介绍:
This is Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing. Here is the news.
China's delight at Sunway TaihuLight being named the world's fastest supercomputer was made all the more sweeter as it makes a shift from using "off-the-shelf" processors to domestic alternatives.
The supercomputer, which is twice as fast as the previous holder of the top spot China's Tianhe-2, boasts three of the world's top performance results. Those include its peak performance of 125 Petaflops per second, regular performance of 93 Petaflops per second, and an energy efficiency rate of 6 Gigaflops per Watt.
Since China first began to explore supercomputing in the 1980s, developments have relied on processors and chips bought from Intel, Nvidia and Linux.
Previously, the supercomputer sector was dominated by the United States and Japan. Due to Western technology embargoes, however, Chinese scientists had to focus on independent development.
The development of the Sunway TaihuLight system was included in the National 863 Program, China's top science and technology development plan. The supercomputer was based on the Sunway BlueLight MPP model, China's first supercomputer that used a domestic CPU, produced in 2012.
Sunway TaihuLight is the first supercomputer to have all its key components made in China.
It uses a many-core CPU chip, which is just 25 square centimeters.
Besides supercomputing research, China has caught up in the application domain, which was an area of "weakness" in China's scientific development.
Three Sunway-TaihuLight applications have been included on the shortlist for the German Innovation Award's Gottfried Wagnner Prize. The three applications are earth system modeling, ocean surface wave modeling and the microstructure of titanium alloy modeling. The prize acknowledges the world's top supercomputing applications. This is the first time China has been included on the shortlist. The winner will be announced later this year.
In practice, China's supercomputers are already being used in a wide range of fields, including the world's largest radio telescope, which is to be completed in southwest China's Guizhou Province by the end of this year.
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The Gaofen 4 high-resolution Earth observation satellite has started operating to facilitate disaster relief and environmental pollution control.
China Meteorological Administration said Gaofen 4 is at least 10 times more efficient than the Fengyun satellites, which are pillars of the nation's space-based weather observation system. The strong capability of Gaofen 4 will substantially improve the administration's detection and response to extreme weather including typhoons and rainstorms.
The new satellite will be used to monitor floods and rainstorms in southern China. It will also be used to forecast the weather during the G20 Summit in eastern China's Hangzhou in September.
During its test in orbit over the past six months, the Gaofen 4 monitored several disasters and helped environmental protection authorities detect smog as well as sources of air pollutants.
The satellite will play a big role in water quality control, air pollution measurement, forest fire detection and disaster early-warning.
The 5-metric ton satellite has a design lifespan of eight years, the longest of China's Earth observation satellites.
It is able to cover China and the whole of Southeast Asia and can shift to multiple targets. Each of the satellite's images can cover a 160,000-square-km region, equivalent to the size of Henan province in central China.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has penned a letter on how to best address issues of campus violence.
In the letter, Li asked the Ministry of Education and other related authorities to "improve laws and regulations, strengthen student's awareness of laws and rights, and resolutely put an end to behavior that disregard human dignity and lives".
Bullying and violence at schools and colleges have been widely reported in recent years. In late April, a video went viral that showed a school girl being repeatedly slapped by a group of older students.
In another case, in June 2014, an online video showed several teenagers in eastern Zhejiang Province burning a first-grade boy with cigarettes.
Last year, a junior high student tried to kill himself as "he could not tolerate being bullied every day any longer".
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Shandong Province in eastern China will cease its preferential college admission policy for ethnic minority groups next year.
Sources with the provincial education department say senior high school students of ethnic minorities in the province will no longer enjoy a five-point bonus for the college entrance exam.
All Chinese mainland applicants to colleges and universities must take the annual college entrance exam. The points they receive from the highly competitive exam, plus any bonus points they qualify for according to certain policies, are the sole basis upon which Chinese colleges accept students.
The preferential policies, under which certain applicants can receive bonus points, are managed by each province, municipality or autonomous region where the applicant is based.
These policies usually reward offspring of certain people, for example the children of people who have made considerable contributions to society, or applicants with some outstanding achievements, including in sports.
In Shandong, China's third-largest provincial economy with almost 100 million people, ethnic minority applicants can get five-point bonuses in addition to their exam scores. An applicant can score no more than 750 on the exam.
Over 4,800 students enjoyed bonus points in Shandong last year, among whom over 4,400 were ethnic minorities.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing.
A Beijing health organization wants to change people's attitudes towards sex and gender diversity and has designated the "All Gender Toilets" across the city.
The Beijing Gender Health Education Institute says that notions of identity are fluid, and yet people still have gender segregation, most notably in toilets.
The institute launched the All Gender Toilets Program last month, and there are now around 30 all gender toilets in cafes, bars, and offices across the city.
The sign of the toilets depicts three images. The traditional male and female silhouettes are joined by an individual in a half dress, half trousers ensemble.
Related departments of the United Nations have lauded the initiative, the first of its kind in China.
The project manager Yang Gang hopes that the campaign will help the public disregard gender distinctions. Yang says the main purpose of the project is to encourage discussion. He says he hopes to see a change in people's awareness, behavior, and opinions on sex and gender diversity.
Yang and his team will release a map with locations of all the city's all gender toilets.
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A nationwide health campaign has been launched to improve chronic disease treatment in community health centers.
Under the program, health practitioners will receive training on the treatment of chronic illnesses including cardiovascular disease, diabetes and central nervous system diseases.
The program will cover 30,000 doctors from 8,500 community hospitals or clinics in 42 Chinese cities by 2020. It is expected to benefit 23 million people with the conditions.
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.
China will launch its first Silk Road International Cultural Expo in September, with France being the guest of honor. The expo will be held in the city of Dunhuang in northwest China.
The event aims to promote exchanges among nations along the route of the ancient Silk Road, which is a China-led project to improve infrastructure and increase trade in the region.
The expo will feature conferences and ministerial meetings as well as cultural shows. So far, around 60 countries and five international organizations have had positive feedbacks on attending the event.
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The first Confucius post office has opened in Qufu, the hometown of the great educator and philosopher of China.
A 78th-generation descendent of Confucius, Kong Weike, has been named the honorary head of the post office. The post office was inaugurated on June 11th, China's Cultural Heritage Day.
Commemorative envelopes and stamps have been released. Visitors can buy and send Confucius-themed post cards at the office. Related books and literary works are on display at the office and on China Post's online store.
Confucius lived between 551 and 479 BC. He was the first person in China to set up private schools to educate children from poor families.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing.
A survey has found that the Great Wall in Beijing is the "most recognizable" cultural symbol of China. Bamboo and the word "harmony" came second and third in the list of Chinese symbols best known by people outside the country.
A report has been released by the Beijing Institute of Culture Innovation and Communication. It featured how people from overseas know about China. The survey picked more than a dozen most popular Chinese cultural symbols, including images, celebrities, ideas and art forms, for interviewees to choose from. The selected items included baijiu, which is clear liquor made from sorghum or other grains, the Kunqu Opera, and retired world tennis superstar Li Na.
The survey interviewed 3,000 people aged between 18 and 44 from 10 countries including Britain, the United States, Japan and South Africa.
The report said Chinese cultural symbols are becoming more and more popular among people around the world, especially, the young people.
According to the report, travel and communication are excellent ways to be exposed to Chinese culture, while the Internet, television programs, as well as families and friends are other sources for Chinese culture.
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China's box office earnings are expected to surpass that of the United States next year to claim the title of world's largest film market. That's according to a recent report by international accounting firm PwC.
The report forecasts that China's box office revenue will hit 10.3 billion U.S. dollars next year, while the United States is expected to ring up 10.1 billion U.S. dollars.
With a compounded average annual growth of 19 percent, China's box office takings are expected to hit 15 billion U.S. dollars by 2020.
The report estimates a whopping 49 billion U.S. dollars of box office earnings across the globe in 2020, with almost one third of it being generated in China.
Jiang Xiaoping, a PwC China partner, said the robust expansion of China's film industry is driving the global development.
According to predictions, revenue from advertising in the Chinese film industry will exceed 161 million U.S. dollars by 2020, and the average ticket price will climb to 6 dollars from the current 5 dollars.
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