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2017-03-28 Special English
This is Special English. I&`&m Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.
China will launch a space station core module next year as the first step in completing the country&`&s first space outpost.
According to a senior engineer with China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, the core module of the space station is named "Tianhe-1".
"Tianhe 1" will be launched using a new-generation Long March-5 heavyweight carrier rocket.
It will be followed by a series of launches for other components of the space station, including two space labs, which will dock with the core module while in space, in the next four years. The space station will be completed around 2022.
Assembly of the core module has already been completed and tests are currently under way.
Earlier reports said the new Chinese space station will initially be much smaller than the current International Space Station, which weighs 420 tonnes, but could be expanded for future scientific research and international cooperation.
With the International Space Station set to retire in 2024, the Chinese space station will offer a promising alternative, and China will be the only country with a permanent space station.
The Chinese outpost will function in orbit for "dozens of years", and it has been specially designed to be able to handle space debris.
This is Special English.
China has announced favorable measures to develop tourism for rural areas in poverty.
The move is part of the national strategy to eradicate poverty by 2020 through the use of targeted and precise relief measures.
The National Tourism Administration has signed agreements with the Agricultural Development Bank of China and the China Citic Bank to provide financial credit for impoverished counties to build tourist attractions.
In the 2016-2020 period, poor counties with scenic attractions will have updated infrastructure and public service facilities with the help of the banks.
China Citic Bank will lend 200 billion yuan, roughly 30 billion U.S. Dollars, to fund key projects featuring construction of distinctive scenic attractions for rural areas in poverty.
China beat its annual target by lifting 12 million people out of poverty last year.
The progress was partly due to large financial resources, amounting to more than 230 billion yuan, earmarked by the central and local budgets.
You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
Russian scientists have successfully tested a cancer-killing drug in space. The drug can fight all sorts of malignant tumors in the human body.
A Russian professor said the drug has been named "thermal shock protein", and is based on the main active ingredient.
The protein not only protects human cells from damage but also helps cells reveal their tumor antigens to the immune system, thus strengthening the immune response.
The protein exists in the human body in minimal amounts. However, the gene responsible for its production has been identified by Russian scientists. They have created a bacterial cell that can produce the protein.
The bacterial cells multiply well, which allowed scientists to obtain unlimited amounts of the protein.
The new drug has been tested on mice and rats with melanoma and sarcoma. The results showed that there is a complete recovery even in the later stages in the majority of the cases.
Another year is needed to complete pre-clinical trials to help confirm that the new drug has zero toxicity.
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New Zealand scientists claimed they have identified a hormone that can help accurately predict the likelihood of readmission to hospital or even death after a heart attack.
The team studied the hormone, known as C-type CNP, in 2,000 people admitted to hospital with heart attack symptoms.
The team is internationally recognized for its research into A and B types of the hormone, particularly for bringing the B type into regular medical use identifying heart damage.
After their discharge, the patients&`& heart function and hormone status was monitored for an average of four years.
While raised levels of A and B type hormones indicate heart damage, the C type relates more to blood vessel damage caused by factors including hypertension or cholesterol.
The team believes that the research would also likely to predict vascular degenerative disease prior to an actual cardiac event.
You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
The eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou has unveiled more steps to restrict housing purchases in a bid to cool down the property market.
People without local "hukou", or "permanent residence permit", need records of two years of income tax and social security payments made in the last three years if they want to buy a house there. Currently they only need to have paid for one of the previous two years to be eligible.
Those who obtain local "permanent residence permits" are to be banned from buying third homes.
The city also expanded the ban to cover two more districts. Since the city resumed housing purchase restrictions in most of its urban areas in September last year, large number of home buyers bought property in other districts. Non-local buyers made more than 40 percent of purchases in the past three months.
Similar purchase restrictions have been introduced in Shenzhen in Guangdong Province, which borders Hong Kong.
Second-home sales in Shenzhen slumped 38 percent month on month, or 71 percent year on year.
Despite the decline in sales, the average price remained resilient, edging up 0.7 percent month on month to 54,500 yuan, roughly 8,000 US dollars per square meter.
You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Mark Griffiths in Beijing. You can access the program by logging on to crienglish.com. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. Now the news continues.
The turnover of China&`&s antique and art auctions last year surged by 16 percent year-on-year to reach almost 20 billion yuan, roughly 2.8 billion US dollars, rebounding to a level last seen in 2014.
A report about China&`&s art auctions has been published by the China Association of Auctioneers. The turnover was calculated based on the combined sales from China&`&s top 10 auction houses, which jointly account for the lion&`&s share of the national total.
The 10 auction houses include Poly Auction, China Guardian Auctions and Canton Treasure Auction. They held 400 auctions, and 65,000 items were put up for sale. More than 47,000 of the lots were sold.
Traditional Chinese art, especially classic calligraphy and paintings, remain popular items.
The top lot was the classic painting called Five Drunken Kings Return on Horses by a painter and high-ranking official in charge of water control during the Yuan Dynasty more than 650 years ago.
The gavel was struck when bids reached 303 million yuan at a sale held by Beijing Poly International Auction Company.
Last year, 270 artworks sold for more than 10 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 44 percent.
The increase in turnover was also attributed to the surge in the prices of Buddhist art items and tea sets made from purple clay.
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Sri Lanka won the "Most Popular Tourism Destination Award" at the Guangzhou International Travel Fair held recently in the southern Chinese city.
A statement from China&`&s Foreign Ministry says Sri Lanka won the prestigious award for the second consecutive year which is a testament to the country&`&s growing popularity among Chinese travelers.
China has been Sri Lanka&`&s second largest source market for tourism since 2014.
Nineteen travel and tour agents from Sri Lanka participated in this year&`&s travel fair and a seven-member dance troupe performed traditional dances at the Sri Lanka pavilion.
The Foreign Ministry says the volume of visitors to the event has been increasing annually and this has enabled Sri Lanka to gain greater exposure and visibility for its unique destination brand.
You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
The remainder of British pop singer Adele&`&s Australian concert tour may not include pyrotechnics, after the performer revealed that her four-year-old son was hit in the eye with debris from fireworks leading up to her Perth show.
Adele said that the show had fireworks for the audience. While her son was watching in the crowd, a piece of debris went into his eye. The boy was not seriously injured.
Adele&`&s tour promoters, Live Nation, along with her management group have not confirmed whether fireworks would be included for the remainder of the concerts in Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne and New Zealand.
But with 10 sold-out stadiums performances yet to come, it seems that Adele may have to rely on her booming voice to provide the fireworks for the tens of thousands of fans.
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Pavlina Melicharova, a 49-year-old woman from the Czech Republic, has embarked on an Eat Pray Love-style trip after she walked away from her unhappy relationship.
She started by photographing herself at iconic sites wearing her own wedding dress - but changed tact around six months ago as part of a voyage of self-discovery.
The mum-of-two has so far posed in around 150 traditional dresses, including glittering sarees to beaded tunics, in iconic or stunning settings.
Describing herself as "a model, photographer, designer, hairdresser, stylist and traveler in one", she takes a "follow me" photo from behind using a tripod.
So far she has taken photos in villages, towns and cities in 20 countries including India, Mexico, Bolivia, Malaysia, Hong Kong in China, Thailand and the Philippines. She has no plans to stop.
You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
At a time in Sydney when liquor laws are becoming more and more restrictive, late-night venues are shutting their doors and the city&`&s social calendar appears uninspiring to visiting tourists, but one event is turning heads as Sydney&`&s wildest, must see attraction.
After just 27 events, Sydney&`&s Yacht Social Club is one of the hottest tickets in town, with every party selling out in less than 24 hours, months in advance.
The boozy, sun-soaked yacht parties take place on Sydney Harbour, complete with DJ&`&s, Barbecues and the backdrop of the city&`&s most famous landmarks.
With more than 200 people from destinations all over the world, the crowd comprises young, attractive, adventure seekers leaping off boats into the harbour.
The event organizer Phil Lee says that originally, a lot of the crowd was European expats, now more and more Australians have come on board too.
He said there were quite a few Asians attending too, including Chinese tourists.
This is Special English.
The audience marvels at a massive cudgel flying in the air accompanied by the effects of thunder and lightning. The cudgel itself is a LED screen, shining in its red and yellow colors.
On the stage, the Monkey King is seen grasping a small-size cudgel while fighting a dragon, and the image of the dragon is projected onto another screen.
This is a scene from the show Monkey King, which was recently staged at the 1,700-seat Sands Cotai Theater in Macao.
The 70-minute presentation is a combination of martial arts, traditional opera, acrobatics and dance. The story is based on the classic Journey to the West, written during the Ming Dynasty more than 370 years ago. The show is about the adventures of a famous Tang Dynasty monk and his four disciples who traveled to India to collect Buddhist sutras.
The show&`&s director says the production team have done their utmost to be faithful to the original book rather than do playful stories with fabricated plots.
Li Qiankuan is an award-winning film director and the honorary president of the China Film Association.
The story has been widely adapted for cinema, television, video games and cartoons.
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