1 . “Chinese tourists have overtaken (超过) Germans as the world’s biggest-spending travelers after a decade of rapid growth in the number of Chinese vacationing abroad,” the United Nations World Tourism Organization said.

Chinese tourists, known for travelling in organized tours and ________ luxury fashion abroad, spent $102 billion on foreign trips last year, 41 percent more than the year before, ________ deep-pocketed travelers from Germany and the United States.

Tourists from other fast-developing economies with a growing middle class, such as Russia and Brazil, also ________ spending in 2012. In decline-hit Europe, however, French and Italian tourists controlled their holiday ________.

“The impressive growth of tourism spending from China and Russia reflects the ________ into the tourism market of more middle classes from these countries,” said Taleb Rifai, secretary-general of the UN World Tourism Organization, which is based in Madrid.

The German Travel Association said it was to be expected that the Chinese tourists would ________ overtake Germans in spending, given that the country had more ________ than North America, Russia, and Europe put together.

“But that they have overtaken us already is ________,” said Juergen Buechy, president of the German Travel Association.

“The Chinese make more long-distance trips than Germans, who ________ go to Mediterranean (地中海) destinations, meaning that the ________ vacation spending per holiday was greater,” he added.

China is the world’s fastest-growing tourist-source market, ________ higher spendable incomes in the world’s second-largest economy and looser foreign travel restrictions.

Chinese tourists made 83 million ________ trips in 2012, compared with 10 million in 2000.

“Hotels, tour companies, restaurants and even taxi drivers will need to improve ________ of Chinese cooking, culture and language if they are to ________ them away from favourite destinations such as Thailand and the Maldives,” European tourism officials have said.

Other countries in the top 10 posted growth in travel spending. ________, only Russia came close to China’s huge growth, with a 32 percent increase in vacation budgets (预算).

5 . Angela Doyinsola Aina EMPOWERING BLACK MOTHERS

The U.S. spends much more on health care than any other developed country does, and yet women in the U.S. are dying of pregnancy-related causes more than they used to and more than in other developed nations. This problem is particularly dire for African Americans, who are three to four times more likely than their white counterparts to suffer pregnancy-related deaths. Black Mamas Matter Alliance (BMMA), co-founded by Angela Doyinsola Aina, launched in 2016 to address these huge disparities; the group worked with Congress to launch Black Maternal Health Week, now held each April. “What is perpetuating these adverse health outcomes is structural racism and gender oppression,” says Aina, 36.

This year, Aina is drawing on her own background in public health to ramp up BMMA’s research efforts and to promote the use of midwives and doulas, who she says can be critical resources for communities that have historically fraught relationships with the U.S. medical system. The World Health Organization named 2020 the “year of the nurse and midwife,” and Aina hopes this increased attention will help lead to more investment in black women-led health programs. “Those are the initiatives that work best,” she says, “in communities that are most impacted by health disparities.”—ABIGAIL ABRAAS

Dina Bakst HELPING WORKING WOMEN

For any American women, especially low-wage workers in physically demanding fields, having kids means jeopardizing their jobs—so much so that they may be forced to choose between a paycheck and a healthy pregnancy. That situation, says Dina Bakst, “snowballs into lasting economic disadvantage.” As co-founder of the legal advocacy organization A Better Balance, Bakst, 47, represents women who lose their jobs while pregnant. She’s championing federal legislation advancing in Congress this year to help pregnant women and new mothers get fair treatment at work: the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and the PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act would, respectively, require employers to make reasonable accommodations for pregnant employees, and make it easier for breastfeeding moms to pump at work. At a time when there are more women than men in the U.S. workforce, Bakst says implementing fair work-life standards—including pregnancy accommodations, paid sick days, paid family and medical leave, and quality affordable childcare—is more important than ever. “It’s absolutely essential for gender equality and for our nation’s economic security.”—KATIE REILLY

6 . Alipay, the digital payment arm of Chinese financial technology company Ant Group, is allocating more resources to roll out translation services in 16 languages, to ensure foreigners in China can use mobile payments without any hurdles.

Alipay’s move comes amid China’s intensified efforts to further improve foreigners’ payment _________ in the country.

Alipay has allowed foreigners in China to link their _________ bank cards, including Visa and Mastercard, to its mobile payment tool, greatly streamlining (精简) the payment processes, said Zhu Xugang, director of the cross-border business at Ant Group.

Users of 10 overseas e-wallets are also able to use their familiar home e-wallets on their own phones by _________Alipay QR codes, to enjoy seamless mobile payment experiences across Alipay’s vast merchant network.

According to Alipay, foreigners can use the app to complete payments at restaurants, hotels, scenic spots, convenience stores and supermarkets, as well as for ride-hailing, shared bikes, buses and other public _________services in China. The newly _________ multilingual app includes English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Japanese.

The mobile payment app has also _________ the single transaction (交易) limit for overseas travelers using mobile payments from $1,000 to $5,000 and lifted the annual cumulative transaction limit from $10,000 to $50,000.

The State Council, China’s Cabinet, published a guideline on improving payment services and _________ payment convenience in early March, a move to better meet the _________payment needs of the elderly and foreign visitors.

Last week, the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, _________a payment guide that provides foreigners with text and graphic __________ on using bank cards, cash, mobile payments and e-CNY in China, the latest step in the country’s push to optimize the payment experience for foreigners.

Wang Pengbo, a senior analyst at market consultancy Botong Analysys, said the intensified efforts to provide convenient payment services will not only __________ improve the living and consumption experience of foreigners in China and attract more of them to the country, but also promote the healthy and sustainable development of the payment __________.

Wang said the move demonstrates the country’s resolve to expand high-standard opening-up, __________ the online payment scenarios of Alipay are wide enough, with high usage frequency. So, what it should do now is to expand the scope of foreign bank card binding and improve and simplify authentication of new users, to provide more convenient payment services to foreigners.

Meanwhile, Chinese banks are taking measures to expand the __________ of overseas bank cards and facilitate their use of cash in the country.

Dong said more efforts are needed to expand the scenarios of various types of payment methods at tourist attractions, sporting events, transportation hubs, healthcare and beauty centers and other daily __________ sites.

7 . Public Events at the Library of Congress

The Library of Congress offers these events to the public at its Washington location free of charge, except where otherwise noted. Schedules are subject to change. Check back to this site for the latest information. Individuals requiring accommodation for this event are requested to submit (提交) a request at least five business days in advance by contacting (202) 707-6362 or ADA@loc.gov

Exhibition–World War I: American Artists View the Great War

8:30 am-4:30 pm

An exhibition showing how American artists aroused public interest in World War I will open next month at the Library of Congress. “World War I: American Artists View the Great War” will open on Saturday, April 7 in the Graphic Arts Galleries on the ground floor of the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building. The exhibition is free and is open to the public Monday through Saturday, 8:30 am to 4:30 pm. It will remain open for a year, closing on April 6, 2018.

Location: Jefferson Building, ground floor, Thomas Jefferson Building

Contact: (202) 707-6021

Event–“Presidential Inauguration Treasures”

10:00 am–3:00 pm

The two-week display on inaugurations (就职典礼), at the Library of Congress, will feature presidential treasures: the handwritten speeches of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln and collections on the lighter side: menus, dance cards and souvenirs. The display will include newspapers, film clips, a demonstration of online resources and a challenging presidential history quiz. The display is free and open to the public.

Location: Mahogany Row A (LJ113), 1st floor, Thomas Jefferson Building

Contact: (202) 707-2922

Film–The NeverEnding Story (Warner Bros, 1984)

2:00 pm–4:00 pm

Bastian Balthazar Bux, a young boy bullied at school, dodges (躲避) his tormentors (折磨者) one day in an old book shop, where he discovers a mysterious book The NeverEnding Story.

Location: Packard Campus Theater, Packard Campus Building

Contact: (202) 707-9994

Concert–Jordi Savall and Hesperion XXI

8:00 pm–10:30 pm

Early music star Jordi Savall gathers exceptional performers, classical and traditional, to show the rich musical history of “La Serenissima” over a thousand years of empire. *PRE-CONCERT CONVERSATION 6:30 PM - Whittall Pavilion (no tickets required)*

Location: Coolidge Auditorium, ground floor, Thomas Jefferson Building

Contact: (202) 707-5502

9 . In an annual Marist Poll, released in December, “fake news” ranked as the second-most annoying phrase Americans hear. But however overused or misused the term has become, fake news isn’t likely to go away soon. Instead the questions “How do we spot it?” and “What can we do about it?” are likely to loom even larger.

Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter are pledging to police themselves more vigorously. France and Germany, with strong concerns about the attempts of “fake news” to influence recent elections, are taking legislative action.

Beginning Jan. 1, online posts on major German social media sites (Facebook, etc.) deemed to contain “obviously illegal” material, such as hate speech or fake news, risk fines of as much as e50 million ($60. 4 million). Individual citizens can report content they think qualifies. Earlier this week French President Emmanuel Macron proposed new legislation that he said would “evolve our legal system to protect our democracy from fake news.” The law would make more transparent the sources of online content, and would have the power to block or remove anything determined to be “fake”.

Desirable perspective would be an empowered citizenry, alert to detecting, and rejecting, fake news when they see it. Several US states have begun to fight fake news by ramping up the teaching of news media literacy in schools. “I don’t think it’s a partisan issue to appreciate the importance of good information and the teaching of tools for navigating” news online, said Hans Zeiger, a Republican state senator in Washington State who cosponsored a bill on the topic last year. “There is such a thing as an objective source versus other kinds of sources,” he told The Associated Press, “and that’s an appropriate thing for schools to be teaching.”

Media literacy is being encouraged to be part of courses on subjects from civics to language arts. The prevalence of fake news during the US presidential campaign seem to be driving at least some of these efforts. Students from middle school to college can be “easily duped” by sites they visit online, and they need to be better equipped to use their reasoning ability to sort truth from fiction and detect bias, concluded a study published by researchers at Stanford University. Students should be able to not only cite sources for material they present in their schoolwork but also be able to explain why the sources are credible.

To be responsible citizens, adults need to take on this same task of winnowing the tares from the wheat as they go about the important job of learning what’s happening in the world.

10 . In the worsening economic environment, restaurants a returning to sharing menus to stop hard up customers from cutting back on starters and desserts.

Expenses in restaurants have fallen by 14 percent, from £ 25.38 to £ 21.80 per head, in part because customers are having main courses only and skipping starters and desserts, the research firm Lumina Intelligence has found. This is also hitting receipts from drinks, with the number of meals including alcohol falling from 38.5 percent to 33.9 percent. “To increase profit, restaurants are introducing sharing dishes across courses, including starter and dessert dishes, to encourage customers to spend more,” according to Lumina Intelligence.

Linden Stores, a restaurant that is owned by Laura Christie and her husband and was relocated to the village of Audlem from London in 2020, started a whole new menu of modern British food, with two people sharing seven dishes recently. And, for Christie, it was really a bolt out of the blue. “I wasn’t expecting it to be such a hit,” said Christie. “It was quite a new idea for people. We’re in a small village but it turned out we were breaking more boundaries than we’d thought with this sharing concept.”

Linden Stores is not alone in rethinking its menu to make sharing food more commonplace. A large number of restaurants are following this, among which is El Pastor, a group of Mexican restaurants in London. Actually, stealing your partner’s dessert is a time-honoured restaurant tradition, but restaurant owners are increasingly offering two spoons as a matter of course as sharing food become the latest way for the hospitality industry to fight the recession (经济萧条).

Sharing works because restaurants have become less formal, Christie believes. “It makes people feel like they’re getting more of an experience. Sharing food offers a delicious and exciting way to put together history, culture, and love. It helps save diners’ spend per head. It also helps with the efficiency of restaurants, because you know what you’re having to prepare and you need fewer people to deliver it because you know, ahead of time, what you’re doing.”