Test-taking time

JISHOU, HUNAN — I gave my last test of the term today. Now I will spend the next few days reading 90 Western Culture exam papers.

Here’s one to keep you busy: the US Citizenship Test, which applicants must pass in order to get US citizenship. Can you pass it? **No cheating.** The Christian Science Monitor website has the test online.

There are 96 multiple choice questions. The vast majority of applicants pass it on the first go. So, if you’re already a citizen and fail it, sorry, you have to leave the country. Or at least feel very, very ashamed.

They should administer it to politicians as a qualification for office, too. Some seem rather civics-challenged.

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January 7th, 2011 | Tags: , , | Category: Civil liberties, Commentary, Politics | One comment

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Another day in the life

JISHOU, HUNAN — Yesterday was unusually busy for me, so I want this chance to take to chronicle it.

Every Sunday, I teach spoken English (and some reading) to five 9-year-olds for two hours. These kids are the children of police officers — friends of my friend Smile, whose husband is an officer, too. One of my student friends helps me in this project, since I need someone to translate English to Chinese. Though the kids are rambunctious, they are also very bright, so the job is not as awful as it sounds (unless the reader happens to be a primary school teacher, who would know what I mean).

At 11, Nora and I left the police residential compound (警公安局 jing gong an ju) and headed for lunch at the university dining hall. There we were joined by four of my students (roommates), our friend from the PE college and a senior in the chemistry college who wanted just to talk with me. Afterward, three of us went for a walk and a sit in the sunshine, which has been in short supply these last four weeks, and the rest went off to their own things.



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December 21st, 2009 | Tags: , , , , | Category: China, Teaching English | 3 comments

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