WASHINGTON—Laura Straub is a very worried woman. Her job is to find families for foreign teenagers who expect to live with American families in the summer.
It is not easy, even desperate.
“We have many children left to place—40 out of 75,” said Straub, who works for a foreign exchange programme called LEC.
When foreign exchange programmes started 50 years ago, more families were accommodating. For one thing, more mothers stayed at home. But now, increasing numbers of women work outside the home. Exchange-student programmes have struggled in recent years to sign up host families for the 30, 000 teenagers who come from abroad every year to spend an academic year in the United States, as well as the thousands more who take part in summer programmes.
School systems in many parts of the U.S., unhappy about accepting non-taxpaying students, have also strictly limited the number of exchange students they accept. At the same time, the idea of hosting foreign students is becoming less exotic(有异国情调的).
In search for host families, who usually receive no pay, exchange programmes are increasingly broadening their requests to include everyone from young couples to the retired.
“We are open to many different types of families,” said Vickie Weiner, eastern regional director for ASSE, a 25-year-old programme that sends about 30,000 teenagers on academic-year exchange programmes worldwide.
For elderly people, exchange students “keep us young—they really do”, said Jen Foster, who is hosting 16-year-old Nina Post from Denmark.
小题1:According to the text, why was it easier for Laura Straub to find American families for foreign students?
A．American school systems were better than now.
B．The government was happy because it could gain tax.
C．Foreign students paid hosting families a lot of money.
D．More mothers didn’t work outside and could look after children.小题2:To deal with the problem in recent years, exchange programmes have to ______.
A．extend the range of host families
B．limit the number of the exchange students
C．borrow much money to pay for the costs
D．make hosting foreign students more exotic小题3:Which of the following is the best title of this passage?
A Exchange Students Keep Old People Young.
B. Idea of Hosting Students is Different.
C. Foreign-exchange Program Is Going on.
D U.S. Struggle to Find host Families.
