英語角-圓桌會議 RoundTable - 大學生英語還不夠好

Topic1 Gu Junshan Corruption CaseLast week, 20 paramilitary officers spent two nights seizing four trucks of possessions from one of the ancestral homes of Gu Junshan, who is a disgraced deputy military logistics chief.

This is the biggest People's Liberation Army graft case in recent years. How big are we talking about?

Topic2 "Naked Officials" Can't Be PromotedChinese civil servants with immediate family members living overseas - so-called "naked officials" - will be disqualified from promotion, according to an updated guideline recently released by the Communist Party's central committee.

Naked official has been a growing phenomenon, with more officials sending their wives or children to live abroad. But is such a strict move necessary?

Topic3 Peking and Tsinghua top in donations from gradsRenowned universities get their fame not only for academic accomplishments but also for their billionaire alumni.

An annual billionaire alumni list, compiled by China University Alumni Association and released last week, shows that Peking University and Tsinghua University take the top two spots on the 2014 list, with 98 and 95 billionaire alumni respectively.

The combined wealth of all alumni of the two universities reaches 400 billion yuan.

The report also points out only one out of ten super rich alumni have made donations to their alma maters.

Do billionaires skimp on donating to alma maters?

Topic4 English proficiency should be toughened, expert saysA foreign language expert says the English-language standards for Chinese college students should be raised, not lowered, in any national reform of English education.

Cai Jigang, deputy director of the Foreign Language Research Institute of Fudan University in Shanghai, said this in response to the Beijing Municipal Commission of Education's draft reform plan for English tests in the college entrance exams for 2014.

The plan, released late last year, would reduce the required English score from 150 to 100, and the vocabulary from 3,500 words to 3,080. The required vocabulary will decline further in the 2015 exams.

What's the suggestion? Does it make sense?

Topic5 publishing industry in ChinaChinese people are buying fewer books in 2013. They've also been reading less literary works, and more books derived from pop culture. Beijing OpenBook, a company offering data and analysis services for book industry, recently released 2013 China BookRetail Market Report, which told us about these trends.

Have Chinese people been reading less?

Topic6 Sing My Song ControversyRecently two songs presented in TV talent show Sing My Songs (中國好歌曲) received public attention as well as controversy. Entitled Not Going to Work Tomorrow and I Will Die In Your Hand If I Have To Die, the songs are criticized for promoting negative and wrong attitude towards work, love and life. Do they?