river below and swimming for the shore. But many simply could not move, and died where they lay.

Buot Panha says his first Water Festival will be his last. He vows(发誓)never to come back.

Recently we talked with Diane Lucas of Scrapsforever.com about scrapbooking (剪贴薄制作).

What is scrapbooking exactly?

When I make a scrapbook page, I take a few of my family photos and put them into a page that uses beautiful paper, stickers, drawings, and words to show the theme (主题). For example, this page about my son is called“First Day at School”. Hereˈs a photo of him and one of his drawings, and I decorated (装饰) it with stickers. When you make a scrapbook, you can put words and pictures together to show the important times in your life. Itˈs like a personal history.

How did you get started?

When I was a child, I always saved bits of paper, things like movie tickets and vacation postcards. I made my first scrapbook ten years ago, when my father died. When I looked through his desk, I found the most wonderful things — like my parentsˈ anniversary cards, and photos from his army days. I couldnˈt throw away anything, so I made two scrapbooks with my collections, for my brother and me.

Do you know other people who make scrapbooks?

Oh, yes! We call ourselves“scrappers”, and we often have“crops”, big parties where we all work on our scrapbooks. We bring our scissors and papers and our boxes of photos, and we talk while making new pages. Itˈs a time for enjoyment, when friends show pictures and tell stories about our families, and our lives. At the same time, we create a book to keep those memories.

Why is scrapbooking so popular these days?

I think people want to record their family history, and show it to other people. When you make a scrapbook, you can pass the stories on to your children, and your grandchildren. So many people today want to do that! We all have boxes of pictures, and we all want to keep those memories. Thatˈs the real meaning of scrapbooking.

D

Dear David,

  How are you? I'm in Beijing now. I am in No. 5 High School. I like Beijing very much, and I have two good friends here. They are Peter and Wang Zhe. Peter is from Canada and Wang Zhe is from China. We are in the same class. They often help me with my Chinese. I can speak a little Chinese now. All of the teachers are kind to me. I like Chinese food here, like Guangdong food, Sichuan food and Hunan food. They are delicious(美味的). Sometimes(有时候) we go out to eat. Jiaozi is my favorite food. I often have Jiaozi for lunch and have noodles(面条) for dinner. I have milk and bread for breakfast. What about you? 

                                                       Yours,

                                                       Jerry

根据短文内容，选择正确答案。

Brazil has become one of the most successful developing countries in reducing population growth, but more by accident than by design. While countries such as India have made great efforts to reduce birth rates, Brazil has had better results without really trying, saying George Martine at Harvard.

Brazil’s population growth rate has dropped from 2.99% a year between 1951 and 1960 to 1.93% a year between 1981 and 1990, and Brazilian women now have only 2.7 children on average. Martine says this figure may have fallen still further since 1990, an achievement that makes it the envy of many other Third World countries.

Martine puts it down to, among other things, soap operas and family plans introduced in the 1970s. Both played an important, although indirect, role in lowering the birth rate. Brazil is one of the world’s biggest producers of soap operas. Globo, Brazil’s most popular television network, shows three hours of soaps six nights a week, while three others show at least one hour a night. Most soaps are based on wealthy characters living the high life in big cities.

“ Although they have never really tried to work in a message towards the problems of reproduction, they describe the values of middle and upper class－not many children, different attitudes towards sex, women working,” says Martine, “ They sent this image to all parts of Brazil and made people conscious of other patterns of behavior and other values, which were put into a very attractive package.”

Meanwhile, the family plans tried to encourage the poor to become consumers. “ This led to a great change in consumption patterns and consumption,” says Martine.