NEWSPlus Radio

2017-07-03 Special EnglishThis is Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.Chinese scientists have announced that they have realized the real-time transmission of deep-sea data for more than 190 straight days, setting a new world record.During an expedition to the west Pacific at the end of last year, researchers with the Institute of Oceanology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences realized the real-time transmission of deep-sea data after improving the subsurface buoy observation network.They put a floating body on the sea, which was connected to a submersible buoy. The submersible buoy transmits data to the floating body, which then sends it to a satellite. Researchers then receive the data through the satellite.The real-time deep-sea data includes the condition of the subsurface buoy, the flow speed, direction and pressure of seawater.Real-time transmission of deep-sea data provides important technical support for research on the ocean environment and global climate. The data could enhance the precision in ocean climate and environment forecasts.The previous world record for the real-time transmission of deep water data was around 90 days.This is Special English.China's supercomputers remain the world's fastest and second fastest machines, but America's Titan was squeezed into fourth place by an upgraded Swiss system.The latest edition of the semiannual T0P500 list of supercomputers was released recently. China's supercomputer Sunway TaihuLight has been described by the T0P500 list as "far and away the most powerful number-cruncher on the planet. It maintained the lead since last June, when it dethroned Tianhe-2, the former champion for the previous three consecutive years.This means that a Chinese supercomputer has topped the rankings maintained by researchers in the United States and Germany nine times in a row.What's more, the Sunway TaihuLight was built entirely using processors designed and produced in China.Officials say it highlights China's ability to conduct independent research in the supercomputing field. In the latest rankings, the new number three supercomputer is the upgraded Piz Daint, a system installed at the Swiss National Supercomputing Center.Its current performance pushed Titan, a machine installed at the U.S. Oak Ridge National Laboratory, into fourth place. Titan's performance of 17.6 petaflops has remained constant since it was installed in 2012.You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.The European Union has reaffirmed its support for Paris agreement on climate change when its Foreign Affairs Council convened in Luxembourg.The Council said in a statement that the Paris Agreement is fit for purpose and cannot be renegotiated.U.S. President Donald Trump said on June 1 that he has decided to pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement, a landmark global pact to fight climate change.The Council said it deeply regretted the unilateral decision by the United States administration to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, while it welcomed the statements of commitment to the Agreement from other countries.The Council said the EU will lead in the global fight against climate change through its climate policies and through continued support to those which are particularly vulnerable.Besides this, the EU is strengthening its existing global partnerships and will continue to seek new alliances, from the world's largest economies to the most vulnerable island states.The Paris Agreement was agreed on by almost every country in the world in 2015. It aims to tackle climate change by cutting greenhouse gas emissions and sets a global target of keeping the rise in the average temperature no higher than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.This is Special English.It's possible for the European Union and Britain to strike a fair Brexit deal which is "far better than no deal". EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier told reporters that for both the EU and the UK, a fair deal is possible, and far better than no deal. He made the remarks at a joint press conference with his British counterpart David Davis, after wrapping up the opening salvo of the Brexit talks in Brussels.His remarks obviously alluded to British Prime Minister Theresa May's catchphrase "no deal is better than a bad deal".Barnier said the first session was "important, open and useful indeed to start off on the right foot as the clock is ticking".He outlined a two-step negotiation, saying they agreed on dates, organization, and priorities for the negotiation.You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.China is achieving landmarks in science and technology at breakneck speed.The country's Tianzhou-1 cargo spacecraft completed its second docking with the Tiangong-2 space lab recently. Chinese scientists have announced that they have realized the satellite-based distribution of entangled photon pairs over a record distance of more than 1,200 kilometers, a major breakthrough that could be used to deliver secure messages. China has successfully launched its first X-ray space telescope to study black holes, pulsars and gamma-ray bursts, receiving its first package of data.Officials say such a string of achievements shows China's innovation-driven development strategy is paying off.The latest Global Innovation Index showed that China rose three spots to 22nd place on the list of the world's most innovative nations this year, becoming the only middle-income country to join the top 25 innovative economies.However, China stepping closer to becoming an innovative power has aroused skepticism, with some arguing that its progress poses a threat to other countries.Chinese observers refuted the claim, saying China's science and technology innovation has injected fresh energy to the world's sluggish economy and brought a new opportunity to global industrial restructuring and sustainable development.This is Special English.Chinese bicycle-sharing giant Mobike says it has 100 million users worldwide.Mobike started its business in Shanghai in April last year, before expanding into major Chinese cities and branching out abroad. Users access a Mobike account and unlock the bicycles by scanning a QR code on the bicycles.It has over 5 million bicycles in 100 cities worldwide. Average daily orders top 25 million.The company says it is trying to expand its business in the European and Asian markets.Since April last year, Mobike users have logged 2.5 billion kilometers, equivalent to cutting the emissions of 170,000 cars for a whole year.Mobike's chief competitor is Ofo bike.According to the China E-Commerce Research Center, there were almost 19 million users of shared bicycles nationwide at the end of last year. The number is expected to hit 50 million by the end of this year.You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. You can access the program by logging on to crienglish.com. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. Now the news continues.Five British secondary school students have won a free trip to Hong Kong to attend university summer courses after topping a design competition.The competition was organized earlier this year by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London. It invited British students to design a 48-hour travel itinerary for youth travelers visiting Hong Kong, with the aim of showing how the city is unique and attractive to youth travelers. The contestants were also expected to compare travel experiences between Hong Kong and a British city.The organizers say many British students presented their submissions through a variety of means, including an essay, a video clip on Youtube, a blog post, from which five best entries were selected.Carmen Truong was the winner from the Royal Latin School who impressed the judges with a beautiful scratch book. She will spend two weeks at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, learning Chinese and engineering.As a Chinese girl born in London, Truong says she likes to collect information and pictures about Hong Kong; and this competition was a good chance for her to explore more about her background.The annual competition is now in its sixth year. It seeks to encourage British students to consider going to universities in Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China. This is Special English.A "Chinese Ambassador Scholarship" has been launched at the Chinese Embassy in Romania.The Chinese Ambassador to Romania says the main goal of the scholarship is to encourage Romanian students to learn Chinese. It also aims to welcome as many young people as possible to jointly push forward Sino-Romanian friendly relations.The ambassador says learning Chinese enjoys great popularity in Romania, where over 8,000 people are studying Chinese in Confucius institutes, Confucius classrooms and other places.At the scholarship launching ceremony, around 20 students and four teachers were awarded with mobile phones and cash prizes to honor their efforts in learning and teaching Chinese.Romania is one of the countries along the ancient Silk Road. It is part of the Belt and Road initiative for common development. The official says this will bring about increasing demand for talents in Romania, including Romanians can speak Chinese.The ambassador says he hopes that more and more young people in Romania can play an active role in various fields including economic and trade cooperation and cultural exchanges between the two countries.You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.The National Museum of China has opened an exhibition featuring the work of Dutch painter Rembrandt and other famous artists of the 17th century.The show includes more than 70 paintings, and is the largest exhibit featuring the prime age of Dutch painting ever staged in China.The items on display include 11 paintings by Rembrandt including Minerva in Her Study and The Unconscious Patient. The exhibition also features works by Ve

用声音，在一起

用声音，在一起

2017-06-20 Special EnglishThis is Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing. Here is the news.A Chinese envoy to the United Nations has called on the international community to adapt to the new trends and features of terrorist groups and enhance cooperation in fighting terrorism.Recently, multiple terrorist attacks occurred in Egypt, Afghanistan, Britain, France, Iran and other places, causing severe casualties and property losses. Chinese's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations made the remarks at a Security Council meeting which focused on the threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts.He stressed that terrorism is the common enemy of mankind and its impact goes beyond borders; and no country can address terrorism by itself or keep itself from terrorism.The Chinese envoy called for measures to reach international consensus, deal with the root causes of terrorism, stem the transnational movement of terrorists, cut off their financing channels and fight against their propaganda.He said the international community should put solving regional hot-spot issues as a top priority, and work to promote political dialogues to address regional conflicts and maintain regional peace, stability and development, so as to eradicate the root cause of terrorism.This is Special English.China is working on reusable launch vehicles and has achieved progress in some key areas.A carrier rocket official says the processes under development include parachute-landing and propulsion-landing. Reusable lift-body launchers will be developed in three stages, namely, rocket-engine partial reusable vehicle, rocket-engine full reusable vehicle and combined cycle-engine reusable vehicle.The official said the Long March carrier rockets still have room for improvement, adding that China is developing a heavy-lift launch vehicle with a payload of 140 tonnes to low Earth orbit and 50 tonnes to lunar transfer orbit.The heavy-lift carrier rocket is currently called the Long March-9, and it should be sent into space by 2030.A low-cost commercial medium launch vehicle, the Long March-8, is under development, and based on the Long March-8, a new high-orbit medium launch vehicle should be designed to improve the Long March series and enhance competitiveness.You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing. China's Food and Drug Administration has approved a new-generation of heart valve replacement product, which greatly reduces surgery time and increases survival rate.The developers announced recently that the J-Valve has passed clinical tests and will be put into use across China.Traditional solutions require doctors to make a big incision on the patients' chests and open their hearts to put the prosthetic valve inside manually. The process takes about four hours and poses risks of wrong positioning of the valve and loss of blood.The J-Valve system features minimally invasive surgery. It is easier to implant and provides automatic positioning of the valve. Doctors only watch an electronic screen and operate outside the patients' bodies. The whole procedure lasts about 10 minutes.This is Special English.The World Health Organization has started a "smoke-free generation" media campaign in Beijing targeting young people in China.A World Health Organization representative says China is in the grip of a national tobacco epidemic, and children are most susceptible with cigarettes portrayed as fashionable and alluring in popular culture.According to World Health Organization, over half of Chinese adult men smoke, two thirds of whom started as young adults. By 2014, 73 percent Chinese students had been exposed to secondhand smoke.The official says there is nothing cool about smoking, but there is something empowering about choosing to live a healthy, smoke-free life.Since China ratified the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2005, the country has made a number of tobacco control efforts, including banning tobacco advertisements, increasing tobacco taxes and putting forward regional smoking bans.As of 2016, 18 cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, had implemented regional smoking bans.China has set a target to reduce the smoking rate among people aged 15 and older to 20 percent by 2030 from the current 28 percent. That's according to the "Healthy China 2030" blueprint issued by the central authorities last October. You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing. One in 20 pregnant women in the U.S. territories with confirmed Zika virus infection had a baby or fetus with Zika virus-associated birth defects. Among the women with confirmed Zika infection during the first trimester, eight percent, or nearly one in 12, had a baby or fetus with Zika virus-associated birth defects.A government report, the first from the U.S. territories, represents the largest number of completed pregnancies with laboratory confirmation of Zika virus infection to date.The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says as these latest findings illustrate, Zika virus poses a serious threat to pregnant women and their babies, regardless of when the infection occurs during the pregnancy.It says women in the U.S. territories and elsewhere who have continued exposure to mosquitoes carrying Zika are at risk of infection. The government must remain vigilant and committed to preventing new Zika infections.The new analysis reviewed the cases of 2,550 women with possible Zika virus infections who completed their pregnancies, of which 1,508 had confirmed Zika virus infections.In this report, more than 120 pregnancies resulted in Zika-associated birth defects.This is Special English.Researchers at the University of California in San Francisco have found that older people with persistent pain show quicker declines in memory as they age and are more likely to have dementia years later.Findings from their study, which appears to be the first to make this association, indicate that chronic pain could somehow be related to changes in the brain that contribute to dementia.The researchers analyzed data from 10,000 participants aged 60 and up over a 12-year period.The participants who said they were persistently troubled by moderate or severe pain in both years 1998 and 2000 declined 9 percent faster in tests of memory function over the next 10 years than those who said they were not troubled by pain.Those who complained about persistent pain also had a small but significantly increased likelihood of developing dementia overall.Researchers say the findings point toward new ways of thinking about how to protect older people from the cognitive insults of aging.Elderly people need to maintain their cognition to stay independent. Up to one in three older people suffer from chronic pain, so understanding the relationship between pain and cognitive decline is an important first step toward finding ways to help this population.You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing. You can access the program by logging on to crienglish.com. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. Now the news continues.U.S. researchers studying autism say they were now able to use brain scans to detect functional changes in high-risk babies as young as six months of age and then predict who would be diagnosed with the condition at age two.Autism affects roughly one out of every 68 children in the United States. Siblings of children diagnosed with autism are at higher risk of developing the disorder.Although early diagnosis and intervention can help improve outcomes for children with autism, there currently is no method to diagnose the disease before children show symptoms.The current study is conducted by a research team led by investigators at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The study focused on the brain's functional connectivity, or how regions of the brain work together during different tasks and during rest.Using an imaging technique called functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging, the researchers have scanned 59 high-risk, six-month-old infants while they slept naturally.The children were deemed high-risk because they have older siblings with autism. At the age of two, 11 of the 59 infants in this group were diagnosed with autism, and nine of the 11 infants would go on to have autism.This is Special English.The Australian State of New South Wales' health department has announced that it will ban sugary soft drinks in all hospitals and care facilities by the end of this year, in order to combat the growing problem of obesity.The move comes as part of its "Make Healthy Normal" campaign, which aims to achieve a five percent reduction in overweight and obesity rates in adults by 2020.Chief health officer Kerry Chant said there's no better way to start than right here on our own doorstep. He said it is important that NSW Health provides healthy food and drink choices for all the staff and visitors.Chant said that by establishing this model, they hope it shows how a workable strategy can be successfully implemented across any organization to assist healthier choices in any staffing environment.According to the NSW Heart Foundation, a health advocacy and charity group, "one in two adults and more than one in five children in NSW are overweight or obese. It dramatically heightens the risk of a wide range of chronic health conditions including "type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, stroke and some cancers.You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing. A new study by University of Washington transportation engineers indicates that delivering packages with drones can reduce carbon dioxide emissions in certain circumstances as compared to truck deliveries.The study suggests that drones tend to have carbon dioxide emissions advantages over trucks when the drones don't have to fly very far to their destinations or when a delivery rou

用声音，在一起

2017-06-06 Special EnglishThis is Special English. I&`&m Ryan Price in Beijing. Here is the news.China has celebrated its first science and technology day, which means it has only been one year since the country declared its intention of becoming a leading power in Science and Technology by the middle of the century.Things have moved pretty swiftly since.Jiaolong, China&`&s manned submarine, went quite literally to the bottom of the ocean recently. Scientists collected samples of seawater, rock and marine life, including sea cucumbers, sponges and starfish. The geological samples will help them understand how the trench was formed.In pursuit of the kind of quantum scientific leaps China needs, space is another frontier to be conquered.In southwest China, the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope began scanning the skies in September. It is the world&`&s largest radio telescope. Its mission is to help scientists understand the origin and structure of the universe, and perhaps bring the search for extraterrestrial life closer to what would be an astonishing conclusion.Meanwhile, out in actual space itself, the Shenzhou-11 spacecraft, launched in October last year, carried two astronauts to the space lab Tiangong-2, where they remained for 30 days.In April this year, the Tianzhou-1 cargo spacecraft docked with Tiangong-2, refueling and resupplying the orbiting lab.This is Special English.China&`&s manned submarine Jiaolong has descended to 6,699 meters in the Mariana Trench, recording images of two swimming snailfishes.The mission, on May 30th, was Jiaolong&`&s fourth dive in the trench this year.The dive began at 7:03 a.m. local time and reached the planned depth at 10:21 a.m. where scientists worked for three hours and ten minutes.Jiaolong collected samples of rock, sediment, deep-sea life and sea water in this dive, and recorded images of two swimming snailfishes.Scientists say research on snailfish, a typical deep-sea species, deepens our understanding on the evolution of deep-sea fishes and their environmental adaptation mechanism.Jiaolong&`&s first dive of this year in the world&`&s deepest known trench took place on May 23, with a Xinhua News Agency journalist descending inside the submarine along with scientists to a depth of 4,811 meters. The second and third dives on May 25 and 27 reached depths of 6,300 meters and 6,544 meters respectively. You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Ryan Price in Beijing. U.S. President Donald Trump has called Germany&`&s trade and military spending policies "very bad" for the United States as tensions between him and German Chancellor Angela Merkel increased.Trump wrote on Twitter that the country have a MASSIVE trade deficit with Germany, plus they pay FAR LESS than they should on NATO and military, which was very bad for the U.S. He wrote that this will change.The blast came two days after Merkel cast doubts on EU&`&s alignment with the United States and Britain, saying that Europeans should determine their own destiny.Merkel, addressing an election campaign at a beer tent in Germany&`&s southern state of Bavaria, said recently that following the election of Trump and Brexit, Europeans "really have to take destiny into their own hands".Merkel said "the times when we could fully rely on others are to some extent over".Although Merkel did not further elaborate the reasons for her unexpected remarks, many German media speculated that Merkel was referring to her frustrating experience at the G7 meeting earlier this week in Italy&`&s Sicily.The German leader described the summit as "very difficult, not to say very unsatisfactory".Trump and Merkel had a long history of disagreement that was previously focused on the two leaders&`& view on immigration.This is Special English.The daughter of a longtime confidante of the former South Korean President has been delivered to South Korea.The 20-year-old is on her way home to South Korea. She was wanted for questioning in connection with a major corruption probe in her home country. The daughter was arrested by Denmark&`&s North Jutland Police on Jan. 1. Her mother is charged with using her friendship with former president Park to extort funds from large businesses and meddling in state affairs.The daughter is alleged to have received illegal favors when entering a prestigious South Korean university. She is also accused of being behind economic crimes in collusion with her mother, which she denied.Initially, the young daughter fought against a local court&`&s decision to extradite her and appealed. On April 19, the Court of Aalborg upheld the extradition decision so that she can stand her trial in South Korea. She has dropped her opposition. You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Ryan Price in Beijing. Li Sun, former coach of Chinese table tennis super star Zhang Yining has replaced suspended Kong Linghui to take charge of China&`&s women&`&s national team at the ongoing World Table Tennis Championships.Head coach of the Chinese national team Liu Guoliang made the announcement as Kong had been ordered to return home from the World Championships. Liu and Kong won the men&`&s doubles gold at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. Kong was suspended as head coach of the Chinese women&`&s team following a lawsuit over a gambling debt filed by a Singaporean hotel.The Singaporean hotel where Kong and his family had stayed in 2015 filed a lawsuit against him in a Hong Kong court. Media reports said Kong borrowed 1 million Singapore dollars, roughly 721,000 US dollars, from the hotel, but failed to pay back the debt in full.This is Special English. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has launched the standard gauge railway cargo train that is expected to ease congestion at the port of Mombasa.The Chinese Ambassador to Kenya and the President of the China Communications Construction Company attended the launch ceremony.President Kenyatta said at the unveiling of the train that it ushered in an era of fast, efficient and reliable transportation of goods.He said this is a historic moment as Kenya begins its journey of transformation, adding that his government is banking on the cargo train to hasten industrial growth and cross-border trade.Besides reducing the cost of ferrying goods from the port of Mombasa to the hinterlands, the cargo train will drastically reduce congestion in the highways and the environmental pollution.According to Kenya Railways Corporation, it will cost 500 dollars to transport a single container through the train when compared to 900 dollars by road between Mombasa and Nairobi.The president said expansion of Mombasa&`&s port and the operation of the train marked a critical milestone in Kenya&`&s quest to become an industrial and efficient trading hub.You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Ryan Price in Beijing. You can access the program by logging on to crienglish.com. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. Now the news continues.Sri Lanka has said it is preparing to face health concerns once the floods which lashed the country recede.The Health Minister of Sri Lanka told reporters that while there was no spread of disease so far, diarrhea and skin diseases are expected later.However he said health officials have been deployed to the affected areas and steps will be taken to counter the spread of any disease following the floods.The death toll from the floods and landslides increased to 193 on May 30th and 94 others are reported missing.Foreign assistance is continuing to flow in with China, Pakistan and India among the countries sending ship loads of humanitarian aid.Meanwhile the World Health Organization is liaising closely with the Sri Lanka Ministry of Health and is assisting the government to provide critical healthcare services.The main areas for support are medical team deployment, strengthening surveillance of communicable diseases, as well as provision of mental health and psychological support for survivors.This is Special English.Late night mobile phone use has devastating effects on teenager&`&s mental health. That&`&s according to a new study by Australian researchers at Murdoch and Griffith Universities.The study is funded by the Australian Research Council and is the world&`&s first long-term assessment of adolescent mental health regarding late night mobile phone usage. The study examined student&`&s quality of sleep, along with mood, aggression and coping skills.The process was conducted as an annual survey over four years and included 1,100 students from 29 schools.When the subjects began the process, they were in their eighth year of education at high school; and when the program concluded, they had hit year 11.The questionnaires focused on what time of the night students continued to receive or send text messages and phone calls.The study found that late night phone use directly contributed to poor sleep habits, which over time led to declines in overall well-being and mental health.Around two thirds or 65 percent of students in year eight who owned a mobile phone, reported to use it regularly after "lights out."You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Ryan Price in Beijing. An inquiry into the accuracy of seven wristband activity monitors showed that six out of seven devices measured heart rate within 5 percent. None, however, measured energy expenditure well.The findings were based on an evaluation of the Apple Watch, Basis Peak, Fitbit Surge, Microsoft Band, Mio Alpha 2, PulseOn and the Samsung Gear S2 in a diverse group of 60 volunteers.Millions of people wear some kind of activity tracker and often share the data with their physician.Euan Ashley, professor of cardiovascular medicine at Stanford University says people are basing life decisions on the data provided by these devices. But consumer devices aren&`&t held to the same standards as medical-grade devices, and it&`&s hard for doctors to know what to make of heart-rate data and other data from a patient&`&s wear

用声音，在一起

This is Special English. I’m Ryan Price in Beijing. Here is the news.The United States Senate has voted 82-13 to approve the Iowa Governor Terry Branstad to be the new U.S. Ambassador to China.In a statement after the confirmation, Branstad said he looks forward to working with leaders of both countries for the mutual benefit of the rest of the world.He said that never in his wildest dreams did he think that a boy from a small farm in Leland, Iowa, would one day have the opportunity to represent his country on the world stage, working closely with one of the world&`&s most influential countries and one of America&`&s largest trading partners.Seventy-year-old Branstad is the longest-serving governor in the United States. He has nurtured a close relationship with China and has visited China multiple times.He served as the governor of Iowa from 1983 to 1999, and again since 2011. He was nominated by U.S. President Donald Trump to be the next U.S. ambassador to China in December last year.During his confirmation hearing earlier this month, Branstad said that if confirmed, he would work to "positively influence" the U.S.-China relationship.He said that as Governor of Iowa, he saw first-hand the importance of a positive and healthy trade relationship between the two countries.This is Special English.With housing prices and sales stagnating in China&`&s major cities following tough property controls, smaller cities are starting to join in.Property sales were restricted in several second and third-tier cities, as speculators shift their attention to these areas. Around 30 cities have introduced sales restrictions to different extents.In Baoding city in north China&`&s Hebei Province, certain properties are subject to a 10-year lock-up before they can be resold.In Jiaxing city in east China&`&s Zhejiang Province, non-residents will not be able to resell houses within two years of buying them.With such restrictions, speculators who use to borrow money to invest may have to reconsider, as it now takes much longer for the houses to generate returns and pay back the loans.Analysts say smaller cities have become the main battleground as China strives to contain housing price as they rises through restrictions on purchases and increased minimum down payments.In Beijing, the down payment ratio for second homes has raised to 60 percent in mid-March, a measure considered "unprecedented".You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Ryan Price in Beijing. A new study has found that the rare but spectacular eruptions of super volcanoes can cause massive destruction and affect climate patterns on a global scale for decades.In addition, the super eruption sites may experience ongoing, albeit smaller eruptions for tens of thousands of years after.In the study published recently in the journal Nature Communications, Oregon State University researchers said they were able to link recent eruptions at Mt. Sinabung in northern Sumatra in Indonesia, to the last eruption on Earth of a super volcano 74,000 years ago at the Toba Caldera some 40 kilometers away.This is the first time that researchers have been able to pinpoint what happens following the eruption of a super volcano. To qualify as a super volcano, the eruption must reach at least magnitude 8, which means the measured deposits for that eruption are greater than 1,000 cubic kilometers.When Toba erupted, it emitted a volume of magma 28,000 times greater than that of the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington State in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. It was so massive, it is thought to have created a volcanic winter on Earth lasting years, and possibly triggering a bottleneck in human evolution.This is Special English.A study led by the University of Washington indicates that neighborhoods with greater poverty and disorganization may play a greater role in the problem of drinking in the availability of bars and stores that sell hard liquor.The findings were based on local neighborhood data and published online in the Journal of Urban Health. It suggests that while socioeconomics are more powerful environmental factors than even access to the substance itself, improving a neighborhood&`&s quality of life can yield a range of benefits.In examining the combination of multiple neighborhood factors on alcohol use, researchers turned to an ongoing study the university has followed for decades, by interviewing more than 500 of the adult participants.The researchers found that residents of neighborhoods primarily characterized by high poverty and disorganization tended to drink twice as much in a typical week as those in other types of neighborhoods. Binge-drinking, generally defined as more than four drinks at a time for women, five for men, occurred in these high-poverty, highly disorganized communities about four times as frequently as in other types of neighborhoods.These findings are consistent with previous research indicating that people in lower income neighborhoods may be at greater risk for alcohol-related problems.You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Ryan Price in Beijing. Russian Security Council said Russia&`&s crucial information infrastructure suffered no severe damage caused by the global WannaCry melware attack thanks to an effective anti-cyberattack state system.Russia has been creating a system to detect, prevent and eliminate the consequences of computer attacks on the information resources of the Russian Federation. The program was previously approved by Russian President Vladimir Putin in a decree.The Security Council said Russia has managed to avoid serious damage due to the mentioned state system. The critical information infrastructure was ready to resist a massive spread of this virus.Russia&`&s critical information infrastructure includes the information systems in these sectors of defense, healthcare, energy, transport, communications, banking and finance.A massive number of organizations across the globe have been targeted by the WannaCry malware. Hackers used the Trojan encryptor to lock computers and demand a payment for the decryption. So far, the WabbaCry ransom ware attacked has spread to 150 countries, crippling hospitals, schools, governments and businesses.This is Special English.Nepal has hosted the "Chinese Bridge" language proficiency competition for college students in Kathmandu, the nation’s capital.This is the fourth Nepali edition of the global contest.This year&`&s competition was organized by the Confucius Institute at Kathmandu University and the Chinese embassy in Nepal.According to the organizers, over 50 students had taken part in the initial round and 14 students were selected from three educational institutions in Nepal.Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Yu Hong attended the ceremony to present awards to the winners. She said she was happy to see the increasing interest of Nepali students in Chinese language and culture.In the preliminary round of the competition, 14 college students went through rounds of tests and demonstrated their language skills.Two Bachelor students representing Kathmandu University were declared winners, who will travel to China to represent Nepal at the finals to be held later this year.The Chinese proficiency competition is held annually in different countries for non-Chinese students to encourage them to learn about China.You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Ryan Price in Beijing. You can access the program by logging on to crienglish.com. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. Now the news continues.The Palace Museum, also known as the Forbidden City, has rolled out an app in which users can learn about the museum through building their own imperial residence.In this app, users choose a vacant site for their imperial palace and upgrade it by publishing and reading articles or completing tasks.The museum says the app makes news and information more accessible to the public. Users are no longer mere visitors, but also architects of the museum.The Forbidden City will release high-definition images of its cultural relics, making them available to more people worldwide.Established in 1925, the Palace Museum is located in the imperial palace of the consecutive dynasties from the 13th century to 1911. The complex&`&s architecture and imperial collections make it one of the most prestigious museums in the world. This is Special English.China will build more theme parks in the coming years.Tourism officials say that by 2020, China will encourage tourist areas to integrate with recreation facilities, theaters, and performing centers.Branded theme parks from overseas will be introduced into China, while domestic theme parks are also encouraged to expand overseas.A fantasy adventure indoor theme park opened to the public recently in Shanxi Province in north China. With laser technology and 3-D effects, the theme park aims to offer tourists immersive experiences.Entertainment companies are strongly encouraged to use hi-tech equipment.According to a development plan for the tourism industry, China will improve tourism infrastructure and public service facilities while pushing forward innovative development of theme parks. You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Ryan Price in Beijing. In the Chinese animation "The Tales of Effendi", a cute donkey from Kashgar in northwest China&`&s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region becomes famous as he carries his master around.In reality, donkeys don&`&t usually have such noteworthy lives. They mostly plod around carrying heavy loads and doing tedious chores. But in Kashgar&`&s Yopurga County, farmer Abdul Kerim has turned the braying beast of burden into a cash cow.Kerim says he had been doing various jobs to support his family since he was laid off ten years ago. Last year, he decided to go into the donkey business after hearing that donkey milk could be very profitable.Kerim and four of his neighbors poured almost all of their savings into setting up a

用声音，在一起

用声音，在一起

2017-05-22 Special EnglishThis is Special English. I’m Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.China will boost the development of online media by encouraging eligible websites to go public and create new mainstream media groups.A government blueprint has been issued by the Party authority and the State Council, China’s Cabinet. The document on cultural development and reform vowed to gradually set up a modern communication system by 2020.This is a major project to "build public opinion fronts" online. Efforts will be made to improve the communication abilities of major news websites and online radio and TV stations. It also aims to develop a system for communication on the mobile Internet.Eligible websites will be encouraged to go public.The authorities will give support to mainstream media institutions in developing their websites and new media. Efforts will be stepped up to guide and standardize investment in the Internet cultural sector with both state and private funds.Meanwhile, existing laws and regulations on news and publishing will be extended to cover the management of online media.This is Special English.A butt joint weighing 6,000 metric tons has been lowered into the Pearl River, bringing work on an underwater tunnel linked to the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge a step closer to completion.A chief engineer at the National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center said favorable weather conditions made it suitable for connecting the butt joint, which involved 160 welders.The tunnel is the final component of the long-awaited bridge which is scheduled to open to traffic later this year.The Y-shaped cross-sear bridge is estimated to cost more than 10 billion yuan, roughly 1.5 billion US dollars. It is expected to play a significant role in the economic development of the area comprising Guangdong province, Hong Kong and Macao.Construction started in 2009, and the bridge is part of China's planned national highway network, linking the eastern and western banks of the Pearl River.The bridge includes a 7-kilometer underwater tunnel and a 23-km overwater bridge, making it the longest cross-sea bridge in the world. The service life of the bridge is expected to reach more than 120 years.You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.China's manned submarine Jiaolong has explored submarine turbidity currents in the South China Sea.With a depth of 2,980 meters, Jiaolong was underwater for almost 10 hours in the ocean scientific expedition.Three crew members in the submarine collected samples and measured environmental parameters in the ocean. They brought back sediment and seawater near the seabed as well as high-definition photos and video footage.Scientists say China started the research on submarine turbidity currents relatively late, compared with other countries. This study is a major challenge in geoscience.The dive helped scientists to obtain evidence of the topographic features in northeastern South China Sea. It enriched scientific understanding of canyon turbidity current in the region and provided key data and technical support for future research.The oceanic scientific expedition started in early February. The team will conduct surveys in the Yap Trench and the Mariana Trench later in the year.This is Special English.China's new-generation training vessel has set sail on its maiden voyage from the port city of Dalian in northeast China to South Africa. The 340-million-yuan, roughly 50 million US dollar-ocean-going vessel is China's most advanced cruise training ship. The 200-meter long ship, "Yupeng", is owned by the Dalian Maritime University.During its maiden voyage, 87 graduating students joined the crew to undergo training. It was also loaded with four locomotives and other equipment for customers in South Africa.Founded in 1909, Dalian Maritime University is one of China's largest maritime universities. It already owns and operates another ocean-going training vessel that boasts more than a 10,000 deadweight tonnage.The new ship has a carrying load of 30,000 tonnes and can be used for training, scientific research and shipping. You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.Scientists say they have switched on the world’s biggest X-ray laser, designed to capture images of structures and processes at the atomic level.The DESY research center near Hamburg in Germany said bringing the laser to life for the first time "marks a new era of research in Europe".Operators say the first laser pulse lasted one second. This frequency will be increased to 27,000 flashes per second by the start of September when it officially opens for research.Scientists hope the European X-ray laser project will open up new areas of research, including mapping the molecular structure of new drugs and seeing biochemical reactions in real time.Institutions from Germany, France, Italy and other countries are involved in the project.This is Special English.China has conducted a maiden flight of its dual-seat FC-1B trainer/fighter jet, aiming to seize a bigger share of the global military aircraft market. The flight took place at an airport of the Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group, a State-owned aircraft giant and the manufacturer of the plane. The flight was witnessed by executives from the Aviation Industry of China, guests from other countries and journalists. The aircraft is capable of training pilots and engaging in aerial combat as well as striking ground targets. Officials say the new aircraft is one of the best trainer fighter jets in the international market. It is able to carry beyond-visual-range air-to-air missiles, anti-ship cruise missiles and precision land-attack ammunition.You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.More than 20,000 authors from universities and research institutions across China have joined a project to write an authoritative online Chinese encyclopedia in an effort to promote China's historical heritage and soft power.The digital encyclopedia is the third edition of the Chinese Encyclopedia. It will feature more than 300,000 entries, each with an average length of 1,000 words. It will be twice as large as the Encyclopedia Britannica. The online encyclopedia will cover more than 100 disciplines and be put into use in 2018.The project's editor-in-chief Yang Muzhi said China faces challenges from every corner of cyberspace, so it should have its own online encyclopedia to lead public opinion."According to Yang, the new encyclopedia's top rival is Wikipedia. The goal of the project is to surpass Wikipedia rather than play catch-up with it.Yang said people think Wikipedia is correct and authoritative, while it claims to be a free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. He said the idea is alluring, but China has the world's largest group of authors, so they can do better.This is Special English.The Palace Museum in Beijing plans to stop selling paper tickets from its box office, probably by later this year. An official from the museum says an Internet-based system will be set up to better coordinate the number of visitors for different hours of the day.He said the new plan is preliminarily scheduled to be launched in an "appropriate time in late October", but it still depends on whether conditions are ripe. Starting in July, the museum will gradually decrease the percentage of tickets available at traditional box offices.The Palace Museum opened its online ticket system in 2011. Almost half the tickets are sold via the internet. The tickets sold at the box office in the first quarter of this year decreased by 10 percent from the same period a year earlier.The Palace Museum, or the Forbidden City, was China's former royal palace from 1420 to 1911. It is one of the most visited museums in the world. The Forbidden City received more than 16 million visitors last year.The Palace Museum set a daily quota of 80,000 visitors in 2015 due to safety concerns caused by overcrowding. The new move is another step to handle the crowds.You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. You can access the program by logging on to crienglish.com. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. Now the news continues.It is critical and important for children in the United States and Europe to learn Chinese. Education experts say a booming Chinese economy provides great opportunities for foreigners who can speak both English and Chinese.That was the consensus among teachers, students and experts who gathered to mark the Experience China Day in the United States. The event was held by the Chinese Consulate General in New York City. It attracted more than 200 American teachers, students and parents to the Chinese Consulate General for the event. Various activities were held for people to experience traditional Chinese culture, including calligraphy and traditional Chinese musical instruments.Acting Consul General Cheng Lei said the event aims to motivate young people' interests in learning Chinese and understanding Chinese culture. American students entertained the crowd by playing the Kongzhu, also known as the Chinese yo-yo. They also staged a short drama in both English and Chinese.This is Special English.Zambia will host the first-ever Africa Cup Wushu Tournament next year. Wushu is a Chinese martial art.The tournament has attracted kung fu experiments from around 20 countries to participate. T competition has been tentatively set for June or August.The event is organized by the Zambia Wushu Association. Officials say the tournament is a milestone for Zambia in promoting the Chinese martial art. Preparations for the event have already started. As a host country, Zambia will pick its final team from among many martial art athletes. Organizers say they hope the event will encourage more local people to learn Chinese kung fu.Formed in 2013, the Zambia Wushu Association has trained 600 martial art learners in the capital and a nearby province.You'

This is Special English. I’m Ryan Price in Beijing. Here is the news.The C919, China&`&s first homegrown large passenger plane, has made its debut flight in Shanghai, a breakthrough in the country&`&s innovation and manufacturing drive and a change to the landscape of the global civil aviation market.The successful test flight of the C919 comes only nine days after the country debuted its first homegrown aircraft carrier in Dalian in northeast China. The development showed the world China’s manufacturing prowess, development of advanced technology and the national ambition to regain past glory.The flight lasted around 80 minutes at an altitude of 3,000 meters and an average speed of 300 kilometers per hour. Then the plane returned to Shanghai Pudong International Airport, from which it had taken off.In a letter of congratulation to the C919 project, the State Council, China’s Cabinet, said the successful maiden flight of the C919 marks a milestone for China&`&s aviation industry. The project carries great weight and importance to the country&`&s innovation drive and manufacturing upgrade push.The letter said it is also a shot in the arm for the ongoing supply-side reform. This is Special English.It’ll be free. It’ll be uniquely Chinese. It’ll be an online encyclopedia to rival Wikipedia, but without the participation of the public. And don’t expect certain entries to come up in your searches, either.Scholars and experts hand-picked by Beijing to work on the project say only they will be able to make entries, the latest example of the Chinese government’s efforts to control information available on the internet.The scholars say truth is their guiding light, and their editing and review process is a rigorous one. If there is a difference of opinion, a committee should figure it out.A chief editor of the history of science and technology section told The Associated Press that "Of course, science does not come from democratic votes, to convince others you will have to present the most convincing proof".The effort to compile 300,000 entries that span science, literature, politics and history is being led by the Communist Party of China’s Central Propaganda Department. It guides public opinion through instructions to China’s media, internet companies and publishing industry as well as overseeing the education sector. It has instructed the Encyclopedia of China Publishing House, known for its offline Chinese Encyclopedia, to produce it.Currently, the Chinese Wikipedia is inaccessible on the mainland.

用声音，在一起

2017-05-09 Special EnglishThis is Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing. Here is the news.China is expected to establish a national emergency and coordination committee to deal with nuclear accidents.The draft law on nuclear safety states that the committee is responsible for organizing a response to nuclear accident. The draft was first read among legislators in November.The latest draft highlights the need for transparency of nuclear information. It requires government departments in charge of nuclear safety supervision to publish information about nuclear accidents and other nuclear-related data.In addition, the draft clarifies the importance of disposing of radioactive waste. Data on the source, amount, character and location of such waste should be recorded and stored permanently. This is Special English.China's conversion of coal into natural gas could prevent tens of thousands of premature deaths each year. But there's a catch. Researchers say as China shifts its use of vast coal reserves to send less smog-inducing chemicals into the air, the move threatens to undermine efforts to rein in greenhouse gas emissions.The environmental trade-off points to the difficult choices confronting leaders of the world's second largest economy as they struggle to balance public health and financial growth with international climate change commitments.Between 20,000 and 41,000 premature deaths annually could be prevented by converting low-quality coal in the country's western provinces into synthetic natural gas for residential use.The findings by researchers from the United States and China have been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.The researchers said that if the gas were used for industrial purposes, fewer deaths would be averted and they would carry a steeper price - a dramatic increase in carbon dioxide emissions.You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing. U.S. Space Agency NASA's Cassini spacecraft has survived an unprecedented trip between Saturn and its rings, and has amazing pictures to show for it.Flight controls regained contact with Cassini, one day after it became the first craft to cross this hazardous region. The rings are made up of countless icy particles, any of which could have smacked Cassini. The spacecraft's big dish antenna served as a shield as it hurtled through the narrow gap, temporarily cutting off communications.Cassini skimmed 3,100 kilometers above Saturn's cloud tops, closer than ever before. It came within 320 kilometers of the innermost visible ring. Scientists say Saturn continues to surprise them, after 13 years of Cassini orbiting the planet. The pictures show details never seen before. For example, there's an incredible close-up of a gigantic swirling hurricane at Saturn's North Pole.Given their importance, data from the crossing are being sent to Earth twice, to make certain nothing is lost. It takes more than an hour for the signals to travel the 1.6 billion kilometer distance between Saturn and Earth.Cassini was launched in 1997 from Cape Canaveral in Florida, and reached Saturn in 2004.This is Special English.Astronaut Peggy Whitson broke the U.S. record recently for the most time in space and talked up Mars during a congratulatory call from President Donald Trump.The International Space Station's commander surpassed the record of 534 days, two hours and 48 minutes for most accumulated time in space by an American.Trump said that it is a very special day in the glorious history of American spaceflight. His daughter and close adviser Ivanka Trump also offered congratulations to Whitson from the Oval Office.Whitson said it's a huge honor for her to break such a record. She said it's an exciting time", as NASA prepares for human expeditions to Mars in the 2030s. The program has been included in new legislation signed by Trump last month. Whitson called the space station "a key bridge" between living on Earth and traveling into deep space. She singled out the station's recycling system that transforms astronauts' urine into drinking water.Whitson was already the world's most experienced spacewoman and female spacewalker, as well as the oldest woman in space, at 57 years old. By the time she returns to Earth in September, she'll have logged 666 days in orbit over three flights.The world record is 879 days. It is held by Russian Gennady Padalka. Whitson broke the NASA cumulative record set last year by astronaut Jeffrey Williams. Scott Kelly holds the U.S. record for consecutive days in space, at 340.You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing. Three African countries have been chosen to test the world's first malaria vaccine.Ghana, Kenya and Malawi will be piloting the injectable vaccine next year with hundreds of thousands of young children, who have been at the highest risk of death.The World Health Organization said the vaccine has the potential to save tens of thousands of lives if used with existing measures. The challenge is whether impoverished countries can deliver the required four doses of the vaccine for each child.Malaria remains one of the world's most stubborn health challenges. It infects more than 200 million people every year and kills about half a million. Most of the victims are children in Africa. Bed netting and insecticides are the chief protection.Sub-Saharan Africa is hardest hit by this disease. The area had around 90 percent of the world's cases in 2015. Malaria spreads when a mosquito bites someone already infected, sucks up blood and parasites, and then bites another person.The World Health Organization says a global effort to counter malaria has led to 62 percent cut in deaths between 2000 and 2015.This is Special English.The White House says President Donald Trump is appointing the former president of a leading anti-abortion organization to a senior position at the Department of Health and Human Services.Charmaine Yoest, who actively supported Trump in his campaign, will serve as assistant secretary of public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services. From 2008 until February 2016, she was president of Americans United for Life, which campaigned at the federal and state level for tough restrictions on abortion.Among the many state bills backed by the group under Yoest's leadership were measures that would ban most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. These measures require women seeking abortions to undergo a sonogram and impose tough regulations on abortion clinics that could lead to their closure.The appointment was assailed by abortion-rights groups.Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of Planned Parenthood, said Charmaine Yoest has spent her whole professional life opposing access to birth control and a woman's right to safe, legal abortion.You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing. You can access the program by logging on to crienglish.com. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. Now the news continues.Increasingly strict government controls on genetic information have resulted in longer, slower registration procedures for new and developing drugs. However, experts say the procedures could pose a threat to the people's privacy.An expert at the Chinese Academy of Sciences says that rather than providing extra safeguards, the precautions are actually making genetic information less secure. He urged greater streamlining of the procedures to the bottleneck and shorten the registration process.In late 2015, China issued a statement outlining extra application and approval procedures for clinical drug trials conducted in collaboration with foreign pharmaceutical companies. The document also cover drug trials by research institutions funded by investment from overseas. The same rules apply if projects are overseen by foreign nationals.The measures require tests to be conducted on a greater number of people. This has resulted in a substantial rise in the amount of personal information being collected and stored.Scientists are saying the stricter procedures have had a negative effect on many new potential treatments in China. Many companies have reported six to nine months extra waiting time, which has seriously slowed down the approval process for badly needed new drugs.This is Special English.Global warming's milder winters will likely nudge Americans off the couch more in the future, which is a rare, small benefit of climate change.A new study finds that with less chilly winters, Americans will be more likely to get outdoors, increasing their physical activity by as much as 2.5 percent by the end of the century. Areas including North Dakota, Minnesota and Maine are likely to see the most dramatic increases, usually the result of more walking. The study was published in the journal Nature Human Behavior.But this good global warming side effect is not likely to extend to the Deep South and especially the desert southwest, where hotter summer days keep people inside. The study found that Arizona, southern Nevada and southeastern California are likely to see activity drop off the most by the year 2099.A lead author of the study said it is a small little tiny silver lining amid a series of very bad and very unfortunate events that are likely to occur. The scientist added that global warming "almost certainly will be very costly for humanity".You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing. U.S. marine scientists say collisions of whales and boats off of the New England coast may be more common than previously thought.The scientists focused on the humpback whale population in the southern Gulf of Maine, a body of water off of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine. They found that almost 15 percent of the whales had injuries or scarring consistent with at least one vessel strike. The wales come to New England to feed every spring.The researchers published their findings in the March issue of the journal Marine Mammal Science. Th

2017-05-08 Special EnglishThis is Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.Tianzhou 1, China's first cargo spacecraft, has completed the country's first in-orbit refueling test with the unmanned Tiangong II space laboratory.The China Manned Space Agency has called the mission a success. The space agency said the refueling test was a major technology breakthrough and has paved the way for China to assemble and operate a space station.The agency said China has become the third nation to complete in-orbit refueling technology, following Russia and the United States.As the first of the planned three such tests for the cargo spacecraft, the in-orbit refueling took five days. Making sure there is no leakage of fuel is crucial.The agency said that after the first test, the two spacecraft will stay connected as they orbit Earth for around two months. The second in-orbit refueling test will be conducted in June.After that, the two spacecraft will undock. The cargo vessel will make sophisticated, automated maneuvers to circle the space lab, and docking with the lab at a different site.This is Special English.China is to extend the current nine-year compulsory education to encompass high school students nationwide by 2020.A Guideline for Popularizing High School Education has been released by the Ministry of Education and another three ministries.The guideline aims to raise the gross enrolment ratio for high schools to above 90 percent on average nationwide. The rates in central and western China will be substantially improved.Last year, China's overall gross enrollment ratio was 87 percent for high schools, representing a tendency of a rise of 3 percent in the next four years.The ratio is a statistical measurement to show the number of enrolled students to those who qualify for certain grades, ranging from primary school to middle and high school periods. Over the past few decades, China required children to attend primary and middle schools, while high school was not obligatory.The new document is also to bridge the gap for regional disparity of high school education, as the central and western regions lag far behind eastern China.For example, the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region in southwest China still has an insufficient number of high school teachers, demanding 13,000 more to reach the national average ratio of teachers to students. What's worse is that the region's high schools have debts worth 2 billion yuan, roughly 290 million US dollars.You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.Police have opened a new front in the war on drugs by targeting traffickers who recruit disabled people as couriers.Drug gangs target people with disabilities or chronic illnesses, as well as pregnant or lactating women, because Chinese laws contain a number of clauses allowing these "vulnerable people" to avoid prison. That, plus the offer of "easy money", is often enough for those from the poorest sections of society to run the risks associated with the trade.Last year, more than 5,300 such people were detained while transporting narcotics. Among them, 780 were foreign nationals, and a large number were from Myanmar. That's according to a report released recently by China's top anti-drug authority, the Office of National Narcotics Control Commission.In August, an 18-year-old pregnant woman from Myanmar was caught with almost 3 kilograms of methamphetamine stashed in 80 moon-cakes, a traditional Chinese delicacy.The couriers had been hired to carry the narcotics from Myanmar to Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province. The woman was caught as she was about to deliver the food to the buyer. In her confession, she said she was due to receive 5,000 yuan, roughly 730 US dollars, when the deal was closed.This is Special English.China's health authorities are installing vendor machines selling home HIV test kits on university campuses. The move aims to help raise awareness and fight HIV/AIDS, as the epidemic begins to hit more young people in China.To date, 10 universities across China have joined the initiative, which many call "progressive". Sex remains largely a taboo subject in many parts of the country, and systematic sex education is still lacking.The initiative is led by the Chinese Association of STD and AIDS Prevention and Control. The association says it cannot wait to take action, but it's hard to do so, especially on university campuses. An official from the association says more universities are planning to join the move to install such machines on campus as an alternative option for students seeking HIV testing.The official says many students are reluctant to visit HIV testing clinics run by health authorities, even though the visit is free of charge. Privacy concerns and fear of being discriminated against are largely the seasons they stay away.China has seen a rapid increase in HIV cases in recent years, particularly among young students aged between 15 and 24.You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.Construction has begun on China's first commercial space industry center in Wuhan, the capital of central China's Hubei province.The Wuhan National Space Industry Base aims to attract at least 100 enterprises involved in the space industry before 2020. It plans to generate 30 billion yuan, roughly 4 billion US dollars, in annual gross product by then.The main investor is the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation. The center will occupy 70 square kilometers of land area."Expace Technology" is a subsidiary of the corporation. It will invest 1.7 billion yuan to build production and assembly plants for solid-fuel carrier rockets for commercial launches. The company plans to produce 20 rockets at the center each year.In China, a commercial launch usually means a space launch financed by an entity other than a Chinese government or military agency.The China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation will invest 300 million yuan to construct a research, development and manufacturing complex at the center to make small satellites. The corporation will launch 156 small communications satellites into low Earth orbit, at an altitude of 160 to 2,000 kilometers, before the end of 2025. They would form a network capable of global coverage.This is Special English.A specialized Chinese university has launched a nationwide search for students with the passion and talent to study the languages used in countries along the Belt and Road Initiative.Beijing Foreign Studies University has kicked off an independent recruitment program to find candidates for 22 language majors that will be offered in the next academic year.The languages are Portuguese, Hungarian, Czech, Swedish, Dutch, Finnish, Lao, Thai, Indonesian and Hausa. They are found along the Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, which make up the Chinese initiative aimed at boosting connectivity between Asia, Europe and Africa.Applicants must have an outstanding high school record in Chinese and foreign language studies and will need to pass several rounds of interviews to test their commitment and potential.The university says it hopes to ensure students recruited through the program have a strong interest in studying Belt and Road languages and have the ability to study well.The program was launched last year to nurture talent in linguistics and regional research, and to provide intellectual support for the initiative.The standards are strict. Of more than 2,700 applicants for 15 majors, only 270 students were admitted. The number of students admitted this year will not increase much, as the university wants to guarantee quality.You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. You can access the program by logging on to crienglish.com. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. Now the news continues.The National Copyright Administration of China has launched its English website to enhance international communication on copyright protection.The website has been launched to mark the 2017 World Intellectual Property Day. The website is en.ncac.gov.cn. It features news, law and regulation, as well as other subjects.Officials say the next step is to provide more information at the website. China's intellectual property rights have made great progress in the past decade. An annual crackdown campaign initiated by the National Copyright Administration has focused on pirated music, videos, games, animation and software for 12 consecutive years to create a good online copyright system.This is Special English.The face-lift of a section of the Sanlitun area of Beijing is underway. Demolitions raised mixed feelings among foreigners and locals as the decades-old bar street will likely disappear.Heavy equipment was used to knock down dozens of illegal building additions that stretched from residential buildings to shopping malls.Beijing has been targeting illegal constructions since the beginning of the year. Illegally constructed extensions associated with several thousand units in the city will be removed. Missing walls, windows and other elements will be restored according to their original designs.The bar street is home to a variety of nail salons, foot massage parlors and restaurants. It has become increasingly popular in recent decades because of an influx of foreigners and diplomatic personnel.Frank Hansen from Denmark said the special charm of the street will be gone when all the extended rooms have been removed. He used to have weekend gatherings with friends on the street. He said they will probably not go back to the new bars after the demolition.You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.Bike-sharing fever has spread to Tibet, with 500 shared two-wheelers appearing on the plateau.Bright yellow Ofo bikes have been placed in over 20 spots in Xigaze, the second largest city in Tibet. A local sponsor of the project says it hopes to make shared bike

2017-05-02 Special EnglishThis is Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing. Here is the news.An international medical journal's retraction of 107 research papers from China, many of them by clinical doctors, has reignited concerns over academic credibility in the country. Tumor Biology, a journal published by Springer Nature, announced a couple weeks ago that it had retracted the papers after an investigation showed the peer review process had been compromised. Peter Butler, editorial director for cell biology and biochemistry at Springer Nature, said the articles were submitted with reviewer suggestions, which had real researcher names but fabricated email addresses.Butler told Shanghai-based news website The Paper that the editors thought the articles were being sent to genuine reviewers in the discipline. Following investigation and communication with the real reviewers, they confirmed they did not conduct the peer review. Peer review is an evaluation of work by one or more people of similar competence to those who produce the work, which helps validate research. The online notice about the retraction lists all 107 articles and 524 authors, nearly all of whom are clinical cancer specialists from China. The hospitals named are all top public institutions. This is Special English.Chinese citizens' personal information and the country's important data collected by Internet service providers may need evaluation and permission before being shared with non-domestic entities.A draft guideline has been released for public opinion by the Cyberspace Administration of China. According to the guideline, Chinese citizens' personal information should be kept within the country and be subject to security assessment before being provided to anyone outside China. The document says that to sell someone else's personal information, one must get permission from this individual.For data related to national security, the economy or public interest, the seller should coordinate a security evaluation with the authorities. The evaluation will ensure online data is managed legally. You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing. China's air quality monitoring network is to be expanded to cover a wider area, especially at the grassroots level, to facilitate scientific and effective control of airborne pollution. By March, more than 5,000 monitoring stations had been built across China. They are managed by the environmental monitoring authorities at four levels, namely State, provincial, city and county levels.The China National Environmental Monitoring Center operates 1,500 State-level monitoring stations nationwide. The center ensures that the data collected are independent of local government oversight to prevent interference and guaranteeing accuracy and authenticity. The 5,000-plus monitoring stations test for six "criteria" of airborne pollutants, including PM2.5, PM10 and sulfur dioxide, across different regions and locations. This is Special English.China imposes some of the world's toughest driving restrictions for cars, and now the checks and controls are expanding to the bicycle-sharing industry.Police in Shenzhen in south China's Guangdong Province have clearly said they are considering restrictions on the use of shared bikes, especially during the holidays, to prevent road congestion and public disorder.Police said that around 520,000 bikes have been put on the streets in the city in the year since bike sharing began.A growing number of people are taking the colorful two-wheelers to work or using them for recreation, which has brought some challenges. For example, over the Tomb Sweeping Day holiday last month, paths at a local park became seriously clogged with bikes, while careless parking of the bikes often blocks traffic as well.The police are partnering with bike-sharing companies to monitor the number of bikes in designated areas. Under the plan, if the accumulation of bikes in an area hits a certain number, a warning system will be activated that prohibits bikes from entering. Cyclists will be notified at the same time via a mobile app.A limit on the number of bikes will also be enforced, along with temporary bans in certain public areas during peak seasons.You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing. Australian researchers have compiled an unparalleled database detailing the almost 6 trillion tonnes of global fishing since 1950.The database was created by the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania. It was based on more than 800 million fishing records from 1950 to 2014.During the 65 years covered by the records, fishers from 193 countries caught almost 6 trillion tonnes of fish of 1,400 different species. Among them, 900 million tonnes have been taken illegally.Reginald Watson, who collated the data, said the database illustrated that the global fish population was finite.Watson said the database brings together every major international statistical collection of fisheries data since comprehensive records began, providing unique insights into the industry.He said more than 860 million fishing records have been compiled into a single harmonized view and mapped down to tiny spatial cells, so people can see where fishing has been happening and how it's changed over time.Watson said despite a plateau in recent years, the annual rate of fishing has grown from 27 million tonnes of fish taken in 1950 to 120 million tonnes in 2014.Since 1950, fisheries have moved further offshore and greatly intensified. People now have more vessels of a greater size and larger storage capacity. They are spending longer time at sea and fishing in deeper waters.This is Special English.A new study suggests that the system of grid cells, known as the brain's global positioning system, is more complicated than anyone had thought before.While the brain needs some basic navigational instruments to get around, just like a driver in a car, researchers have found that brain cells are similar to speedometers, compasses, GPS and even collision warning systems.However, researchers with Stanford University in the United States report that human brains map out the world in a more complex way. Some of the neurons in the internal navigation systems look a lot like speedometers or compasses. Many others operate flexibly, each one encoding a dynamic mix of navigational variables, like a compass that somehow transforms into a GPS when driving downtown.The project began in 2014, when scientists got a Bio-X seed grant to take a closer look at how the brain finds its way around. The same year, a Nobel Prize was awarded for the discovery of grid cells, which are specialized neurons that help animals keeping track of where they are in their environments.The findings of that time said that while some neurons fell within the ballpark of how a grid cell was supposed to behave, most provided only noisy, error-prone navigation, like a GPS on the fritz. That led the researchers to wonder whether the brain had a way to correct those errors. In 2015, they reported that the brain does have a way: boundary cells, so named because they fire when nearing walls and other landmarks.You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing. You can access the program by logging on to crienglish.com. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. Now the news continues.Car models supporting autonomous driving and Internet-based services are bright spots at the 2017 Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition.A total of 113 models of car made their global debut at the auto show, which has attracted more than 1,000 exhibitors from 18 countries and regions. The 1,400 complete vehicle exhibitions included 160 new energy vehicles and 56 concept cars.The theme of this year's show is "Committed to a Better Life".The Shanghai-based electric vehicle startup Nio made its much-awaited domestic debut at the show. The company brought a model of its concept driverless car EVE, whose interior space is designed as a living room.Li Bin, founder of Nio, said that when humans are freed from driving, the car would be transformed into a space for relaxation and entertainment.Domestic auto maker Roewe unveiled its new model i6 16T, featuring a smart operation system that has access to mobile payment tool Alipay.When the driver gets on the car, the system tells them to bring an umbrella if it is going to rain. It can select routes based on real-time road conditions and the driver's habits, and can even help order and pay for take-away coffee.Another model of the carmaker, the RX5, carries a similar system. Sales of the new model have exceeded 140,000 since it was released eight months ago.German manufacturer BMW also brought new models to the show. The new models feature intelligent driving.This is Special English.Beijing is taking steps to improve its vehicle parking management by encouraging the construction of parking facilities and imposing stricter penalties for illegal parking.The Beijing Municipal Commission of Transportation released a draft of its new parking regulations recently. The document is available for public comment until May 10.A shortage of parking lots has become a serious problem in Beijing, as the number of cars in the city continues to grow. Researchers say it requires integrated efforts in planning and management to improve the situation.According to the draft regulations, police will set up parking areas along secondary roads near communities that have a shortage of parking lots.For residential communities and government buildings that can sufficiently meet their own parking demand, the authority encourages them to open their parking facilities to the public and charge fees.For existing parking areas, the government should work on raising their efficiency by improving charging systems and making full use of parking spaces in residential communities and commercial areas, as well as office buildi

2017-05-01 Special EnglishThis is Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.More than 3,100 government officials have been held to account for the poor implementation of pollution control measures. Environmental problems have been uncovered in all seven provincial level regions included in the environmental inspections by the central authorities. Inspectors have conducted their month-long reviews in Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing municipalities as well as in other provinces since late November. The performance audits exposed more than 15,000 violations.The inspection reports featured the complaint that governments have not focused enough attention on the environment. The failure has resulted in worsening air and water quality in some areas. In one case, Gansu province in northwest China made plans to control air pollution, but inspectors found that it had not fully implemented the measures. The province has failed to meet its air pollution reduction targets for 2014 and 2015. Inspectors also found a lack of assessment in Beijing, where seven districts failed to meet targets for 2014. The municipality did not release information or punish the officials responsible. This is Special English.China's manned submarine Jiaolong has gone through a dive simulation in Hainan Province to prepare for a deep descent in the South China Sea.The submarine stayed underwater for 18 minutes in the drill before returning to its support ship. The crew completed tasks including underwater training, practical operation and emergency escape.The ship's forthcoming South China Sea dive is part of the second stage of China's 38th ocean scientific expedition. The expedition will last for around four months.Officials say the drill was necessary to test the equipment and personnel. Currently the Jiaolong's "technological status" is stable and the cooperation among various departments is smooth.The submarine completed a deep-sea operation in the northwestern Indian Ocean earlier this year. It will also conduct surveys in the Yap Trench and the Mariana Trench.Named after a mythical dragon, the Jiaolong reached its deepest depth of 7,062 meters in the Mariana Trench in June 2012. You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.China has begun a series of changes to the rules regarding permanent residence for foreign nationals in the country.A plan has been issued by the Ministry of Public Security. The "foreigner's permanent residence card" will be renamed as the "foreigner's permanent residence identity card".Similar to the identity cards used by Chinese citizens, foreigners' identity information will be embedded in the chips on the machine-readable cards. The information will be shared by railways, airlines, insurance agencies, hotels and banks.The old version cannot be read by machines, and foreigners often face difficulty in identity authentication. The reform aims to provide foreigners with easier access to public services.The new card can be obtained at the original registration authority, while the old version can still be used until the expiry date. Related technical work is expected to be finished by June, and then foreigners can apply for the new cards.Last year, 1,600 foreign nationals became permanent residents of China, an increase of 160 percent over the previous year. This is Special English.China is aiming to increase the scale of its cloud computing industry by more than 2.5 times from 2015 levels by 2019.According to a new government plan, the scale of the cloud computing industry will be expanded to 430 billion yuan, roughly 62 billion U.S. dollars, by 2019. The action plan was issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.Other targets include making breakthroughs in core technology, increasing cloud computing in manufacturing and government affairs, and strengthening the global influence of Chinese cloud computing companies.The ministry expects that two to three Chinese cloud computing companies will lead the global market within three years. It says cloud computing should be a strong support for China's manufacturing and Internet industries and help other social and economic sectors.The ministry pledged to enhance cloud computing network security and improve security regulation and relevant laws, as many users from key industries are still hesitating due to safety concerns.In the next three years, China will help boost cloud computing technology and encourage local governments to work with leading cloud computing companies to build public service platforms.You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.Chinese search engine Baidu has succeeded in using artificial intelligence to reconnect a man with his family 27 years after he was abducted.The company is working with a charity group dedicated to connecting missing children and their families. Baidu uses its cross-age facial recognition program to analyze pictures of abducted children and identifies potential matches through the comparison of selected facial features. The missing children's pictures were uploaded by the victims and their birth families. Thirty-three-year-old victim Fu Gui was born in Chongqing Municipality in western China. He was abducted in 1990 and later transferred to Fujian Province in southeastern China. He registered in 2009, and his birth family did the same in early 2017.Baidu's facial recognition program was able to draw up a short list of potential identities for the man from pictures uploaded to the site, and a DNA test later verified the correct match.Baidu has around 200 million sample pictures that it uses to improve the sensitivity and accuracy of its facial recognition program, which can be over 99 percent accurate.Baidu's founder and CEO Robin Li says artificial intelligence systems, including facial recognition, could be used to help find missing children. The company has suggested that there should be a central database with missing children's information installed. You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. You can access the program by logging on to crienglish.com. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. Now the news continues.Psychologists at the University of Manchester in Britain have revealed that they have come up with a new way of helping people overcome their fear of spiders.Dr. Warren Mansell says rather than encouraging arachnophobias to face their spider fears, which is the current approach of many therapists, giving people control over how much they approach or avoid what they are afraid of is more likely to help.Mansell based his findings on a theory known as Perceptual Control Theory. The study was published in Journal of Anxiety Disorders.People with a fear of spiders sat in front of a screen and they themselves were able to control how close or distant the spider would appear.He said Perceptual Control Theory predicts that it is vital for a client to have control over their experience of important elements of the environment including the sources of threat. He said control itself is pivotal for health and well-being.The team recruited a large sample of people with high levels of spider fear and asked them to list their reasons for avoiding spiders but also their reasons for approaching spiders.After completing a simple task, people reported avoiding spiders less in their everyday lives two weeks later, despite their fear, and without any prompting to do so.You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.A new study suggests that when Coffea arabica plants were subjected to even short-duration heat waves, they became unable to produce flowers and fruit. This means there would be no coffee beans and no coffee to drink.Researchers from the United States investigated how leaf age and heat duration affected Coffea arabica's recovery from heat stress during greenhouse testing. The study found that the younger "expanding" leaves were particularly slow to recover compared to mature leaves, and that none of the plants that endured the simulated heat waves produced any flowers or fruit.Coffea arabica is the dominant coffee-plant species on the globe. It grows in 80 countries in four continents in the tropics, accounting for 65 percent of the commercial production of the 9 billion kilograms of coffee consumed globally each year.The findings emphasized how sensitive Coffea arabica is to temperature. The leaf temperature is higher than the surrounding air temperature, which is a realistic result of global climate change.This is Special English.A British researcher says governments worldwide should invest in global approaches to learn how carbon capture and storage works, which is a realistic way of reducing carbon emissions. That's according to a commentary published online recently by the journal Nature Energy.David Reiner from the University of Cambridge, author of the commentary, said that like many new technologies, it is only possible to learn what works and what doesn't by building and testing demonstration projects at scale. He argues that by giving up on carbon capture and storage instead of working together to develop a global "portfolio" of projects, countries are turning their backs on a key part of a low-carbon future.Reiner says carbon capture and storage works by separating the carbon dioxide emitted by coal and gas power plants, transporting it and then storing it underground so that the carbon dioxide cannot escape into the atmosphere.However, the technologies have fallen out of favor with private and public sector funders in recent years. Corporations and governments worldwide, including most recently the UK, are abandoning the same technology they championed just a few years ago.The researcher says there are several reasons why carbon capture and storage seems to have fallen out of favor with both private and public sector funders, including costs, commercial pressure and timescales, as w

This is Special English. I&`&m Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.The central government and local authorities will accelerate planning for the Xiong&`&an New Area.China&`&s top economic planner said that in addition, those governments will provide policy and financial support for key projects and budgeting.The National Development and Reform Commission said a master blueprint of the new area, as well as overall and detailed blueprints of the initial area are among the first plans to be mapped out.The commission will guide the Hebei provincial government and authorities as they draft the plans to ensure they meet the high standards of quality needed for the project.Apart from having world-class urban planning, the architecture in the new area will also showcase Chinese cultural characteristics.The central government will also give support to major transportation, ecology, water conservation, energy, and public service projects in the new area.China announced a historic decision to establish the Xiong&`&an New Area in Hebei province as part of measures to advance the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. The new area is similar to the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone and the Shanghai Pudong New Area. It is of national significance and "crucial for the millennium to come".This is Special English.China&`&s environmental watchdog has sent inspection teams to 7 cities to cope with a new round of severe smog. The inspection teams have been sent by the Ministry of Environmental Protection. They went to cities including Beijing and Tianjin, in northern China. Inspectors discovered factories fabricating pollutant data in some cities. A steel mill in a city was found to have shut down a pollutant detector. Those responsible have been detained by local police. The inspection team found that smog emergency plans have been poorly implemented in Tianjin. Several cement producers in another city were found to have continued operations when they should have been suspended. In Beijing, a ceramics producer and a paper maker cheated inspectors regarding the use of purifying equipment. A furniture plant in Hebei Province refused inspectors who were attempting to conduct inspections. A new round of air pollution continues in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, with some cities issuing orange alerts, the second-highest in China&`&s four-tier warning system. China has been under growing pressure to address air pollution as smog frequently smothers the country.You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Mark Griffiths in Beijing.

2017-04-25 Special EnglishThis is Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing. Here is the news.Chinese central authorities have released a detailed 10-year youth development plan, vowing better education, employment and healthcare for the nation's youth."Youth" in the context of the plan released by the Communist Party of China's Central Committee and the State Council refers to those aged from 14 to 35.The Middle-and Long-term Youth Development Plan covers the period between 2016 and 2025. It sets a general goal for establishing a "youth development policy system and work mechanism" by 2020 and improving the system by 2025.Specifically, the plan sets educational goals of an average 14 years of education for the newly added labor force and a gross higher education enrollment rate of over 50 percent within 10 years. It aims for 90 percent of the groups to meet physical standards and give them more accesses to mental and physical care.Authorities will strengthen educational campaigns targeting different ages within the group to champion patriotism and socialism with Chinese characteristics, making the "Chinese dream" a common goal for them. This is Special English.The preparatory committee of the Xiong'an New Area in north China's Hebei Province has said to control illegal land and housing purchase as well as construction.China has announced to establish the Xiong'an New Area, a landmark new economic zone near Beijing designed to integrate the capital with its surrounding areas.The announcement attracted investors to swarm into the area, and drove up housing prices.The committee warned all forms of illegal trade of properties are not protected by law, and vowed to crack down on illegal construction and trading of second-hand houses.The committee said it will strictly implement the central authorities' guidelines that say "homes are for living in, not for speculating with". You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing. China's top quality watchdog said more than 40 percent of consumer goods exported to China last year through e-commerce platforms fell short of standards.Last year, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine conducted random quality inspections on 1,000 batches of the products. The items were consumer goods including toys, diapers, clothing and kitchenware. Four hundred items were found to be substandard, accounting for 41 percent of all sampled products.In addition to meeting quality standards, imported products must be correctly labeled in Chinese.The quality of consumer goods imported through the channels other than e-commerce proved to be higher, with only 29 percent falling short of standards.The authority organized two large-scale inspections last year, involving more than 5,300 batches of imported consumer goods, including air purifiers, car brake blocks, household electrical appliances and clothes. More than 1,500 were found to be substandard.Last year, quality supervision authorities across China handled 36,000 cases relating to violations of laws on quality standards, involving 2 billion yuan's, roughly 330 million U.S. dollars' worth of goods.Quality supervision authorities at all levels have been urged to intensify quality supervision and keep cracking down on law violations to improve the quality of products and protect consumer rights.This is Special English.China has started the construction of one of the world's largest and most sensitive cosmic-ray facilities. The Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory will attempt to search for the origin of high energy cosmic rays. It aims to study the evolution of the universe and high energy celestial bodies, as well as to push forward the frontier of new physics. The observatory is located at 4,400 meters above sea level in an mountainous area in Southwest China's Sichuan province. The total investment is 1.2 billion yuan, roughly 180 million U.S. dollars.The construction of the project is set for completion in January 2021. It will be a key frontier project for cosmic ray research in the world.Cosmic rays are particles that originate in outer space and are accelerated to energies higher than those that can be achieved in even the largest man-made particle accelerators. The origin of the cosmic rays has remained a mystery since they were first spotted some 100 years ago. The observatory will be mankind's first attempt to hunt for the highest-energy Gamma ray, which is the burst of radiation thought to be produced alongside cosmic rays in the Galaxy. You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing. The United Nations' intellectual property agency says China is showing "quite extraordinary" growth in international patent applications, putting Chinese applicants on track to outpace their U.S. counterparts within two to three years.Francis Gurry, director-general of the World Intellectual Property Organization, says China posted nearly 45-percent growth in such patent applications last year, saying "the country continues its journey from "Made in China" to "Created in China".Overall, the United States was first for the 39th straight year and accounted for nearly 56,600 applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty, followed by Japan at over 45,200 and China at nearly 43,200.China's state-owned ZTE Corporation in Shenzhen, one of the world's biggest suppliers of network switching gear, was the No. 1 applicant last year, topping crosstown rival Huawei. U.S.-based Qualcomm.This is Special English.In Shaanxi province in southwest China, a farmer's rent-a-chicken business has helped hundreds of rural families cast off poverty. Zhang Chunpu's program is a free loan of chickens to farmers who then make money by selling the free-range eggs back to Zhang's cooperative businesses. Over the past decade, rent-a-chicken has helped more than 800 households in Yanchang County, who previously survived on an annual per capita income of less than 2,300 yuan, roughly 335 U.S. dollars. The idea came to Zhang by accident. In 2003, he saw profits from selling healthy eggs and acquired 6,000 chickens. It wasn't always easy. Zhang recalled the time that the chickens nearly ate up all the grass on the nearby mountain, as well as fought with each other and didn't lay eggs. He was nearly bankrupt, but he couldn't see the birds starve to death. He started giving the birds to the villagers. The birds he rents to farmers roam free in yards and on hillsides, eating pumpkins, cabbage and worms. Zhang's cooperative earns 0.1 yuan from each egg, while farmers can earn 0.15 yuan. However, the real profit comes from the chickens. Each farmer earns about 100 yuan per year per chicken, enabling them to get away from poverty.You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing. You can access the program by logging on to crienglish.com. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. Now the news continues.A group of Swedish university students who raised 1.2 million euros, roughly 1.3 million U.S. dollars, in crowd funding for their startup to build electric cars has caught the attention of German industrial heavyweight Siemens.The two sides said they were starting a partnership that will see them create 50,000 lightweight city cars annually starting next year.The twin-seat vehicles, called L7e, have 15 kilowatt engines with a maximum speed of 130 kilometers per hour. They weigh 400 kilograms each and have a 150 kilometer range.The cars are made from sustainable composite materials and will be unveiled in late 2017. The first deliveries are scheduled for early 2019. The first high-end vehicle has a target price of 200,000 kronor, roughly 22,300 U.S. dollars. The price for an electric Smart Car in Sweden is at least 210,000 kronor, roughly 23,400 U.S. dollars.The vehicle's steering system resembles a Wii controller more than a traditional car's steering wheel.Lewis Horne, the CEO of the startup, called Uniti Sweden, says the deal gives his company "the opportunity to not only develop a sustainable car, but also manufacture it in a sustainable way at a large scale."This is Special English. Matt Garlock has trouble making out what his friends say in loud bars, but when he got a hearing test, the result was normal. Recent research may have found an explanation for problems like his, something called "hidden hearing loss".Scientists have been finding evidence that loud noise, from rock concerts, leaf blowers, power tools and the like, damages our hearing in a previously unexpected way. It may not be immediately noticeable, and it does not show in standard hearing tests.But over time, Harvard researcher M. Charles Liberman says, it can rob our ability to understand conversation in a noisy setting. It may also help explain why people have more trouble doing that as they age. And it may lead to persistent ringing in the ears.Liberman says the bottom line is "noise is more dangerous than we thought."His work has been done almost exclusively in animals. Nobody knows how much it explains hearing loss in people or how widespread it may be in the population. But he and others are already working on potential treatments.You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing. The Gulf of Oman turns green twice a year, when an algae bloom the size of Mexico spreads across the Arabian Sea all the way to India.Scientists who study the algae say the microscopic organisms are thriving in new conditions brought about by climate change, and displacing the zooplankton that underpin the local food chain, threatening the entire marine ecosystem.A marine biologist at the Sultan Qaboos University in Oman, wrinkles his nose as the research vessel nears the bloom. He says "Sea stench", referring to the algae's ammonia secretions.He signals the boat to stop as it speeds up beneath a gigantic rock arch off the coast of Muscat, the capital of Oman, an arid sultanate on the southeastern corner of the Arabian Peninsula. The captain

2017-04-24 Special EnglishThis is Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.Beijing has put a new medical care reform plan into effect, bringing an end to medicine price markups.More than 3,600 medical institutions are involved in the reform and all of them have abolished the medicine price markups. That's according to the Beijing Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning.It is estimated that the cost of treatment per outpatient will be reduced by around 5 percent on average thanks to cuts in medicine prices. There will be an average cost increase of 2.5 percent for inpatient treatment due to the growth of certain service charges.Community hospitals and medical institutions have been given the same access to the medicines usually prescribed in higher-level hospitals, so that patients can have more choices.Marking up medicine prices is a practice that has been adopted by most public hospitals in China since the 1950s. It allows hospitals to sell drugs with markups usually at a rate of 15 percent above the drugs' tag prices.The reform aims to effectively motivate medical staff to pay more attention to the medical service they are providing, and further improve the doctor-patient relationship.This is Special English.China has launched its largest operation to control air pollution in the northern regions. The operation has sent more than 5,600 inspectors to push the areas to meet ambitious pollution reduction targets.Unlike the nationwide inspections conducted last year, the yearlong, intensified inspection is being led by the Ministry of Environmental Protection.The inspectors will keep a spotlight on governments and companies in 28 major cities which are susceptible to heavy smog.Inspectors will check important areas including governments' implementation of air pollution control efforts. They will also shut down small plants with high emissions.Through the inspection, the ministry will push the governments and companies to fully implement measures to tackle air pollution.The ministry will closely watch the regions with pollution problems and stick with them until all the pollution issues are resolved.During a separate inspection, officials checked 450 companies and government departments. The inspection team found 280 violations, including companies that falsified monitoring data or discharged excessive pollutants.You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.A recent cooperation deal between China and Kenya has become an important step for China's nuclear power technology to go global. The China General Nuclear Power Corporation announced recently that the company has signed a nuclear power training cooperation framework agreement with the Kenya Nuclear Electricity Board.Under the deal, China's Hualong One reactor is expected to be applied in Africa.The 1,000-megawatt water reactor was developed by the China General Nuclear Power Corporation and the China National Nuclear Corporation. It has reached the highest international safety standards to prevent leakage of radioactive materials and resist earthquakes.The China General Nuclear Power Corporation has formed a joint venture with Electricite de France SA to develop the Bradwell nuclear power plant in the UK, as well as to fund and design the reactor.The British government started an assessment of the reactor design in January. The process is expected to take around five years.Observers say there is a high possibility that the reactor design will pass the UK's approval process.This is Special English.Chinese scientists have extracted a medicinal compound from a natural herb called thunder god vine, which targets cell metabolism and could help tackle obesity.Celastrol, extracted from thunder god vine, and artemisinin, developed from sweet wormwood, are among five herbal compounds believed to have the most potential to treat illnesses where no cure has been discovered, including cancer.The discovery of artemisinin won Chinese scientist Tu Youyou a Nobel Prize in 2015.The research team was led by Zhang Xiaokun, professor with the College of Medicine at Xiamen University. It found that celastrol from the thunder god vine can alleviate inflammation.The team carried out the research on mice. The study found that celastrol could effectively control weight increases in mice feeding on high fat food.The research paper was published in science journal Molecular Cell on April 6.Scientists will continue to study how celastrol regulates metabolism to explore new drugs, with low toxicity and high efficiency, to help people lose weight.You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. The Chinese Academy of Sciences has earmarked 10 million yuan, roughly 1.4 million U.S. dollars, for the research and development of an advanced artificial intelligence processor.The deep learning processor chip, the "Cambrian", is expected to become the world's first processor that simulates human nerve cells to conduct deep learning.The program is named after the Cambrian Period, which marked a rapid diversification of life forms on earth. Scientists expect that the processor will spearhead a new era in artificial intelligence.The investment will be used in basic research areas to explore the structure and algorithm for the next generation of artificial intelligence. The project also aims to lay a foundation for China's ambition in the global chip market.The funds will also be used to promote and publicize the research.Google's artificial intelligence program AlphaGo needs huge power and large servers to operate. The Cambrian aims to perform at the same level but using only one watt of power. The processor will have the size of a smartphone or a watch.This is Special English.Industry insiders say the planned Xiong-an New Area in Hebei province is expected to bring tourism opportunities to a large wetland area and to the province as a whole.China announced a decision to set up the new area to boost coordinated development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province.Over the following three days, during the Tomb Sweeping Day holiday, the Baiyangdian Lake tourist area received 18,000 visitors. Tourism income reached 16 million yuan, roughly 2.4 million US dollars. Both figures represented a 260 percent increase compared with last year.The lake is one of North China's largest freshwater wetlands. It is located in Anxin County, which is part of the new area.An online travel service provider said the new area has the basic infrastructure for attracting tourists. It has adequate tourism resources and easy transport. The plan of the new area has attracted the attention of people from across the country to go for a visit.Bookings on the website during the holiday tripled that of last year. Tourists mainly came from neighboring Beijing and Shandong province. There are also people from farther afield, including Shanghai and Guangdong Province.You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. You can access the program by logging on to crienglish.com. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. Now the news continues.A woman from the Philippines has become the first person to receive a residence permit designed for foreigners providing housekeeping service in Shanghai. The event occurred in Shanghai's Pudong district, which houses more than 300 Fortune 500 companies and is home to the Pilot Free Trade Zone in the country.Liu Chen is a Chinese American and president of the Shanghai Affinity Biopharmaceutical Company. Liu applied for the one-year residence permit on March 14 for the housemaid he hired. Two weeks later, she obtained the permit.More than 20 foreign housemaids have received their residence permits in Shanghai. Liu's was the only case that has been made public.The permission for foreign housemaids is one of the measures Shanghai has unveiled since July 2015 to attract talented foreigners as the city tries to build itself into a global technological innovation hub by 2030.This is Special English.Education experts say Children should have more opportunities to participate in study tours or other outdoor activities only if their safety is guaranteed.In developed countries, including the United States and Japan, study tours such as summer camps are key activities and are always the source of unforgettable memories. That's according to Sun Yunxiao, chief expert of the China Youth and Children Research Center. Sun says that in China, young people are having less opportunity to enjoy such activities because schools and parents are cutting down on them for security concerns.In recent years, accidents in which children were killed or injured while participating in school outdoor activities have been reported by the media. The events raised concerns among parents. A vice chairman of the Chinese Society of Education said a test-oriented education is also part of the reason for the shrinking number of study tours.Another expert says student workloads are heavy, leaving them little time for traveling.In December, 11 ministries in China jointly released a guideline, stating that study tours will become part of the curriculum system in primary and middle schools nationwide.You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. A new system is being introduced in southern China's Guangdong that gives parents and students more of a say over the designs of school uniforms.The move was put forward in a document jointly published by the province's education department, the industry and commerce administration, as well as the quality and technology administration.Manufacturers will be invited to showcase their wares in schools, but the final decision on which uniform should be adopted will be decided by a poll.Students and parents can also offer suggestions on how manufacturers can further improve their designs and the materials used for the uniforms.The price, design and materials used in school uniforms are decided