介绍:
This is Special English. I&`&m Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.
The Tiangong II space laboratory has released its companion satellite, Banxing-2.
The satellite weighs 47 kilograms and roughly the size of a desktop printer. The microsatellite has a series of visible light cameras, including a 25 megapixel camera and wide-angle imagers. Its mission is to take photographs of Tiangong II and the Shenzhou XI spacecraft, which docked with the lab a few days ago.
The satellite has been nicknamed by China Central Television as a "Selfie Stick". It also has an infrared camera that is temperature-sensitive.
A chief engineer of the satellite program said the companion satellite is like a private nurse for Tiangong II and Shenzhou XI. It monitors their conditions all the time, which is helpful in detecting any failures.
With three solar panels, the satellite can also generate enough power to adjust its orbit to shoot pictures of the lab and the spacecraft.
This is Special English.
China is well prepared to launch the Chang&`&e-5 lunar probe next year to collect and bring back moon rock samples for scientific research.
A chief scientist of China&`&s lunar exploration project said the launch of Chang&`&e-5 represents the third stage of China&`&s lunar exploration endeavor.
The first stage of lunar expedition was achieved by sending Chang&`&e-1, a circumlunar satellite, in 2007. For the second stage, China landed its lunar probe Chang&`&e-3 on the surface of the moon in 2013.
The scientist said the launch of Chang&`&e-5 will improve China&`&s space science technology. By analyzing the component of the samples to be collected by Chang&`&e-5, scientists will deepen their study into the formation and evolution of the moon.
You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
Chinese civil affairs authorities have pledged to provide seniors with better nursing services by mobilizing idle social resources.
An official statement was issued by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and 10 other ministries. It asked authorities to transform abandoned factories, hospitals and other state-owned enterprises into nursing institutions for the elderly.
The move aims to provide more nursing facilities and ensure that seniors are able to access nursing services as close to their homes as possible.
The statement also called for enhanced reform to further streamline administrative approval and delegate more power to lower level governments. Applications to run such institutions should be approved in a timely manner.
China&`&s population is aging. Last year, 220 million of the country&`&s 1.3 billion citizens were aged 60 or older. The number is expected to grow at an alarming rate over the next few decades.
This is Special English.
More than 500,000 people have registered to take China&`&s national civil-service examinations, only six days since registration began. As of October 20, the registration system had already verified 520,000 candidates to participate in the exam. The figure marks an increase of 87,000 over last year.
The average number of applicants per position was almost 20 to 1.
The position with the largest number of applicants is an opening under the China Democratic League Central Committee. A total of 2,000 applicants are competing over this one vacancy. Another 10,000 people are vying for places in the country&`&s 13 provincial tax administration bureaus.
In contrast, 900 positions have not seen even a single applicant. The majority of these positions are arduous, base level jobs stationed in relatively remote rural areas. For example, a railway public security bureau in Hohhot in Inner Mongolia is looking to hire six people, but no one has yet registered for the positions.
You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, one of China&`&s most famous places of interest, has been closed for repairs that will last for 27 months.
The double-decked bridge was opened in 1968 in Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu province. It received leaders from more than 100 countries and regions, and more than 600 foreign delegations from 1970 to 1993.
It was China&`&s first home-produced and built road and rail truss bridge, and was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest bridge with the dual functions of highway and railway. In 2014, it was listed as one of the Immovable Cultural Relics under State protection designated by the State Council, China&`&s Cabinet.
The bridge carried around 100,000 vehicles every day, which greatly surpasses its designed capacity. The lane boards of the bridge have cracked in many places, and mortar bedding cushions have fallen apart. Metal fatigue is appearing on the steel.
Since 2002, the bridge has been repaired a dozen times. It is the first time that the bridge has been completely closed for repairs because the related safety issues pose a risk to the railway on the lower deck and the vehicles on the upper deck.
Relic protection experts have been invited to design a specialized plan to protect the bridge.
This is Special English.
Police in Shanghai have arrested 19 people suspected of repackaging more than 200 tons of expired New Zealand-made Fonterra milk powder to sell on the market.
Food safety and police authorities announced that the suspects were operating under a Shanghai-registered trading firm. The suspects repackaged 270 tons of expired milk powder into smaller portions and sold them online or through retailers in several provinces for enticing lower prices.
Police were alerted in March after they discovered the repackaged products in a raid on a retailer&`&s warehouse. In subsequent raids, police confiscated 110 tons of the expired milk powder from the company&`&s warehouse. The remaining 170 tons had been sold to retailers.
Authorities say they were pursuing the dairy products in question and had ordered the closure of the retailers&`& online shops.
So far, there are no reports of any health issues in people who have used the expired milk powder.
Initial investigations show the group&`&s motive was to salvage losses from the unsold imported goods that went beyond their expiry date.
This is Special English.
Bird protection volunteers and local authorities in the northern city of Tianjin have cleared more than 10,000 meters of illegal mist nets and rescued more than 3,000 birds. The rescue efforts were carried out in the city&`&s east coast area during the national holiday week in October.
Migratory birds make a stopover in Tianjin in the autumn when they fly back to their winter habitats in the south. Illegal netting has become a serious problem by poachers who catch the birds to sell in the animal market.
A volunteer said they patrolled the coast and destroyed the nets. He said they conducted the search every year and this year&`&s was the most he had ever found.
The nets are concealed in reed beds in the wetlands. Different kinds of birds, including some endangered species, were trapped, and many had been found dead in the nets.
During the holiday week, 50 volunteers and staff members from Tianjin&`&s Binhai New Area patrolled the coast. A man has been arrested on suspicion of putting up a net to catch the birds.
Almost all of the nets along Tianjin&`&s coast have now been cleared.
Police also found a den selling birds in the border area of Tianjin and Hebei Province and seized 36,000 live birds. The birds have all been freed.
You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Mark Griffiths in Beijing. You can access the program by logging on to newsplusradio.cn. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know by e-mailing us at mansuyingyu@cri.com.cn. That&`&s mansuyingyu@cri.com.cn. Now the news continues.
A Chinese delegation has wrapped up its trip to Britain where they visited universities and a media house to boost exchanges in Tibetan culture.
The delegation visited universities including Oxford, Cambridge and Westminster. Delegation members talked with researchers and students in the universities on issues including Tibet&`&s opening up and religious freedom.
The delegation also visited the headquarters of the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
The head of the delegation said he hopes to present the real Tibet to the Western world and clearing up misunderstandings through the visit.
Dibyesh Anand, head of a department at the University of Westminster, said the visit of the delegation provides a different perspectives for his students to observe Tibet.
He said Tibet has made huge achievements in its economic development over the past decades but also has challenges in governance.
This is Special English.
Italian relic experts will help their Chinese counterparts preserve fine wall paintings discovered at ancient tombs dated back more than 1,000 years in northwest China.
According to an agreement signed recently, the Sino-Italian cooperation will last for three years and involves training, joint research, relic repair and protection.
The document was signed between Rome&`&s High Institute for Conservation and Restoration and the Shaanxi History Museum in Xi&`&an in Shaanxi Province.
Xi&`&an was the imperial seat of a dozen ancient Chinese dynasties and is home to some of the country&`&s richest cultural relics. The focus of the latest cooperation is tomb wall paintings of the Tang Dynasty, prime age in Chinese civilization with flourishing art cultures.
Shaanxi History Museum houses 640 wall paintings of Tang tombs. Among them, 100 are considered top quality, offering historians good materials to study the Tang Dynasty arts, culture, religion, and social life.
The museum hopes the Sino-Italian cooperation will provide vital experience for Chinese researchers to protect ancient wall paintings in general.
China started to preserve the wall paintings as early as 1952, but some of the art pieces were difficult to retrieve due to the backward technology then.
As the technology advanced in subsequent decades, the conservation efforts have made huge progress. But some tough issues remained, including the dismemberment and discoloration of certain objects.
You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
（全文见周六微信。）
大家还在听
