The problem with today"s housing crisis, politically, is that it is just not all that visible. At the end of the Second World War, families with kids【C1】______into shared houses. In 1946, more than 46,000 families took over military camps, empty hotels and flats. That was a(n) 【C2】______housing crisis. Today"s does not come【C3】______: most people still have somewhere to live. It is nonetheless【C4】______, and worthy of political attention. But the question of exactly why our expensive homes【C5】______a crisis is more subtly depicted than it can appear. Since 1973 at least, the total number of "dwellings" has climbed far faster than the population. How is this possible,【C6】______that building rates have【C7】______? And doesn"t it mean that there isn"t really a housing crisis? First, in the 1960s and 1970s, while councils happily knocked【C8】______new estates, they were also busy pulling down lots of old "【C9】______" houses too. Social housing helped people move from broken old crowded houses into【C10】______new flats or houses, typically with much more【C11】______. Meanwhile, new homes were built on green fields. Average household sizes【C12】______dramatically, even as the average house got bigger. Though the housing stock【C13】______by less than the rate of building,【C14】______got a lot more space in which to live. In recent decades,【C15】______, everyone has got a lot less space. We have had【C16】______little new building, but【C17】______we have magically created lots of new housing. Essentially, so far, the housing crisis has been【C18】______by subdividing our homes to【C19】______the extra population growth.【C20】______, what new homes we do build are the smallest in the developed world.

William Shakespeare described old age as "second childishness"—sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste. In the case of taste he may, musically speaking, have been even more perceptive than he realized. A paper in Neurology by Giovanni Frisoni and his colleagues at the National Centre for Research and Care of Alzheimer"s Disease in Brescia, Italy, shows that one form of senile dementia can affect musical desires in ways that suggest a regression, if not to infancy, then at least to a patient"s teens. Frontotemporal dementia is caused, as its name suggests, by damage to the front and sides of the brain. These regions are concerned with speech, and with such "higher" functions as abstract thinking and judgment. Frontotemporal damage therefore produces different symptoms from the loss of memory associated with Alzheimer"s disease, a more familiar dementia that affects the hippocampus and amygdala in the middle of the brain. Frontotemporal dementia is also rarer than Alzheimer"s. In the past five years the centre in Brescia has treated some 1,500 Alzheimer"s patients; it has seen only 46 with frontotemporal dementia. Two of those patients interested Dr. Frisoni. One was a 68-year-old lawyer, the other a 73-year-old housewife. Both had undamaged memories, but displayed the sorts of defect associated with frontotemporal dementia—a diagnosis that was confirmed by brain scanning. About two years after he was first diagnosed, the lawyer, once a classical music lover who referred to pop music as "mere noise", started listening to the Italian pop band "883". As his command of language and his emotional attachments to friends and family deteriorated, he continued to listen to the band at full volume for many hours a day. The housewife had not even had the lawyer"s love of classical music, having never enjoyed music of any sort in the past. But about a year after her diagnosis she became very interested in the songs that her 11-year-old granddaughter was listening to. This kind of change in musical taste was not seen in any of the Alzheimer"s patients, and thus appears to be specific to those with frontotemporal dementia. And other studies have remarked on how frontotemporal dememia patients sometimes gain new talents. Five sufferers who developed artistic abilities are known. And in another lapse of musical taste, one woman with the disease suddenly started composing and singing country and western songs. Dr. Frisoni speculates that the illness is causing people to develop a new attitude towards novel experiences. Previous studies of novelty-seeking behavior suggest that it is managed by the brain"s right frontal lobe. A predominance of the right over the left frontal lobe, caused by damage to the latter, might thus lead to a quest for new experience. Alternatively, the damage may have affected some specific neural circuit that is needed to appreciate certain kinds of music. Whether that is a gain or a loss is a different matter. As Dr. Frisoni puts it in his article, De Gustibus Non Disputandum Est. Or, in plainer words, there is no accounting for taste.

Studythefollowingphotoscarefullyandwriteanessayinwhichyoushould1)describethephotosbriefly,2)interpretthesocialphenomenonreflectedbythem,andthen3)giveyourpointofview.Youshouldwrite160-200wordsneatlyonANSWERSHEET2.(20points)

BSection III Writing/B

I was studying physics in college 20 years ago this month, when two chemists at the University of Utah promised that they could unleash the energy of the sun in a test tube at room temperature, and meet the entire world"s energy needs forever with some cooked up water and a couple of electrodes. The exhilaration at the genesis of the new science of "cold fusion" faded fairly quickly. Scores of scientists around the world tried and failed to replicate the Utah scientists" wondrous results. Irksome physicists pointed out that the process the chemists described violated several laws of nature. To me, however, those heady few months bring to mind something more than the hubristic enthusiasm of some overheated men in lab coats. The experience provides a lasting lesson about our faith in technology as the solution to our challenges, and the cover it provides to avoid hard choices on things like, say, conserving energy. It"s a warning about the pitfalls of our unshakeable belief in the limitless promise of our endeavors, regardless of reality"s constraints. It is a lesson about the dangers of our love affair with progress. Contemplating the economic rubble from our most recent paroxysm of enthusiasm, I wonder whether we should do something about our blind passions. I"ve heard the supporting arguments, of course, about how optimism seeds the American Dream, nurturing the entrepreneurial zeal that supports the nation"s prosperity. And it"s true that the Internet bubble bequeathed us the Internet as we know it. I"m told optimism also helps patients recover from coronary bypass surgery. Still, I can"t help thinking that repackaging the future as a basketful of promise is a con. Recent research from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has found that the son of a poor American father has more than a 40 percent chance of being poor himself—higher odds than in, say, Britain, Norway or Denmark. The income of the typical American household was lower in 2007 than it was in 1999. This aspect of the American Dream seems like a dream only. I am confident that we shall keep on dreaming, however, regardless of the damage this periodically inflicts. On the anniversary of the "discovery" in Utah 20 years ago, a Navy chemist breathlessly announced to a meeting of the American Chemical Society in Salt Lake City that her lab had nailed it, finally, finding "significant" evidence of cold fusion. Now they call the phenomenon a "low-energy nuclear reaction", presumably to overcome the stigma.

BSection III Writing/B

Computer people talk a lot about the need for other people to become "computer literate", in other words, to learn to understand computers and what make them tick. But not all experts agree, however, that this is a good idea. One pioneer, in particular, who disagrees is David Tebbutt, the founder of Computer-town UK. Although many people see it that way. He says that Computer-town UK was formed for computer, but David does not see it that way. He says that Computer-town UK was formed for just the opposite reason to bring computer to the people and make them "People-literate". David first got the idea when he visited one of America"s best-known computer "guru" figures Bob Albrecht, who had started a project called Computer-town USA in the local library. Over here, in Britain, Computer-towns have taken off in a big way, and there are now about 40 scattered, over the country. David Tebbutt thinks they are most successful when tied to a computer club. He insists there is a vast and important difference between the two, although they complement each other. The clubs cater for the enthusiasts, with some computer knowledge already, who get together and eventually form an expert computer group. This frightens away non-experts, known as "grockles"(游客) who are happier going to Computer-towns where there are computers available for them to experiment on, with experts available to encourage them and answer any question; they are not told what to do, they find out. David Tebbutt finds it interesting to see the two different approaches working side by side. The computer experts have to learn not to tell people about computers, but have to be able to explain the answers to the questions that people really want to know. People are not having to learn computer jargon(行话), but the experts are having to translate computer mysteries into easily understood terms; the computers are becoming "people—literate".

Have there always been cities? The trend is cities are increasingly becoming the dominant mode of man's social existence. 【F1】 It is virtually impossible to imagine that universities, hospitals, large businesses or even science and technology could have come into being without cities to support them, and cities have traditionally been the areas where there was a concentration of culture as well as of opportunity. 【F2】 In recent years, however, people have begun to become aware that cities are also areas where there is a concentration of problems. Actually, long before this century started, there had begun a trend toward the concentration of the poor of the American society into the cities. Each great wave of immigration from abroad and from the rural areas made the problem worse. Within the cities, sections may be sharply divided into high and low rent districts, the "right side of town" and the slums. Of course, everyone wants to do something about this unhappy situation. But there is no agree ment as to goals. Neither is there any systematic approach or integrated program. Opinions are as diverse as the people who give them. 【F3】 But one basic difference of opinion concerns the question of whether or not the city as such is to be preserved. 【F4】 And there is also the objection that the city has always been the core from which cultural advancement has radiated, but is this still the case today in the presence of easy transportation and communication? Does culture arise as a result of people living together communally, or is it too the result of decisions made at the level of government and the communications industry? Most people prefer to preserve the cities. Some think that the cities could be cleaned up or totally rebuilt. A great rebuilding project would give jobs to many of those people who need them. Living conditions could not help but improve, at least for a while. But would the problems return after the rebuilding was completed? Nevertheless, with the majority of the people living in urban areas, the problem of the cities must be solved. 【F5】 From agreement on this general goal, we have, unfortunately, in the past proceeded to disagreement on specific goals, and from there to total inaction. At the basis of much of this inaction is an old-fashioned concept—the idea human conditions will naturally tend to regulate themselves for the general goal.

Can this be the right time to invest in luxury goods? Miuccia Prada was obviously biting her nails. The granddaughter of the founder of the Italian fashion group has just opened spectacular new stores in quick succession in New York and London. With its magic mirrors, silver displays and computer-controlled changing rooms, Prada"s two-month-old shop in Manhattan cost a staggering $40m, sits just a mile from Ground Zero, and sells practically nothing. The luxury-goods business has been in despair in hasty succession against a background of a weakening global economy, an enduring slump in Japanese spending, and the September 11th terrorist attacks. The Japanese, who used to buy a third of the world"s luxury goods, cut their foreign travel in half after the attacks and tightened their Louis Vuitton purse-strings. At the same time, wealthy Americans stopped flying, which has a dramatic effect on the luxury-goods purveyors of London, Paris and Rome. At home too, Americans"attitudes to luxury changed, at least temporarily. "Conspicuous abstention" replaced greedy consumerism among the fast-growing, younger breed of newly rich. The decline in job security, the lower bonuses in financial services, and the stock market bust that wiped out much of the paper wealth generated in the late 1990s, bred a new frugality. Sales of expensive jewelry, watches and handbags—the products that make the juiciest profits for the big luxury-goods groups—dropped sharply. The impact has been most striking among the handful of large, quoted luxury-goods companies. France"s Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH), the industry leader, issued four profits warnings after September 11th and ended up reporting a 20% decline in operating profit for 2001, after having repeatedly promised its investors double-digit growth; and Italy"s Gucci Group, the third largest, announced this week that second-half profits dropped by 33%. Meanwhile, privately held Prada had to postpone its stock market flotation and was forced to sell a recently acquired stake in Fendi, a prestigious Italian bag maker, in order to reduce its debts. Luxury is an unusual business. A luxury brand cannot be extended indefinitely: if it becomes too common, it is devalued, as Pierre Cardin and Ralph Lauren proved by sticking their labels on everything from T-shirts to paint. Equally, a brand name can be undermined if it is not advertised consistently, or if it is displayed and sold poorly. Sagra Maceira de Rosen, a luxury-goods analyst at J.P. Morgan, argues that, "Luxury companies are primarily retailers. In retailing, the most important thing is execution, and execution is all about management. You may have the best designed product, but if you don"t get it into the right kind of shop at the right time, you will fail."

Your father is seriously ill, and you want to go back home. Write a note to the secretary and it should include: 1) the cause for leaving; 2) the days: from 16th to 21st; 3) catch up on the lesson after returning school. You should write about 100 words. Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use "Wang Ling" instead.

BSection I Use of EnglishDirections: Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D./B

Nowadays, more people are living closer together, and they use machines to produce leisure. As a result, they find that their leisure, and even their working hours, become (1)_____ by a byproduct of their machines, (2)_____ noise. Noise is in the news; it has acquired political (3)_____, and public opinion is demanding, more and more (4)_____, that something (5)_____ about it. To control noise is to demand much (6)_____(Annoyance arises often from, (7)_____ of common courtesy), a sense of proportion (There is usually a (8)_____ of interest if a noise is to be stopped), the (9)_____ of money (and it is far more economical to do this early (10)_____ than late), and, finally, technical knowledge. Though the (11)_____ care for noise is to stop it at its source, this may in many (12)_____ be impossible. The next (13)_____ is to absorb it on its way to the ear. Domestic noises may be controlled by forethought and (14)_____, and industrial noises by good planning and technical (15)_____ But if we are going to (16)_____ fast motor-cycles and heavy (17)_____ lorries to pass continuously through residential and business (18)_____, the community must decide (19)_____ the control it needs to (20)_____ for in the long run it has got to pay for it.

BSection II Reading Comprehension/B

The growth of cell phone users in the U.S. has tapered off from the breakneck pace of 50% annually in the late 1990s to what analysts project will be a 15% to 20% rise in 2002, and no more than that in 2003. To some extent, numerous surveys have found, slower growth in demand reflects consumer disillusionment with just about every aspect of cell-phone service—its reliability, quality, and notorious customer service. The cooling off in demand threatens to cascade through the industry: The big six U.S. cell-phone carriers—Verizon Wireless, Cingular Wireless, AT＆T Wireless, Sprint PCS, Voice Stream, and Nextel Communications—are engaged in a fierce price war that imperils their timetables for becoming profitable, not to mention their efforts to whittle down their mountains of debt. As the carriers have begun to cut costs wireless equipment makers—companies such as Lucent, Nokia, and Ericsson have been left with a market that"s bound to be smaller than they had anticipated. Handset makers have been insulated so far, but they, too face a nagging uncertainty. They"ll soon introduce advanced phones to the U.S. market that will run on the new networks the carriers are starting up over the next year or two. But the question then will be: Will Americans embrace these snazzy data features and their higher costs—with the wild enthusiasm that Europeans and Asians have? Long before the outcome in clear, the industry will have to adopt a new mind-set. "In the old days, it was all about connectivity." says Andrew Cole, an analyst with wireless consultancy Adventist. Build the network, and customers will come. From now on, the stakes will be higher. The new mantra: Please customers, or you may not survive. To work their way out of this box, the carriers are spending huge sums to address the problem. Much of Sprint PCS"s $3.4 billion in capital outlays this year will be for new stations. And in fact, the new high-speed, high-capacity nationwide networks due to roll out later this year should help ease the calling capacity crunch that has caused many consumer complaints. In the meantime, some companies are using better training and organization to keep customers happy. The nation"s largest rural operator, Alltel (AT), recently reorganized its call centers so that a customer"s query goes to the first operator who"s available anywhere in the country, instead of the first one available in the customer"s home area. That should cut waiting time to one minute from three to five minutes previously.

Africa"s unhappy distinction of being the world"s epicentre of HIV, the infection causing AIDS, is being challenged by Asia, from where 40% of the disease"s growth is forecast to come over the next few years. Already in China, contaminated blood transfusions in some villages have claimed the lives of most young adults, leaving only children and their grandparents alive. In Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea(PNG), about 60% of hospital beds are now occupied by AIDS patients. Faced with predictions that AIDS could cost Asian and Pacific countries tens of billions of dollars a year by 2010, two initiatives involving co-operation between government, businesses and aid workers have been launched in Australia to try to stop its spread. The first is a partnership between the Australian government and the(Bill)Clinton Foundation, a global body set up four years ago by the former American president to fight AIDS. Australia will provide A $ 25m($ 18m)to work with the foundation in China, Vietnam and PNG, mainly to supply tests and anti-retroviral drugs. These are not necessarily the region"s three most afflicted countries: India, where 5m people live with HIV, has the most cases outside South Africa. But they do pose a risk of HIV spreading beyond their borders, especially from PNG, Australia"s closest neighbour and its former colony. Over the past decade, HIV has grown alarmingly in PNG to reach 50,000 estimated cases, about 2% of the adult population. Alexander Downer, Australia"s foreign minister, worries about HIV"s potential to become a "national catastrophe" there, possibly rising to 500, 000 cases by 2025. Unprotected sex has driven most of the spread in PNG. In China(500,000 estimated cases)and Vietnam(260,000 cases), contaminated blood transfusions, prostitution and intravenous drug use are the main avenues. The government-Clinton coalition will work with a second co-operative effort involving Australian companies that have operations in Asia. This has been formed through the Lowy Institute, a Sydney think-tank, which argues that AIDS, left unchecked, could prove another potential source of regional instability along with terrorism. Margaret Jackson, chairman of Qantas, Australia" s biggest airline, who heads the business coalition, says having 8. 3m people infected with HIV in Asia and the Pacific threatens the economic life of Asia, especially that of China, Australia"s second-biggest export market. The outlook is grim: the number of sufferers is forecast to more than double to 20m by 2010—unless rich countries, like Australia, start exporting their own successful experience in curbing AIDS.

Writeanessayof160-200wordsbasedonthefollowingdrawing.Inyouressay,youshould1)describethedrawingbriefly,2)explainitsintendedmeaning,andthen3)supportyourviewwithanexample/examples.YoushouldwriteneatlyonANSWERSHEET2.(20points)

In a rare unanimous ruling, the US Supreme Court has overturned the corruption conviction of a former Virginia governor, Robert McDonnell. But it did so while holding its nose at the ethics of his conduct , which included accepting gifts such as a Rolex watch and a Ferrari Automobile from a company seeking access to government. The high court' s decision said the judge in Mr. McDonnell' s trail failed to tell a jury that it must look only at his "official acts" , or the former governor' s decisions on "specific" and "unsettled" issues related to his duties. Merely helping a gift-giver gain access to other officials, unless done with clear intent to pressure those officials, is not corruption, the justices found. The court did suggest that accepting favors in return for opening doors is "distasteful" and "nasty. " But under anti-bribery laws, proof must be made of concrete benefits, such as approval of a contract or regulation. Simply arranging a meeting, making a phone call, or hosting an event is not an "official act". The court' s ruling is legally sound in defining a kind of favoritism that is not criminal. Elected leaders must be allowed to help supporters deal with bureaucratic problems without fear of prosecution of bribery. "The basic compact underlying representative government," wrote Chief Justice John Roberts for the court, "assumes that public officials will hear from their constituents and act on their concerns. " But the ruling reinforces the need for citizens and their elected representatives, not the courts, to ensure equality of access to government. Officials must not be allowed to play favorites in providing information or in arranging meetings simply because an individual or group provides a campaign donation or a personal gift. This type of integrity requires will-enforced laws in government transparency, such as records of official meetings, rules on lobbying, and information about each elected leader' s source of wealth. Favoritism in official access can fan public perceptions of corruption. But it is not always corruption. Rather officials must avoid double standards, or different types of access for average people and the wealthy. If connections can be bought, a basic premise of democratic society—that all are equal in treatment by government—is undermined. Good government rests on an understanding of the inherent worth of each individual. The court' s ruling is a step forward in the struggle against both corruption and official favoritism.

Everyday some 16m barrels of oil leave the Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz. That is enough to fill a soft-drink can for everyone on earth, or to power every motor vehicle on the planet for 25 miles(40km). Gulf oil accounts for 40% of global trade in the sticky stuff. More important, it makes up two-thirds of known deposits. Whereas at present production rates the rest of the world"s oil reserves will last for a mere 25 years, the Gulf"s will last for 100. In other words, the region"s strategic importance is set to grow and grow. Or at least so goes the conventional wisdom, which is usually rounded out with scary talk of unstable, spendthrift regimes and a looming fundamentalist menace. Yet all those numbers come with caveats. A great deal of oil is consumed by the countries that produce it rather than traded, so in reality the Gulf accounts for less than a quarter of the world"s daily consumption. As for reserves, the figures are as changeable as a mirage in the desert. The most comprehensive research available, conducted by the US Geological Survey, refers to an "expected" total volume for global hydrocarbon deposits that is about double current known reserves. Using that figure, and throwing in natural gas along with oil, it appears that the Gulf contains a more moderate 30% or so of the planet"s future fossil-fuel supplies. Leaving out the two Gulf states that are not covered in this survey—Iran and Iraq—the remaining six between them hold something like 20% of world hydrocarbon reserves, not much more than Russia. All the same, it is still a hefty chunk; enough, you might think, to keep the people living atop the wells in comfort for the foreseeable future. But you might be wrong. At present, the nations of the Gulf Co-operation Council have a combined national income roughly equal to Switzerland"s, but a population which, at around 30m, is more than four times as big. It is also the fastest-growing on earth, having increased at nine times the Swiss rate over the past quarter-century. Meanwhile the region"s share of world oil trade has fallen, as has the average price per barrel. As a result, the income per person generated by GCC oil exports has been diminishing since the 1970s. True, surging demand from America and Asia has recently boosted the Gulf"s share of trade, but the medium-term outlook for oil pries remains weak. Combined with continued growth in oil consumption, this should create sustained upward pressure on prices. And high oil prices will speed the search for alternatives. Who knows, in 20 years" time fuel cells and hydrogen power may have started to become commercial propositions.

The Japanese government wants women like Taeko Mizuguchi to get married and start doing something about the nation"s plunging birthrate. But she"s not interested. At least, not if her prospective husband is Japanese. A growing number of Japanese women are giving up on their male counterparts, and taking a gamble that looking abroad for love will bring them the qualities in a partner that seem rare at home. "They treat you like equals, and they don"t hesitate to express mutual feelings of respect—I think Western men are more adept at such things than Japanese men", says the 36-year-old Ms. Miznguchi, who works at a top trading firm. "They don"t act like women are maids—I think they view women as individuals". Underscoring that Japanese women are losing hope with the local boys, dating agencies to help snag a Western husband have sprung up in Tokyo, some with branches in the US and Europe. Such companies rigorously vet their clients, screening for education, family background, occupation, and life goals. The kind of women who sign up for such services include doctors, lawyers, and other professionals—women who have delayed marriage to concentrate on careers and who aren"t keen to give up hard won gains to become a housewife, as many Japanese men expect. A generation of women who are now entering their 30s don"t want to give up single life unless prospective partners are willing to break from traditional gender roles. Government polls conducted to find out why women have put off marriage until well after 25 years of age—known as a woman"s "best before date"—show that economic independence is key to the change. As most Japanese women have their own income, marriage is no longer a financial necessity and women want to find companionship in a husband. Having ruled out an old-fashioned Japanese husband, many women here think the solution is a Western man. Indeed, some seem so enthralled with the idea that they are willing to spend thousands of dollars to inspect the wares personally. To be fair, not all the blame for female angst here can be laid on Japanese men. The government has been slow to enforce equal opportunity laws, and both pay and the glass ceiling in most Japanese corporations remain low for women. Recession has hampered longer maternity leave and other family-friendly policies. As Japan"s fertility rate drops to new lows, the government is anxiously drawing up plans to make it easier for young couples to raise children, through such measures as the provision of cheap public housing.

The following paragraphs are given in a wrong order. For Questions 41-45, you are required to reorganize these paragraphs into a coherent article by choosing from the list A-G. Some of the paragraphs have been placed for you. (10 points)A. What else might be wrong? Money? Germany"s spending per pupil is a bit below the OECD average. But so is Britain"s and British pupils, to the surprise of many there, figured in the top ten in all the tests. The organization of schooling, then? That would be hard m judge. Education is the responsibility of the country"s 16 distinct Lander (states), and the various systems they use range from the highly selective to the fully comprehensive.B. There is more of a clue, perhaps, to be found in the teaching force itself. Germany"s school- teachers are relatively well paid, but they are too few: Germany has one of the highest pupil- teacher ratios among OECD countries, and in many subjects an acute shortage of teachers. Nor are new ones flocking in: two-fifths of all teachers are over 50. One in three admits to feeling "burnt out"; nearly three-quarters take early retirement on health grounds. Inevitably, the quality of teaching suffers.C. "Shocking", "scandalous" and "catastrophic", politicians, parents and educators have wailed in unison. And beneath the average figures lie others even more shocking for Germany"s deeply democratic burghers: evidence of a wide gap—-one of the widest found by the OECD"s researchers—between Germany"s highest-performing students and its lowest. Nearly a quarter of its 15-year-olds could not read and understand a simple text. Not that Germany can take much comfort from the achievement of its pupils at the other end of the scale. Only 28% of its 15-year-olds reached the study"s top two levels of reading ability, compared with half in Finland (which was ranked first overall) and over a third in a dozen other countries.D. Other explanations abound. One is the German zeal for rote learning, rather than for teaching children to think for themselves. Another is the inadequate support given to weaker students, and the requirement that any pupil who gets poor marks in just two subjects has to repeat the whole year. Most of the other 15-year-old pupils involved in the OECD study were all in the same grade, having gone up with their contemporaries as a group; the German 15-year-olds spanned four grades, because so many had had to repeat a year or more.E. How can this be? Whatever else, Germany is famous for its thoroughness. Its technical education was one of the wonders of the 19th century, and long after. What has gone wrong? Almost as alarming as the figures, no one can tell. Blaming the large number of students of foreign descent, who account for one in ten pupils in German schools, is not an adequate excuse: German-speaking Austria—yes, easy-going Austria-came tenth in the reading tests, although it has a similar proportion of pupils of foreign descent.F. Some people blame Germany"s compressed school day, which starts at 8 a.m. and usually ends at 1:30 p.m. or 2 p.m. Many parents would like a later start and a longer day. Some Lander are trying out all-day schooling, but so far only on a small scale. The big need, runs another argument, is for more flee kindergarten places, to help, in particular, children from non-German-speaking immigrant families. At the top of the scale, it has long been argued that more pupils should be encouraged to go on to higher education. At present, only 28% do so, compared with an OECD average of 45%—and only 16% emerge (typically, some six years later) with a degree. Since the report was published last week, Germans have been racking their brains over all these questions and more. No one yet has the answers. But many Germans are already convinced that nothing short of a "cultural revolution" throughout the education system is now required.G. The shame of what a new study of school pupils" performance by the OECD, Germany, the world"s third-biggest economic power, the "land of poets and thinkers", was ranked a miserable 21st out of 31 countries for the reading abilities of its 15-year-olds, 20th in mathematics and 20th in science. A country long proud—and seemingly with reason—of its record in education has been shown up as a Dummkopf. Its government and citizens alike are in a tizzy of alarm and self-doubt.Order: G is the first paragraph and F is the last.