【专题】慢速英语(英音)2017-05-01
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2017-05-01 Special EnglishThis is Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.More than 3,100 government officials have been held to account for the poor implementation of pollution control measures. Environmental problems have been uncovered in all seven provincial level regions included in the environmental inspections by the central authorities. Inspectors have conducted their month-long reviews in Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing municipalities as well as in other provinces since late November. The performance audits exposed more than 15,000 violations.The inspection reports featured the complaint that governments have not focused enough attention on the environment. The failure has resulted in worsening air and water quality in some areas. In one case, Gansu province in northwest China made plans to control air pollution, but inspectors found that it had not fully implemented the measures. The province has failed to meet its air pollution reduction targets for 2014 and 2015. Inspectors also found a lack of assessment in Beijing, where seven districts failed to meet targets for 2014. The municipality did not release information or punish the officials responsible. This is Special English.China's manned submarine Jiaolong has gone through a dive simulation in Hainan Province to prepare for a deep descent in the South China Sea.The submarine stayed underwater for 18 minutes in the drill before returning to its support ship. The crew completed tasks including underwater training, practical operation and emergency escape.The ship's forthcoming South China Sea dive is part of the second stage of China's 38th ocean scientific expedition. The expedition will last for around four months.Officials say the drill was necessary to test the equipment and personnel. Currently the Jiaolong's "technological status" is stable and the cooperation among various departments is smooth.The submarine completed a deep-sea operation in the northwestern Indian Ocean earlier this year. It will also conduct surveys in the Yap Trench and the Mariana Trench.Named after a mythical dragon, the Jiaolong reached its deepest depth of 7,062 meters in the Mariana Trench in June 2012. You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.China has begun a series of changes to the rules regarding permanent residence for foreign nationals in the country.A plan has been issued by the Ministry of Public Security. The "foreigner's permanent residence card" will be renamed as the "foreigner's permanent residence identity card".Similar to the identity cards used by Chinese citizens, foreigners' identity information will be embedded in the chips on the machine-readable cards. The information will be shared by railways, airlines, insurance agencies, hotels and banks.The old version cannot be read by machines, and foreigners often face difficulty in identity authentication. The reform aims to provide foreigners with easier access to public services.The new card can be obtained at the original registration authority, while the old version can still be used until the expiry date. Related technical work is expected to be finished by June, and then foreigners can apply for the new cards.Last year, 1,600 foreign nationals became permanent residents of China, an increase of 160 percent over the previous year. This is Special English.China is aiming to increase the scale of its cloud computing industry by more than 2.5 times from 2015 levels by 2019.According to a new government plan, the scale of the cloud computing industry will be expanded to 430 billion yuan, roughly 62 billion U.S. dollars, by 2019. The action plan was issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.Other targets include making breakthroughs in core technology, increasing cloud computing in manufacturing and government affairs, and strengthening the global i
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