Answer the questions at the end based on the text.

In the office of the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, there is a picture of Catherine the Great, the legendary Russian Empress. When asked why she has the picture, Merkel says, "She was a strong woman". Many say the same of Merkel.

The most powerful woman in the world, according to US Forbes magazine, was in China last week. She came to discuss trade and environmental issues with China's top leaders. Germany's first woman leader is known as a brave and practical statesman . Even since her time at school, she had the habit of getting everything in order. Every day before doing her homework she would clean the desk and think about what to do next. "I prefer a long time for full preparations to make my decision. But once I decide, I will stand up for what I believe," Merkel said.

Perhaps it was good habits that helped her do well in her studies. At 32, she got a doctorate in physics and then she worked as a researcher.

However, the life of a scholar couldn't put off her love of politics. While working in labs, Merkel took time off to read political books and at last joined a political party. "Her calmness helped her stand out in the party. She could always find a way out while others felt hopeless," said one of her old friends.

In her first big political job as Minister for the Environment in 1994, her scientific background proved very useful. In 2005 she became Germany's youngest chancellor since the second World War.

Now half way through her four-year term, the 53-year-old woman has made a name for herself both in Germany and abroad. At the EU summit in 2005 when France quarreled with Britain over the EU budget , some people believed the EU was close to breaking down. But Merkel didn't give up. She shuttled between the heads of the two powers and had them reached an agreement.

"Strength comes from composure and courage. Many people say I am a strong woman. But I would rather say I have perseverance," said Merkel.

1. Who is the Chancellor?
2. From what country?
3. Who was in China last week?
4. What was she there to do?
5. What would she do right before her homework?
6. When did she receive her PHD in physics?
7. What did she do then?
8. As what?
9. What did she have a love for?
10. What position did she attain in 1994?
11. What proved useful to her then?
12. How many terms at 53?

Numbered answers:

A: 1. Angela Merkel,
2. Germany
3. The most powerful woman in the world
4. discuss trade and environmental issues
5. clean the desk and think
6. At 32
7. worked
8. a researcher.
9. politics.
10. Minister for the Environment
11. her scientific background
12. half way through her four-year term

Answer the questions at the end based on the text.

Why Are Pig Farmers Still Using Growth-Promoting Drugs?

It's one of the most controversial practices in agriculture: feeding small amounts of antibiotics to animals in order to make them grow faster. But what if the drugs don't even work very well? There's some good evidence that they don't, at least in pigs. They used to deliver a boost in growth, but that effect has disappeared in recent years or declined greatly. The reason for this is interesting and even paradoxical. Researchers think the antibiotics used to work by suppressing low-grade infections. In recent years, however, pork producers found other ways to accomplish the same thing through improved hygiene . As a result, the drugs have become largely superfluous -- yet many farmers still use them.

To understand how this happened, you have to step back in time, says Steve Dritz, a specialist in pig nutrition at Kansas State University. Sixty years ago, when antibiotics were new, "people started treating animals, and feeding [the antibiotics], and finding that they had increased growth rates and feed efficiencies," he says. Nursery-age pigs, for instance, grew 12 to 15 percent faster with antibiotics. The animals also needed less feed to reach full weight. Other studies showed similar results in chickens and cattle. In the 1980s, a new set of studies found similar effects. So the growth-promoting effects of antibiotics became standard practice among meat producers.

Fast forward to the 1990s. Dritz was starting his career as a scientist at Kansas State University, and pork production was changing dramatically.

Previously, pigs were born and raised in one barn or in several barns close together. This meant infections could easily pass from one generation to the next, the way that kids share germs between their friends on the playground and their parents at home. Under the new system, when piglets are weaned, they move to a whole different place. That new site is carefully scrubbed and free of disease.

Craig Rowles, who runs a large swine operation in Carroll, Iowa, shows me one such room. There's not a piglet in sight. "This room just got completely washed and disinfected, and now it's going to sit here and dry for a while," he says.

A whole group of pigs will come in here together, and later they will move out together to yet another site. "That group of pigs will stay together until they go to market," Rowles says.

The groups are kept strictly separated from each other. If workers move between the groups, they first have to change their boots.

When farmers adopted multisite production, it cut down on disease -- and pigs actually grew faster.

1. what are they feeding to the pigs
2. what were they used for at first

Numbered answers:

A:
1. antibiotics
2. unknown