Description: This is
a VOA Special English Education Report.
See text below
Text:
Today we answer a question from a listener in Brazil
who wants to know about the United States Military
Academy at West Point.
West Point is a college for future Army officers. It
has more than four thousand students. The students
are called cadets. The school is located about
eighty kilometers north of New York City.
West Point is the oldest continuously occupied
military post in the United States. General George
Washington built a fort there during the
Revolutionary War. The aim was to protect the Hudson
River from the British soldiers. He moved his
headquarters to West Point in seventeen seventy-nine
in the middle of the war.
In eighteen hundred and two, President Thomas
Jefferson signed legislation to establish the
military academy at West Point.
The education centered on civil engineering. West
Point graduates designed many roads, bridges,
harbors and railways for the young nation.
Today, math and science are still a large part of
the education. But cadets can choose from almost
fifty areas of study.
If cadets major in the humanities, they must also
take many classes in engineering.
Not all the young men and women at West Point are
American. This year, fifty-eight are from other
countries. As many as sixty cadets can be
international students.
International students are nominated by their
governments.
They must satisfy physical and educational
requirements. They must also do well on the Test of
English as a Foreign Language.
After graduation, they return home to serve in their
nations armed forces. Other services besides the
Army also accept foreign students at their
academies.
Major Joe Sowers, a West Point public affairs
officer, says information about the military academy
is available through American embassies. He says the
presence of international students at West Point
serves a purpose for the Army.
Major Sowers says cultural understanding is
important for a modern-day officer. He says the
American cadets begin the process of understanding
that the world is bigger than their hometown and
West Point and the United States of America. He says
it is important for the cadets to establish
relationships with those who come from different
backgrounds.
And that's the VOA Special English Education Report.
You can learn more about higher education in the
United States from our Foreign Student Series at
voaspecialenglish.com.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
