介绍:
This is Special English. I&`&m Ryan Price in Beijing. Here is the news.
China&`&s plans for a permanent space station remain firmly on track with the successful launch of its new heavy-lift Long March 5 rocket that will enable ambitious future missions, including a planned trip to Mars.
The Associated Press reports that the towering rocket that blasted off recently will be used to launch components for the Tiangong 2 space station and other massive payloads.
China launched the Tiangong 2 precursor facility in September and sent up two astronauts in mid-October to live aboard the space station for 30 days. The station&`&s 20-ton core module will be launched in 2018. The completed 60-ton station is set to come into full service in 2022 and last at least a decade.
The Tiangong, or "Heavenly Palace", stations are considered stepping stones to an unmanned mission to Mars by the end of the decade.
The Long March 5&`&s next mission will be lofting the robotic Chang&`&e 5 probe to the moon next year to land a rover before returning to Earth with samples.
The 57-meter-long two-stage rocket is China&`&s largest, capable of carrying 25 tons of payload into low-earth orbit and 14 tons to the more distant geostationary transfer orbits.
This is Special English.
Many nations have reached out to China, seeking to play a part in its future manned space station.
A senior space industry official from China said there is a wide range of fields suitable for such international collaboration and these prospective cooperation projects will have huge potential.
Fu Zhiheng is vice-president of China&`&s Great Wall Industry Corporation, a State-owned enterprise that is China&`&s only authorized firm for international space collaboration.
Fu said that in fact, they are in talks with some foreign countries in this regard. He spoke with China Daily on the sidelines of the 11th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai in Guangdong province.
Fu said his company has been pushing forward with related efforts. He did not name any of the nations involved.
China will start launching parts of its permanent manned space station starting in 2018 and put the space station into service around 2022.
You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Ryan Price in Beijing.
China has been tightening regulations on pollution control under a revised law that took effect last year. This is a move to protect the environment by introducing harsher punishments and stricter law enforcement.
The country&`&s top legislation has issued a report, saying that prosecutors and judges have made significant contributions to the handling of pollution-related cases since the revised law came into effect on Jan 1 last year.
Last year, Chinese public security authorities recorded a total of 6,000 pollution-related cases and arrested more than 12,000 suspects, marking a year-on-year increase of 16 and 42 percent respectively.
Police, courts and prosecuting departments joined the fight against pollution last year through harsher punishments and stricter law enforcement.
Chinese courts at all levels accepted 167,000 environmental disputes from January last year to June this year, of which 148,000 have been concluded.
The report said that thanks to the revised law, public-interest lawsuits brought by NGOs have been allowed, with the number of such litigations rising rapidly.
This is Special English.
State legislators said the central government will need to provide financial support to private schools if a revised law banning them from making a profit is passed.
A draft amendment to the law on private education aims to block schools from profiting from tuition fees for children eligible to receive the country&`&s nine-year compulsory education.
A member of the National People&`&s Congress Standing Committee said he hopes the government can provide necessary guidance to ensure private schools can keep developing and making a contribution" to the education system. He said the schools have good educational resources and have produced a number of talented students.
You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Ryan Price in Beijing.
Taking a cue from competing online services which let workers chat and share information on the job, Microsoft is adding a new program called "Teams" to its Office 365 suite of internet productivity software.
Analysts say Microsoft is catching up to a trend in which a host of tech companies, including even Facebook, are competing to offer specialized online networks for organizations. The move came as workers increasingly find that email and simple document-sharing services are too limited for communicating and collaborating.
Like competing services, Microsoft&`&s new "Teams" product provides a central place online for workplace groups to chat, share files and perform other tasks. But unlike its competitors, Microsoft is offering the ability to easily transition into other widely used Microsoft programs, including Outlook for emails and calendars, and Skype for voice and video conferences.
This is Special English.
A German music industry group says it has signed an agreement with YouTube on licensing fees for its members&`& work, a deal that should mean far fewer blocked videos for viewers in Germany.
GEMA, which represents some 70,000 German composers, songwriters and music publishers, said the agreement with YouTube after seven years of "tough negotiations" will assure its members of payment for the use of copyrighted works. It didn&`&t specify financial details.
GEMA said that the agreement covers not just the future but also the period stretching back to 2009.
The German group said it and YouTube still have differing views on whether YouTube or the people who upload videos are responsible for licensing works, and called on politicians to "create a clear legal framework".
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.
A simple Pap smear may one day offer a way to screen for birth defects a little earlier in pregnancy than today&`&s prenatal tests.
In the United States, women typically get a Pap during early pregnancy. Wayne State University researchers report that they can capture enough fetal DNA from the cells that test extracts to check for genetic abnormalities.
Researchers say the new study is very small, and much more research is needed. But if the approach eventually pans out, it might be possible to use as early as five weeks into the pregnancy and detect more disorders noninvasively.
Aside from better known chromosome abnormalities including Down syndrome, there are around 6,000 other genetic disorders which scientists currently have a hard time to assess noninvasively and as early.
Today&`&s main options are invasive tests that analyze a sample of amniotic fluid or placenta tissue. They carry a small risk of miscarriage.
A blood test offers a slightly earlier and less invasive option by analyzing small amounts of fetal DNA that float in a pregnant woman&`&s bloodstream. Worrisome results are supposed to be verified by an invasive test. Early diagnosis isn&`&t just about deciding whether to go forward with the pregnancy but can affect prenatal care and what care a baby might need at birth.
This is Special English.
Hollywood star Johnny Depp is about to enter a world of magic. The actor is set to be part of "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling&`&s "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" in a secretive role.
According to a Warner Brothers&`& representative, Depp will appear in a cameo in the first film, which opens on Nov. 18, and have a bigger role alongside star Eddie Redmayne in the sequel in 2018.
"Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" is based on Rowling&`&s book of the same name and set 60 years earlier than Harry Potter in 1926 New York. There are five films planned in the Warner Bros. franchise.
Depp is no stranger to franchises, having led both the live-action "Alice" films and "The Pirates of the Caribbean", both for Disney.
You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Ryan Price in Beijing.
Investigators in the United States discovered a third body on the property of a Southern Carolina man who is now linked to seven deaths and the kidnapping of a woman who was found chained inside a storage container.
Authorities said 45-year-old Todd Kohlhepp became a suspect after the woman was found chained by her neck and ankle in a metal storage container on his 95-acre property near rural Woodruff.
The body of her boyfriend was found a day later. The couple had been missing for around two months.
The other remains were found near one another in the following couple days and authorities are not sure who they are. Investigators were expected back at the property, but police said they didn&`&t think there were any more bodies.
Following Kohlhepp&`&s arrest, he confessed to a 2003 quadruple slaying at a motorcycle shop in the small town of Chesnee. His confession came a day before the 13th anniversary of the crime, which many feared would never be solved.
This is Special English.
Four manatees rescued near Florida in the United States have arrived at an Ohio zoo.
Officials at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium say two of them are twins rescued after their mother was killed in a boat strike last month in the Florida Keys. They are named Millennium and Falcon.
The others were rescued from Outer Clam Bay in Naples and Stuart Canal.
As part of the Manatee Rescue and Rehabilitation Partnership, the zoo provides a temporary home for the rescued manatees until they are ready to be returned to the wild.
It recently transferred a male manatee rescued in 2014 to the Miami Seaquarium. The animal is expected to be released in Key Largo in January.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature says the wild manatee population is decreasing and the species is considered vulnerable.
This is Special English.
（全文见周日微信。）
