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　　【本期文稿】

　　This is Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing. Here is the news.

　　The record sales at major Chinese e-commerce sites on November 11th offer an insight into the robust domestic demand in the world's second-largest economy.

　　November 11 has become an online shopping spree since 2009 when Alibaba's Tmall made its first online sales promotion.

　　The world's biggest online shopping event is a barometer of consumer behavior. It has attracted shoppers from around the world looking for bargains and multinational corporations seeking sales.

　　Trade at Alibaba, China's largest e-commerce platform, reached 168 billion yuan, roughly 25 billion U.S. dollars, in the shopping event.

　　Alibaba's mobile payment platform, Alipay, handled almost 1.5 billion payments from around the world, 41 percent more than last year. A total of 800 million orders were generated in the 24 hours, up 23 percent.

　　More than 140,000 overseas brands participated. Customers came from 230 countries.

　　This is Special English.

　　The number of new international students enrolled at U.S. colleges and universities have declined by nearly 10,000 in the 2016/17 academic year, representing a 3 percent drop from the previous year.

　　According to a report released by the U.S. Institute of International Education, around 290,000 foreign students were admitted to American higher educational institutions in autumn 2016. However, the overall number of international students studying in the U.S. still increased.

　　This is the first time that the number of new international students dropped in the 12 years since the institute started reporting about enrollments, based on the official statistics provided by the U.S. government.

　　The report says that factors driving the slowing of growth include a mix of global and local economic conditions, expanded higher education opportunities at their home countries and declining student populations.

　　Still, in the 2016/17 academic year, U.S. colleges and universities hosted more than one million international students for the second consecutive year, reaching a record high of 1 million.

　　More than 350,000 Chinese students were studying in the U.S. in this period; and China maintained its first place on the chart, followed by India and South Korea.

　　International students contributed 39 billion U.S. dollars to the American economy last year, through their spending on tuition, accommodation and other living expenses.

　　Meanwhile, Allan E. Goodman, the President and CEO of the institute, said many countries around the world were competing to attract top talent.

　　He said that as more countries become active hosts of international students and implement national strategies to attract them, the competition for top global talent in higher education and the workforce will only intensify.

　　You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing.

　　Western countries have been passive in international efforts to recover assets secured through corruption and subsequently stashed abroad, thereby weakening the work of a United Nations anti-corruption conference that was held in Austria recently.

　　During the 7th Session of the Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption, a diplomatic battle between developing countries and some western states over the resolution on asset recovery took place at the body's headquarters in the Austrian capital Vienna.

　　Drafted by Nigeria, the resolution aimed to boost international cooperation in asset recovery, one of the key issues in the field of anti-corruption.

　　According to a joint research of the United Nations and the World Bank Group, an estimated 20 to 40 billion U.S. dollars each year, or around 15 to 30 percent of official development assistance funds, is stolen from developing countries due to corruption.

　　A large part of the money is believed to be transferred to some western countries, which are golden havens for stolen assets from the developing countries.

　　A mere 5 billion of such funds have been repatriated over the past 15 years, shining light on the difficulty in asset recovery.

　　This is Special English.

　　The world's first 2,000-metric-ton electric boat has been put to use in the southern city of Guangzhou.

　　With a battery capacity of 2,400 kilowatt-hours, the self-unloading ship built by Guangzhou Shipyard International has zero exhaust emissions.

　　The ship is powered by a lithium battery and super capacitor, and can last up to 80 kilometers after a two-hour charge.

　　The steel cargo ship will be used to carry coal and it will navigate mainly on the Pearl River.

　　You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing.

　　The biennial Dubai Airshow has seen its trade deals worth 17 billion U.S. dollars during the first day of the show.

　　The major deal being sealed on day one of the airshow was an order placed by Emirates Airline for 40 Boeing 787-10 aircraft valued at 15 billion dollars. The airline is the world's largest Boeing 777 operator and it will become the first to receive the new 777X in 2020.

　　The CEO of the government-controlled carrier said Boeing 787 is a great complement to the current 777 and A380 fleet, providing more flexibility to serve a range of destinations as the company develops their global route network.

　　Boeing says the 787-10 offers 10 percent better in fuel and emissions than competitive aircraft in the sector, and some 25 percent better in fuel efficiency per seat and emissions than the aircraft it is replacing.

　　The United Arab Emirates Ministry of Defense revealed an order book worth almost 1.8 billion dollars, including the purchase of 60 Lockheed Martin F-16s. The order book includes new deals for international and local companies.

　　The airshow attracted 73,000 trade visitors and 1,200 exhibitors across the event's five-day run, representing the entire spectrum of aerospace industry.

　　This is Special English.

　　One of the leading high-tech enterprises in China, Xiaomi, has opened two physical stores via its authorized re-sellers in Madrid, the capital of Spain.

　　The two local stores, called the Mi Home, have been the company's first physical stores in Western Europe. The stores are located in two commercial centers in Madrid.

　　A manager from the company says Xiaomi has been working to develop its Spanish market for the past few years, and its products have become more and more popular. Previously, people could only purchase the products online. Now the stores have made it easier for the local people to buy the products.

　　The manager said the opening of the physical stores in Spain is just the company's first step in their development in the Western European markets.

　　You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing. You can access the program on our Apple Podcast. Now the news continues.

　　Frequent alcohol drinking kills new cells in key brain regions, with females being more vulnerable.

　　A new study on mice by researchers from the United States discovered that alcohol killed the stem cells that are responsible for creating new nerve cells and important to maintaining normal cognitive function in adult mouse brains.

　　And for the first time, the research showed that brains change due to alcohol exposure and are different for females and males.

　　The findings may help open a door to combating chronic alcoholism.

　　For the study, the researchers used a cutting-edge technique to tag brain stem cells in order to observe how they migrate and develop into specialized nerve cells over time. This allowed the researchers to study the impact of long-term alcohol consumption on the cells.

　　It showed that chronic alcohol drinking killed most brain stem cells and reduced the production and development of new nerve cells.

　　However, the effects of repeated alcohol consumption differed across brain regions. The brain region most susceptible to the effects of alcohol was one of two brain regions where new brain cells are created in adults.

　　This is Special English.

　　Risk of blood clots increases with the amount of time spent watching television, even if people get the recommended amount of physical activity.

　　According to preliminary research presented at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions in Anaheim, California, watching TV itself isn't likely bad, but people tend to snack and sit still for prolonged periods while watching.

　　It is estimated that each year, between 300,000 to 600,000 people in the U.S. develop blood clots, making it the most common vascular diagnosis after heart attack or stroke.

　　In previous studies, prolonged TV viewing has already been associated with heart disease involving blocked arteries. But according to researchers, this is the first study in a western population to look at blood clots in veins of the legs, arms and lungs.

　　Among 15,000 middle-aged people, 45 to 64-year-old, in the study, researchers found that the risk of developing a blood clot for the first time was 1.7 times higher in those who reported they watch TV "very often" compared with those who watch TV "never or seldom".

　　The study suggests that people could put a treadmill or stationary bike in front of their TV and move while watching.

　　You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing.

　　U.S. aerospace firm SpaceX suffered a rocket-engine explosion during a test of its next-generation model at the company's test facility in the U.S. state of Texas.

　　The company said no one was injured and all safety protocols were followed during the time of this incident.

　　SpaceX is now "conducting a thorough and fully transparent investigation of the root cause".

　　The explosion occurred during a test of SpaceX's next generation Merlin engine "Block 5" at the SpaceX's facility in McGregor, Texas.

　　Falcon 9 rockets that are currently in operation utilize the "Block 4" Merlin engine, so the company doesn't expect the failure to cause any launch delays.

　　This is not the first time SpaceX has experience failure.

　　On Sept. 1, 2016, a Falcon 9 blew up on the launch pad during a routine preflight test, destroying the rocket, its payload and the launch pad, but no one was hurt.

　　This is Special English.

　　Disney and Marvel's "Thor: Ragnarok" continued to dominate the North American box office with an estimated 56.6 million U.S. dollars in its second weekend.

　　Directed by Taika Waititi and starring Chris Hemsworth, the super hero film is based on the Marvel Comics character Thor and is the sequel to 2011's "Thor" and 2013's "Thor: The Dark World".

　　A movie analyst says the film holds a hammer-like grip on the box office in its second weekend while enjoying ongoing great reviews, audience enthusiasm and a whopping 212 million U.S. dollars after just 10 days in North American theaters.

　　This is the end of this edition of Special English. To freshen up your memory, I'm going to read one of the news items again at normal speed. Please listen carefully.

　　The record sales at major Chinese e-commerce sites on November 11th offer an insight into the robust domestic demand in the world's second-largest economy.

　　November 11 has become an online shopping spree since 2009 when Alibaba's Tmall made its first online sales promotion.

　　The world's biggest online shopping event is a barometer of consumer behavior. It has attracted shoppers from around the world looking for bargains and multinational corporations seeking sales.

　　Trade at Alibaba, China's largest e-commerce platform, reached 168 billion yuan, roughly 25 billion U.S. dollars, in the shopping event.

　　Alibaba's mobile payment platform, Alipay, handled almost 1.5 billion payments from around the world, 41 percent more than last year. A total of 800 million orders were generated in the 24 hours, up 23 percent.

　　More than 140,000 overseas brands participated. Customers came from 230 countries.

　　This is the end of today's program. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing, and I hope you can join us every day, to learn English and learn about the world.

　　This is the end of today's program. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing, and I hope you can join us every day, to learn English and learn about the world.

　　祝大家学习愉快，下期再见。

　　编辑：郜惠英

　　审核：徐蕾莹