Bilingual News 双语资讯 - 北京雾霾天气将持续至本周三

北京雾霾天气将持续至本周三

昨天，京城进入雾霾笼罩的第四天。大雾黄色预警仍在持续①，市气象台同时发出北京气象史上第一个霾橙色预警信号，亦是最高级别预警。截至昨天20时，全市空气质量仍为严重污染，不过市环保监测中心预计②，今天白天前期的空气质量会略有好转，但入夜后到后天，重度污染会来个“回马枪”。预计到16日，冷空气光临，扫清雾霾，北京将迎来“二级良好”天。

从上周四起，京城雾霾天气已经③持续四天，今明仍将延续这种天气。

在大雾黄色预警持续的同时，昨天10时35分，市气象台发布霾橙色预警信号④，预计当天白天平原地区将出现能见度小于2000米的霾，空气污浊，请市民注意防护⑤。这是北京气象历史上第一个霾橙色预警信号，橙色预警也是霾的最高级别预警。

Notes to the Words:
①持续: v. last
②预计: v. forcast
③已经: adv. already
④信号: n. signal
⑤防护: n. protection

Healthy debate over Beijing's air quality

For many years, Peking Duck and Peking Opera were probably the two most famous items named after the capital.

However, they now face a strong challenge. The heavy smog and haze that enveloped the city on the weekend — pushing the pollution index to a record high — has seen "Beijing Cough", a term coined by the city's expat community, becoming increasingly popular with local media and Chinese citizens.
Saturday saw the density of PM2.5 — air particles smaller than 2.5 microns and able to enter the lungs and even the blood stream — climb higher than 900 micrograms per cubic meter in several districts in the capital, according to the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center. That's the highest level recorded since Beijing began publishing the data in early 2012.

The World Health Organization considers the safe daily level to be 25 micrograms per cubic meter.

However, the problem has now become a national phenomenon, rather than one unique to Beijing. On Saturday, levels of PM2.5 passed 300 micrograms per cubic meter in 33 of the 74 cities with systems equipped to monitor the particles.
The heavy smog saw at least 25 international and domestic flights to and from Beijing Capital International Airport cancelled by Sunday morning. Many highways were closed in Shandong and Jiangxi provinces, and the poor visibility resulted in a number of collisions on Sunday morning, claiming one life in Shaoyang, Hunan province.