Fireworks sales down in Beijing during holiday

 　　BEIJING, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Sales of fireworks and the number of people injured due to fireworks setting off in Beijing have dropped significantly during this year's Spring Festival holiday, which began on Feb. 10.

　　A total of 313,000 cartons of fireworks had been sold from Feb. 9, the Lunar New Year's Eve, to Feb. 14 in the capital city, down 45 percent from the 564,000 cartons sold during the same period last year, according to the statistics from the Beijing municipal government on Friday.

　　A total of 165 people were injured due to fireworks setting off during the same period, down 22 percent from the previous year, it said.

　　No death or cases of eyeball extraction were reported, it said.

　　The drop of fireworks sales is attributed to people's rising awareness¹ of environment protection as the city had been shrouded² in smog for a long period of time last month.

　　Beijing mayor Wang Anshun visited a fire-fighting command center on Thursday and expressed his gratitude³ to the cadres and citizens who did not set off fireworks or reduced the amount of fireworks during the holiday.

1 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

2 shrouded   

v.隐瞒( shroud的过去式和过去分词 )；保密

参考例句：

• The hills were shrouded in mist . 这些小山被笼罩在薄雾之中。
• The towers were shrouded in mist. 城楼被蒙上薄雾。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 gratitude   

adj.感激，感谢

参考例句：

• I have expressed the depth of my gratitude to him.我向他表示了深切的谢意。
• She could not help her tears of gratitude rolling down her face.她感激的泪珠禁不住沿着面颊流了下来。