您现在的位置: > Language Tips > Audio & Video > Special Speed News  
 





 
Studying agriculture in the US
[ 2007-03-29 09:58 ]

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

A listener from China named Walker would like information about agricultural programs in the United States. This is our subject today in week number thirty of our Foreign Student Series.

About one hundred colleges and universities began as public agricultural colleges and continue to teach agriculture. These are called land grant schools. They began with support from the federal government. Federal aid supported the building of most major state universities.

The idea of the land grant college goes back to a law in the 19th century called the Morrill Act. A congressman named Justin Smith Morrill wrote legislation to create at least one in each state.

The name "land grant" came from the kind of aid provided by the government. The government wanted Americans to learn better ways to farm. So it gave thousands of hectares of land to each Northern state.

The idea was that the states would sell the land and use the money to establish colleges. These colleges would teach agriculture, engineering and military science.

Congress passed the law in 1862. This was during the Civil War. Southern states had rebelled against the North and withdrawn from the Union.

Another law created a center at each land grant college to develop new scientific ideas and to help farmers solve problems.

The Agricultural College of the State of Michigan was established in 1855. That was seven years before the Morrill Act. It later became the first college to officially agree to receive support under that law. The college grew into what is now Michigan State University in East Lansing.

Today, the university has more than 40,000 students. These include more than 3,500 students from 130 other countries.

Last year the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at Michigan State had 336 foreign students. More than 200 of them were graduate students in the areas of agricultural economics, packaging, and crop and soil sciences.

Undergraduates majoring in agriculture can also study other related areas. These include agricultural education and food industry management.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. We will have a link to the Michigan State Web site at voaspecialenglish.com. We also have other helpful links along with transcripts and audio files from our Foreign Student Series. I'm Steve Ember.

点击进入更多VOA慢速


(来源:VOA  英语点津姗姗编辑)

 
 
相关文章 Related Stories
 
Getting a military education at West Point US University and College Presidents Delegation to Promote US Higher Education in China
Higher education in America: College entrance exams
         
 
 
 
 
 
         

 

 

 
 

48小时内最热门

     

本频道最新推荐

     
  US Federal Reserve chief paints mixed economic picture
  《天堂》之见:Inside your heaven
  The Patriot《爱国者》(精讲之五)
  Trying to understand food labels
  Senate backs timeline for US troop withdrawal from Iraq

论坛热贴

     
  How to Solve Traffic Problem in Big City
  Animal Farm by George Orwell
  how to say 农村信用合作社
  “江湖”英文要怎么说?
  老地方见!怎么说呢?
  急火攻心?