The world is changing fast, but you can learn it at a slower pace.
Special english.
You're listening to special english?
Here is the news china is set to expand its network of intellectual property protection centres with the approval of a new national level centre in Dongguan, in South China's Guangdong province.
That is according to the China National Intellectual Property Administration.
The new centre will facilitate rapid and coordinated IP protection work to innovators in the industries of intelligent terminal and new materials.
According to the country's top IP regulator, the new institution has brought the total number of national level IP protection centres across the country to 81, including 7 in Guangdong.
These centres have been established in key locations, including the provincial capital of Guangzhou and the innovation hub of Shenzhen.
As a manufacturing powerhouse.
Dongguan, a city with a permanent population of over 10 million, boasts a regional GDP exceeding 1 trillion yuan about US141 billion and a dynamic innovation ecosystem.
Once completed, the Dongguan Center will function as a one-stop platform to aggregate resources of IP protection services, promoting the integration of the innovation chain with the industrial chain.
The country's top IP regulator said that it will also strengthen coordination among all protection centres in the province, building a regional IP protection hub that fuels high-quality growth across the Guangdong, Hong Kong Macau, Greater Bay.
After resigning as a senior sales executive for a state-owned tobacco company in Shanghai, Yang Peiru registered a bamboo shoots processing company in his hometown Huitong County, a hinterland in central China's Hunan Province.
Yang is now the general manager of Hunan Greenland High-Tech Agriculture and Forestry Development Company.
Yang said that government loans had bolstered the company's capital and enhanced its production capacity.
Young's company now secures orders of 200,000 packages per day.
Established in 2017, Young's company has contracted some 3300 hectares of bamboo forest from local farmers to secure raw materials.
And the company is expected to achieve a sales goal of 80 million yuan by the end of this year.
Song Xiaofeng, a local villager who leased one hectare of bamboo forest to Yang's company, now works on its production line, earning a monthly salary of 4000 to 4500 yuan.
Song said that in the past she could hardly make more than 1000 yuan annually from her bamboo forest.
Now she earns about 50,000 yuan a year.
She added that the job allows her to care for her elderly parents and children at home, rather than endure the hardships of working in the mountains every day.
About 40 kilometres from Yang's company lies Jingzhou County, known for its waxberries and Poria Cocos, a traditional Chinese herbal medicine.
Local people have found that growing Poria Cocos under waxberry trees effectively utilises space, maintains vegetation balance and prevents soil erosion.
Wang Xinzhe, general manager of Jingzhou Guoling Technology Company, a local producer of Poria Cocos products, said that they have adopted such a model on 200 hectares of land.
According to the local authorities, as one of the largest Poria Cocos industrial parks in China, Jingzhou County attracted 71 people, traditional Chinese medicine enterprises, 21 e-commerce enterprises and four logistics enterprises by the end of last year included in the country's 2025.
Government Work Report.
China's non-timber forest-based economy is an eco-friendly economic model that involves a compound operation involving forests and woodlands.
According to data from China's National Forestry and Grassland Administration, By 2024, some 40 million hectares of forest land were utilized for this purpose, generating an annual output value of approximately 1 trillion yuan nationwide.
This is Special English.
Chinese Scientists have recently made significant advances in overcoming critical obstacles in solid-state batteries, pushing their performance to new heights.
Solid-state batteries, widely regarded as the next generation of lithium battery technology, hold promising potential for applications in new energy vehicles and low altitude aviation.
Previously, a 100 kilogram battery could power a vehicle for about 500 kilometers.
But recent breakthroughs promise to extend that range beyond 1,000 kilometers.
At the heart of a battery are lithium ions, which act like delivery men, shuttling electrons between the positive and negative electrodes.
The solid electrolyte serves as the road for these ions.
However, in conventional solid-state batteries, Sulfide-based electrolytes are too hard, while lithium metal electrodes are too soft.
When these materials interface, the uneven contact creates resistance, hindering ion movement and reducing efficiency, a long-standing bottleneck to commercialisation.
To address this, Chinese research teams have developed innovative solutions that seamlessly bridge the gap between rigid and soft materials, ensuring smoother ion transport and enhanced performance.
One approach from the Institute of Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences uses iodine ions as a form of special glue.
During operation, these ions migrate to the interface between the electrode and electrolyte, where they attract lithium ions to fill in microscopic gaps and pores.
This self-repairing mechanism creates a tightly bonded interface, effectively overcoming one of the most persistent barriers to the practicality of solid-state batteries.
Scientists at the Institute of Metal Research under the Academy have given electrolytes a flexible transformation.
By building a polymer-based skeleton, they created a battery that remains fully functional even after being bent 20000 times or twisted.
This design not only offers exceptional durability, but also incorporates specialised chemical additives into the flexible framework, some to accelerate lithium ion transport and others to capture additional ions, thereby increasing energy storage capacity by 86.
In another development, a team from Tsinghua University has introduced a fluorine reinforcement technique.
They modified the electrolyte with fluorinated polyether materials, leveraging fluorine's high resistance to voltage to form a protective layer on the electrode surface.
This fluoride-rich shield prevents the electrolyte from being broken down under high voltage.
As a result, batteries incorporating This technology have passed severe safety tests, including nail penetration and exposure to 120 degrees Celsius temperatures, without catching fire or exploding, thereby ensuring both high performance and safety.
China has made remarkable achievements in avian conservation, with stable population growth observed in multiple endangered bird species.
That is according to a meeting on migratory bird conservation which was recently held in Dongying in East China's Shandong Province between a joint working group from China Japan, Australia and the Republic of Korea.
The four countries participating in the meeting share the East Asian-Australasian Flyway and have a long history of cooperation on the protection of migratory birds.
Species exhibiting stable population growth include the Siberian crane, the bear's poacher, the saunders' gull, the Chinese crested tern and the crested ibis.
Over the past five years, The Chinese government has been consistently intensifying its avian protection efforts.
According to the meeting, the number of protected bird species in the country has since increased by nearly 50, with 394 species now designated as key nationally protected species and another 1028 categorized as species with important ecological, scientific or social value.
The development of a protected area system focusing on national parks is advancing steadily.
The Sanjiangyuan National Park and the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park were among the first five national parks established under the system, and they serve as crucial breeding grounds for migratory birds.
China has continued to strengthen its protection and restoration of migratory flyways, as well as its construction of a monitoring system.
It has designated 1140 migration route avian habitats as important and begun comprehensive protection and restoration work on 821 key sites.
Chinese authorities have been conducting a specialised campaign to combat the illegal trade of wildlife for six consecutive years, aimed at safeguarding ecological security by stopping the illegal hunting, trade and transport of wildlife.
It has resulted in a notable drop in both wildlife crime and the number of perpetrators.
This is Special English.
A recent study has shed new light on how global warming has reshaped extreme rainfall and snowfall across the northern hemisphere over the past seven decades.
The study led by researchers from the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography under the Chinese Academy of Sciences has been published in the journal Advances in Climate Change Research.
According to the study, global warming has modified the distribution of both solid and liquid precipitation, leading to changes in the intensity and frequency of extreme rainfall and snowfall.
Using ERA 5 land reanalysis data spanning from 1950 to 2022, the researchers conducted a comprehensive analysis of long-term trends, temperature sensitivity and the driving mechanisms of extreme rainfall and extreme snowfall across the northern hemisphere.
They found that over the past seven decades, extreme rainfall has intensified at a rate of 0269 mm per year, nearly nine times faster than the rate of increase for extreme snowfall, which is 0029 mm per year.
The study also suggested that warmer temperatures will mainly contribute to an increase in extreme rainfall, but exert relatively modest effects on extreme snowfall.
Li Yupeng, first author of the study, said that extreme precipitation is a critical factor in risk management.
Mid-latitude regions should prioritise managing flood risks driven by intensified rainfall, while high latitude and alpine regions need to address hazard risks related to snow.
Li added that the study offers an insight for understanding global extreme precipitation patterns and supports the design of region-specific climate adaptation and disaster prevention strategies.
You're listening to Special English.
That is the end of this edition of Special English.
To recap, I'm going to read two of the news items again at normal speed.
Please listen carefully.
China is set to expand its network of intellectual property protection centres with the approval of a new national level centre in Dongguan, in South China's Guangdong province.
That is according to the China National Intellectual Property Administration.
The new centre will facilitate rapid and coordinated IP protection work to innovators in the industries of intelligent terminal and new materials.
According to the country's top IP regulator, the new institution has brought the total number of national-level IP protection centres across the country to 81, including seven in Guangdong.
These centres have been established in key locations, including the provincial capital of Guangzhou and the innovation hub of Shenzhen.
As a manufacturing powerhouse.
Dongguan, a city with a permanent population of over 10 million, boasts a regional GDP exceeding 1 trillion yuan about US141 billion and a dynamic innovation ecosystem.
Once completed, the Dongguan Center will function as a one-stop platform to aggregate resources of IP protection services, promoting the integration of the innovation chain with the industrial chain.
The country's top IP regulator said that it will also strengthen coordination among all protection centres in the province, building a regional IP protection hub that fuels high-quality growth across the Guangdong, Hong Kong Macau, Greater Bay Area.
A recent study has shed new light on how global warming has reshaped extreme rainfall and snowfall across the Northern Hemisphere over the past seven decades.
The study led by researchers from the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography under the Chinese Academy of Sciences has been published in the journal Advances in Climate Change Research.
According to the study, global warming has modified the distribution of both solid and liquid precipitation, leading to changes in the intensity and frequency of extreme rainfall and snowfall.
Using ERA5 land reanalysis data spanning from 1950 to 2022, the research has conducted a comprehensive analysis of long-term trends, temperature sensitivity and the driving mechanisms of extreme rainfall and extreme snowfall across the Northern Hemisphere.
They found that over the past seven decades, extreme rainfall has intensified at a rate of 0269 mm per year, nearly nine times faster than the rate of increase for extreme snowfall, which is 0029 mm per year.
The study also suggested that warmer temperatures will mainly contribute to an increase in extreme rainfall, but exert relatively modest effects on extreme snowfall.
Liu Peng, first author of the study, said that extreme precipitation is a critical factor in risk management.
Mid-latitude regions should prioritise managing flood risks driven by intensified rainfall, while high-latitude and alpine regions need to address hazard risks related to snow.
Lee added that the study offers an insight for understanding global extreme precipitation patterns and supports the design of region-specific climate adaptation and disaster prevention strategies.
That is the end of today's programme.
I hope you'll join us every day to learn English at a slower pace.
East to west, people in China are chasing their dreams and leaving their mark.
Want to know how they beat the odds and made a difference?
Footprints brings you the true life stories of their journeys.