介绍:
This is NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Liu Yan in Beijing. Here is the news.
China has begun a national key research and development plan to streamline numerous state-funded scientific and technological programs.
The plan focuses on research in fields vital to the country's development and people's well-being. The research fields cover agriculture, energy, the environment and health, as well as strategic fields key to industrial competitiveness, innovation and national security.
The plan now covers 59 specific projects. It merges several prominent state sci-tech programs focused on key fields including biotechnology, space, information and energy.
Breakthroughs of the programs included supercomputer Tianhe-1, manned deep-sea research submarine Jiaolong, and super hybrid rice.
The plan aims to address low efficiency resulting from redundant programs. More than 100 projects will be merged into five plans, namely, natural science, major sci-tech, key research and development plan, technical innovation and the sci-tech human resources.
The national key research and development plan is the first to be started.
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Chinese scientists have developed a system to measure the leak rate for a vacuum environment which will be used in the country's third step moon exploration program.
The measurement system will help scientists work out a better way to preserve samples from the moon, which are stored in a vacuum capsule, increasing the accuracy of research.
The third step of the lunar exploration project involves taking samples from the surface of the moon and bringing them back to earth.
The samples will be packed in a vacuum environment. The accuracy of measuring the finest leak in a vacuum capsule will have direct impact on the research result of the samples.
The system will ensure a similar vacuum environment as found on the moon. It will also make sure that the two kilograms of samples remain uncontaminated on their way back to earth, preventing them from being affected by any kinds of environment changes, including extremely high or low temperatures.
China has a three-step moon exploration project, namely, orbiting, landing and returning from the moon. Chang'e-5 lunar probe is expected to be launched around 2017 to finish the last chapter of the project.
You are listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Liu Yan in Beijing.
Chinese researchers have successfully created autistic monkeys by implanting autism-related genes into monkey embryos.
The monkeys are the world's first nonhuman primates to show the effects of autism. The study will play an important role in studying the pathology of the condition and exploring effective intervention and treatment.
The research has demonstrated the feasibility of studying brain disorders with genetically engineered primates. That's according to neuroscientist Muming Poo, a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States.
Poo says for quite a long time, there has been little good drug innovation in autism due to the lack of suitable animal models. This work will allow researchers to conduct deeper studies into autism and the brain's working mechanism.
Autism spectrum disorder is one of a range of neurodevelopment problems. People with the condition usually exhibit defects in social interaction, stereotyped repetitive behaviors, anxiety and emotional difficulties.
In recent years, the incidence of autism has continued to rise globally, and there is no effective treatment. Around four in every 1,000 Chinese children between ages 6 and 12 have the condition.
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Southwest China's Guizhou Province is expected to evacuate more than 9,000 people for the protection of the world's largest ever radio telescope before its completion in September.
The evacuation is facilitated by a proposal delivered last year by members of the Guizhou Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the top advisory body.
The proposal asks the provincial government to remove local homes less than 5 kilometers away from the Aperture Spherical Telescope, to create a sound electromagnetic wave environment.
Guizhou is expected to resettle people from two counties in four settlements by the end of September.
Each of the involved residents will get 12,000 yuan, roughly 1,800 U.S. dollars subsidy for the resettlement; and each ethnic minority household with housing difficulties will get 10,000 yuan subsidy.
Construction of the telescope began in March 2011 with an investment of 1.2 billion yuan. Upon completion, the telescope, which is 500 meters in diameter, will become the world's largest of its kind. It will overtake the one in Puerto Rico, which is 300 meters in diameter.
You are listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Liu Yan in Beijing.
Central China's Hunan Province is offering a reward to anyone who can decode the inscription on the back of six ancient gold coins.
The Cultural Relics Bureau of Jinshi City has offered 10,000 yuan, roughly 1,500 U.S. dollars, to anyone who can explain the mystery of the coins, housed in the city's museum.
A small white glazed pot containing six foreign gold coins was discovered at a farm in the 1960s and was sent to the museum in the 1980s. They are classified as top-level national cultural relics.
These coins were manufactured using ancient Greek coinage method at least 650 years ago. The inscription on the front, in a rare type of Arabic, is the name of a King, but the information on the back remains unexplained. Cultural relics officials have consulted Chinese and foreign experts, but to no avail.
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Online retailer Amazon China has unveiled its annual list of most romantic cities, with Zhengzhou in Henan Province declared the most romantic Chinese city of 2015.
Zhengzhou led the country in the proportion of books sold last year on the topics of romance, relationship and marriage.
Cities of Erdos and Baotou, both in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, ranked second and third.
Among the top ten, northern Chinese cities outnumbered the southern for the first time.
According to Amazon, the result does not necessarily mean that people in northern China are more romantic than their southern counterparts; and the ranking reveals many factors, not just the cultural environment of a city.
China's four first-tier cities, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, did not feature in the top 40. Amazon says it appears that residents in smaller cities are under less pressure and have more leisure time to enjoy romantic literature.
You're listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Liu Yan 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.
Fewer fireworks were used across China in the Lunar New Year, as it was banned in many places over air pollution concerns.
Two thirds of people polled in 35 major Chinese cities last year were in favor of fireworks bans at Spring Festival. The research was done by the center for public opinion research at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
Public concerns over air quality means people routinely check air quality and wear masks, and many own air purifiers at home. Data from the Ministry of Environmental Protection suggests that air quality only improved marginally last year in the area around Beijing.
In Shanghai, fireworks are banned completely downtown, and firework purchases require real name registration to track violators.
A total of 140 cities in China have banned fireworks, while another 540 cities have restrictions in place.
Fewer fireworks have made sanitation workers' life easier. They cleaned up 80 percent less firework waste in Shanghai this year.
In nearby Hangzhou, the host city of this year's G20 summit, fireworks have been banned for the whole year, and police have offered rewards for reporting any sales, storage, transportation or setting off of fireworks.
But some people are concerned that the ban kills off a tradition, calling fireworks makers to develop more environmentally friendly alternatives.
You're listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Liu Yan in Beijing.
Giant panda researchers in southwest China's Sichuan Province have named a pair of panda cubs, after receiving more than 3,000 responses.
The winning names are "Olympia" and "Fuwa", and were posted by the president of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach. Both names came out on top after five pairs of names were put up for a final vote.
"Fuwa" is the name of the mascots for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
After the twins were born in June, the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Center launched the project to solicit names for the cubs between July and September. More than 3,000 responses, including 900 from outside the Chinese mainland, were submitted through Sina Weibo microblog, messaging app WeChat and e-mail.
The twin sisters have attracted great attention worldwide because of their famous family.
Their mother "Kelin" is well known for a photo showing her watching a "panda porn" video. The photo was chosen by the United States' Time Magazine as one of the "Most Surprising Photos of 2013". The twins' grandfather "Cobi" was named by former president of the International Olympic Committee Juan Antonio Samaranch in 1992.
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China's box office totaled 3 billion yuan, roughly 460 million U.S. dollars, during the Spring Festival holiday week, the highest compared with previous holidays.
The film authority says the box office from Feb. 8 to 13 increased by 67 percent over the same period of last year.
Three Chinese movies contributed to almost 94 percent of the box office in this period. Among them, "Mermaid", directed by Hong Kong comedian and director Stephen Chow, led the box office by making 1.5 billion yuan.
"From Vegas to Macau III", starring Hong Kong actors Chow Yun-fat and Andy Lau, scored 680 million yuan, while "The Monkey King 2" took the third place with 650 million yuan.
"Kung Fu Panda 3" was also a success, profiting 812 million yuan, since its screening on Jan. 29.
China's box office earnings reached 44 billion yuan last year, up almost 50 percent over that of 2014. The number of audience totaled 1.3 billion, a year-on-year increase of 51 percent.
China has been one of the most fast-growing film markets across the world. As more cinemas open in smaller cities and towns, going to watch movies becomes a lifestyle in those places. Experts say China may overtake the United States to be the world's largest film market in the next two to three years.
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