Study finds local students lack global perspective

The global perspective of Taiwanese university students was found sorely lacking according to a survey released yesterday, with only 38 percent of the students identifying Lebanon as the country that was recently at war with Israel.

The students also identified business tycoons rather than political figures as the best leaders. The top three leaders they chose were Formosa Plastics Group Chairman Wang Yung-ching, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Chairman Terry Gou and Microsoft's Bill Gates, with opposition KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou ranked fourth.

The World Leadership Education Foundation asked 1,200 university students across the nation several questions pertaining to significant recent world news events.

One of the few multiple choice questions answered successfully by the students was naming Wang Chien-ming as the New York Yankees' Taiwan-born pitcher. Some 97.5 percent of respondents got the answer right.

But the students did poorly on other questions related to world affairs. In one multiple choice question, only 49.6 percent of respondents picked Angela Merkel as female chancellor of Germany. Over one-fourth of the respondents chose Thaksin Shinawatra (Thailand's ousted prime minister) while another 14 percent identified British Prime Minister Tony Blair as Germany's chancellor, the survey said.

Lin Tsai-chen, the deputy director of the foundation's politics and economics department, suspected that university students' lack of interest in watching the news and the local media's bias in favor of domestic news reports accounted in part for the survey's results.

Lin stressed that in addition to learning foreign languages, university students should enhance their competitiveness in the global village by making themselves familiar with international affairs.

Ⅰ. vocabulary

1. Sorely

adv.

In a sore manner, very.

Ex: I was sorely tempted to report him.

2. Identify

vt.

to recognize or establish as being a particular person or thing

Ex: I cannot identify this signature

3.Pertain

vi

To belong as an adjunct, part, holding, or quality.

Ex: We own the house and the land pertain to it.

4. Significant

adj.

important, of consequence.

Ex: This is one of the most significant studies of the subject.

5. Multiple choice

ph.

offering several alternative answers from which the correct one is to be chosen.

Ex: A multiple choice test.

6. pitcher

n.

One who pitches anything, as hay, quoits, a ball, etc.

Ex: He is the best pitcher I've ever seen.

7. Chancellor

n.

the person who is head of state or titular head of a university.

Ex: Our Chancellor is totaged

8. Survey

n.

To determine the form, extent, position, etc.

Ex: A recent survey of public opinion showed that most people were worried about the increasing crimes.

9. deputy

n.

person given power to act for another

Ex: You can talk with my deputy during my absence.

10. bias

n.

fixed unfair opinion.

Ex: Some people have a bias against foreigners.

11. enhance

vt.

increase something good.

Ex: Beautiful colored illustrations enhanced the book.

12. affairs

n.

event, set of event.

Ex: How are your affairs going?

Ⅱ. cloze

Sorely identify pertains significant multiple

pitcher Chancellor survey affairs bias

1. I was ______ vexed.

2. She ______ him as her attacker

3. This lesson ______ to marine animals

4. This is one of the most ______ studies of the subject

5. We use the hall for ______ purposes.

6. Chien-Ming Wang is the best ______ I've ever seen.

7. ______ of the Exchequer.

8. From the top of the hill you can ______ the whole city.

9. The premier deals with important ______ of state.

10. The pianist has a ______ in favour of Chopin.

Ⅲ. Multiple choice

(1) The delegation was headed by a ______ mayor.

(a) adjunctive (b) deputy (c) assistant

(2) My mother have a ______ in favor of my younger brother.

(a) bias (b) partiality (c) hobby

(3) Explore more on how to ______ your luck and fate!

(a) improve (b) abate (c) enhance

(4) An acquaintance of world history is helpful to the study of current _____ .

(a) matter (b) affairs (c) anecdote

(5) We use the hall for ______ purposes.

(a) multiple (b) compound (c) manifold

(6) We own the house and the land ______ to it.

(a) pertained (b) pertained (c) pertaining

(7) A ______ of world history is one of the courses offered this semester.

(a) survey (b) surveys (c) surveyed

(8) Wang Chien-ming as the ______ Taiwan-born pitcher.

(a) New York Yankees (b) Red Stockings (c) Dodgers

(9) It was ______ missed at the reunion.

(a) sorely (b) sore (c) soreness

(10) Chien-ming Wang as the New York Yankees' Taiwan-born ______ .

(a) Catcher (b) Pitcher (c) infielder

(11) Their change of plan is strange but I don’t think it’s _____.

(a) significance (b) significant (c) signification

(12) Can you ______ your umbrella among this lot ?

(a) identity (b) identification (c) identify

Angela Merkel as female chancellor of Germany.



















British Prime Minister: Tony Blair















Thaksin Shinawatra (Thailand's ousted prime minister)

One of the few multiple choice questions answered successfully by the students was naming Wang Chien-ming as the New York Yankees' Taiwan-born pitcher. Some 97.5 percent of respondents got the answer right.

The students also identified business tycoons rather than political figures as the best leaders.

The top three leaders they chose were Formosa Plastics Group Chairman Wang Yung-ching,

Hon Hai Precision Industry Co.Chairman Terry Gou

and Microsoft's Bill Gates,

with opposition KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou ranked fourth.

Israel strikes deep into Lebanon
Peres estimates end of fighting in a matter of weeks

Tuesday, August 1, 2006; Posted: 11:45 p.m. EDT (03:45 GMT)

BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- Israeli troops landed Tuesday near the eastern Lebanese town of Baalbeck, Lebanese security sources said, and the Israeli military also engaged in fierce fighting with Hezbollah forces just across the border with Lebanon.

Israeli aircraft flew support missions as troops hit the ground about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) north of Baalbeck in the Bekaa Valley near the Syrian border, the sources said.

The Lebanese army also reported heavy helicopter traffic east and west of the town, the northernmost ground operation for Israel during the nearly three-week conflict. (Watch as Israel presses north -- 3:06)

Israeli troops entered Hikma Hospital in northern Baalbeck, where they checked the identification cards of all staff and patients, the sources said, adding that there was no indication that anyone was taken from the hospital.

Witnesses, however, said "several" people were taken out of the hospital.

The Israel Defense Forces confirmed that Israeli troops operating in Baalbeck hit a number of militants and arrested some of them, although no numbers were given.

There were no injuries among Israeli soldiers, the IDF said, and the arrested militants were taken to Israel.

The Israeli Security Cabinet earlier in the day had approved an expansion of Israel's three-week-old military campaign in Lebanon.

Tuesday's fighting was concentrated near the Lebanese villages of Tayba, just outside the Israeli town of Metulla, and Aita Al-Shaab further west.

The IDF said three of its soldiers were killed and 25 wounded in the fighting in Aita Al-Shaab. Five other soldiers were wounded on the Israeli side of the border when they were hit by a mortar shell, it said.

In two days of fighting, the IDF said forces have killed or wounded more than 20 Hezbollah fighters across southern Lebanon. Hezbollah said four of its forces died in Tuesday's fighting. (Watch Israeli bombardment pound Aita Al-Shaab -- 3:09)

Just outside the village, the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon reported intensive Israeli shelling in the villages of Ramia, Dibil and Qawzah on Monday and Tuesday morning. (See where the fighting is taking place)

In Tayba, the IDF said it took control of several strategic positions that it said have been used by Hezbollah fighters to launch missiles at northern Israel.

Israeli police reported 14 cross-border strikes hitting northern Israel on Tuesday, two using Katyusha rockets and 12 using mortar shells.

East of Tayba, Israeli forces Tuesday heavily shelled the town of Kfar Kela a day after pounding it with airstrikes, according to U.N. observers.

Israeli forces have also been operating in the areas of Odaise and Rab Talateen for the past two days, according to the IDF.

To the west, U.N. officials said, Israel gunboats in the Mediterranean Sea pounded southern Lebanon. (Watch Lebanese racing to get out of range -- 1:51)
Israel: Hezbollah taking a beating

Israel said it has killed 300 of the estimated 2,000 Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon during its three-week offensive. A Hezbollah spokesman said 43 of its fighters have been killed, Reuters news service reported.

"Hezbollah has taken a serious beating, and that is why the pressure of a ground offensive will produce the expected results," Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon said Tuesday on Israeli Channel 10.

Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres, in Washington to meet with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, told reporters the end of the war was "not far away."

"You can count it in matters of weeks, not months," he said.

But Rice saw the process going more quickly. "Certainly we are talking about days not weeks before we are able to get a cease-fire," she said on PBS' "NewsHour."

Despite an overall decrease in attacks in the last two days, Ramon said the Lebanese militia has increased the number of rocket launches from areas north of the Litani River -- about 20 miles from the border -- where the Israeli military has asked residents in two locations to evacuate.

In its initial quest to create a security buffer to protect northern Israel from Katyusha rockets, the Israeli military said it wanted Hezbollah fighters to push back to the Litani River.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israeli forces were weakening Hezbollah daily and that no cease-fire would come until Israel was safe from a future war.

"Every additional day is a day that drains the strength of this cruel enemy," Olmert said in a speech Tuesday.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad held the United States and Britain responsible for the bloodshed in Lebanon, The Associated Press reported.

"The U.S. and Britain are accomplices in all crimes committed by the occupying Zionist regime," he said in a speech.

The United States and Israel accuse Syria and Iran of supporting Hezbollah, and the Bekaa Valley has long been considered a haven for Hezbollah, with supply routes from Syria.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair had sharp words for Iran and Syria on Tuesday.

"We need to make it clear to Syria and Iran that there is a choice: Come into the international community and play by the same rules as the rest of us, or be confronted," he said. (Full story)
Aid process difficult

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan met Tuesday with representatives of the five permanent Security Council members to discuss how to stop the fighting, deliver aid to civilians and send a multinational force into southern Lebanon.

The United Nations said it had little success getting aid into southern Lebanon before the end of Israel's self-declared 48-hour lull in fighting.

The European Union said it approved $64 million in humanitarian aid for Lebanon, and EU foreign ministers called on Israel and Hezbollah to agree to an "immediate cessation of hostilities." (Full story)

The conflict began July 12 when Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed three others in a cross-border raid. (Watch captured soldier's wife plead -- 5:54)

As of Tuesday, 557 Lebanese civilians and soldiers have died and 2,128 have been wounded in the conflict, according to Lebanon's Internal Security Forces.

Israel has reported 54 deaths, including 19 civilians killed by Hezbollah rocket attacks.

CNN's Nada Husseini, John Roberts, John King, Elise Labott, Richard Roth and Ben Wedeman contributed to this report.

Copyright 2006 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

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