American turkey producers will raise close to 270 million of the big birds this year. That is the estimate of the National Turkey Federation, an industry group. Tens of millions of will be the traditional star of Thanksgiving holiday meals this Thursday and next month at Christmas.

Americans eat more turkeys throughout the year, and more of it in general, than in the past. The federation says people ate an average of seven and one-half kilogram of turkey last year. But they ate three times as much pork, four times as much beef, and five times as much chicken.

Lamb was a distant fifth in popularity behind turkey.

Turkeys produced more than 3,000 million dollars in farm earnings last year. The five top producing states were: Minnesota, North Carolina, Arkansas, Virginia and Missouri. The top five export markets for turkey meat from the United States were Mexico, China, Canada, Russia and Taiwan.

Turkey is sold many ways--frozen, fresh, whole, cut into parts, ground up like hamburger, thinly sliced, roasted, fried, smoked. People eat it in sandwiches, in soups, in salads, in sausages and more. But at Thanksgiving, people generally buy a whole bird--in some cases, all prepared and ready to serve.

Modern turkeys are designed for industrial production and for a market where white meat is more popular than dark. The federation says a turkey usually has about 70 percent white meat.

Turkey hens lay 80-100 eggs in a season. Producers use artificial insemination to fertilize the eggs. The turkeys grow quickly. In 14 weeks, a hen weighs 7 kilograms and is ready for market. Males takes 18 weeks to reach 14 kilograms.

Most turkeys are raised what is known as the conventional way. But some higher-priced birds are raised outdoors, without antibiotic drugs and with a diet feed grown without chemicals.

Some small farms raise what they call heritage turkeys. These native birds are smaller and take longer to grow. But they mate naturally and have more of a balance of dark and white meet. Heritage turkeys have a stronger taste that some people like.

But turkeys are sold by weight, and people often buy big ones for the holidays. So price may be the biggest consideration of all.

Many children first learn the value of money by receiving an allowance. The purpose is to let children learn from experience at an age when financial mistakes are not very costly.

The amount of money that parents give to their children to spend as they wish differs from family to family. Timing is another consideration. Some children get a weekly allowance. Others get a monthly allowance.

In any case, parents should make clear watch, if anything, the child is expected to pay for with the money.

At first, young children may spend all of their allowance soon after they receive it. If they do this, they will learn the hard way that spending must be done within a budget. Parents are usually advised not to offer more money until the next allowance.

The object is to show young people that a budget demands choices between spending and saving. Older children may be responsible enough to save money for larger costs, like clothing or electronics.

Many people who have written on the subject of allowances say it is not a good idea to pay your child for work around home. These jobs are a normal part of family life.

Paying children to do extra work around the house, however, can be useful. It can even provide an understanding of how a businesses works.

Allowances give children a chance to experience the three things they can do with money. They can share it in the form of gifts or giving to a good cause. They can spend it by buying things they want. Or they can save it.

Saving helps children understand that costly goals require sacrifice: you have to cut costs and plan for the future.

Requiring children to save part of their allowance can also open the door to future saving and investing. Many banks offer services to help children and teenagers learn about personal finance.

A saving account is an excellent way to learn the power of compound interest.

Compounding works by paying interest on interest. So，for example, one dollar invested at two percent interest for two years will earn two cents in the first year. The second year, the money will earn two percent one dollar and two cents, and so on.

That may not seem as a lot. But over time it adds up.

This week in our Foreign Students Series, we continue our discussion of college entrance exams. So far we have talked about three tests that are widely accepted by American schools. These are the SAT, the ACT and the TOEFL. The TOEFL is the Test of English as a Foreign Language.

Now we have a question from a student in France about another test. Cire Kaba plans to enter an American college or university. The question is: when applying to a school in the United States, can the TOEIC replace the TOEFL? The TOEIC is the Test of English for International Communication.

The short answer to the question is no.

Admissions offices at American colleges and universities generally do not recognize TOEIC results. The same is true in scholarship and exchange programs as well. But some schools and English programs in the United States do use the test. So we thought this would be a good chance to explain the TOEIC.

ETS, the Educational Testing Service in Princeton, New Jersey, develops and administers both the TOEFL and the TOEIC. It says the TOEIC measures the everyday English skills of people working in an international environment.

None-native English speakers take the test to demonstrate their English language skills when applying for jobs. Organizations also use the TOEIC to measure progress in English training programs. And they use it to consider people for placement at right level in language programs.

Several thousand companies, English programs and government agencies use the TOEIC. The test is offered in about 60 countries.

The TOEFL is based on English used in the classroom. The TOEIC is based on English used in the workplace. But the Educational Testing Service says the test does not require knowledge of special business words. It says the questions come from the real situations like attending a company meeting.

The TOEIC measures listening and reading skills--- and, beginning in December, ETS will offer speaking and writing tests. For a link to the Educational Testing Service Website where you can get more information about the TOEIC and the TOEFL, go to the voaspecialenglish.com.

A study has warned that seafood supplies from the world’s oceans could be almost gone by the middle of the century.

The researchers say that there has already been a collapse in wild populations of almost one-third of currently fished seafoods. The study says that means their catch has fallen by 90 percent from their highest levels.

Boris Worm of Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada, led the international team that did the study. Professor Worm says species have recently been disappearing from oceans at increasing speed. At this rate, he says, all seafood species could collapse by 2048.

Other studies have also warned about the dangers of overfishing and the effects on ocean environments. But not everyone thinks the oceans are likely to be empty in fifty years. Some scientists said parts of the world do have problems, but others are doing a good job of protecting fish populations. Government officials of several countries with large fishing industries also questioned the research.

The study appeared earlier this month in science magazine.

The researchers say damage to oceans affects not only fish populations but also the productivity of ecosystems. These complex systems help control water quality. The scientists say the loss of different kinds of sea life appeared to increase the risk of fish kills and beach closures from harmful algae growth.

The scientists examined the results of 32 experiments and observed 48 protected areas. They also looked at the records of catches worldwide. They studied records from United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization for 1950 to 2003.

And they examined the archeological information and other historical records for twelve coastal areas. That research reach back over a thousand years.

Boris Worm says the findings were, in his words, “beyond everything we suspected.” But he also said the situation is not too late to correct. He said with good fisheries management some species could completely recover in three to ten years.

The United States Nations Development Program says the world is facing a water crisis. It says each year, more than 2 million children die from diseases caused by unclean water. Most of these deaths are from diarrhea and other sicknesses caused by unclean water polluted by human waste.

The warning is this year’s Human Development Report released by the U.N. agency on November 9. Kevin Watkins is the lead writer and head of the Human Development Report office. He says these deaths could be prevented with clean water and toilets. The report also finds that almost half the people in developing countries suffer from health problems due to unclean water and lack of waste removal systems.

Mister Watkins says the crisis in health care also reduces economic growth in many developing nations. The report says more than 100,000 million people in the world do not have clean water and sanitation.

The Human Development Report proposes a three-part action plan to help solve the crisis. First, Mr. Watkins says that governments need to take action to make water a human right. He says national legislation is needed that provides citizens with the right to twenty liters of water a day.

Second, the action plan calls on each nation to spend more on water and sanitation. It proposes that each nation spend at least one percent of the value of all the goods and services the country produces. Third, the plan calls for increased international aid. This would require an additional 400,000 million dollars a year, or two times as much international aid, in the next ten years.

Mr. Watkins says the world is not running out of water. The crisis is not because of scarcity. He says there is about the same amount of water in the world every year. The real problem, he says, is the governance of water. Governments need to think of water as a limited, valuable resource. The report also urges governments to consider fairness, equality and social justice when supervising water. Mr. Watkins says the poorest people and those with limited land rights are the first to lose their ability to get water.

A college education can be very costly in the United States, especially at the private school. Rising costs has left more and more families to borrow money to help pay for college. There are different federal loans and private loans for students and parents. Interests of the loan will go up on July 1, as borrowing has been increased, there are growing concerns that many students graduate with too much debt. In 1993, less than one half of the graduates from four-year colleges has student’s loans. Now 2/3 of them do. The average loan debt when they graduate is 19,000 dollars. At public universities, the average is 17,000 dollars. The project on student’s debt is an action group that collects these numbers from reports. It notes that the averages do not present the full picture. For example, in 2004, 1/4 of students graduated with more than 25,000 dollars in debt. And that do not include borrowing by their parents. The project on students debt says parents as well as students are borrowing more to pay for college. Students can expect to take about ten years to pay back their loans, repayment does not begin until after their out of school. Higher borrowing limits have also helped push up students debts. Students from all economic levels are borrowing more. Corrected for inflation, students loans have increased around 60 percents in ten years. Researchers say one effect is that the higher the debts the more likely the graduates are to look only for high paying jobs. That means there is less chance they will take jobs in areas like teaching or other public service. A study done in 2002 for a major students lender found that debts can also affect lives in other ways. Some students paying back their college debts said they are delaying buying their first house, some delayed marriage or having children. In May groups representing students, parents and college officials asked the government to change some of the loan repayment rules. The requested changes will recognize graduates who have difficulties repaying their loans because they do not earn very much. They would be able to pay less right after they graduate, then pay more as earnings increase.