China is casting such a huge shadow on the United States that many Americans are struggling to learn Chinese in order to maintain their competitive edge, "Interest in learning Chinese among American youth and their parents has grown dramatically in the past five years," said Vivien Stewart at the Asia Society, a US group trying to bridge the gap between Americans and people of Asia and the Pacific．
China, the world's most popular nation, is critical to the United States because it is a leading trader, consumer and investor- Its political influence is also rising across the globe．It has replaced the United States as the world's largest consumer and become the second largest economy in the world after the superpower status and its telling effects politically, economically and culturally are driving the interest to learn the language, experts say．
From kindergartens to high schools, studies by the Asia Society show, there is a "rapid rise" in interest among pupils to study the Chinese language．
Even though the US State Department has stressed the Chinese language "critical " to national prosperity and security, the "current infrastructure （基础设施）to support recruitment （招生） of students and teachers as well as the growth of high quality programs is -badly inadequate," an Asia Society study says．The Society has set a target of having at least 5% of American high school students learning Chinese by 2015．"Millions of Chinese are learning English, but only 24,000 Americans are learning Chinese," said Andrew Corcoran of the San Francisco - based Chinese American International School．
The most popular languages after English in the United States at present are Spanish and French.
小题1:The passage mainly tells the readers that _____,
A．China is getting under a shadow from USA
B．American competitive edge is shaking
C．Americans object to learning Chinese
D．Chinese appeals to more Americans小题2:Based on the context, what does the underlined word "inadequate" （in Paragraph 5） mean?
A．leading
B．interesting
C．disappointing
D．promising小题3:According to the text which of the following is TRUE?
A．Culture can have an effect on exciting persons'
B．USA has got the high quality current
C．Chinese ranks 4th on the American Language
D．Politics decides language studying小题4:What might be the most suitable title for this passage?
A, US Government Requires its People to Learn Chinese
B．Chinese Gains its Popularity with Most Americans
C．China's Economy Helps to Spread its Language
D．Americans Show Interest Learning Chinese
