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Hello and Welcome to News and Reports on China Radio International.
In This Edition
Tensions on the ground in Israel and the Gaza Strip remain high, as both sides in this week's growing conflict continue trading shots.
British oil giant BP settles with the US government with 4.5-billion dollars for the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf3 of Mexico.
China plans to hone its spacecraft docking capabilities4 on its next manned space mission.
Hot Issue Reports
Improving People's Livelihoods5 Stressed at Party Congress
Issues connected to subsidized housing, environmental protection and workers incomes dominated a news conference held at the recently-concluded party congress. CRI's Shen Ting has more.
Reporter: The wellbeing of the Chinese people, including their rights to education, employment and housing, have been highlighted in a report by Chinese President Hu Jintao at the opening of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.
To echo this, a press conference focusing on people's livelihoods was held on the sidelines of the Party Congress. Minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development Jiang Weixin pledged at the event that China would begin building about 6 million affordable6 housing units in 2012.
China is engaged in building more than 7 million government-subsidized units this year as part of its five-year plan to construct 36 million affordable homes by 2015 in a bid to make housing accessible to low-income families.
Jiang Weixin also discussed the difficulties of carrying out this gigantic project.
"It is also a big task to build the affiliated8 infrastructure9, including road, subways, schools, clinics and nurseries. In addition, there are many problems that arise from the distribution and management of these apartments, which will pose difficulties in the future."
Pollution has become a major societal concern in recent years. Minister of Environmental Protection Zhou Shengxian cited the control of nitrogen oxide10, a major pollutant11, as one of the obstacles in reducing pollution.
In 2011, emissions12 of nitrogen oxide rose in China. But during the first half of this year, levels of all four major air pollution emissions -- namely carbon dioxide, sulfur13 dioxide, ammonia nitrogen and nitrogen oxide -- began to drop.
Zhou Shengxian finds out the reason.
"It has been proved in many real situations that whenever there was a big environmental problem, we could always look back at our economic policies for an answer. So in the future we will employ additional market mechanisms14 and the law of value to improve the performance of our pollution control work."
Hu Jintao also stated in his speech that people's incomes should rise along with the country's economic growth. He pledged to deepen the reform of the country's income distribution system.
Zhu Zhixin, vice15 chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, summarizes the main goals of Hu's report.
"Four goals were announced, including doubling the country's GDP, doubling rural and urban residents' incomes, ensuring that people's incomes rise in tandem16 with economic growth and issuing remuneration for workers in tandem with productivity."
Improving people's livelihoods has always been a priority for the Chinese government, which has worked hard to step up a series of reforms on the ground, such as those in health care infrastructure, to successfully address these issues, help maintain social stability, and increase the popularity of the ruling party.
For CRI, I'm Shen Ting.
Fighting Continues in Gaza
Tensions on the ground in Israel and the Gaza Strip remain high, as both sides in this week's growing conflict continue trading shots.
The Israeli airforce has continued to strike targets inside Gaza.
At the same time, Hamas fighters continue to launch missiles into Israeli territory, with one missile fired unsuccessfully into Tel Aviv.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered a 3-hour truce18 today to allow a visit into Gaza by Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Qandil.
Qandil said his country will spare no efforts to end the Israeli "aggression19" on the Gaza Strip and to restore a continuous ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militant20 groups.
Meanwhile, Egypt and Turkey are both calling for bilateral21 talks with Israel to try to bring the conflict to an end.
Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi.
"I spoke22 to the Secretary General of the Arab League and I requested we hold an emergency session of the Arab League on the Foreign Ministerial level at the soonest possible time to examine the ways in which aggression against Gaza can be prevented and to support the Palestinian people and stand by their side."
Meanwhile, Turkish President Abdullah Gul is calling on the United States to "warn" Israel about the strikes in Gaza.
"These attacks might get worse in the future but everybody is expecting the United States to warn Israel. I hope that this will not create a new problem within the fragile nature of the Middle East."
At the same time, thousands of Israeli reservists are being called up, signalling the conflict isn't likely to end anytime soon.
U.S., Thailand Sign Defense Alliance Pact
The United States and Thailand have signed a new defense pact.
The agreement has been inked during U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta's trip to Thailand.
Panetta says the defense deal covers 4 key areas.
"As listed in this vision statement, U.S and Thailand military cooperation will be concentrated in four areas: the first is the maintenance of peace in South-East Asia region; the second is to maintain stability in Asia-Pacific and other areas; thirdly, strengthening the military capacity for common action; and, finally, all-round strengthening US-Thai bilateral military cooperative relationships."
US President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit Thailand this coming weekend.
BP Settles with U.S. for US$4.5 Billion in Gulf Spill
British oil giant BP has agreed to pay 4.5-billion U.S. dollars in fines and other payments to the United States government.
The company has pleaded guilty to misconduct in connection with the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that left 11 dead and caused one of the largest oil spills in human history.
The settlement includes a 1-billion dollar criminal fine, the largest criminal fine in U.S history.
"BP has agreed to plead guilty to all 14 criminal charges, including responsibility for the deaths of 11 people and the events that led to an unprecedented25 environmental catastrophe26. The company has also agreed to pay four billion dollars in fines and in penalties. This marks both the largest single criminal fine, more than 1.25 billion dollars and the largest total criminal resolution in the history of the United States."
The Deepwater Horizon rig caught fire and later collapsed27 50 nautical28 miles off the coast of Louisiana on April 20th, 2010.
The open well then spewed 5-billion barrels of oil into the Gulf over a nearly three-months period, killing29 wildlife and closing the area to fishing.
IMF Chief Says Asian Economies Have Driven Global Growth
The head of the International Monetary30 Fund says emerging Asian economies have been driving global growth in recent years.
Christine Lagarde's comments have come during a visit this Friday in the Philippines.
Lagarde says Asia can offer lessons to eurozone countries on how to pull-out of the current financial crisis.
"When you look at their contribution to global growth, it's very significant, particularly in the tough years that we have just gone through. Global growth was essentially31 driven out of this part of the world and out of emerging market economies in the main."
At the same time, Lagarde says hope is not lost for Europe, saying its important countries like Greece operate on a sustainable basis.
The Greek Parliament last week passed a new austerity package.
The package has raised the retirement32 age and taxes, while at the same time, cutting pensions.
The World Needs a Strong Europe
Germany's Finance Minister has issued a new statement, saying Europe must be united in order to remain a big player.
Wolfgang Schaeuble has made the comments at a meeting of economic leaders in Berlin.
"About one fourth of the world currency reserves are in euros. It is an important currency by now. And if you listen to any global meeting, be it the IMF or G20, then you get the feeling that the world would be in much more trouble if we had not had an increasingly stable and trustworthy European currency for the last 10 years."
Schaeuble is also calling for more flexibility33 of the member states in fighting the downturn in Europe, particularly in choosing the tools to overcome the situation.
Light News
China to Strengthen Docking on New Space Mission
Chinese space authorities are planning to hone their spacecraft docking capabilities on its next manned space mission.
The Shenzhou-10 spacecraft is due to be launched in June.
The next Shenzhou mission will include 3 astronauts, including another woman.
The mission will see them dock with the Tiangong-1 space lab, where they will conduct scientific experiments and give lectures from space.
Jia Shijin is the assistant chief engineer of China's manned spacecraft project.
"China has mastered the rendezvous34 and docking techniques in the Shenzhou-8 and Shenzhou-9 missions. But we plan to further strengthen and improve our docking skills in the Shenzhou-10 mission, in order to make technical preparations for our third-phase space-station project."
The launch rocket and spacecraft are now being assembled and tested.
The 3 astronauts have not yet been selected.
Rural Healthcare Insurance System Benefits Severe Disease Patients
New statistics from the Ministry35 of Health are suggesting more than 800-thousand people living in China's rural areas who have suffered from severe disease have benefited from China's rural healthcare insurance system.
The system was established 10-years ago.
Health Minister Chen Zhu.
"As rural residents have enjoyed extensive benefits from the system, more and more severe disease patients have obtained higher reimbursement36, which have effectively relieved their financial burdens."
The rural healthcare insurance system covers over 800-million people in China's rural areas, accounting37 for 98 percent of the overall rural population.
The system provides reimbursement for 20 severe diseases including hemophilia, cleft38 palates and lung cancer.
The reimbursement covers more than 70-percent of the overall medical costs.
Highlife and Lowlife
A new exhibition of prints by foreign artists who captured images of China during the 18th century is underway at Peking University's Sackler Museum. CRI's Dominic Swire popped in to check it out.
REPORT: "In the 18th century, it was thought by Europeans that China was a happy place where everybody was well off, they sang, they danced..."
Donald Stone is a professor of art history at Peking University.
"So China was, for the Europeans, a kind of fantasy, a dream where everything is not only happy and beautiful, but it allowed the artist - you see these Pillements - to let their imaginations run wild."
The exhibition consists of over 60 prints all made just before the start of the French Revolution in 1789.
DOMINIC: "So, if you look carefully at these prints, of course, they're made up of lots and lots of lines and these lines would have been drawn39 or scratched or engraved40 by hand on....
DONALD: "Absolutely, absolutely. You know, nowadays the reproductions are made by cameras. In those days they had to hire etchers to draw every single line by hand on a piece of copper41. It must have been an enormous labour."
The exhibition's titled 'High Life and Low Life'. The name came from a street scene by English artist William Hogarth called Southwark Fair.
"In this print you have the highlife and lowlife together in one print. You have high theatre and low theatre, high born people and low born people. And in connection with Hogarth you really have the extremes of the English classes, the upper classes and lower classes. So, it was just the title that popped into my head."
This is the latest of many collaboration42 between Professor Stone and the university.
The works on display were bought by Professor Stone, but most will stay at the gallery permanently43 as he has pledged to donate all his print works to Peking University.
For CRI, I'm Dominic Swire.
New Occupations Emerge Online Shopping Boom
A number of new professions, including online product photography and cyber modelling, have been popping up here in China in recent years as more and more people turn to the internet for their shopping needs. CRI's Wang Wei has more.
Reporter: A growing number of photo studios, as well as individual photographers are providing product photo shooting services for online businesses and most of them are able to make some 10 thousand yuan, or about 1,600 US dollars, a month.
Huang Jingyi runs one such photo studio in Beijing. Caught up in the recent Singles Day online shopping sales frenzy44, Huang says photo orders started to flood in a month in advance and he and his staff rushed to get the work done.
"At the busiest time, we had to work day and night, nonstop for three consecutive45 days. We took photos of at least ten thousand products."
A senior female online shop owner surnamed Li uses the product photography service and says competition between shop owners is fierce nowadays. Having presentable product pictures on a store's webpage is an effective way to be more competitive and Li talks about her own experience.
"I sell purses and bags online. The business was good, until more competitors entered the market in recent years, and my sales started to go down. However, I found one other shop selling basically the same products as mine that stood out strong. It was largely due to the attractive promotion46 pictures on its page. The pictures have beautiful models in them and are well shot, and even I felt like shopping at that store after seeing the pictures. So I began to use the photo service and now spend 800 yuan every week for it."
The lowest price for taking picture of one product is 35 yuan, so that means there is at least 40 million yuan in the pool.
Another occupation that booms is the cyber model. A young woman surnamed Yang is a sophomore47 student who does cyber modeling work part time, and says she's been making quite a fortune out of it.
"I work on weekends, posing in front of cameras in different clothes. The payment is about 7 or 8 thousand yuan a month."
Taobao has its own "T-Lady" online model platform, where women interested in the job can register and put up their profiles and pictures on the page, and shop owners can find the a model that suits their product and directly contact the model. According to Taobao's statistics, there are 35 thousand cyber models registered at the platform and the models have made a total value of more than 1 billion yuan.
For CRI, I'm Wang Wei.
[Media Digest]
CHINA DAILY
"Disabled to Get Better Access to Devices to Lead Fuller Lives"
Sun Xiande, vice-president of China Disabled Persons' Federation48, said the government is also encouraging more companies and organizations to participate in research and development of mechanical aids and devices for the disabled.
Studies show that about 90 percent of the disabled and at least one-third of the elderly need devices to assist them.
However, the reality in China is that less than 7 percent of people living in rural areas can access aid facilities and the coverage49 rate in cities is only 12 percent.
SHANGHAI DAILY
"Claims for Masks Can Be Misleading"
Doctors and experts said consumers should be wary50 of claims that masks filter out tiny PM2.5 particles as the country so far has no regulations governing the masks and some may cause respiratory problems.
Many different masks are available, such as medical masks, activated51 carbon masks and industrial masks, in drugstores, supermarkets and online for "PM2.5 protection."
In a drugstore on Jiangning Road, a medical mask with activated carbon costs 10 yuan or $1.6 US dollars. A sales clerk said she didn't know whether the mask can stop PM2.5 particles.
In some online stores, however, vendors52 boast that masks costing from 3 to 20 yuan stop PM2.5 particles. None, however, have the certificates that could help prove their claims.
DAILY MAIL
"The 'Sun' Glasses That Can Bring the Daylight inside Even on the Darkest of Days"
A pair of glasses could be a ray of hope for the depressed53 office worker facing a long dark, winter.
According to scientists, light therapy is an effective treatment for seasonal54 affected55 disorders56 that affects around 1 in 50 people in UK, whose main symptom is a persistent57 low mood.
The glasses which cost 54 are designed to be worn during daily routine without obscuring wearer's vision, and they are now available on Amazon.
The makers58 say wearing the glasses for up to 30 minutes a day will give them more energy during winter months.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
"Brazil Aims to Clone Wild Animal Species"
Brazilian researchers are turning to cloning to help fight the perilous59 decline of several animal species.
Scientists said they have spent two years building a gene23 library from eight native species, and the research is still in early stages.
The team leader of the Brazilian scientists said their idea was not to use cloning as a primary conservation tool, and instead they aims to expand the gene library to include more samples under pressure.
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defense
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| n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩 | |
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pact
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| n.合同，条约，公约，协定 | |
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gulf
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| n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂 | |
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capabilities
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| n.能力( capability的名词复数 )；可能；容量；[复数]潜在能力 | |
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livelihoods
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| 生计，谋生之道( livelihood的名词复数 ) | |
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affordable
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| adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的 | |
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aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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affiliated
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| adj. 附属的, 有关连的 | |
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infrastructure
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| n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施 | |
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oxide
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| n.氧化物 | |
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pollutant
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| n.污染物质，散布污染物质者 | |
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emissions
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| 排放物( emission的名词复数 )； 散发物（尤指气体） | |
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sulfur
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| n.硫，硫磺（=sulphur） | |
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mechanisms
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| n.机械( mechanism的名词复数 )；机械装置；[生物学] 机制；机械作用 | |
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vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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tandem
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| n.同时发生；配合；adv.一个跟着一个地；纵排地；adj.（两匹马）前后纵列的 | |
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civilians
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| 平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓 | |
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truce
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| n.休战，(争执，烦恼等的)缓和；v.以停战结束 | |
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aggression
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| n.进攻，侵略，侵犯，侵害 | |
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militant
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| adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士 | |
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bilateral
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| adj.双方的，两边的，两侧的 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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gene
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| n.遗传因子，基因 | |
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holder
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| n.持有者，占有者；(台，架等)支持物 | |
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unprecedented
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| adj.无前例的，新奇的 | |
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catastrophe
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| n.大灾难，大祸 | |
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collapsed
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| adj.倒塌的 | |
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nautical
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| adj.海上的，航海的，船员的 | |
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killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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monetary
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| adj.货币的，钱的；通货的；金融的；财政的 | |
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essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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retirement
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| n.退休，退职 | |
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flexibility
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| n.柔韧性，弹性，（光的）折射性，灵活性 | |
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rendezvous
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| n.约会，约会地点，汇合点；vi.汇合，集合；vt.使汇合，使在汇合地点相遇 | |
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ministry
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| n.(政府的)部；牧师 | |
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reimbursement
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| n.偿还，退还 | |
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accounting
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| n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表 | |
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cleft
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| n.裂缝；adj.裂开的 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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engraved
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| v.在（硬物）上雕刻（字，画等）( engrave的过去式和过去分词 )；将某事物深深印在（记忆或头脑中） | |
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copper
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| n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的 | |
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collaboration
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| n.合作，协作；勾结 | |
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permanently
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| adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地 | |
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frenzy
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| n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动 | |
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consecutive
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| adj.连续的，联贯的，始终一贯的 | |
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promotion
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| n.提升，晋级；促销，宣传 | |
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sophomore
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| n.大学二年级生；adj.第二年的 | |
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federation
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| n.同盟，联邦，联合，联盟，联合会 | |
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coverage
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| n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖 | |
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wary
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| adj.谨慎的，机警的，小心的 | |
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51
activated
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| adj. 激活的 动词activate的过去式和过去分词 | |
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vendors
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| n.摊贩( vendor的名词复数 )；小贩；（房屋等的）卖主；卖方 | |
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53
depressed
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| adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的 | |
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seasonal
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| adj.季节的，季节性的 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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disorders
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| n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 )；凌乱；骚乱；（身心、机能）失调 | |
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persistent
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| adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的 | |
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makers
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| n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式） | |
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perilous
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| adj.危险的，冒险的 | |
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