This is NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.

A Chinese rocket scientist has said that 110 China-made Long March rockets will take to the skies over the next five years, as more models are developed.

The former head of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology Liang Xiaohong says the past decade witnessed a rapid increase in the number of Long March rockets launched.

From 2011 to 2015, 86 Long March rockets were launched, and from 2006 to 2010 the number was 48.

The scientist says the increasing number of launches within the five-year time frame shows that China's capacity in rocket design, production and management have been improved significantly.

In addition, the next-generation Long March 5 heavy lift rocket and medium Long March 7 will debut this year, and the heavy carrier rocket system is in development.

The new-generation rockets will use environmentally friendly propellant and will feature first-class space technology.

The heavy carrier rocket, which is comparable to the U.S. Saturn V, is expected to be launched in 15 years, the thrust of which will be five times the current force.

Moreover, it is expected that by 2020, China's Mars program will have begun, thanks to the Long March 5 rockets. Advanced stages including Expedition 2 will have been developed.

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China will tighten quarantine measures against the Zika virus.

Public health authorities say those from the affected regions should declare themselves to the quarantine staff when entering China, if they have suspicious symptoms, including fever, joint pain, rash, headaches and muscle pain.

The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said entry and exit quarantine areas should be equipped with test kits for Zika.

It said effective measures should be made to eliminate mosquitoes in vehicles and containers from the affected areas.

Guangdong Province reported China's 10th confirmed Zika case recently. A 40-year-old man returned from Venezuela with his family on Feb. 25. His two children tested positive for the virus on Feb. 27.

The World Health Organization declared a global emergency in early February amid a Zika outbreak in Central and South America. China has also been on alert as experts warn the warming weather may facilitate the spread of the mosquito-borne virus.

You're listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.

Almost 40,500 disabled people in China have been admitted to universities over the past five years, thanks to government subsidies.

Following the release of a series of plans on special education in 2014, more than 100,000 disabled students received aid to continue their studies, while over 4,500 teachers received specialist training.

At the elementary level, 71 percent of disabled children were accepted to nine-year compulsory education during 2011 and 2015.

Disabled people in China have also enjoyed better social security services during the 12th Five-Year Plan period, as a basic living allowance was made available to more than 11 million disabled people nationwide.

Moreover, 70 percent of China's disabled are now covered by a pension insurance program, with almost 6,000 nursing agencies providing services.

In terms of employment, more than 21 million disabled people in China have a job, which lifted 5 million people out of poverty during the five years.

There were 30 million disabled people across China registered in a state-level database for the disabled as of the end of 2014.

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A joint research team of Chinese and European scientists has discovered some certain plants on the Tibetan Plateau can predict the occurrence of an Indian monsoon.

Researchers found that dominant grass species, including bog sedge on the high mountains of Tibet, can predict when an Indian monsoon is coming by unfolding their leaves before it hits.

The researchers recently published their findings in the journal Scientific Reports.

It is the first time scientists have found some plants which possess sophisticated weather-forecasting abilities, and they think these plants are more adaptable to climate change.

The researchers made the discovery as they investigated whether a sudden jump in temperature would interfere with a plant's biological clock, which might indicate climate change's negative impact on an ecosystem.

Many plants fold their leaves during cold and dry winter months to protect themselves. Some fear that plants may unfold their leaves early in the event of an exceptionally warm winter.

They analyzed observational records from five scientific stations on the plateau over the last two decades, and conducted experiments for seven years on a remote mountain slope in Tibet to test and prove their theories.

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Australian animals that look "ugly" attract little or no research funding, leading to poor conservational outcomes.

A study has found that Australian animals that scientists deemed "ugly" received minimal scientific attention in comparison to their more aesthetically-pleasing counterparts.

Researchers from Western Australia reviewed scientific literature on 331 species of Australian mammals, and grouped each animal's appearance under one of three banners, "good", "bad" or "ugly".

The "good" group included some of Australia's most recognizable native fauna, including kangaroos, echidnas and koalas; while the "bad" featured introduced, invasive species including rabbits, cane toads, cats and foxes.

Some of the animals dubbed "ugly" were sub-species of bats and rodents, and according to researchers, that group makes up almost half of Australia's total fauna.

Two types of bats, known for their peculiar looks, were the orange leaf-nosed bat and several species of ghost bats or false vampire bats.

Associate Professor Trish Fleming from Murdoch University has been working on the study. He explained that scientists were not rejecting the ugly animals on purpose.

He says these animals mostly come out at night and are small so they are not as obvious; they are also not considered to drive ecosystems but they are important organisms.

You're listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. You can access the program by logging onto NEWSPlusRadio.cn. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know by e-mailing us at [email protected]. That's [email protected]. Now the news continues.

A 3,000-year-old wheel, the oldest ever complete wheel to be found in Britain, has been unearthed during excavation work at the site of a Bronze Age settlement in England.

Experts from Cambridge Archaeological Unit are carrying out the dig at a site in Cambridge shire known as "Britain's Pompeii". The experts say the wheel is the largest and earliest of its kind ever found in Britain.

Archaeologists have already discovered the remains of what are Britain's best-preserved Bronze Age dwellings in a river channel near the city of Peterborough.

The meter wide wheel was discovered sitting in sediments close to the remains of a dwelling house. It is still fixed to its hub.

The experts say it raises a whole host of questions, mainly why is there a wheel in the remains of a river channel. Even more intriguing is that it is close to the remains of a horse discovered earlier.

Archaeologists say the wheel may have belonged to a horse-drawn cart; but it is too early to know at the moment how the wheel was used.

In such a marshy area, boats were thought to have been the most common method of transport, confirmed by the discovery of eight dug-out canoes of various sizes found nearby.

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One of the most iconic structures in Britain, Blackpool Tower, has won a heritage award.

Visible on a clear day from Wales and the English Lake District, the 158 meter high tower opened in 1894, inspired by the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Although it is the highest, the accolade, Grade One Listing from Historic England, is the first official recognition for its importance as a work of engineering.

In its citation for the newly introduced heritage awards, the Institution of Civil Engineers said Blackpool Tower was "possibly the most instantly recognizable work of civil engineering in Britain".

Darrell Matthews, director of ICE in Britain's North West region described the tower's nomination as really interesting because civil engineering is usually associated with more practical structures such as railways and bridges. But the tower, on the northern English coast of the Irish Sea, was "all about having fun".

Matthews said there is no doubting the engineering skill that went into designing and building it, so it's a very worthy winner.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of people ascend to the top of the tower in lifts, many daring to walk on a glass skywalk, staring down onto the ground below. The glass, 5 centimeters thick, can withstand the weight of two elephants.

You're listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.

Sixteen captive Pere David's deer have been released to join their peers around central China's Dongting Lake.

The deer, 11 female and 5 male, escaped captivity in the 1990s and were raised in a reserve in east China's Jiangsu Province. They were fitted with GPS devices before being reintroduced to the wild.

Almost driven to extinction, around 100 deer were counted in the most recent census of the species around the Dongting Lake area in Hunan Province. It is hoped that the new additions will enrich the gene pool and boost the population.

During a catastrophic flood in 1998, a handful of deer escaped from a nature reserve in neighboring Hubei Province, crossing the Yangtze River to settle in the reed beds and marshlands by the Dongting Lake.

Pere David's Deer are believed to be endemic to China's subtropical areas. Chinese people call them "sibuxiang", meaning "it looks like none of the four". The name refers to the fact that the animal has a neck resembling that of a camel, a tail of a donkey, with cow-like hooves and deer-like antlers.

Pere David's Deer was named after Armand "Pere" David, a Basque missionary and the first Westerner to introduce the animal to Europe in the late 19th century.

The species became extinct in China by 1900 due to natural disasters and overhunting. In 1985, 22 specimens were brought to China from the world's only herd in Bedfordshire, Great Britain.

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Life expectancy in Beijing rose slightly from 2014 to reach almost 82 years last year.

An annual report by the Beijing Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning found that the life expectancy rose by 0.1 year from the figure in 2014. The infant mortality rate was 0.2 percent.

The top three fatal diseases were cancer, heart disease and cerebral vascular diseases.

It also pointed to increased medical expenses. Per capita medical expenses for outpatients at public hospitals stood at 440 yuan, roughly 67 U.S. dollars, up 4 percent from the previous year, adjusted for inflation.

Per capita residential treatment fees were 20,000 yuan, a year-on-year growth of 5 percent. Beijing medical institutions registered 240 million patient visits, up 50 percent from five years ago.

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