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College graduates may soon have the chance to change their permanent residence permits to any place they work except four municipalities - Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing.

"All cities except municipalities should remove restrictions of hukou settlement for college graduates and should permit their settlement where they work or where they start their own businesses," said a recent announcement by the State Council.

The move aims to help boost graduates' employment.

A hukou is closely tied to benefits such as access to affordable housing and local public schools.

After graduation, college students' hukou revert to where they are from, unless they get settlement permits from the local government.

A total of 6.6 million students will graduate from college this year, 300,000 more than last year.

Jin Bei from Shandong province, a postgraduate student at Wuhan University in Hubei province, welcomes the move.

Jin will graduate in June and she plans to seek a job in Guangzhou or Shenzhen, both in Guangdong province.

A hukou in Beijing or Shanghai is the most desirable for college graduates but is harder to get. In Beijing, a person without a hukou is not allowed to buy a house or register a car unless they pay income tax in Beijing for five consecutive years.

But some cities have already mapped out favorable hukou policies for college graduates.

In the manufacturing hub of Shenzhen, the local government has allowed graduates from 133 universities around the country to apply for a local hukou if they work in the city.

Wang Liyan from Heilongjiang province, now a student at Beijing-based China University of Political Science and Law, said she plans to work at a local law firm but that the firm could not grant her a Beijing hukou.

"Without a Beijing hukou, I have to register in another place and I can't even join the lawyers' association in Beijing," she said.

Chen Yu, director of the China Institute for Occupation Research at Peking University, said the State Council's new policy will help free up talent flow in the country.

"Beijing and Shanghai's populations are too large and I think it's the central government's plan to encourage some graduates to go to second- and third-tier cities," he said.

When other cities' public service facilities and economic development catch up with Beijing and Shanghai there will be no restrictions for hukou settlement for college graduates in all cities, said Chen.

Questions:

1. Where can college graduates get permanent residence permits?

2. What happens to hukou now?

3. How many students will graduate from college this year?

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More than 22 percent of college graduates choose to leave Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou after three years of toiling in those megacities, where the opportunities are becoming scarcer.

Of the graduates who move elsewhere, those who make less than 2,000 yuan ($309) a month or more than 9,000 yuan a month are the most likely to go, according to the Chinese College Graduates Employment Annual Report (2011), which was released on Thursday in Beijing.

The report was based on a survey by the MyCOS Institute, a consulting company.

The survey looked at 227,000 college graduates who took diplomas in 2010, and 109,500 who took diplomas in 2007.

The release of the results came days after more than 9.3 million students had endured what will likely be the biggest test in many of their lives - the national college entrance exam.

About 240,000 fewer test takers sat for the exam this year than in 2010. The number who registered for the exam has fallen three years in a row since 2008, when 10.5 million signed up for it.

Recent changes in China's economy have made it essential for college graduates to possess more than a good education if they want to successfully compete for jobs. They must also have practical experience and be good at communicating.

Many graduates, even though they are paying higher fees every year for schooling, find they do not possess the practical abilities they need to get a job after earning a diploma.

The report said the average monthly income earned by college graduates in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou in 2007 was 3,272 yuan during their first six months. After three years, it increased to 6,781 yuan.

But even with that additional amount, many graduates find they cannot afford to pay for lodging in the largest cities.

Many college graduates are more willing to work in places where the cost of living is lower. As a result, slightly smaller cities in China have begun to grow at a faster rate.

Questions:

1. Who is leaving big cities?

2. What is thought to be the reason?

3. Who is most likely to make the move?

Intentional contamination by food producers and processors driven by profits are largely being blamed for the food safety crisis in China, officials with the country's top food security watchdog said on Monday.

"Instead of sheer accidents, most of the recent stomach-turning food safety incidents are a consequence of intentional violations of food safety regulations and processing procedures," said Yu Jun, a senior official with the Food Safety Commission under the State Council, China's Cabinet, at the Third China Food Safety Forum.

"Cases include incidents caused by additives, such as melamine, clenbuterol and the steamed buns colored with chemicals found in Shanghai and Zhejiang province," Yu said.

The 2008 melamine-tainted baby formula scandal spurred the Chinese government to declare food safety a national priority. Nationwide outrage exploded over melamine-contaminated baby milk that sickened 300,000 infants and killed six children.

Clenbuterol, an additive that makes pigs leaner but causes health problems in humans, stirred another widespread fear of pork safety in the country in recent months. China's largest meat processor, the Shuanghui Group, apologized in April for selling pork products that contained the additive.

In April, steamed buns containing illegal dyes were found in Shanghai and Wenzhou in Zhejiang province. Authorities closed a Shanghai-based bun company and later shut down an unlicensed workshop making steamed buns after the buns were allegedly found to contain prohibited chemicals.

More recently, the disease control authority in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province, said it found that products of a local company contain plasticizer used to soften plastic.

To address the existing problems, the Chinese government will continue to carry out a variety of supervision and investigation campaigns on food safety, officials said.

Questions:

1. What is the name of the forum?

2. How many children died in the 2008 baby milk scandal?

3. What additive makes pigs leaner?