【专题】慢速英语(英音)

【专题】慢速英语(英音)

2015-08-28    25'00''

主播: NEWSPlus Radio

13935 674

介绍:
介绍: 全部文稿请关注我们的公众号,周六第三条~ This is NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news. China's Internet regulator has ratcheted up its crackdown on online rumors after a massive explosion in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin. The Cyberspace Administration of China accused 50 websites of creating panic by publishing unverified information or letting users spread groundless rumors. Rumors circulated on the websites included the claims that the blasts killed at least 1,000 people, shopping malls in Tianjin were looted and there has been leadership change in Tianjin's local government. The administration said such rumors caused negative influences. It shut down and revoked the licenses of 18 websites, and suspended the operation of another 32. The administration said it would take a zero-tolerance attitude towards websites spreading rumors after major disasters. This is NEWS Plus Special English. Manufacturers which fail to suspend production in accordance with restrictions imposed before the Sept 3 military parade to reduce air pollution will face harsh fines. Beijing has set a series of measures to control emissions and pollutants, including factory suspensions and restrictions on vehicle use after Aug 20, in preparation for the parade marking the 70th anniversary of victory in World War II. The environmental watchdog, the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau, will strengthen its supervision of companies in polluting industries during the period. Companies failing to meet the pollution restrictions will be ordered to stop production immediately. Fines for offenders could reach 500,000 yuan, roughly 78,000 U.S. dollars. Similar harsh penalties were issued during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings in November. The bureau also will make other monitoring efforts. Outdoor barbecues and incineration will be another priority. Should Beijing experience heavy smog during the restricted period, the bureau will conduct more frequent monitoring and supervision to ease the air pollution. The month of August has been identified as a key period for environmental supervision, especially for emissions of major air pollutants, coal-fired boilers and construction sites. This is NEWS Plus Special English. Newly published archival files in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province have revealed that Japan organized multiple large-scale immigration campaigns in the region during its invasion in World War II. The Heilongjiang Provincial Archives has unveiled 96 files on the Japanese invasion of northeast China. Twenty-one were published for the first time, including immigration policies and acts, records of immigration categories, immigration plans and implementation, and land records. According to the files, Heilongjiang Province served as an important resettlement area for Japan's mass immigration plan due to its abundant resources and strategic importance. From September 1931 to January 1941, Japanese invaders set up 89 mass immigration centers in northeast China, 69 of which were in Heilongjiang Province. The archives showed that almost 130,000 Japanese people organized by official Japanese immigration agencies resettled in Heilongjiang Province during Japan's invasion. Most of them were repatriated to their homeland before September 1946. An official from the Provincial Archives says this kind of organized, planned and forced land reclamation violated and trampled on Chinese sovereignty, adding that the archives have provided hard evidence of major land grabs by the Japanese invaders in China. The Heilongjiang Provincial Archives also published many other files related to the so called "comfort women", as well as victims used for bacteriological experiments. You are listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. China's Education Ministry has ordered schools to improve mental health care for students, but banned compulsory testing or irresponsible labeling of students as "mentally ill". The ministry has urged primary and middle schools to establish psychological counseling rooms, provide free counseling and record information on the mental states of students. The counseling room should always be open during school hours. It must have at least one mental health professional, who will enjoy an equal status to a class teacher. The school should also set aside funds for the room's operation. The ministry document states that staff in the school should carefully use psychological scaling or other testing methods. They may not compel students to take any test, nor can they arbitrarily judge that a student has a mental illness. Student information must be kept confidential unless the student poses a danger to themselves or others. Mental health staff should handle "crisis events" and prevent the events from leading to injuries. This is NEWS Plus Special English. China has become the world's largest consumer market of robots for the second consecutive year. According to statistics released by the China Robot Industry Alliance, the number of robot sales in China increased by 55 percent last year to around 57,000, accounting for a quarter of the world's total. The data also shows that almost 17,000 robots were made in China with a total value approaching 3 billion yuan, roughly 470 million U.S. dollars, or an increase of 60 percent from 2013. Experts have predicted that the total number of robots used in China's manufacturing industry this year will keep growing rapidly. Under a national plan entitled "Made in China 2025", which was designed to make China a world manufacturing power, the robot industry has become one of the hottest. Industrial robots have been applied in car-making, the electronic and food industries, in addition to the military, aviation, and medical equipment industries. This is NEWS Plus Special English. The Chinese government is encouraging people to work 4-and-a-half days a week in a bid to bolster tourism amid the flagging economy. The State Council, China's Cabinet, has published a document entitled Several Decisions on Further Promoting Tourism-related Investment and Consumption. The document noted that in summer, if conditions permit, more flexibility should be given to employees to help them take vacations using Friday afternoons, Saturdays and Sundays. The document revealed that China will build more tourism infrastructure, including cruise ports and RV parks. Cruise ship tourism should be encouraged and 10 ports for cruise vessels will be built by 2020. The document noted that boosting investment and consumption for tourism is of great importance to improving quality of life and developing modern services. Great efforts should be made to improve tourism facilities. Private capital is encouraged to partner with government funding in building 1,000 parks for RV tourists and other independent travelers by 2020. All important tourist attractions and tourist cities should be staffed with professionals to provide tourism information by 2020. You're listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. You can access the program by logging onto 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. The average fitness level of primary and secondary school students in China has improved slightly after years of decline, but that of college students continues to worsen. According to a national report, the deterioration of elementary and high school students' physical condition has been tackled thanks to the increasing emphasis placed on physical education on campus. The first Annual Report on Development of Youth Sports showed that the students' physical examination results were improved. After analyzing results of the previous seven youth fitness surveys conducted since 1985, the report found that the cardiopulmonary function, strength and stamina of students aged between 7 and 18 had seen different degrees of improvement since 2010. Due to an overemphasis on academic excellence, many Chinese schools replaced physical education classes and extracurricular sports activities with extra tutoring or written tests, resulting in a consistent deterioration in students' health from 1985 to 2005. Despite improvements seen in the younger age groups, the physical test results for college students in key categories have continued to decline for the past 10 years. Education officials say that college students in China take part in sports much less than their peers worldwide, partially due to unhealthy lifestyles and the lack of an athletic culture in Chinese universities. This is NEWS Plus Special English. After more than 10 days in space, China's 19th Beidou navigation satellite is working autonomously and has set up a link with another satellite. The two satellites were launched on the same day by a Long March III-B rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan Province, southwest China, on July 25. A designer of the Beidou navigation satellite system says China has successfully tested the autonomous control technology of the Beidou global navigation satellite constellation, an alternative to the United States-operated GPS, marking a solid step towards building a system with global coverage. China plans to set up a complete constellation of 35 satellites, achieving global coverage by 2020. The twin satellites surpass their predecessors in speed, accuracy and weight. The biggest difficulty is the autonomous navigation technology, which enables satellites to work independently, providing users with more accurate data. Named after the mandarin word for the plough, or the Big Dipper constellation, the project was formally launched in 1994, some 20 years after the inception of GPS. This is NEWS Plus Special English. A central Chinese city is preparing to apply for World Heritage status for its 1,500-kilometer-long canal built on steep crags by thirsty villagers half a century ago. Officials in Linzhou City of Henan Province are now preparing the documents needed for a formal application to list the Red Flag Canal, which they say has inspired generations of Chinese people with a spirit of hard work and devotion. The canal was carved out in the Taihang Mountains in the 1960s, after villagers mobilized themselves for the project to ensure the water supply to the drought-ridden city if Linzhou. No heavy machinery was used in digging the waterway, whose length exceeds the distance between London and Vienna. The canal was initially designed to be used for 20 years, but is still in service after being used for around 50. The city is working for a 70-kilometer-long section on the main stretch of the channel for inscription. The application will bring better protection to the canal and promote it worldwide.