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2017-06-26 Special EnglishThis is Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.China has established its highest military award, the Order of August 1. The selection process for the first batch of winners has begun.The award will honor those who have made outstanding contributions to safeguarding the country's sovereignty, security and development interests, and advancing the modernization of national defense and the armed forces.A list of 17 candidates nominated by the People's Liberation Army, the armed police force and public security force has been made public to receive comments both from the military and the general public.Chinese astronaut Jing Haipeng, commander of the Shenzhou-11 spacecraft, is among the 17 candidates.August 1 is the founding anniversary of the Chinese military, the People's Liberation Army. This is Special English.A two-day ministerial meeting of the Group of Seven nations has ended in the Italy, confirming the split between the United States and its six major allies on climate change.The U.S. refused to endorse the summit's final statement in the part concerning climate, following President Donald Trump's recent decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on cutting global carbon emissions.Only six countries in the G7, namely, Britain, Canada, France, Italy, Germany, and Japan, restated their pledge to implement the accord, which has been signed by 195 parties and ratified by 148 countries and regions so far.In point 7 of the 15-page final communique, they "reaffirm strong commitment to the swift and effective implementation of the Paris Agreement, which remains the global instrument for effectively and urgently tackling climate change, and adapting to its effects".The U.S. representative did not agree on the point. The communique says the United States will continue to engage with key international partners in a manner that is consistent with its domestic priorities.You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.Beijing has pledged to closely cooperate and fully support the development of the Xiongan New Area and encourage people to move there as needed.Officials from the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei development group said the New Area, south of Beijing, will be the central location for non-capital functions.Therefore, Beijing will actively strengthen cooperation with the area on construction and services, accelerating the relocation of industries that suit the new super economic zone.Beijing will support whatever the New Area needs during its construction and development. Beijing will assist in the planning and policy cohesion in sectors including infrastructure construction, transportation integration and public service sharing.Beijing will also support innovative companies to set up in the area. China announced plans to establish the New Area in April this year as part of measures to integrate the region's development and cure "urban ills" including traffic congestion and air pollution.Located 100 kilometers southwest of downtown Beijing, the New Area mainly covers three counties in Hebei province.This is Special English.China will set up a community governance system led by grassroots Communist Party of China organizations by 2020.Local governments will play a guiding role in the community governance system which also features public participation.Governance capacity in both urban and rural communities will improve significantly by that time, as public services, management and security will be effectively ensured.A government document says that within another five to ten years, a more mature and comprehensive community governance system will offer strong support for the party at a grassroots level, while consolidating local governments.Issues including the basic role of autonomous organizations, the participation of social groups and the functions of communities are also included in the document.According to the document, on major issues relating to community public interests as well as those that matter to the residents' immediate interests, the community residents' role in the decision making and dispute resolution processes should be enhanced.Meanwhile, community services that are closely related to the residents' interests, including employment, social security, health, education, housing, public security as well as legal and arbitration services, should be made more widely available.You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.The Precise Service System of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite has been used in creating 317 smart cities in China.The system provides precise positioning services for household gas and heat, power grid, water supplies, drainage and smart transportation.Scientists say the satellite has a wide range of applications; and its precise positioning services should be developed practically. Its precise positioning services have been used in Beijing Gas Group to detect and locate gas leaks in pipelines.Scientists say that with the development of the internet of Things, big data and artificial intelligence, there will be an increasing need for precise positioning in industries like unmanned vehicles, drones and robots.The value of the satellite's industrial chain could reach 240 billion yuan by 2020. This is Special English.The principle of minimum intervention was highlighted at a forum on the protection and restoration of the Great Wall.Cultural officials in Beijing have called for ensuring the principle of replacing bad practice, at the forum in north China's Hebei Province. The officials warned that too much restoration would damage preservation. They urged preventative protection.The Great Wall, a symbol of China, is actually not just one wall, but many interconnected walls built between the third century B.C. and the Ming Dynasty which ended in the mid-17th century.The existing sections are mainly the Ming Dynasty wall, which stretches over 8,800 kilometers. It was listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1987. You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. You can access the program by logging on to crienglish.com. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. Now the news continues.The United States' best-known farm in China, Kimberley Farms in Iowa, has received a group of leading think tank researchers from Beijing for the first time, after becoming an attraction for Chinese visitors since President Xi Jinping's visit five years ago. Almost 20 members of top Chinese think tanks, including the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and China Center for International Economic Exchanges, retraced the roads that Xi traveled in 2012 as a visiting vice-president. They ended the tour with a field trip to patches of the 1,600-hectare corn and soybean farm operated by Rick Kimberley in Maxwell, Iowa, around 60 kilometers northeast of the state capital Des Moines. The strong wind and scorching sun on the weekend seemed not to dent their enthusiasm for learning more about agricultural trade between China and the United States. They also learned how farming is done in a safe and sustainable way in one of the top food exporters to China. Kimberley said only three or four people work in the 1,600-hectare-farm, and these people are now helping China's Hebei province to develop a demonstration farm. The 1,200-hectare-project will use new technology that is being used in Iowa. An agreement on developing the project was signed at the end of May. This is Special English.More than two billion children and adults, or one third of the world's population, are now overweight or obese.In a new study, researchers assembled data from 195 countries and territories to model trends in overweight or obese and related health problems and deaths. The study showed that the prevalence of obesity has doubled since 1980 in more than 70 countries and has continuously increased in most other nations.Of the four million deaths attributed to excess body weight in 2015, almost 40 percent occurred among people whose body mass index, or BMI, fell below the threshold considered "obese".The paper was published in The New England Journal of Medicine. Authors of the paper say the findings represent "a growing and disturbing global public health crisis".The results of the study are based on data from the most recent Global Burden of Disease study, a systematic, scientific effort to quantify the magnitude of health loss from all major diseases, injuries, and risk factors by age, sex, and population.It found excess weight affected 2 billion children and adults worldwide in 2015, including almost 108 million children and more than 600 million adults with BMI, or body mass indes, exceeding 30, the threshold for obesity.You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.Hotspots of established alien plant and animal species were found mainly in island and coastal mainland regions.A study is carried out by an international team, led by Dr. Wayne Dawson from the Durham University in the UK. The team analyzed existing data of eight groups of animals including amphibians, birds and plants across 190 islands and 420 mainland regions.The top three hotspots with the highest numbers of established alien species were the Hawaiian Islands, New Zealand's North Island and the Lesser Sunda Islands in Indonesia.High numbers of alien species in every one of the eight groups studied could be found in the Hawaiian Islands. They include guppies among fish, now globally widespread, and feral pigs among mammals.Florida in the U.S. is the top hotspot among coastal mainland regions, with the Burmese python, a well-known example of an invasive species among reptiles. The state is also home to a large number of less well-known non-native ant species.The study says the reason that islands and mainland coastal regions contain higher numbers of established alien plants and animals may be that these areas have major points of entry like ports.You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.A total of 243 precious items from Russia's Peterhof State Museum are being exhibited in southwest China's Sichuan Province.The items on display at the Chengdu Museum include oil paintings, porcelain, sculptures, clothes and furniture.The exhibition also features activities including a Russian fashion show and a Tetris game.The exhibition is among those the Chengdu Museum has held with countries along the ancient silk road to strengthen cultural exchange.A curator of the Russian museum said the display is expected to help people in Chengdu learn more about the history of Russia.The Peterhof State Museum is one of the most important museums that stores and displays cultural artifacts of the Russian Romanov Dynasty between 1613 and 1917. Peter the Great was the fourth tsar of the dynasty.The display is free to the public and will be open until the end of August. This is Special English.The birth of a giant panda cub at Tokyo's Ueno Zoo has been toasted in Japan.The 11-year-old Shin Shin, which means "truth", was removed from public viewing in mid-May after she began showing signs of pregnancy, including loss of appetite and increased lethargy.The Tokyo Governor has congratulated Shin Shin on her successful delivery.Shin Shin and her partner have been on loan from China since February 2011. They were ready for display shortly after the devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, bringing some much-needed joy to Japanese fans.In 2012, Shin Shin had a cub, the first panda born at the zoo in 24 years. It was greeted with widespread excitement. But the cub died from pneumonia six days after birth.Shin Shin showed signs of pregnancy again in 2013, but it turned out to be a false alarm.Panda pregnancies are relatively rare in captivity and outside China.(全文见周六微信。)