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Zhang Meng, the boss of the Beijing-based overseas study agency CACDIY International, never imagined that his plan to purchase a new car would be realized so soon.

"I have to employ five part-time staff members to deal with the unexpected increase in business that began last week," he said Tuesday.

Zhang is among a large number of overseas study agents in China who have benefited from a mistake made by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) based in the United States.

The ETS, located in Princeton, New Jersey, announced on Oct 28 that it had decided to cancel the latest Graduate Record Examination scores in China, because it repeated the verbal and quantitative sections of a previous version of the test. The accredited examination given in China on Oct 23 was the only one with the error.

The decision affects about 24,000 people, most of whom were likely to apply to graduate schools in the US, according to the ETS.

"We apologize for this unfortunate incident and are doing everything possible to resolve this quickly to minimize the impact," Tom Ewing, a spokesperson for the ETS, said Monday.

This is the first time the ETS has had to cancel test results and the organization said it made the difficult decision to protect the validity of the GRE.

The affected examinees have been offered three options: they can take a free make-up test on either Nov 20 or June 11, 2011, or receive a full refund of their GRE test fee of $205.

Those who want to take the make-up test on Nov 20 have been automatically registered for the test and do not need to contact the ETS. They will be required to retake only the verbal and quantitative portions of the exam.

A toll-free number, 400-120-0175, has been made available in China for information on the exam.

However, many Chinese students who sat the Oct 23 test had intended to fill out their applications for graduate schools in November and December, and the exam glitch has thrown their plans into disarray.

Zhang said students have to prepare about 10,000 words of material for their applications to graduate schools. Since many of them now need to prepare to retake the test, they do not have time to prepare the materials themselves, so they have turned to the agents for assistance.

"The students are in tears, but they still need to deal with the reality of the situation. They now have a good excuse to give the boring paper work to us," he said.

Questions:

1. Who is benefiting from a mistake by the Educational Testing Service in the US?

2. What was the mistake?

3. Who is affected?

Answers:

1. Overseas study agencies.

2. ETS it repeated the verbal and quantitative sections of a previous version of the test given in China on Oct 23.

3. The decision affects about 24,000 people, most of whom were likely to apply to graduate schools in the US, according to the ETS.

（中國日?qǐng)?bào)網(wǎng)英語點(diǎn)津 Helen 編輯）

About the broadcaster:

Nelly Min is an editor at China Daily with more than 10 years of experience as a newspaper editor and photographer. She has worked at major newspapers in the U.S., including the Los Angeles Times and the Detroit Free Press. She is also fluent in Korean.