【专题】慢速英语（美音版）2014-04-15

完整文稿请登陆以下网址： http://english.cri.cn/7146/2014/04/14/2582s821859.htm Microsoft has stopped providing technical assistance for Windows XP, a major operating system for Chinese computer users. The move has opened up opportunities for China's IT companies. Since April 8, technical assistance for Windows XP has no longer been available from Microsoft and the company has stopped providing security updates. Microsoft says computers can still run XP but it will become more insecure and prone to viruses. The company advised users to upgrade to Windows 8.1 and get a new PC if necessary. China has about 200 million XP users which account for 70 percent of the entire PC market, and the majority has no plans to switch. According to an online survey, many users think updating the system is too expensive. The price of Windows 8 is almost 1,000 yuan, or about 160 U.S. dollars, and to run the system, one would need to buy a new computer. To protect the 13-year-old operating system and help users continue to use it, Chinese security providers have released specialized XP-protection products. Microsoft China, Tencent and Lenovo jointly launched a Windows XP user support plan last month for security and anti-virus services in China. A group of other Chinese IT companies have joined in the plan and will provide defense solutions for XP users until they upgrade their systems. They will keep "building a hedge" for a transition period expected to last two to three years or even longer. This is NEWS Plus Special English. Global warming makes feeding the world harder and more expensive. That was according to a United Nations scientific panel. The Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change says a warmer world will push food prices higher and trigger "hotspots of hunger" in the world's poorest regions. The panel says the world is facing the specter of reduced yields in some of the key crops that feed humanity. Even though heat and carbon dioxide are often considered good for plants, the overall effect of various aspects of man-made warming is that it will reduce food production compared to a world without global warming. The last time the panel reported on the effects of warming was in 2007. It said it was too early to tell whether climate change would increase or decrease food production. But in the past several years, scientists have been overwhelming in showing that climate change hurts food production. But experts say this doesn't mean in 50 years there will be less food grown. Thanks to improved agricultural techniques, crop production is growing about 10 percent per decade, while climate change is likely to reduce yields by 1 percent a decade. So crop production will still go up, but not as fast. You're listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Yun Feng in Beijing. Tourist attractions across Shanghai reported record visitor numbers over the three-day Qingming Festival holiday as locals took advantage of the warm weather to have fun in the sun. It is a tradition for families to enjoy a spring outing, or ta qing, after paying their respects to their ancestors on tomb-sweeping day. At Shanghai Wildlife Park in the Pudong New Area, the number of visitors in the three day holiday rose 350 percent from last year, to 80,000. It was a similar story at Dongping Forest Park in Chongming Island, where visitor numbers doubled to reach almost 30,000. Likewise, Jinjiang Amusement Park, Happy Valley, Century Park and Shanghai World Financial Center all reported 100 percent increases in visitor numbers. Attractions with a floral theme also drew the crowds, with the Shanghai Peach Blossom Festival, Cherry Blossom Festival and Rape Flower Festival reporting a combined 570,000 visitors. This is NEWS Plus Special English. In a related development, Qingming Festival is also celebrated by various ethnic groups in China. And different groups have different traditions to honor their ancestors. Early in the morning, the Gelao ethnic group in Guizhou Province, southwest China, began their annual sacrificial ceremony. First, the host serves up sacrificial offerings including grains, fruit and home-made fabrics. Then there comes the showcase of folk dance accompanied by the group's traditional music. Thousands of tourists witnessed the ceremony, which is held near the mountain where the god was born. The local people hold this sacrificial ceremony there every year, praying for god's blessings of health and fortune. Qingming Festival is also a time to get close to nature. In Longli County, people of the Buyi ethnic group go to pick a kind of wild herb to make offerings to their ancestors. The herb is very rare and can only be found around the festival. The offering is made from the herb mixed with sticky rice flour. The local people offer the food to their ancestors in a simple ritual held at home. After that, the tasty dish is shared by the family. Qingming Festival is celebrated by many ethnic groups across the country, but in very different ways.