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This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

This week in our Foreign Student Series, we continue our discussion of college entrance tests in the United States. There are two competing 1) _____ tests at the undergraduate level: the SAT and the ACT.

We talked last week about the SAT. The reasoning test involves mathematics and language and includes writing an 2) _____. You can also take SAT subject tests.

The ACT is designed to measure what a student learned in high school. There are questions in four skill areas: math, English, reading and science. The ACT takes just over four hours. It costs fifty-six dollars to take outside the United States. A writing test -- which is not required -- adds thirty minutes and fifteen dollars. 3) ___ about the ACT can be found at act.org.

ACT used to be short for American College Testing; SAT once meant Scholastic Aptitude Test. But today the letters no longer stand for anything.

Most American colleges and universities require applicants for a 4) ____ to take one of the tests. Some students take both.

The ACT is advertised as “America’s most widely accepted college entrance exam.” The SAT is advertised as the one “most widely taken” and, 5) ____ with high school grades, “the best predictor of college success.”

Yet activists have long 6) ____ the fairness of these tests and what they really show. The issue has intensified as the test 7)____industry has grown.

8)____. A group called FairTest has found almost eight hundred schools where students may be able to gain admission without the SAT or ACT. The list is at fairtest.org.

For graduate-level programs, applicants often have to take the Graduate Record Examinations, or GRE. 9) ____.

The cost outside the United States is one hundred seventy dollars -- except in China, Taiwan and South Korea. The cost there is one hundred ninety-five dollars.

Students can also take GRE subject tests. Information about the GRE can be found on the Educational Testing Service Web site, ets.org.

And that’s the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Our Foreign Students Series is online at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember.

Aptitude: intelligence 天资；才能

Intensify: to make or become intense or more intense 使强化；加强