2

"Little League Baseball is one of America's finest exports of good will and a proven vehicle for instilling values and leadership qualities in impressionable children.For this cherished childhood experience to flourish and benefit more than a million boys and girls in Poland, and all of Europe, a permanent training facility for volunteers, coaches, umpires and program administrators is essential.

When asked what the national sport of Japan is, people usually make one of two replies: Sumo or baseball. Sumo, with its thousand-year history, might have a slight edge, but baseball is now deeply rooted in Japanese society, too! Almost all schools, companies and local communities have their own baseball clubs. Even shopkeepers and their staff often have their own teams.

Baseball is so popular in fact that when the national baseball tournament among high school students is played most Japanese are glued to their televisions and radios for several days ...

It is a thrill for me to be involved in this project. As a Peace Corps Business Volunteer assigned to Kutno it is my job to help both the city and Little League to reach their objectives. Considering that what one side says and the other side hears may be completely different, I try to stress the importance of good communication to my Polish counterparts and share with them the American viewpoint.

In 1995, Toms River, New Jersey, sent a team to the Little League Baseball World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, that was loaded with talent and considered one of the favorites to win the Little League Championship that year. However, games are won on the field of play and that particular team failed to advance past the qualifying round, leaving many people in the New Jersey community disappointed.

America draws thousands of foreign students every year. If youre interested, remember the famous American can-do attitude and our saying, Where theres a will, theres a way!

Taskmasters gives you the language exercises: Letters to the Professor sorts out your grammatical problems, while Hilary Davies answers your etiological questions in our new feature, Theories and Queries. Barry Keane, our resident bard, gives you top tips in The Art of Poetry Translation. In Letters to the Editor we publish the results of our SMS Poetry Competition. The English Language Olympiad reaches the first part of the second stage, and we present sections of the UJ Tests.

The UCLES First Certificate Examination (FCE) consists of five papers:

1. Reading 1 hour 15mins
2. Writing 1 hour 30mins
3. Use of English 1 hour 15mins
4. Listening 40mins (approx.)
5. Speaking 14mins (approx.)

There is an overall pass mark (somewhere around 60%), which means you can theoretically fail one part if you do well enough in the other parts to make up the difference. Statistically, Polish students do least well on the listening paper, followed by the Use of English. Each paper represents 20% of the total score for the exam.