At Dulles High school in Sugar Land, Texas, the roster for Advanced Chinese begins with Jason Chao and ends with Kathy Zhang. In between comes an unexpected name: Elizabeth Hoffman. Hoffman, now a 12thgrader, began learning Chinese in the eighth grade, has spent a summer studying in Nanjing and plans to perfect her Mandarin next fall. When asked by her peers---why she is learning Chinese, she responds with a question: "why aren't you?" 

As China rushes toward superpower status, America's schools and government officials are responding to Hoffman's opinion. Earlier this year Eush Holt of New Jersey introduced legialation calling for increased money of programs for less commonly taught languages, "For reasons of economics, culture and security, we should have much better facilities with Chinese languages and dialects," he said. The State Department has pointed out Chinese is becoming a "critical language", but the most recent data show that only 24,000 students in Grade 7 to Grade 12 study Chinese. 

Still, the number is growing. In Chicago public schools, enrollment in Chinese classes has skyrocked from 5000 students in 2005 to nearly 35,000 students this year. In the Santa Clara County, California, enrollment has quadrupled during the same period. In 2007, when the College Board first introduces advanced-placement language exams in Chinese and Italian, 2,400 high school plan to offer AP Chinese---10 times the number of students that plan to offer AP Italian. 

Much of the interest can be explained by China's increasing competiviveness. "People are always trying to judge what languages are going to be useful for the future," says Marty Abbot, the director of education at the National Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, Stephanie Wong, a student At Monta Vista High School in Cupertino, California, chose Chinese so that she could speak with her grandfather. Wong also predicted that Chinese will be important if she becomes a doctor. 80 percent of people in her hometown are Asians. QUESTIONS:

Q1:
1. What school was mentioned?
2. What was the school called?
3. What name did the high school have?
Q2:
1. Where was Dulles High School?
2. What was the location of Dulles High School?
3. Where could Dulles High School be found?
Q3:
1. Whose name was out of the ordinary?
2. Whose name was cause for surprise?
3. Whose name may take some aback?
Q4:
1. What year in school is Elizabeth Hoffman?
2. What grade is Elizabeth Hoffman in?
3. What is Elizabeth Hoffman's grade?
Q5:
1. What language is Elizabeth Hoffman taking classes in?
2. What language is Elizabeth Hoffman learning?
3. Which tongue is Elizabeth Hoffman studying?
Q6:
1. What is Elizabeth Hoffman's reason for learning Chinese?
2. What made Elizabeth Hoffman decide to study Chinese?
3. Why is Elizabeth Hoffman taking Chinese courses?
Q7:
1. How does Elizabeth Hoffman respond when people ask why she's taking Chinese?
2. What does Elizabeth Hoffman tell people who want to know why she chose Chinese classes?
3. What does Elizabeth Hoffman say to the question why are you taking Chinese?
Q8:
1. What status is China rushing to obtain?
2. What would China like to become?
3. What status is China in a hurry to obtain?
Q9:
1. How many students are taking Chinese classes?
2. How many kids are studying the Chinese language?
3. What is the number of students enrolled in Chinese courses?
Q10:
1. What are the grades of the 24000 kids studying Chinese?
2. What is the grade range of the 24000 children taking Chinese classes?
3. From what range of grades can children enroll in Chinese courses?
Q11:
1. Is enrollment in Chinese courses growing or decreasing?
2. Is the number of kids taking Chinese growing or getting smaller?
3. Are enrollment numbers in Chinese classes growing or getting tinier?
Q12:
1. How many students enrolled in Chinese courses in 2005?
2. In 2005, how many kids signed up for Chinese classes?
3. What was the number of kids who signed up to take Chinese in 2005?
Q13:
1. In what way did enrollment in Chinese classes grow in California?
2. By how much did enrollment for Chinese courses grow in California?
3. In the state of California, how did the number of kids signed up for Chinese grow?
