介绍:
This is Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.
China will appoint local government heads as river chiefs across the country to clean up and protect its water resources.
Guidelines published by the Chinese central authorities say the river chiefs will be responsible for the management and protection of the watercourses, much as mayors and county heads are responsible for their beats.
The central government expects to turn such practices into a nationwide mechanism by the end of 2018.
China firstly appointed local government officials as river chiefs in 2007 to address pollution woes of a blue algae outbreak in Taihu Lake in eastern China.
The practice was later adopted in several regions rich in water resources to ensure strong enforcement of environmental policies and enhance coordination.
Provincial governors will be general chiefs that are responsible for all rivers and lakes in the region, while officials at various levels will be appointed as chiefs of particular rivers and lakes.
For large rivers and lakes that span across more than one administrative region, river chiefs will be responsible for different parts of the water bodies and cooperate on management.
The responsibilities of the river chiefs will include water resource protection, pollution prevention and control, and ecological restoration. Their job performance will be assessed and they will be held accountable if environmental damage occurs in the water bodies they take charge of.
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The Ministry of Education says the country will further open-up its educational sector to the world and raise its cultural exchange sector to a national strategic level.
Efforts will be exerted to serve both overseas students in China and Chinese students studying abroad. It will support schools jointly-run by China and other countries.
China planned to send 29,000 government-sponsored students this year as part of an initiative to train talent with global vision.
Around 520,000 Chinese people studied abroad in 2015, making China the world's top source of international students. Meanwhile, China is the world's third largest study destination, following the United States and the United Kingdom. Almost 400,000 foreign students studied in China last year.
Sino-foreign cooperative education has progressed rapidly in China in recent years. China has established more than 2,400 cooperative programs with 700 overseas universities. The country has signed agreements on the mutual recognition of academic degrees and diplomas with 44 countries and regions.
China has begun national-level educational cooperation with countries including the United States, Russia, the U.K, and France. China plans to raise such exchanges to a national strategic level in the future.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
A freight train loaded with meat from Germany has arrived in Chengdu, the capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province.
The train took 13 days to travel 12,000 kilometers from Nuremberg, Germany, to Chengdu, and was loaded with 22 tonnes of German pork. All the meat products will be put on the Chinese market after passing quarantine inspection.
The train saves 45 days of transport time compared with shipping by sea, and saves costs of 10,000 yuan, roughly 1,500 U.S. dollars, per ton when compared with air freight.
The China-Europe freight train marks the opening of the railway channel for China to import meat products from Europe.
The train's terminal, an international railway depot in Chengdu, is the first meat import inland depot in western China.
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China has implanted artificial cochleae free of charge for more than 20,000 impoverished, severely hearing impaired children since 2009.
China's health authority told the Xinhua News Agency that the work is part of a special program launched in 2009, with a total investment of 2 billion yuan, roughly 330 million U.S. dollars.
The National Health and Family Planning Commission said at a meeting organized by the World Health Organization that China sets great store in the health of people's hearing, making significant efforts in the area.
The commission said the health authority will strengthen its efforts in this regard, especially in the prevention of birth defects and newborn screening, as well as improving the capabilities of rural health institutions.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
Scientists have announced that a fossilized-feathered dinosaur tail has been discovered in a piece of amber, complete with bones and feathers.
Researchers believe that the tail belongs to a tiny dinosaur that lived around 99 million years ago during the mid-Cretaceous period.
A paper on the findings, co-authored by Chinese paleontologist Xing Lida, Canadian scientist Ryan C. McKellar and others, has been published in the journal "Current Biology".
This is the first time dinosaur material has been found fossilized in amber.
The specimen has been named "Eva".
The tail is six centimeters long, by which scientists estimate that the dinosaur was 18 centimeters long. The feathers on the tail appear to be brown on the top and pale white on the underside.
Xing said the specimen has been so well preserved that they believe it is very close to what it would have looked like when the dinosaur was alive.
The amber was found in Hukawng Valley in northern Myanmar.
Philip J. Currie, from the Academy of Science under the Royal Society of Canada, said he had never expected to see such a well preserved dinosaur specimen.
Scientists cannot confirm if Eva was a juvenile or adult based on its bones. There were no obvious signs of a violent struggle leading to the animal being encased by the sap upon death. The cause of death cannot be confirmed either.
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Chinese scientists say they found a new way to effectively inhibit a person's fearful memories arising from traumatic events including domestic violence and war.
Animal testing found that fear can be effectively removed by transplanting a special kind of nerve cell into the brains of an adult mouse. The study was led by Yu Yongchun, a researcher at Fudan University in Shanghai.
The findings are expected to shine new light on the treatment of severe mental conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. The study results have been published online by Neuron, an influential journal in the field of neuroscience.
The research is expected to help explore new strategies for treating PTSD, which is caused by indelible and traumatic memories including traffic accidents, hairy spiders, a nasty breakup or military combat.
Patients with PTSD often exhibit anxiety, depression, chronic pain, cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders, drug abuse, and alcohol addiction.
Statistics show that around 80 percent of adults have experienced a traumatic event at least once in their lifetimes, while 5 to 10 percent have experienced severe psychological trauma that can be diagnosed as PTSD.
So far, the treatment of PTSD involves a combination of psychology and medication. However, mental symptoms often return after the treatment is stopped.
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.
A new book on the Nanjing massacre in World War Two has been released in China's eastern city of Nanjing in Jiangsu Province.
The book is called "Human Memory: the Solid Evidence of the Nanjing Massacre". It consists of around 200 documents and images from China, Japan and other countries which participated in the post-war trials.
Editor-in-chief of the book, Zhang Xianwen from Nanjing University said that only when a nation keeps its memory intact can it learn lessons and be inspired.
A research institute on the Nanjing Massacre and world peace was established by Nanjing University and other bodies in March. It selected the documents from archives and libraries in China, the United States, Germany, Britain and Japan.
The provincial government has granted peace medals to descendants of six foreigners, including John Rabe from Germany, who helped save civilians during the massacre.
Japanese troops occupied Nanjing on December 13, 1937, and began a six-week massacre. Records show that more than 300,000 people, including disarmed soldiers and civilians, were killed.
Since 2014, China has marked December 13 as National Memorial Day.
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China has vowed to strengthen the management of online streaming, prohibiting unlawful and obscene content.
The country's media watchdog says authorities will crack down on activities that use live streaming to break the law or undermine people's interests.
In 2016, the authority handled more than 100 cases suspected of violating laws and regulations. The cases included online dramas, films and other audio-visual products.
A regulation on live streaming has been in effect since December 1. It requires presenters to register with their real names and service providers to censor content and blacklist users who break the rules, prohibiting them from registering again.
It also bans the use of live streams to undermine national security, destabilize society, or infringe upon others' rights and interests.
Online streaming has grown rapidly in China in recent years, generating huge business opportunities while bringing challenges to regulators.
By the end of June, the number of streaming service users reached 500 million, accounting for 70 percent of China's Internet population.
Reports show that watching video online has become the primary form of entertainment in China, followed by gaming and reading literature online.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
A survey has found that female employees in China are more loyal to their employers and have higher brand satisfaction than their male counterparts.
The survey, entitled China Best Employers 2016, is based on feedback from more than 4 million respondents, around 53 percent of whom were women. The results were jointly published by Peking University's Institute of Social Science Survey and Zhaopin.com, a Chinese human resources website.
The report found that 38 percent of the female respondents have never changed their jobs, 11 percent higher than male respondents. Twenty percent of the females have been in their current job for more than five years, while for males, it was half that number, 10 percent.
The survey also found that female employees care more about soft aspects of the workplace, including a positive and comfortable work environment, while at the same time, they desire equal pay for equal work.
While female employees attach great importance to learning vocational skills as their career develops, the survey found that male employees care more about promotions. Women with work experience of less than one year are the most eager to improve their skills. The survey found that 56 percent of such women think improving their skills is the most important aspect of their career over the next three years.
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China has more than 20,000 civilian drones, or unmanned aircraft vehicles, and half of them are operating without a license.
Officials suggest that an electric fence could be built in order to supervise and contain unlicensed drones.
They suggest that a new technology called U-Cloud would also be useful. The U-Cloud is similar to the black boxes in planes and can be used to supervise the data of civilian drones in real time.
Experts say that by registering drones and implementing effective technology, it will be possible to track the drones and the owners down.
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