自主招生 英语

自主招生练习

I．阅读理解能力：

Read the following text and summarize it in Chinese. You should write approximately 200 characters.

Every time famous people such as pop star Madonna and actor Angelina Jolie decide to adopt a child from a developing country, they set off the same old debate: is it right to create a rainbow family and should the developing world be insulted by the suggestion that we cannot take care of our children?

But away from publicity, foreigners have been adopting children from poorer nations for decades. Many of these children gain secure homes and loving families. They illustrate all the benefits of cross-country and cross-cultural adoption and reveal none of its risks.

Overseas adoption has its own logic. Leila Baig, secretary of the Delhi-based Central Voluntary Adoption Resource Agency, says the “reality is that most Indian couples decide on adoption because they cannot have children. There‟s usually a period of distress before this decision and they tend to look for young, healthy children who would fit into their families.”

Healthy children under the age of two are placed for adoption within the country. Indian parents generally don‟t adopt older children and those with medic al problems. “It‟s an obvious fact that local parents generally want the youngest kids,” says Wendy Andrews, executive officer at Hope Foundation‟s Asharan orphanage in Delhi. She adds that “most older children eventually get adopted abroad.”

Countries like India, which have signed the Hague Convention on the protection of children and cooperation in respect of inter-country adoption (1973) give first preference to local adoption. The international agreement requires due consideration to be given to a chil d‟s upbringing and to his or her racial, religious and cultural background before adoption. In fact, those who criticized Madonna‟s n ow-failed efforts to adopt three-year-old Malawi girl Mercy James, said the little girl would best off with relatives.

Bai g says, “I don‟t‟ believe in famous people‟s adoptions because such people are often too busy and the child is taken care of by attendants or babysitters. The child should get the undivided attention of the parents. But we shouldn‟t condemn all international adoptions. They have the necessary facilities, social security, experience in parenting and feel they have got a lot out of life and would like to share that.”

Interestingly, foreign adoptive families are found to be less selective than local ones. “There‟s a desire among most Indian families to adopt children whose physical features match theirs. There is still prejudice against children with dark skin, tribal or North-eastern features etc,” says Baig. But the good news is that there‟s greater social a wareness and acceptance of adoption in India as a choice for childless couples. “Earlier, couples would think about adoption only after 15-20 years of a childless marriage. Now, they are coming at much younger ages,” says Srinath, founder of an adoptive pa rents‟ association in Bangalore.

But this is not borne out by statistics. The number of children adopted by the legal route appears to have actually fallen in the last decade. According to the government‟s Central Adoption Resource Agency, there were 2,533 in-country adoptions in 2001. By 2007, it was down to 2,494. Overseas adoption of Indian children also fell from 1,298 in 2001 to 770 in 2007. “That‟s because there are fewer children available for adoption,” says Baig. “There could be a number of reasons for this: private adoptions; fewer unwanted babies being born because of better awareness about birth control methods; better technology aiding more abortions,” she adds. But overall, the shortage is not of children themselves but …worthy‟ candidates. There‟s a long way to go to provide loving homes to aid orphans and disabled children.