1.Read the following text:

Nip and tuck

A growing obsession with the body beautiful

China performs more cosmetic surgery than any country except America and Brazil. Almost 1,3 m licensed procedures were carried out in 2013, according to the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (as well as many more unlicensed ones). The market, which barely existed 15 years ago, is now worth some $2,4 billion. China’s growing wealth, and its obsession with celebrity culture is fuelling the increase. Beauty is also deemed as advantage in the competitive white-collar workplace. People in search of a job submit a photograph with their application.

At People’s Ninth Hospital in Shanghai, a public hospital that is the city’s busiest for cosmetic surgery, there were 60,000 cosmetic operations in 2012, a 50% increase in five years, according to Qi Zuoliang, deputy director of the plastic surgery department. Most patients are in their 20s. The three most common procedures are double eyelid surgery, liposuction and nose jobs.

At a meeting of China’s parliament in March, Wang Chunlan, a leading plastic surgeon, called for higher standards after botched surgery complaints reached 20,000 a year. Her plea echoes that of Ma Xiaowei, a vice-minister of health, who said that during a random inspection of plastic surgery clinics, fewer than half met national standards.

Illegal clinics need controlling. As many as 70% of China’s cosmetic procedures take place in unlicensed salons that offer simple procedures such as face-slimming injections. “It’s hard to root out the black sheep without efficient supervision and due punishment,” says Dr. Qi, echoing a broader Chinese problem. Some doctors, badly paid in state-run hospitals, moonlight in illegal salons.

In downtown Shanghai one clinic offers eyelid surgery for 6,000 yuan ($950) and face-slimming injections for 1,0000 yuan. But it couldn’t produce its clinician qualifications. When pressed for detail about the injections, it said the Chinese-made drug has the same effect as Botox but is cheaper.

Tong Xiao, a 21-year-old student in the city of Hangzhou, deeply regrets her nose job. Before going to the university, Miss Tong spent 3,500 yuan ($555) to make her nose bugger using silica gel. She soon felt uneasy about the cheap gel. A year later, she shays she stole 1,000 yuan from her father to replace the gel with a material similar to Gore-Tex. The second surgery failed. Ten months later her nose is too painful to touch. “I kept telling myself that this is the price of beauty,” she says.

(taken from The Economist magazine)

2. Answer the following questions using the information you learned from the text:

1. What is the volume of Chinese plastic surgery market estimated by the author?

2. Why is plastic surgery currently so popular in China?

3. What’s the average age of those who undergo plastic surgeries?

4. What kind of problems arise in connection with numerous plastic surgeries performed?