One of the latest trend(趋势)in American Childcare is Chinese au pairs. Au Pair in Stamford, for example, has got increasing numbers of request for Chinese au pairs from aero to around 4, 000 since 2004. And that’s true all across the country. “I thought it would be useful for him to learn Chinese at an early age“ Joseph Stocke, the managing director of a company, says of his 2-year-old son. “ I would at least like to give him the chance to use the language in the future, “ After only six months of being cared by a 25-year-old woman from China, the boy can already understand basic Chinese daily expressions, his dad says. Li Drake, a Chinese native raising two children in Minnesota with an American husband, had another reason for looking for an au pair from China. She didn’t want her children to miss out on their roots. “ Because I am Chinese, my husband and I wanted the children to keep exposed to(接触)the language and culture(文化), “ she says. “ Staying with a native speaker is better for children than simply sitting in a classroom, “ says Suzanne Flynn, a professor in language education of children. “ But parents must understand that just one year with au pair is unlikely to produce wonders. Complete mastery demands continued learning until the age of 10 or 12. “ The popularity of au pairs from China has been strengthened by the increasing numbers of American parents who want their children to learn Chinese. It is expected that American demand for au pairs will continue to rise in the next few years.

Since the first Earth Day in 1970, Americans have gotten a lot “greener“ toward the environment. “We didn’t know at that time there even was an environment, let alone that there was a problem with it, “ says Bruce Anderson, president of Earth Day USA. But what began as nothing important in public affairs has grown into a social movement. Business people , political leaders, university professors, and especially millions of grass-roots Americans are taking part in the movement. “The understanding has increased many, many times, “ says Gaylord Nelson, the former governor from Wisconsin, who thought up the first Earth Day. According to US government reports, emissions(排放)from cars and trucks have dropped from 10. 3 million tons a year to 5. 5 million tons. The number of cities producing CO beyond the standard has been reduced from 40 to 9. Although serious problems still remain and need to be dealt with, the world is a safer and healthier place. A kind of “green thinking“ has become part of practices. Great improvement has been achieved. In 1988 there were only 600 recycling programs; today in 1995 there are about 6, 600. Advanced lights, motors, and building designs have helped save a lot of energy and therefore prevented pollution. Twenty-five years ago, there were hardly any education programs for environment. Today, it’s hard to find a public school, university, or law school that does not have such a kind of program. “ Until we do that, nothing else will change!“ says Bruce Anderson.

Arriving in Sydney on his own from India, my husband, Rashid, stayed in a hotel for a short time while looking for a house for me and our children. During the first week of his stay, he went out one day to do some shopping. He came back in the late afternoon to discover that his suitcase was gone. He was extremely worried as the suitcase had all his important papers, including his passport. He reported the case to the police and then sat there, lost and lonely in strange city, thinking of the terrible troubles of getting all the paperwork organized again from a distant country while trying to settle down in a new one. Late in the evening, the phone rang. It was a stranger. He was trying to pronounce my husband’s name and was asking him a lot of questions. Then he said they had found a pile of papers in their trash can(垃圾桶)that had been left out on the footpath. My husband rushed to their home to find a kind family holding all his papers and documents. Their young daughter had gone to the trash can and found a pile of unfamiliar papers. Her parents had carefully sorted them out, although they had found mainly foreign addresses on most of the documents. At last they had seen a half-written letter in the pile in which my husband had given his new telephone number to a friend. That family not only restored the important documents to us that day but also restored our faith and trust in people. We still remember their kindness and often send a warm wish.

Minority children often encounter racism in their daily lives, and those who experience discrimination more often have more symptoms of depression, according to a study to be presented on Sunday, May 2 at the Pediatric Academic Societies(PAS)annual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. “Unfortunately, minority children perceive discrimination often in their lives, “ said Lee M. Pachter, DO, co-author of the study and professor of pediatrics at Drexel University College of Medicine and St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia. “Fifty-five years after Brown v. Board of Education and the civil rights movement, racism is still common in their lives. “ Dr. Pachter and his colleagues surveyed 277 minority children ages 9—18 years to determine the contexts in which they perceive racism and the relationship between discrimination, depression and self-esteem. Participants filled out questionnaires that included 23 scenarios in which they might perceive discrimination, such as being followed by a store security guard, getting poor service in a restaurant or being accused of doing something wrong at school. About two-thirds of the children were Latino or African American, and 19 percent were multiracial. Results showed that 88 percent had at least one experience with racism, and nearly 12 percent had experienced racial discrimination in at least half of the situations described in the survey. The most common forms of discrimination were racial remarks, being called insulting names and being followed by security guards in stores. Experiences were similar for Latinos and African Americans, boys and girls, and younger and older children. “Not only do most minority children experience discrimination, but they experience it in multiple contexts; in schools, in the community, with adults and with peers. “ Dr. Pachter said, “It’s kind of like the elephant in the corner of the room. It’s there, but nobody really talks about it. And it may have significant mental and physical health consequences in these children’s lives. “ Researchers also administered the Child Depression Inventory and the Rosenberg Self Esteem Questionnaire to 52 minority children. They found a significant correlation between perceived racism and depression, self-esteem and depression, but not between racism and self-esteem. “ The next step is to look at whether discrimination creates stress that leads to racial/ethnic disparities in physical and mental health, “ Dr. Pachter said.

What can we infer from the text?

How can children learn a foreign language best according to Flynn?

Li Drake has her children study Chinese because she wants them______.

What does that term “au pair“ in the text mean?