介绍:
This is Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing. Here is the news.
The gaokao, China's national college entrance exam, is winning more recognition as a way for universities overseas to evaluate Chinese students.
Stanley Nel, vice-president of international relations at the University of San Francisco in the United States, said they have had several inquiries from US universities about how to recruit Chinese students on the basis of their gaokao scores. Nel is responsible for the university's admissions from China.
The Test of English as a Foreign Language and the Scholastic Aptitude Test have long been two musts for students from other countries, including China, to apply to study in the US.
USF, a private university in California, started a pilot program to accept Chinese students based on their gaokao scores in 2015.
The idea came from USF President Paul Fitzgerald's belief that standardized tests like the SAT are not very good predictors of how well students will do at the university.
He said they are aware of many criticisms that have been made of the gaokao, but it has the advantage of being what educational experts call a 'criterion-referenced' exam. It tests whether students are able to master a given body of knowledge, as well as their ability to work hard and consistently.
Currently, at least four higher education institutions in the US are recruiting Chinese students based on their gaokao performances. The Illinois Institute of Technology, a private institution in Chicago, started the practice first, in 2009.
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China has more than 15 million full-time teachers nationwide.
The Ministry of Education said there are more than 15 million teachers working in the country's schools, colleges and universities last year, marking an increase of 300,000 teachers since 2014.
Among these teachers, a total of 2 million work in preschool education, almost 2 million are college or university teachers, and 50,000 are special education teachers.
The ministry has launched a series of campaigns to improve the professional quality and treatment of teachers in rural areas, with the central government earmarking 3 billion yuan, roughly 450 million U.S. dollars, in subsidies for them this year.
A pilot program for qualification exams and registration of teachers is also being launched.
Last year, almost 2 million people applied to register as first-time teachers, with almost all of them being approved.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing.
The State Council has reviewed a draft film law with a key focus on making sure that people working in film industry maintain professional ethics.
According to the draft, people working in the film industry should strive for "excellence in both professional skills and moral integrity", and build a positive public image.
The past few years have seen a string of high-profile arrests of film celebrities involved in drug abuse and prostitution.
In 2014, China's media watchdog banned screenings involving anybody who had engaged in criminal activity. It is establishing a professional ethics committee, aiming to guide organizations and people in the media to practice core socialist values.
Works featuring "tainted artists" will be ineligible for awards.
The revisions add clarity regarding domestic movie screenings, stating that cinemas should properly arrange screenings and time slots of films made by domestic organizations. Homegrown films should take up at least two thirds of the total movie run time.
The draft also stressed that film distribution companies and cinemas should not fabricate movie ticket sales or engage in improper methods.
Those involved in illegal activity will be liable for administrative punishments, including fines up to 500,000 yuan, roughly 75,000 U.S. dollars, business suspensions or outright bans.
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China's State Forestry Administration has said it is too early to downgrade the giant panda's conservation status after an international group reclassified them from "endangered" to "vulnerable".
The International Union for Conservation of Nature announced the change in a report, after reviewing the results of conservation efforts that have boosted the panda's population.
The administration has insisted that the pandas remain classed as endangered. It stressed that there are still threats to the animal's survival.
The wild giant panda population is fragmented into 33 isolated groups, with some having fewer than 10 animals, which limits the gene pool for reproduction.
Meanwhile, climate change is predicted to wipe out more than one third of the panda's bamboo habitat, a situation that will only be exacerbated by insufficient funding and technical support.
Over the years, China has implemented a series of environmental initiatives, including the establishment of nature reserves, to increase the giant panda's population.
China has almost 2,000 giant pandas in the wild, increasing from 1,000 in the year 2000, and there were 420 in captivity.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing.
From artificial intelligence to smog control, the Chinese Academy of Sciences has unveiled 60 major science and technology breakthroughs China aspires to make in the next five years.
The academy said it will strive to occupy the international high ground in strategic hotspot fields and blaze the trail in cutting-edge and cross-discipline areas.
It also vowed to achieve a series of major original achievements, technology and products. The academy made the announcement while unveiling its new five-year plan spanning from 2016 to 2020.
Key projects on its bucket list include organ repair and reconstruction, water pollution control, research on Moon samples, a low-frequency radio telescope on the far side of the Moon and the development of a ground application system for the Mars mission.
China recently released images of a Mars probe and rover which the country plans to send to the Red Planet within five years.
The projects span the fields of life and health, resources and environment, new generation materials, energy, oceans, information, and space.
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China will establish a rehabilitation university before 2020 to help disabled people.
The China Disabled Persons' Federation said an estimated 85 million disabled people live in China, and around 26 million of them are registered.
The federation said it aims to provide high quality rehab services; and the current main problem is the lack of trained professionals.
Under the current system, fewer than 8,000 rehab students graduate every year, and 70 percent of them are from two-year colleges, far from meeting the demand for such services.
Last year, only 30 percent of registered disabled people received any kind of rehabilitation services.
According to the federation, China had 7,000 rehab centers as of last year, with 230,000 employees.
Establishment of more rehab programs was written into the country's national Five-Year-Plan spanning 2016 to 2020.
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.
Science-fiction author Hao Jingfang has become the first female in China to win a Hugo Award, beating best-selling horror and fantasy writer Stephen King in the best novelette category.
The 32-year-old from Tianjin received the prize for Folding Beijing, in which she depicts the Chinese capital as a city divided by social class.
Hao said her story suggests a possibility for the future and also proposes a solution. She made the remarks when accepting her award at the Kansas City Convention Center Grand Ballroom. She said that in her story, the future is brighter than people thought, and she hopes it is even better.
Hao said she was not confident about winning and joked that she had been planning to attend the Hugo losers' party after the ceremony. She added that "sci-fi writers always consider all possibilities".
Her win comes a year after Liu Cixin won a Hugo for his novel "The Three-Body Problem". He was the first Chinese author to win the prize.
In Folding Beijing, the city is separated into three areas, and the residents of the First Space see the extra soil as part of their privilege. Hao's story, which was translated by Ken Liu and published last year by "Uncanny" magazine.
At an earlier book event in Beijing, Hao said the story is about the societal and wealth gaps that she has observed in her own life.
Last year's Hugo winner Liu told China Daily that he thinks Hao's stories convey warmth and a unique color like "golden sunlight".
He believes the growing global acceptance of Chinese sci-fi stories is thanks to experienced translators like Ken Liu, who promote Chinese works, and the stronger presence of Chinese culture as a whole.
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China's e-commerce giant JD.com has announced that its first-ever driverless delivery vehicle is undergoing road test and will be put into trial soon.
The company formed a partnership with a robots company earlier this year to automate its logistic network and develop delivery drones and driverless vehicles.
The autonomous scooter launched by the company is 1 meter long, 80 centimeters wide and 60 centimeters tall. It has six different sized compartments to carry the deliveries.
Equipped with an advanced navigation system, along with multiple radar-based sensors, the vehicle can calculate the shortest route to the costumer, as well as how to avoid traffic jams.
While in motion, it can identify the potential obstacles as well as traffic lights to change its route if needed.
When it reaches its destination, it can automatically send the customer a passcode via an app or text message that allows the customer to unlock the right compartment.
The application of driverless vehicles is confined to temporary deliveries as of now, and the traditional delivery method will be replaced gradually. That's according to JD's X Lab, a business unit dedicated to adopting cutting-edge technology in logistics and delivery.
The company will start the trial run in October and the automatic delivery method is expected to be put into wide use next year.
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