【专题】慢速英语(美音)2016-11-01

【专题】慢速英语(美音)2016-11-01

2016-10-28    25'00''

主播: NEWSPlus Radio

22149 1097

介绍:
This is Special English. I&`&m Ryan Price in Beijing. Here is the news. China&`&s second lunar probe, Chang&`&e-2, has been a huge success and is now the smallest man-made asteroid in the solar system. According to a leading scientist of China&`&s lunar exploration project, the lunar probe, launched in 2010, has fulfilled its mission and made worthwhile achievements. The scientist said the lunar probe has completed and published a full seven-meter-resolution map of the Moon&`&s surface for the first time. It used X-ray observation data to fully map the Moon&`&s surface and calculate aluminum distribution on the Moon. Currently, the Chang&`&e-2 is the smallest man-made asteroid in the solar system. It has completed over 200 million kilometers flight and will continue to fly, returning somewhere closer to the earth around 2029. This is Special English. Children from across the world have extended birthday wishes to taikonaut Jing Haipeng, who is currently orbiting the earth in space lab Tiangong-2. "Happy birthday Uncle Jing, &`&Tashi delek&`&," said a Tibetan primary school girl using the Tibetan greeting for good luck and best wishes. She also said that it was her dream to become an astronaut. Jing, commander of the Shenzhou-11 mission, turned 50 on Monday. Xinhua News Agency has collected more than 10,000 birthday wishes for Jing from children all around the world. The messages, pictures and videos were sent from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan as well as from other countries including the United States and Sweden. Xinhua has sent some of the messages, pictures and videos to Jing. A pupil in Beijing said he felt lucky to be so close to an astronaut, and he was more than willing to send his birthday wishes to Uncle Jing. A student from a special education school in Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province sent her birthday message by sign language. Two days ago, she asked the astronauts in space whether they had seen aliens. Jing&`&s teammate in the mission, Chen Dong, replied that he hadn&`&t seen any aliens yet, but he did harbor a hope that he would see aliens and many other peculiar things. The two will continue to live in space for 30 days before returning to Earth. You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Ryan Price in Beijing. The Ministry of Education plans to sign more agreements on the mutual recognition of academic degrees with other countries. The ministry said that by 2020, such mutual recognition agreements will hopefully cover most countries of the world, particularly developed countries. An international education conference was held in Beijing recently. The annual event aims to promote study in a foreign country, and this year, it&`&s Ireland in particular. The authority said such mutual recognition agreements represented other countries&`& recognition of the quality of China&`&s higher education. Since 1988, China has inked such deals with 46 countries. This is Special English. Chinese students studying abroad have become younger in age. According to a report released in a national education portal site, graduate students plunged to 40 percent of total Chinese students studying in the United States last year, compared with 80 percent 10 years ago. The report in Education Online said that meanwhile, the number of Chinese high school students studying in the United States maintained double-digit growth, accounting for 52 percent of Chinese students in the United States. The report said the number of Chinese students for overseas study has increased steadily. Last year, 520,000 students studied overseas, and the number is expected to keep growing this year. The United States is the main destination for Chinese students studying abroad, hitting 320,000 so far this year. You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Ryan Price in Beijing. North China&`&s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has launched a program to attract medical graduates to work in rural areas to tackle an acute shortage of health care workers. The region is home to many people of Mongolian ethnicity as well as people from other ethnic minority groups who make their living through grazing and animal husbandry. Rural medical services are insufficient, although a program in effect since 2013 has provided an on-the-job training for 12,000 medical workers. A notice issued by the regional health department showed that only 9 percent of 20,000 health workers in service in rural areas are licensed medical practitioners. Under the newly implemented policies, vocational-school medical students willing to work in rural areas after graduation will receive tuition waivers for all three years of their schooling and be provided with subsidies for school accommodation. The regional government hopes the program will help channel 10,000 assistant medical practitioners into village clinics over the next five years. China is in desperate need of village doctors. But rural doctors are increasingly reluctant to stay at their job due to barriers including low pay, a lack of prestige and little room for advancement. This is Special English. China will offer more policy support to boost education services for its senior citizens. A newly released State Council plan said China should establish a comprehensive elderly education system by 2020, with diversified teaching approaches and content. Communities, nursing houses and other elderly care facilities are encouraged to offer a range of courses, and the government will provide full support, including financial subsidies and IT services. According to the plan&`&s target, more than 20 percent of the total elderly population will be able to regularly participate in various educational activities by 2020. As of the end of last year, people over 65 years old accounted for more than 10 percent of China&`&s total population. By 2020, the number of senior citizens will have reached 240 million, or 17 percent of the total population. You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Ryan Price 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. Beijing is planning to list ice and snow sports as a compulsory course for primary and middle school students. Municipal authorities made the announcement at the International Winter Sports Exposition held in Beijing. The authority is hoping that the students can do at least one type of winter sport in the future. Beijing will push the development of youth ice-snow sports, making sure young students have at least one hour to practice the sports every week. The city is also looking to put ski resorts in the suburbs and ice rinks in six downtown districts. Until 2022, 16 new standard indoor and 50 outdoor rinks will be built, and commercial rinks are not included in this figure. Beijing has vigorously been pushing winter sports into school curriculums since this year. For example, rinks and ski simulators are used in several schools, and professional athletes are invited to teach children to skate. The government will also fund the sports to lower costs for registration and competitions, as ice and snow sports such as hockey are often unaffordable for families with average income. Beijing, accompanied by Zhangjiakou in Hebei Province, will be the host city of the 2022 Winter Olympics, which will be China&`&s first winter Olympics. This is Special English. An orange fish swims along an underwater pipeline, searching for leaks. After finding the holes, it alerts workers on shore with a loud noise. That isn&`&t a trailer for the latest Disney cartoon, but a real-life demonstration at the 2016 World Robot Conference in Beijing. The mechanic is called SmartTuna. It is a robot developed to help fix leaking underwater pipelines. Sometimes it&`&s dangerous for humans to go down into the water, so people developed this robot. The demonstrators said the robot is precise, small and smart. More than 2,000 competitors from a dozen countries were in Beijing to show off and share ideas during the five-day conference. With an aging workforce and rising labor costs, China is determined to drive robot development. The output value of China&`&s homegrown robots last year stood at 1.6 billion yuan, roughly 240 million U.S. dollars, a year-on-year increase of 55 percent. At the conference, Vice Premier Liu Yandong urged enhanced research and development of the industry. She said related policies should be improved, human resources should be developed and global communication should be enhanced. You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Ryan Price in Beijing. (全文见周日微信。)