【专题】慢速英语（美音）2016-09-27

英语环球 NEWSPlus Radio

This is Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing. Here is the news.
The State Council, China's Cabinet, has issued a guideline on government information sharing.
The guideline, approved by Premier Li Keqiang, aims to increase government credibility, while improving administrative efficiency and government services.
The guideline divides government information into three categories, namely, unconditionally shared, conditionally shared and unshared.
The guideline said sharing should be the principle while unsharing should be the exception.
According to the guideline, information could be categorized as "unshared" only when backed by laws, regulations or national policies.
It said all government information systems should be linked to a national data-base, so the public will have no need to submit the same information twice.
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China's space lab the Tiangong-2 may serve for more than five years and co-exist with China's first space station which is scheduled for completion around 2020.
With a designed life of two years, Tiangong-2 was originally built as a backup to Tiangong-1, which completed its mission in March.
But space scientists expect Tiangong-2 to serve for more than five years given the introduction of an in-orbit propellant technique for the first time.
In April next year, China's first cargo spaceship Tianzhou-1 will be sent into orbit to dock with the space lab, providing fuel and other supplies.
If the fuel-supply experiment goes well, China will then become the second country after Russia to master the in-orbit propellant technique.
While in space, the 8-tonne space lab will maneuver itself into orbit almost 400 kilometers above the Earth. As it is higher than previous manned space missions, the Tiangong-2 will be more cost-effective and have a longer lifespan.
Though it looks similar to Tiangong-1, Tiangong-2's interior living quarters and life support system have been improved to allow longer astronaut stays.
It is designed to enable two astronauts to live in space for up to 30 days and to receive manned and unmanned cargo spaceships.
The space lab will also be used to conduct space science experiments on a relatively large scale compared to China's previous efforts.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has sent a letter congratulating the opening of the China-US Schwarzman College at Tsinghua University.
Xi said in the letter that education is an important force that pushes forward human civilization. Nowadays the young people in all countries should establish a world vision and raise awareness of cooperation through education.
He said the China-US exchanges in education have played a positive role in promoting understanding and friendship among the people as well as improving the relations between the two nations. He added that the two countries should deepen cooperation in this field.
He hoped that the Schwarzman College can be built into an international platform for cultivating the world's excellent talents, providing study opportunities for the youth of all countries and helping them enhance understanding and exchanges.
US President Barack Obama has also sent a congratulation letter for the opening ceremony.
The Schwarzman Scholars program of Tsinghua University is a one-year post graduate program co-founded by the university and Stephen Schwarzman. It aims to cultivate students with international vision, overall quality, leadership and knowledge of China.
The first group of 110 scholars came from 70 colleges in 31 countries.
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Chinese and Russian naval forces have carried out a joint drill on air defense and anti-submarine in the South China Sea off southern China's Guangdong Province.
Vessels that took part in the exercise included a missile destroyer, anti-submarine vessels, missile frigates, ship-based helicopters and conventional submarines.
The vessels were divided into two fleets and confrontations were staged off the eastern waters of Guangdong Province.
A senior officer of the joint drill said the exercise was carried out under a background of actual combat; and expected aim of the exercise had been reached.
Chinese and Russian navies held the "Joint Sea-2016" drill that runs from Sept. 13 to Sept. 19.
It features navy surface ships, submarines, fixed-wing aircraft, ship-borne helicopters, marine corps and amphibious armored equipment from both sides.
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The proportion of Chinese people who can communicate in Mandarin Chinese is expected to exceed 80 percent by the year 2020. That's according to a national work plan for popularizing Mandarin during the period spanning from 2016 to 2020.
The work plan has been released by the nation's Language Committee together with the Ministry of Education.
Statistics from the language committee showed that as of 2015, more than 70 percent of people across China can use Mandarin in their daily lives. However, at the end of the 20th century, the proportion was 53 percent.
The Education Ministry said a lot of efforts were made during the past decade to popularize the use of Mandarin among people from across the country.
Among the efforts is the Mandarin Chinese Week, an event launched in 1997 to help people from different ethnic groups to learn to use Mandarin.
This year, the event was held from Sept 8 to 14, for the 19th time. Some outstanding learners from ethnic groups were asked to share their experiences and benefits of learning the language.
The work plan also included increasing efforts to protect the languages of the country's other ethnic groups, particularly some of the endangered ones.
The ministry said the languages of ethnic groups are part of China's culture and the ministry will try to work out more scientific and effective ways to prevent them from dying out.
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 [e-mail]. That's [e-mail]. Now the news continues.
The U.S. subsidiary of Baidu, a Chinese web services company, has been issued a permit to test self-driving vehicles in California.
The testing permit, from the California Department of Motor Vehicles, would allow the Baidu USA to test its autonomous driving technology in the Golden State.
Headquartered in Beijing, Baidu announced the formation of an autonomous driving team in the United States, as part of Baidu Autonomous Driving Unit that operates in Chinese cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.
Fourteen other companies, including German automakers Mercedes Benz and BMW, as well as U.S. automaker Ford, have obtained the permit to operate self-driving vehicles on public roads in California. Following the move, Baidu said it would test its vehicles "very soon".
Baidu said it has already built a strong team in Silicon Valley to develop autonomous driving technology, and being able to do road tests will greatly accelerate their progress.
The Baidu USA is based in Sunnyvale in northern California.
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Police have detained 13 residents in a village in Guangdong province, accusing them of disrupting public order and inciting illegal assemblies.
A statement by the Lufeng city bureau of public security named the leaders of the protests.
The statement said the protests disrupted social order, preventing fishermen from going to work and others from opening their shops for business; and the crowds also disrupted the normal operation of schools. Police have therefore detained the 13 for further investigation, in an effort to safeguard the interests of the residents and restore order.
The village of Wukan came under the media spotlight at home and abroad in 2011, when the villagers staged three large-scale rallies over four months, protesting local officials' illegal land grabs and corruption, as well as violations of financing and election rules.
The rallies finally came to an end when an agreement was reached in a face-to-face talk between the residents and senior Guangdong provincial officials in 2012.
You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing.
Three security lanes created especially for women have begun processing passengers at the Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport in Guangdong province. The move aims to protect the privacy of female passengers and help them to avoid the embarrassment of being checked by male security guards.
The lanes use pink as their identifying color. All the security guards who work in the lanes are women.
Meanwhile, children who fly with their mothers are also allowed to use the lanes. It also offers special baby baskets.
The Guangzhou airport is said to be the first on the Chinese mainland to have opened such special security lanes.
Officers checked more than 3,600 female passengers and dozens of children during the opening day.
According to the airport, by using the lanes, female passengers saved 15 percent of the time they would normally use standing in the line.
A Women's Federation official from Guangzhou said the lanes provided great convenience to women and increased efficiency for the airport.
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Many parents of lower-grade primary school students are concerned about whether their children will adapt to study, as their noon nap habits can hardly be carried out in a classroom, affecting their afternoon performance.
But the Hangzhou Danfeng Experimental Primary School in East China's Zhejiang province has reassured parents as it innovatively prepares 12 "sleeping rooms" for each first and second-grade classes, as well as pillows and blankets for each student.
The sleeping rooms are as big as a classroom, and are covered with foam pads. Children can enjoy a 50-minute noon nap until 1:05 pm after laying down on their pillows and blankets.
Every sleeping room has a teacher attending. Teachers will pacify naughty children or tuck sleeping students in quilts. If some students are unwilling to sleep, they are allowed to read books on the condition that they do not bother others.
The principal of the primary school, Cao Xiaohong, said school teachers disagreed with students napping on desks, as many do in other schools, because it was unhealthy.
Two years ago, a first grade primary student in the province reportedly went to the hospital complaining of cervical vertebra aches. The diagnosis revealed a dislocation of her cervical spine and the doctor thought it was related to her long-term napping on desks.
Cao said the school moved to a new building this year and there are enough spare classrooms.
Since sleeping on the ground would likely lead to students catching a cold during the cooler weather, the sleeping rooms will be open in May, June, September and October.
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