China has unveiled its first ever passenger jet at a ceremony in Shanghai. The ARJ21 will carry up to ninety passengers and is expected to be in service towards the end of 2009. This report from Daniel Griffiths:

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That's going to be difficult - China's starting from scratch with planes that don't have the track record of their competitors. And although the ARJ21 is designed and assembled at home, much of the technology comes from the US and Europe.

China now has one of the fastest growing aviation markets in the world. It's thought that it will need to buy three planes every week for the next twenty years just to keep up with demand.

Daniel Griffiths, BBC News, Beijing

Listen to the words

dreams
here, intentions

aerospace industry
aviation as a business

jumbo jets
very big passenger aircraft (like Boeing 747)

giants
here, very big manufacturing companies

starting from scratch
beginning to build its own planes without any previous experience

track record
past performance and achievements

competitors
teams, companies or countries that are trying to be more successful than others

designed
if you design something, like a building or, as in this case, a plane, you make or draw plans for it

assembled
put/fitted together

to keep up with demand
here, to have enough planes to carry all the people who want to use them

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