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

When 9.4 million Chinese students took the college admission test or "gaokao", some stayed away. These students are in a pilot program to take independent entry exams for vocational schools.

Currently, both applicants for ordinary universities and vocational schools take the same exam on June 7 and 8 every year.

This year, almost half of the 7 million vacancies are at vocational schools. These institutions admit students from high schools who are graduates and offer two or three years of further vocational education.

A number of vocational schools have been allowed to host their own entry exams, a pilot program to streamline vocational education.

Experts say independent entry exams designed by the schools themselves allow them to recruit students who are interested in the courses and are talented in the field, not just those who simply score low in gaokao.

Since the trial began in 2006, around 500 vocational schools, or 40 percent of the total, have joined the program.

China's Ministry of Education is considering two kinds of national entry exams. The entry test for applicants who are interested in vocational education will include tests on academic knowledge and professional skills, while the entry exam for those interested in academic students will keep to the current setup.

This is NEWS Plus Special English.

A new report says that although progress has been made in the past year, China's environment, especially water, air and soil, still faces serious challenges.

Environment officials have called for improvements to the legal system, a more environmentally friendly development outlook and better institutions to protect the worsening environment.

The report says water quality is "not optimistic" and air quality in cities is "serious".

Last year, around 9 percent of the water sections in China's top 10 river valleys were rated as level 5, the worst grade.

As for air quality, only three of the 74 cities being monitored met the national standard for good air last year. The accumulation of air pollutants led to acid rain which affected more than 10 percent of the nation's arable land.

The environmental protection ministry says that although conditions remain grim, the situation improved last year with more acknowledgement and focus on the problems brought about by decades of rapid growth.

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

A new cooing, gesturing humanoid on wheels that can decipher emotions has been unveiled in Japan. The robot has been developed by billionaire Masayoshi Son who says robots should be tender and make people smile.

Son's mobile phone company Softbank says the robot, called Pepper, will go on sale in Japan in February next year for 198,000 yen, around 1,900 US dollars. Overseas sales are also under consideration.

The machine has no legs, but has gently gesticulating hands. It appeared on a stage in a Tokyo suburb, cooing, humming, and touching hands with Son.

Pepper has been programmed to read the emotions of people around it by recognizing expressions and voice tones.

Cuddly robots are not new in Japan, a nation dominated by "kawaii," or cute culture, but no companion robot has emerged as a major market success yet.

Electronics and entertainment company Sony discontinued the Aibo pet-dog robot in 2006, despite an outcry from its fans. At that time, Sony had developed a child-shaped entertainment robot similar to Pepper but much smaller. The robot was capable of dances and other charming moves, but never became a commercial product.

Honda Motors has developed a walking talking Asimo robot, but that is too sophisticated and expensive for home use. It appears in Honda showrooms and gala events only. Even then, it is prone to glitches because of its complexity.

Many other Japanese companies, including Hitachi and Toyota, as well as universities and startups, have developed various robots, large and small, which entertain and serve as companions.

This is NEWS Plus Special English.

A dragon fish with intricate, maze-like markings on every scale, a frog with rough, chocolate-colored skin and a ginger plant are among more than two dozen flora and fauna species found in Myanmar.

The discoveries by global scientists in the last two years highlight the need to invest in conservation as the biologically diverse nation of 60 million revs up its economic engines and opens up to foreign investment.

The World Wildlife Fund says Myanmar is already starting to succumb to many of the pressures felt by its neighbors in Southeast Asia, including deforestation and illegal wildlife trading, as well as mining and the development of hydropower.

The 26 plants and animals newly identified in Myanmar include a species of dragon fish, hugely popular in the Asian aquatic world. The so-called "scribbled arowana," is creating a buzz on the aquarium fish blogosphere because of its unheard-of complex, maze-like markings on every individual scale.

Previously unidentified by scientists, a ginger plant collected from a single region in the cloud forests had been hiding in plain sight at local markets; and a chocolate-spotted frog was discovered in a mountain range that stretches along Myanmar's western border with India.