社会热点英语话题 04

　　1.Promoting the building of a new socialist 1 countryside

Building a new socialist countryside is a major historic task set at the Fifth Plenary Session of the Sixteenth Central Committee of the Party, which will have an overall impact on building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and modernizing 2 the country. We need to implement 3 a policy of getting industry to support agriculture and cities to support the countryside, strengthen support for agriculture, rural areas and farmers, and continue making reforms in rural systems and innovations in rural institutions to bring about a rapid and significant change in the overall appearance of the countryside.

The first priority in developing a new socialist countryside is to develop modern agriculture and promote steady expansion of grain production and sustained increase in rural incomes. We will stabilize 4, improve and strengthen policies supporting agriculture. We will further increase direct subsidies 5 to grain producers, subsidies for growing superior grain cultivars, and subsidies for agricultural machinery 6 and tools as well as increase transfer payments to major grain-producing counties and financially strapped 7 counties. We will continue and improve the floor price policy for key grain varieties and keep prices for agricultural supplies from rising too quickly. Central government budget expenditures 8 for agriculture, rural areas and farmers this year will total 339.7 billion yuan, 42.2 billion yuan more than last year. We need to protect arable 9 land, especially basic farmland, stabilize the acreage sown to grain, and expand overall grain production capacity. We will increase the country's capacity for innovation in agricultural science and technology and ability to put scientific and technological 10 advances to practical use, and step up efforts to disseminate 11 agricultural technology and improve agriculture-related technical services. We will accelerate reform of the veterinary medicine management system and development of the animal disease prevention and control system. We will continue to adjust the structure of agriculture by promoting development of the livestock 12 and poultry 13 industry, promoting the industrialization of agriculture, developing secondary and tertiary industries in rural areas, particularly for processing agricultural products, helping 14 county economies grow, bringing about an orderly transfer of the rural workforce 15 to nonagricultural employment in rural and urban areas, and increasing rural incomes through various channels.

2. Countryside in China

China, which has enjoyed sustained economic growth, face worrying challenges. There are worrying indications that social progress is starting to lag behind economic performance. With the slowdown in the rate of reduction in child deaths a special concern, the UN notes that China spends about 5% of its GDP on health, but public spending now amounts to less than 2% of GDP. The erosion of public funding, it says, has resulted in a mismatch between need and provision. With per capita spending in urban areas three point five times that in rural areas. Between 70 and 80% of the rural population have no health insirance. Children living in the poorest parts of rural China face far greater health risks and the gap is widening.