【专题】慢速英语（英音）2016-10-17

英语环球 NEWSPlus Radio

This is Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.
The world's largest radio telescope has been put into use in a mountainous region of southwest China's Guizhou Province.
The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, or FAST, is built to explore space and hunt for extraterrestrial life.
Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to scientists, engineers and builders on the launch.
Located in a karst valley, construction of the project started in 2011, 17 years after it was proposed by Chinese astronomers. The whole project cost 1.2-billion-yuan, roughly 180 million U.S. dollars.
The installation of the telescope's main structure was finished in early July. It was a 4,500-panel reflector as large as 30 football pitches.
In a recent trial observation, the telescope received a set of high-quality electromagnetic waves from a pulsar around 1,300 light-years away.
Nobel laureate Joseph Taylor at Princeton University in the United States said the telescope will certainly generate enthusiasm, bring people into science, and make China important in the world of science.
The astronomer was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 1993 for discovering indirect proof of gravitational waves with the assistance of Puerto Rico's Arecibo Observatory. The observatory is home to a radio telescope that is 350 meters in diameter.
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The National Tourism Administration has released ratings, listing the best and worst scenic spots, tourism agencies, tour guides and tourists during the national holiday week in early October.
The ratings are part of new efforts by the administration to strengthen supervision and management of the tourism market and to improve services offered by scenic spots and their staff. It also aims to create a favorable environment for travelers during holidays.
In the ratings, some attractions, including the Palace Museum in Beijing, were praised for their management and smooth operations.
Other places, including the Three Gorges Tourism Zone in Hubei Province were credited for their contribution to the national "tourism toilet revolution" campaign. This is an initiative sponsored by the administration to renovate public toilets at tourism spots nationwide.
Almost 600 million trips were logged during the weeklong holiday which started on October 1.
The administration said that thanks to effective measures taken by the tourism departments at all levels, there were no serious disputes or accidents during the holiday.
Beijing Zoo received 450,000 tourists during the holiday. Four visitors were each fined 50 yuan, roughly 7 U.S. dollars and 50 cents, for feeding animals. It was the first time the zoo has issued tickets to tourists for this reason.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
China has signed agreements on the mutual recognition of higher education degrees with 19 European Union member countries including France, Germany and Italy.
The Ministry of Education made the announcement at a briefing of the China-EU education ministers' conference and an Education Policy Dialogue between China and European countries.
The two meetings were held in Beijing on October 11, and focused on the mutual recognition of credits between higher learning institutions in China and the EU, as well as the balanced flow of students between the two parties.
More than 300,000 Chinese students were studying in EU member countries as of the end of last year. The figure represents almost a quarter of all Chinese students abroad and an increase of 7 percent from 2014.
More than 120,000 Chinese students went to study in the EU last year, almost a quarter of all students who went abroad last year. At the same time, more than 45,000 EU students came to China, accounting for 10 percent of all international students studying in China.
Last year also saw more than 3,000 EU students receiving scholarships from the Chinese government, a rise of 12 percent from the previous year.
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China's seventh Arctic expedition using the Chinese icebreaker Xuelong has returned to its research base in Shanghai after a 78-day mission.
The Xuelong set out from Shanghai in July and has since traveled 13,000 nautical miles to explore marine areas including the Bering Sea and the Canada Basin.
The team has traveled as far as 83 degrees north latitude, and for the first time explored the Mendeleev Ridge in the Arctic Ocean.
Scientists studied marine meteorology, geology and chemistry, and surveyed seven ice stations, while the expedition smoothly completed all its scheduled tasks.
The expedition team laid several observation buoys in the oceans and explored deep strata by creating an artificial seismic wave.
The Xuelong, or Snow Dragon, was equipped with two helicopters, research support and emergency equipment during the expedition. The Ukraine-built vessel was first put into use in 1994 and can break ice that is 1.2 meters thick.
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China will further tighten the land management of villa construction.
The Ministry of Land and Resources said that compared with previous regulations released as early as 2003, the new rules will target terraced houses, semi-detached houses, and garden houses. The previous regulations suspended the land supply of detached villas only.
Analysts say the measure is going to make villas scarce in the future. The adoption of the universal second-child policy in China has continued to drive the demand of villa sales, but villa owners are reluctant to sell their property.
Data shows that the market price of villas in Guangzhou, the capital city of Guangdong province, has seen a more than 10 percent increase, especially in the outskirts of the city. However, villa sales in the city have seen a 20 percent drop in the first half of this year, compared to the same period last year.
The Chinese authorities have urged the local governments across the country to make better use of construction land. Cities and towns should specify their land use objectives before the end of this year to ensure a 20 percent cut in construction land use per unit of GDP by 2020.
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 [e-mail]. That's [e-mail]. Now the news continues.
New rules requiring China's e-commerce platforms to improve food safety management have come into effect as of this month.
Third-party online supermarkets must take responsibility for poor-quality food products sold by stores registered on their platforms. The rules were formulated by the China Food and Drug Administration.
Online platforms must establish a sound system to check vendors' qualifications and the quality of their products. Violators must be suspended from their operations in a timely manner.
In another development, Chinese investigators in criminal cases will now be able to retrieve and freeze electronic data as evidence, as part of new regulations.
The regulation allows courts and police authorities to retrieve electronic data, including that posted on websites, social networks and popular communication apps, by individuals and organizations implicated in criminal cases.
Several other rules have also come into force, including one requiring professional test for drivers providing on-demand mobility services, and another one streamlining procedures for registering a new company.
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Online search giant Baidu is set to lose its top spot in China's booming digital advertising market this year to its rival Alibaba Group.
According to a report from London-based market research firm eMarketeer, E-commerce heavyweight Alibaba has so far notched up a 29 percent share of China's digital ad market, equating to 12 billion U.S. dollars. eMarketer researches digital marketing, media and commerce.
In previous forecasts, eMarketeer had predicted that Baidu, which uses search result listings to generate income from advertisers, would stay out in front. Last year, Baidu earned 28 percent of China's digital advertising revenue, compared to Alibaba's 25 percent.
But eMarketeer has downgraded its outlook for Baidu this year as it has witnessed challenges in the past few months due to tighter government controls on search result advertising. Baidu's digital ad revenue is expected to see sluggish growth this year. Meanwhile, Alibaba and Tencent will continue to surge ahead and report increases of 54 percent and 68 percent respectively.
Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent are the top three firms in China's internet industry. They are estimated to take a total of 60 percent in the country's digital ad revenue of 42 billion this year.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
China's television regulator is moving to curb overvaluing and over-emphasis on TV stars during the purchase and broadcast of TV dramas.
A circular was made public recently by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television. The circular banned broadcasters from nominating actors, defining the range of actors for selection, or fixing the price based on the stars involved when they purchase or broadcast TV dramas.
The administration said they should also avoid over-hyping stars during promotion of TV shows, adding that the shows' ideological significance, artistic style, production quality and teamwork should be highlighted instead.
The circular states that a few TV stations have been pricing TV dramas simply based on the stars involved, which led to an unreasonable composition in the budget and an imbalance in distribution; and the practice hampered the industry's healthy and orderly development.
The administration asked broadcasters to appraise TV dramas in a more comprehensive way with their quality as the core criterion.
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