500 Ladies Seek Millionaires at Hook-up Event

　　China's top economic planner is conducting an anti-trust probe into several baby formula companies to investigate allegations of price fixing.

 

　　Several baby formula companies believed to have a monopoly in the Chinese market are being investigated.

 

　　Several baby formula manufacturers, including Biostime, MeadJohnson and Nestle, have been accused of violating anti-monopoly laws via high prices and limited market competition.

 

　　Companies that are found to have violated the law will be punished accordingly in order to protect the market and safeguard consumers' interests.

 

　　Global Times

 

　　500 Ladies Seek Millionaires at Hook-up Event

 

　　Over 500 single women participated in an upscale matchmaking event recently, all desperate to become wealthy housewives.

 

　　The event organizer, China Entrepreneurs' Club for Singles, claims to charge men an annual fee of 200-thousand yuan for the chance to meet a carefully selected and screened lineup of ladies.

 

　　While women are not charged a fee, the club claims to vet¹ all potential matches through rigorous rounds of written tests and interviews, including an intelligence exam, psychological evaluation² and a "life skill test".

 

　　Other hurdles³ include a shirt folding contest, a luggage packing challenge, a tarot card reading and a pulse-taking by a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner⁴.

 

　　Daily Mail

 

　　Internet Images of Child Abuse Double in Just a Year: 70-Thousand Sickening Pictures and Videos Discovered Online in 2012

 

　　A horrifying⁵ new report has made these claims and that there has been a 70-percent increase in the number of images featuring girls under the age of 10.

 

　　It also found that there was a 125-percent increase in the number of Level 4 images - which feature sex with children - on the internet.

 

　　Its report also found that paedophiles were increasingly using sophisticated software to hide their illegal activities.

 

　　AFP

 

　　It's A Bug's Life: Microbes to Inherit The Earth

 

　　A study claims 2-billion years from now, an ever-hotter Sun will have cooked the Earth, leaving microbes confined to pockets of water in mountains or caves as the last survivors⁶.

 

　　Researchers say as the Sun ages over the next billion years, it will become more luminous⁷, cranking up the thermostat⁸ on the Earth.

 

　　Over the second billion years, the oceans will dry up completely, leaving extremophiles -- microbial life able to cope with intense ultra-violet radiation and raging heat from the Sun -- to inherit the planet.

1 vet   

n.兽医，退役军人；vt.检查

参考例句：

• I took my dog to the vet.我把狗带到兽医诊所看病。
• Someone should vet this report before it goes out.这篇报道发表之前应该有人对它进行详查。

2 evaluation   

n.估价，评价；赋值

参考例句：

• I attempted an honest evaluation of my own life.我试图如实地评价我自己的一生。
• The new scheme is still under evaluation.新方案还在评估阶段。

3 hurdles   

n.障碍( hurdle的名词复数 )；跳栏；（供人或马跳跃的）栏架；跨栏赛

参考例句：

• In starting a new company, many hurdles must be crossed. 刚开办一个公司时，必须克服许多障碍。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• There are several hurdles to be got over in this project. 在这项工程中有一些困难要克服。 来自辞典例句

4 practitioner   

n.实践者，从事者；(医生或律师等)开业者

参考例句：

• He is an unqualified practitioner of law.他是个无资格的律师。
• She was a medical practitioner before she entered politics.从政前她是个开业医生。

5 horrifying   

a.令人震惊的，使人毛骨悚然的

参考例句：

• He went to great pains to show how horrifying the war was. 他极力指出战争是多么的恐怖。
• The possibility of war is too horrifying to contemplate. 战争的可能性太可怕了，真不堪细想。

6 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

7 luminous   

adj.发光的，发亮的；光明的；明白易懂的；有启发的

参考例句：

• There are luminous knobs on all the doors in my house.我家所有门上都安有夜光把手。
• Most clocks and watches in this shop are in luminous paint.这家商店出售的大多数钟表都涂了发光漆。

8 thermostat   

n.恒温器

参考例句：

• The thermostat is connected by a link to the carburetor.恒温控制器是由一根连杆与汽化器相连的。
• The temperature is controlled by electronic thermostat with high accuracy.电子恒温器，准确性高。