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1 China, Mexico and Brazil Lead Gains in US Graduate School ApplicationsThis is the VOA Special English Education Report.Graduate schools in the United States are reporting a nine percent increase in applications from international students this year. The increase is the same as two years ago. Last year's gain was eleven percent. China, Mexico and Brazil showed the biggest increases in applications to enter master's and doctoral programs this fall.Engineering is the top area of study for international students and had the biggest increase in applications. Gains in business and physical and earth sciences were close behind. Life sciences showed no growth in the latest survey by the Council of Graduate Schools.The survey includes the top five countries and regions that send graduate students to the United States, plus Mexico and Brazil. The top five are China, India, South Korea, Taiwan and Canada.Applications from China climbed eighteen percent this year. That was down from last year. India's number increased just two percent. Applications from South Korea and Taiwan decreased by one to two percent.Applications from Africa were down five percent, while the Middle East and Europe showed growth.Council President Debra Stewart says final results will not be available until the summer.DEBRA STEWART: "Remember, applications do not necessarily convert to enrollment. So about forty-seven percent of all international applications to U.S. graduate schools actually come from students from China. But the share of the applicant pool that actually ends up enrolling in U.S. graduate programs is a bit lower though their application numbers were considerably higher."Ms. Stewart says last fall, for example, twenty-nine percent of all international graduate students were from China.This year is the seventh year of big increases in applications from China, where Ms. Stewart points out that more and more students are finishing college.DEBRA STEWART: "There are just a huge number of talented students, the number growing ever year, because of the tremendous growth in the undergraduate population in China. Now, China has felt the recession like the rest of the world has felt the recession. So it certainly is possible thatthese very exceptionally strong numbers could be a reflection of recession experiences in China, as well."George Ofosu from Ghana is working toward a doctorate in political science at the University of California, Los Angeles. He says he was attracted to UCLA's coursework, libraries and other resources, including financial aid he would not have had at home.GEORGE OSOFU: "It was an ideal opportunity for me to go through the system and get admission here. One, get the training and, two, get some funding to pursue the studies. So I think, yeah, the experience here is really phenomenal."And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Christopher Cruise.2New Findings on Sleep in Children, Older AdultsThis is the VOA Special English Health Report."Sleep-disordered breathing" is a term for a group of conditions that can interfere with normal breathing while people sleep. These include snoring, mouth-breathing and sleep apnea. Sleep-disordered breathing can domore than just leave people feeling tired the next day. It can also affect people's health. In children the effects can include behavioral and emotional problems.In a new study, researchers asked parents about their children's breathing from when they were babies up to about age six. The parents also answered questions about behavior at ages four and seven. The study involved about eleven thousand children.Karen Bonuck at the Einstein College of Medicine in New York led the study.KAREN BONUCK: "The central finding overall is that sleep-disordered breathing is associated with a fifty percent increase in adverse neurobehavioral outcomes."Those problems include hyperactivity, aggressiveness and problems relating to other children.Ms. Bonuck says the more serious the breathing problems, the more serious the behavioral issues were likely to be. Other studies have linked sleep with children's behavior, but this study was extensive enough to reject other possible causes.The study appears in the journal Pediatrics. An estimated one child in ten snores regularly. A smaller number suffer from other sleep-disordered breathing.How well do you sleep? A popular belief is that sleep gets worse with age. But, in another new study, those who reported the fewest problems with the quality of their sleep were people in their eighties.Researchers did a telephone survey of more than one hundred fifty thousand American adults. Michael Grandner at the University of Pennsylvania medical school says the original goal was to confirm that aging is connected with increased sleep problems.The survey did find an increase during middle age, worse in women than men. But except for that, people reported that their sleep quality improved as they got older. At least they felt it did.Mr. Grandner says, "Even if sleep among older Americans is actually worse than in younger adults, feelings about it still improve with age." The findings appear in the journal Sleep. In the study, health problems and depression were linked with poor sleep. Also, women reported more sleep disturbances and tiredness than men.But, based on the study, Mr. Grandner says older people who are not sick or depressed should be reporting better sleep. "If they're not, they need to talk to their doctor. They shouldn't just ignore it," he says. Nor should their doctor ignore it. He says health care providers generally dismiss sleep complaints from older adults as a normal part of aging.And that's the VOA Special English Health Report. I'm Jim Tedder.3A Goal for 2012: Learning EnglishThis is the VOA Special English Education Report.Did you make a New Year's resolution? Some of you shared your goals at the VOA Learning English page on Facebook. And, no surprise, many of you said at least one of your goals for twenty-twelve is to speak English better. Daniel Kwon even went so far as to declare: I'm definitely going to try to study English at least an hour a day.Jose Antonio Velarde says: My first resolution is to speak English as fluently as my Spanish. And Tuti Riel says: My New Year's resolution is to be able to speak English and Mandarin fluently, and be a better person.Juwita Zulmi says she wants to improve her English and get a scholarship to study overseas. Another goal for twenty-twelve: a new boyfriend. Derly Johanna Barreto has these two resolutions: to speak English fluently and to get a job. Jiseon Kim also has two goals: to lose weight and improve speaking English. And Katie Chekalina has these resolutions: Don't eat meat. I'll take it easy. Then, to learn Spanish or Italian, and find my real love. The last ones will be the most difficult, she thinks.Rafa Mtz's main goal is finishing high school and getting into a university. Lola Wazqito Oktobrata says: I am going to get married and finish my undergraduate study with good results. And Uma Cherif is ready for the next step this year: a master's degree.Handri Permana has this resolution: Be more meaningful before my time's up on earth. And Handri has this advice for others: Have fun seriously in life!(SOUND)Dionel Paguirigan has fun playing the video game Defense of the Ancients, or DotA. Dionel says: My New Year's resolution is I want to spend more time on my studying than playing DotA.Refky Aditya's resolution is to not be lazy about studying anymore. And Nur Chanifah says: I want to be the best in my national examinations, to be a braver girl, and to take a scholarship abroad.Sharah Radinka offered this comment: My resolutions are to pass vocational school, get a scholarship and visit Singapore and Malaysia. And Sita Ayudha is thinking of Australia in twenty-twelve: I wish I could have a career abroad in my dreamland of Oz. And let's see, as I'm an optimist, I'm gonna make it real this year, hahaha.And that's the VOA Special English Education Report. Go to to read, listen and learn English with our programs and activities. You can also find live lessons at the VOA Learning English page on Facebook. I'm Steve Ember.4 For Meat Lovers, the Challenge of Faking ItThis is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.Some people in the Netherlands are spending three hundred thirty thousand dollars on a hamburger. The people are scientists at the University of Maastricht. They want to prove that they can make a hamburger that tastes good and does not require an animal to be killed.Researcher Mark Post and his team have been growing muscle-tissue cells in a laboratory with muscle taken from a cow.MARK POST: "We have committed ourselves to make a couple of thousand of these small tissues and then assemble them into a hamburger."Several teams around the world are trying to produce meat without killing animals. So far the Dutch team appears to have made the most progress. Mr. Post says he wants to show that the world's growing demand for meat could be satisfied more efficiently and with less harm to the environment. MARK POST: "It's a combination of the two things, care for environment and food production for the world. And second is just a generic interest in life-transforming technologies."Seth Tibbott is the founder of Turtle Island Foods in Hood River, Oregon. SETH TIBBOTT: "This is some of our flagship product, the Tofurky roast, being made, where the stuffing is inside and the ... "His company makes a vegetarian turkey substitute called Tofurky. Tofurky is made from tofu. Tofu is made with soybeans. So what does Mr. Tibbott think of the idea of a hamburger made in a lab?SETH TIBBOTT: "I think it sounds still pretty disgusting."His company estimates that about three percent of Americans are vegetarian. Vegetarians do not necessarily want food that tastes like meat. But Seth Tibbott says a lot of other people might try meatless alternatives if those products did look and taste more like real meat.SETH TIBBOTT: "In the industry, they're called flexi-tarians or they're called 'sometimes vegetarians.' And, depending on what study you look at, they're thirty to forty percent of America."Turtle Island Foods is building a new Tofurky factory. It will let the company make three times as much Tofurky starting next year. Biochemistry professor Patrick Brown at Stanford University in California has started his own company developing a meat substitute. His food scientists are working with plant proteins and oils to try to reproduce the look and taste of the real thing. But he says whatever they produce will also need a price that appeals to meat lovers.PATRICK BROWN: "What we're intending to do is basically produce stuff that will compete by being substantially cheaper and every bit as good and essentially indistinguishable to a consumer who loves meat or dairy. That's the only way I think you're really going to win in the market."The American beef industry uses the marketing slogan: "Beef, it's what's for dinner." Jack Field is the director of the Washington Cattlemen's Association, in Washington state. He says he is not too worried about competition from fake meat. In his words, "Real beef will be what's for dinner, now and into the future."And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. You can find captioned videos of our programs at the VOA Learning English channel on YouTube. I'm Jim Tedder.___。