Dear Language Enthusiast,
Welcome to Transparent Language's free Chinese language newsletter.
For those of you who are new to our community, we offer these newsletters to help keep your
Chinese skills fresh, and remind you of the benefits of learning another language.
The best way to retain and develop any language is to be constantly active in it. Reading
is a great way to expand your vocabulary and familiarize yourself with natural Chinese
word structure. The topic for this newsletter is current events. We're taking a break from
the complexities of Chinese foreign policy to look at a lighter topic: the possibility of
cloning the endangered giant panda. We hope you enjoy reading about Chinese life and are
even inspired to search out Chinese publications on your own!
Tips for using ChineseNow! and Power Chinese are included at the end of the newsletter.
Sincerely,
Transparent Language
www.transparent.com
In English:
China's long-standing efforts to save the giant panda are going high-tech, as
scientists attempt to clone the endangered animals. But while experiments raise hopes of a
cloned panda birth this year, some question whether even a successful cloning can ensure
the survival of these cuddly giants.
Today there are only about 1000 pandas in the world, their numbers dwindling rapidly due
to poor breeding, possible fertility problems and man's steady encroachment on panda
habitats in the mountainous bamboo forests of west central China. Breeding programs
worldwide have failed to swell the panda population, so two years ago Chinese scientists
began an ambitious new research project: teaching pandas to breed like rabbits.
By inserting the genes of a dead female panda into the eggs of a white Japanese rabbit,
scientists now report that they have grown an actual panda embryo. The next step: placing
the embryo in a host animal. If the experiment succeeds, the first cloned panda could be
born later this year.
But not all scientists believe that even successful cloning can help save the panda. Some
conservation experts worry that poor quality panda genes could doom the experiment,
thinning weakened bloodlines that already cause problems in breeding. They also fear that
money spent for panda cloning could be better spent elsewhere-- on land conservation,
protecting the forests that sustain each 300-plus pound panda with up to 85 pounds of
bamboo daily, and on wild panda breeding research that could truly increase chances of
long-term survival.
Even as arguments fly back and forth, one thing is certain: if China succeeds in its
efforts to clone a newborn panda, the whole world will be eager to see the baby pictures.
The result could be pure "pandamonium."
Sources:
National Public Radio
The Washington Post
China News Agency
Panda Products
ChineseNow! Tips
Don't worry about sounding silly when you practice your pronunciation with ChineseNow!.
Only your computer will hear you, and with enough practice, you'll soon be speaking like a
native. To take a role in a real foreign language dialog, start Conversation Practice by
choosing Activities / Conversation Practice. (Dialog Titles only)
You can learn a lot by comparing the way the same word or words with similar
characteristics are used in different contexts. To quickly search for other occurrences of
the current word, root, or part of speech, click Word Tools and select Find Word, Find
Root, or Find Link.
Power Chinese Tips
For a useful guide to the Pinyin system of writing Chinese with English letters, click the
Reference button, then click Pinyin Guide. In Power Chinese, you can see the Pinyin of any
character or word by clicking on it with the Shift key pressed.
During most Power Chinese exercises, you can click on the period at the end of a sentence
to see a translation of the entire sentence and hear the sentence spoken.
