This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
This week, in our series for students who want to study in the United States,
we tell about the United States Military Academy at West Point.
West
Point is a four-year school in New York State that educates future Army
officers. The students are called cadets. They do not have to pay for their
educations. But they must agree to serve on active duty in the Army for at least
five years after they graduate.
A young man or woman must be nominated to the academy, usually by a federal
or state lawmaker. Nominees also must satisfy the entrance requirements. These
include being in excellent physical condition and getting good grades in high
school.
About 4,000 American cadets are at West Point this year. In addition,
fifty-nine cadets from foreign countries are attending.
These international students are nominated by their home governments. They
also must satisfy the physical and educational requirements. And they must do
well on the TOEFL, the Test of English as a Foreign Language.
Home governments may have to pay up to 60,000 dollars a year for each student
they send to West Point. Among the countries with cadets at the academy this
year are Afghanistan, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Costa Rica, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Sri
Lanka, and Tunisia.
Each year, the United States Defense Department invites countries to nominate
students to West Point and to the Navy and Air Force academies. This year, 159
countries were asked to nominate students for the next school year. Not all
countries take part in the program.
We spoke to Major Robert Romans, chief of the international affairs division
at West Point, and Major Michael McBride, head of the international cadet
program. They say up to sixty foreign cadets at any one time can attend the
academy. And they say that interested students must seek information about the
program at their local American Embassy. The embassy's Defense Cooperation
Office will know how the student can be nominated.
The West Point Web site provides some information about the international
cadet program and its requirements. The address is admissions.u-s-m-a.e-d-u.
Our Foreign Student Series continues next week. Scripts are available on the
Internet at voaspecialenglish.com.
And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy
Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember.
cadet : a student
at a military school who is training to be an officer （军校学员）
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（来源:VOA
英语点津姗姗编辑）
