12月29日午间英语新闻：春节正式成为联合国假日！

>Spring Festival listed as UN floating holiday
春节正式成为联合国假日！

The Spring Festival has been officially listed as a UN Floating Holiday in the UN Calendar of Conferences and Meetings starting from 2024.
自2024年起，春节（农历新年）将正式成为联合国假日。

Dai Bing, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, said after the adoption of the resolution that the Spring Festival, as a traditional Chinese holiday featuring family reunion and good wishes for the coming year, not only bears the ideas of Chinese civilization’s peace and harmony but also carries the common values of humanity such as harmonious family, social inclusion and sound relationship between man and nature.
中国常驻联合国代表团临时代办戴兵在联大决议通过后表示，春节作为中国传统民俗节日，不仅是阖家团圆、辞旧迎新的日子，传承着和平、和睦、和谐等中华文明理念，也承载着家庭和睦、社会包容、人与自然和谐共生等全人类共同价值。

Many countries list the Spring Festival as a national holiday and about one-fifth of humanity celebrates this festival in various ways, he added.
许多国家和地区把春节作为法定节假日，全球约五分之一的人口以不同形式庆祝春节。

Dai said China's efforts to promote the Spring Festival as a UN holiday is a pragmatic step toward realizing its Global Civilization Initiative and advocating for diversity in civilizations.
戴兵说，中国推动春节成为联合国假日，是践行全球文明倡议、倡导尊重世界文明多样性的务实行动。

The resolution serves as a showcase of the influence of the Chinese civilization and aims to enhance interactions between diverse civilizations worldwide. It also reflects the values of diversity and inclusion promoted by the United Nations, he said.
他指出，春节正式成为联合国假日，充分展现了中华文明的传播力影响力，将有力促进世界不同文明的交流互鉴，积极体现联合国倡导的多元、包容文化价值理念。

The listing of the Spring Festival as a UN holiday was widely welcomed among member states and staff members of the UN Secretariat, Dai added.
戴兵还表示，联大决议将春节确定为联合国假日，得到了联合国会员国和联合国秘书处工作人员的热烈欢迎和踊跃支持。

The United Nations identifies globally observed holidays as floating holidays and refrains from scheduling meetings on such occasions.
联合国除了东道国的重要法定假日外，可由联大通过决议，把世界范围内广泛庆祝的节日确定为联合国假日，在当天尽量避免安排会议活动。

重点词汇：
harmonious
英/ hɑːˈməʊniəs / 美/ hɑːrˈmoʊniəs /
adj.和睦的，融洽的；悦耳的；和谐的，协调的


>South Korea: Students sue after teacher ends exam 90 seconds early
提前90秒收卷，韩国多名高考考生起诉政府

A group of South Korean students are suing the government because their college admission examination ended 90 seconds earlier than scheduled. They are asking for 20 million won ($15,455) each - the cost of a year's studying to retake the exam. The error affected the rest of the students' exams, their lawyer says.
因在参加高考时被提前90秒收走试卷，韩国学生将政府告上法庭。他们要求每人获赔2000万韩元，这也是他们复读一年所需的费用。涉事考生律师说，这一失误影响了学生们的其他考试。

The country's college admission test, known as Suneung, is an eight-hour marathon with back-to-back papers on multiple subjects. It is one of the hardest exams in the world.
韩国高考又称为韩国大学修学能力考试（简称“修能”），是一场长达八小时的马拉松测试，多个科目连轴开考。它是全球难度最高的考试之一。

A number of measures to help students concentrate are taken during the annual event, such as closing the country's airspace and delaying the opening of the stock market.
在一年一度的考试期间，韩国采取了诸多措施帮助学生集中注意力，例如，关闭国家领空、推迟股市开盘。

The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday by at least 39 students, claims that the bell rang earlier at a test site in the capital Seoul during Korean - the first subject of the exam.
这起由至少39名学生于周二（12月19日）提起的诉讼称，在首尔某考点，第一科韩语考试期间铃声提前响起了。

Some students protested immediately, but say the supervisors still took their papers away. The teachers recognized the mistake before the start of the next session, and gave the one and half minutes back during the lunch break but they could only mark blank columns left on their papers and were not allowed to change any existing answers.
一些学生立即提出抗议，但他们表示监考官仍拿走了他们的试卷。老师们在下一科考试开始前意识到了这个错误，并在午休时间给学生一分半钟的时间，但他们只能填写未作答的题目，不允许更改任何现有答案。

The students said they were so upset that they could not focus on the rest of the exam, Yonhap news agency reports. Some reportedly gave up and returned home.
据韩联社报道，学生们表示，他们非常沮丧，无法集中精力参加剩下的考试。据报道，一些人放弃考试回家了。

Their lawyer Kim Woo-suk told local media that education authorities have not apologized.
考生们的代理律师金宇锡告诉当地媒体，教育部门并没有道歉。

Public broadcaster KBS quoted officials who said the supervisor in charge of the specific test center had misread the time.
韩国广播公司KBS援引官员的话称，负责该考场的监考官看错了时间。

This is not the first time students have sued over a bell rung too early. In April, a court in Seoul awarded 7 million won to students who claimed they were disadvantaged at the 2021 Suneung exam because their bell rang about two minutes earlier.
这已经不是韩国考生第一次因被提前收卷而提起诉讼了。2021年韩国“修能”考试时，交卷铃声提前大约两分钟响起。今年4月，首尔一家法院受理了此案件，并判决给受害学生700万韩元的补偿。