介绍:
This is Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.
Facing a predicted surge in pregnancies this year following the adoption of the universal second-child policy in China, major hospitals in Beijing are setting aside twice as many beds as usual for woman with high-risk pregnancies.
Health authorities in the capital say they will increase the number of obstetrics beds and available staff in public hospitals to meet the expected demand. The Beijing Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning said the hospitals will purchase services at private hospitals if necessary.
The number of births in Beijing is expected to exceed 300,000 this year, a rise of around 20 percent from the levels of previous years.
But, a large portion of those eligible to have a second child are over 40 and likely to face increased risks during their pregnancies. The risks, including hypertension, will pose a greater challenge for hospitals.
Local health authorities have responded by stipulating that pregnant women in high-risk groups, including older women and those with health issues, must give birth at Grade-A hospitals.
At these top-end obstetrics hospitals, high-risk women will account for 80 percent of admissions, up from the previous 40 percent.
Health authorities in the capital are also required to offer enhanced monitoring to women in high-risk groups, along with advanced treatment to head off complications during pregnancy.
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There has been an "enormous rise" in the demand for self-defense products including personal safety alarms, tactical pens and key chains in China following a hotel assault in early April.
Major online shopping malls said the sale of self-defense items increased markedly over the past weeks, in particular a sharp rise in purchases from females. The move came after a video emerged on April 5 apparently showing a woman being throttled and pulled away in the hallway of a Beijing hotel. The woman was attacked by a man who was handing out cards with prostitute information and thought the woman was a competitor.
The video clip sparked widespread anger and turned women's safety and self-defense gadgets into major talking points in the country.
The most popular self-protection item sold at online shops is a portable alarm, which can let out a siren-like sound reaching 120 decibels or more when triggered.
One shop owner on Taobao.com said the sale of personal safety alarms has increased by almost 100 folds. He sold more than 20,000 alarms over the past two weeks, equaling the total sales of six months before the incident.
According to an online survey, more than 60 percent of 120 interviewees regarded self-defense gadgets as useful or better than being bare-handed when facing danger.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
China will launch its new generation heavy-lift rocket named Long March-5 into the skies later this year, and is planning even larger versions.
The rocket has a liftoff weight of 870 tonnes, with a payload capacity of 25 tonnes to low Earth orbit, and 14 tonnes to geostationary transfer orbit.
It can carry more than two-and-half times as much as current launch vehicles. The move marks China's transformation from a major space player to a major space power.
Using non-toxic and pollution-free propellant, the 60-meter-long rocket measures five meters in diameter and will be equipped with four thrusters, each measuring 3 meters in diameter like on previous Long March rockets.
The Long March-5 series will come in six slightly different models and will be the main launch vehicle for manned space programs as well as lunar and Martian exploration.
Experts say the more the rockets can lift, the farther they can venture into space.
China has plans to launch the Long March-7, a medium-sized rocket that can carry up to 14 tonnes to low Earth orbit, this year. It will transport cargo for the planned space station.
Together, Long March-5 and Long March-7 are expected to eventually replace the earlier Long March rockets to meet domestic and international launch needs.
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A 420-kilometer section of highway that passes through the ecological lifeline of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau will get eight recycling centers this year. The move is aimed at cutting down on rubbish and other waste that tourists leave behind on their journeys.
The service stations along the Qinghai-Tibet Highway will offer waste recycling, toilets, hot water, Wi-Fi access and power outlets. An investment of 3.6 million yuan, roughly 556,000 U.S. dollars, has been made for infrastructure construction and basic operations.
Waste along the highway has become a hidden danger for pollution of some water resources, and it damages the pasture landscape. The Sichuan Greenriver Environmental Protection Promotion Association is setting up the stations. The NGO said that in addition, animals including sheep and yaks can die if they eat abandoned plastic bags.
Starting in Xi Ning in Northwest China's Qinghai province, the Qinghai-Tibet Highway is 2,000 kilometers long and for decades has been an important transportation channel for Tibet.
A 2013 survey by Greenriver found around 160,000 pieces of trash along a section of the highway. Most of the refuse was non-biodegradable plastic packages tossed out by drivers and tourists. The stations will be built along a 420-kilometer section of the highway from the city of Ge'ermu to Mount Thanglha.
This section was chosen because the highway there cuts through the ecological lifeline of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and it is where major national nature reserves are located.
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For around a decade, residents of Luohu district of Shenzhen in Guangdong province watched a ritual every evening at dusk as a fleet of taxis spiraled along a narrow mountain road and entered Dawang at the foot of Wutong Mountain.
But the past year has seen changes in the "taxi-driver village", as Dawang is known. New online cab-hailing services have been snapping up business, resulting in many taxis disappearing and being replaced by private cars whose drivers use the new platforms.
Attracted by the good money, many drivers in the village have abandoned their taxis and started working for private companies, including Didi Chuxing and Uber.
Dawang Village gained its nickname thanks to the large number of cab drivers who live there. Few of them are locals, though; and most come from Youxian, a county in the central province of Hunan.
Around 1,000 people in the village are now employed exclusively by Didi Chuxing.
Full-time drivers are only allowed to use private vehicles, so every defection means one fewer taxi on the roads.
Driving a taxi isn't profitable anymore. Taxi drivers had to find another way to survive.
In the past two years, the popularity of the new services has soared in China. Didi Chuxing operates in hundreds of cities, with daily orders reaching 10 million. The company said 1.4 billion cars were ordered via its platform nationwide last year.
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.
Chinese researchers looking at macaques have said that they have solved the long-standing puzzle over how the human brain perceive movement in a curvilinear trajectory, including making turns while driving.
In daily life, people's complex motion trajectories typically contain two independent components which are straight-line movement and rotation.
Correspondingly, the inner ears have evolved two sets of special sensory organs: the sphere-like otoliths detect linear motion, while the semi-circular canals detect rotational movement.
Information collected by the organs is then sent to the central nervous system in the brain, where two distinct sets of neurons help people sense linear and rotational movement. But the new study identified a third set of neurons in the macaque sensory cortex that respond optimally to curve motion.
Neuroscientists at the Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences say it is a very interesting question as to why our brain evolved this way.
Humans do not have to have the curved motion neurons in the sensory area of the brain. Scientists suspect that the representation of curved motion in the sensory cortex helps animals rapidly detect curved movement, and saves the work load of the decision centers for other important neural computations.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
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