week8 Brexit 英國脫歐

Brexit: All you need to know about the UK leaving the EU
By Alex Hunt & Brian Wheeler - BBC News

12 December 2016

Why is Britain leaving the European Union?
A referendum - a vote in which everyone (or nearly everyone) of voting age can take part - was held on Thursday 23 June, to decide whether the UK should leave or remain in the European Union. Leave won by 52% to 48%. The referendum turnout was 71.8%, with more than 30 million people voting.

What was the breakdown across the UK?
England voted for Brexit, by 53.4% to 46.6%, as did Wales, with Leave getting 52.5% of the vote and Remain 47.5%. Scotland and Northern Ireland both backed staying in the EU. Scotland backed Remain by 62% to 38%, while 55.8% in Northern Ireland voted Remain and 44.2% Leave.

What has happened since the referendum?
Britain has got a new Prime Minister - Theresa May. The former home secretary took over from David Cameron, who resigned on the day after losing the referendum.
Like Mr Cameron, Mrs May was against Britain leaving the EU but she says she will respect the will of the people. She has said "Brexit means Brexit" but there is still a lot of debate about what that will mean in practice especially on the two key issues of how British firms do business in the European Union and what curbs are brought in on the rights of European Union nationals to live and work in the UK.

What about the economy?
The UK economy appears to have weathered the initial shock of the Brexit vote, although the value of the pound remains near a 30-year low, but opinion is sharply divided over the long-term effects of leaving the EU. Some major firms such as Easyjet and John Lewis have pointed out that the slump in sterling has increased their costs.
Britain also lost its top AAA credit rating, meaning the cost of government borrowing will be higher. But share prices have recovered from a dramatic slump in value, with both the FTSE 100 and the broader FTSE 250 index, which includes more British-based businesses, trading higher than before the referendum.
The Bank of England is hoping its decision to cut interest rates from 0.5% to 0.25% - a record low and the first cut since 2009 - will stave off recession and stimulate investment, with some economic indicators pointing to a downturn.

week7 ISIS伊斯蘭國

Scores of ISIS fighters killed in Mosul

BY REBECCA KHEEL - 12/26/16 11:30 AM EST

Nearly 100 fighters with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) were killed by Iraqi and coalition forces Sunday as the battle for Mosul continues, according to Monday reports.

The 97 militants were killed in three separate incidents, Iraq's Joint Military Command reportedly said in a statement.

In the first, Iraqi forces detonated two car bombs as ISIS fighters were trying to advance near a federal police position south of the city. The bombs killed 21 ISIS fighters, the Iraqi military said.

The second incident happened as ISIS tried to launch attacks on military positions using car bombs and suicide bombers in the neighborhoods of Intisar, al Salam and al Shaimaa' in southeastern Mosul. Iraqi forces killed 51 ISIS fighters, according to the military.

Finally, coalition aircraft carried out airstrikes on an ISIS gathering in al Wahda neighborhood in eastern Mosul, killing 25.

Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, is ISIS’s last urban bastion in the country, and, as expected, they’ve been fighting fiercely to keep it against the ongoing coalition offensive. ISIS has held the city since 2014.

Iraqi, Kurdish Peshmerga, tribal militia and coalition forces launched an offensive in October to retake the city. Iraqi special forces entered the city limits within weeks, but advancement has slowed as the fight has turned into street-by-street urban warfare.

The U.S. military typically does not tout the number of enemy killed, citing a desire to avoid the Vietnam War practice of using "body counts" as misleading measures of success.

Estimates have placed the number of ISIS fighters killed in the two-year anti-ISIS campaign at anywhere from 25,000 to 50,000.

Who:  ISIS fighters

When:  12/26/2016

What:  ISIS fighters' killing

Where:   Mosul

Keywords:  

ISIS, 

ISIS fighters,

Mosul,

killing, 

bombs,

street-by-street urban warfare, 

25,000 to 50,000 fighters 

網址:  

http://thehill.com/policy/defense/311826-scores-of-isis-fighters-killed-in-mosul

week6 Shanghai Dineyland

• Watch the magical Shanghai Disney opening ceremony

  by Helena Horton 15 JUNE 2016 • 6:23PM

Complete with famous faces, an orchestra, dancing, singing and a beautifully lit castle, the opening of Shanghai Disney was just as opulent as you could expect.

It appeared to be good news for Disney, after their Florida park made headlines when a two-year-old boy was killed killed when he was dragged into a lagoon by an alligator.

In Shanghai, however, you wouldn't have imagined this tragedy took place in a Disney park - there was magic in the air as the massive castle lit up, and the front of it turned into a Cinderella pumpkin carriage.

Out stepped not a Disney princess but the Chairman and CEO of Walt Disney, Bob Iger.

He spoke about the music played by the orchestra, which was specially composed for the park, and his vision for the site, which took 17 years to build.

Iger said: "Music has always been an essential part of Disney storytelling, touching hearts and lifting spirits in so many profound ways.

 "We wanted the music to blend the best of China and the best of Disney to create a powerful expression of shared dreams".

When building the park, he said he "allowed myself to dream big, envisioning a destination that would redefine our limits of creativity and imagination.

What:  Shanghai disney open

When:  June 17, 2016

Where:  Shanghai 

Keywords: 

Shanghai Disney

theme park

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/15/watch-the-magical-shanghai-disney-opening-ceremony/

Week5 unnamed aerial vehicle

Sky Magic Live at Mt. Fuji: Drone Entertainment Show

POSTED ON MAY 12, 2016 IN COOL | 249 VIEWS | LEAVE A RESPONSE

Beautiful backdrop of the world heritage site Mt. Fuji was used to stage the first Live performance using MIDI controlled LED flying machines, accompanied by Shamisens, the Japanese traditional guitars.

This was done so by utilising more than 20 units of these flying machines, flight swarming formations, music, and 16,500 LED lights to combine into a single audio visual extravaganza. Furthermore, we are able to control the flying machines, visual and audio aspects concurrently, using the DMX512.

網址: http://midnightinthedesert.com/sky-magic-live-mt-fuji-drone-entertainment-show/

Actually, these flying machines mentioned above are called unnamed aerial vehicle. They create a beautiful show at Fuji Mountain in 2016, which mentioned in the article.

Key words:

unnamed aerial vehicle

Mt. Fuji

LED

the first Live performance

audio visual extravaganza視聽盛宴

What:

 a beautiful show created by tens of unnamed aerial vehicles

When:

2016

Where:

Fuji Mountain

Week4 Mars exploration

Mars Rover Opportunity's Panorama of 'Wharton Ridge'

NASA's Opportunity Mars rover will drive down a gully carved long ago by a fluid that might have been water, according to the latest plans for the 12-year-old mission. No Mars rover has done that before.

The longest-active rover on Mars also will, for the first time, visit the interior of the crater it has worked beside for the last five years. These activities are part of a two-year extended mission that began Oct. 1, the newest in a series of extensions going back to the end of Opportunity's prime mission in April 2004.

"We have now exceeded the prime-mission duration by a factor of 50," noted Opportunity Project Manager John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. "Milestones like this are reminders of the historic achievements made possible by the dedicated people entrusted to build and operate this national asset for exploring Mars."Opportunity launched on July 7, 2003 and landed on Mars on Jan. 24, 2004 (PST), on a planned mission of 90 Martian days, which is equivalent to 92.4 Earth days.

What: Mars exploration

When: 2004

Where: NASA & Mars

Keywords:

  Mars

  water

  opportunity

  historic achievement

  NASA

  exceed mission

網址: http://mars.nasa.gov/news/whatsnew/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=1940

Charlie Hebdo attack

Charlie Hebdo attack: Three days of terror

France is emerging from one of its worst security crises in decades after three days of attacks by gunmen brought bloodshed to the capital Paris and its surrounding areas. It began with a massacre at the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday 7 January and ended with a huge police operation and two sieges two days later.

At 11:30 local time (10:30 GMT) on Wednesday 7 January, a black Citroen C3 drove up to the Charlie Hebdo building in Rue Nicolas-Appert. Two masked gunmen, dressed in black and armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles got out and approached the offices.

They burst into number 6, Rue Nicolas-Appert, before realising they had the wrong address. They then moved down the street to number 10 - where the Charlie Hebdo offices are on the second floor.

Once inside, the men - now known to be brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi - asked maintenance staff in reception where the magazine's offices were, before shooting dead caretaker Frederic Boisseau.

One of the magazine's cartoonists, Corinne Rey, described how she had just returned to the building after picking up her daughter from day care when the gunmen threatened her, forcing her to enter the code for the keypad entry to the newsroom on the second floor - where a weekly editorial meeting was taking place.

The men opened fire and killed the editor's police bodyguard, Franck Brinsolaro, before asking for editor Stephane Charbonnier, known as Charb, and other four cartoonists by name and killing them, along with three other editorial staff and a guest attending the meeting.

Witnesses said they had heard the gunmen shouting "We have avenged the Prophet Muhammad" and "God is Great" in Arabic while calling out the names of the journalists.
Police, alerted to a shooting incident, arrived at the scene as the gunmen were leaving the building.

Who: Charlie Hebdo

When: Wednesday 7 January

What: shooting incident

網址: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30708237

Keywords:

worst security crises
the capital Parismassacre
Two masked gunmen
wrong address
Charlie Hebdo offices
shooting incident

Aylan Kurdi’s story

Aylan Kurdi’s story: How a small Syrian child came to be washed up on a beach in Turkey

More has emerged about the death of three-year-old Aylan, pictured here smiling with his brother, whose story has given a face to the refugee crisis.

Surviving family members of Aylan Kurdi have revealed how the Syrian three-year-old came to be washed up dead on a beach in Turkey on Wednesday morning.

The Independent has taken the decision to publish the image, which some may find offensive, lower down in this article because among the often glib words about the "ongoing migrant crisis", it is all too easy to forget the reality of the desperate situation facing many refugees.

The images of Aylan emerged in Turkish media at around midday, and have since sparked international outrage over the refugee crisis.

Thousands are making the same journey from Turkey to Greece’s easternmost islands each day. It is considered one of the safest routes to Europe and beyond.

The majority are from Syria though some have also fled Afghanistan and Iraq. The UN’s refugee agency, the UNHCR, says the number crossing the Mediterranean has now exceeded 300,000 this year.

When: Thursday 3 September 2015
What: Aylan Kurdi’s story
Who: Aylan Kurdi

網址:http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/aylan-kurdi-s-story-how-a-small-syrian-child-came-to-be-washed-up-on-a-beach-in-turkey-10484588.html

Keywords:

emerge

refugee crisis

Aylan Kurdi

spark

international outrage

journey from Turkey to Greece

exceed

the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year

• the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year

•        For the first time ever, the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year is a pictograph: the picture, officially called the ‘Face with Tears of Joy’ emoji, though you may know it by other names. There were other strong contenders from a range of fields, outlined below, but the picture was chosen as the ‘word’ that best reflected the ethos, mood, and preoccupations of 2015.
  

  Emojis (the plural can be either emoji or emojis) have been around since the late 1990s, but 2015 saw their use, and use of the word emoji, increase hugely.
  
  This year Oxford University Press have partnered with leading mobile technology business SwiftKey to explore frequency and usage statistics for some of the most popular emoji across the world, and the picture was chosen because it was the most used emoji globally in 2015. SwiftKey identified that the picture made up 20% of all the emojis used in the UK in 2015, and 17% of those in the US: a sharp rise from 4% and 9% respectively in 2014. The word emoji has seen a similar surge: although it has been found in English since 1997, usage more than tripled in 2015 over the previous year according to data from the Oxford Dictionaries Corpus.
• 網址:http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2015/11/word-of-the-year-2015-emoji/
• 導言分析
  what: the oxford dictionaries word of the year
  when:2015
• Key words(5-10):
  Oxford Dictionary Word of 2015
  Face with Tears of Joy' emoji
  sharp rise
  the first time ever
  usage