Week six

SpaceX launches satellite; Falcon 9 fails sea landing

SpaceX has another launch under its belt, but not another rocket landing.
The leftover first-stage booster hit the floating platform hard on Friday, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said.
The company never expected to nail this landing because of the faster speed of the booster that was required to deliver the satellite to an extra-high orbit, he said.
SpaceX scored a rocket landing on the ground at Cape Canaveral in December last year, but has yet to nail a trickier barge landing at sea.
However, the good news is that the uncrewed Falcon 9 rocket successfully hoisted a broadcasting satellite for Luxembourg-based company SES.
It was the fifth launch attempt over the past week and a half. An attempt on Sunday last week ended with an engine shutdown a split second before liftoff. Friday’s sunset launch provided a stunning treat along the coast.
As it has tried a handful of times before, SpaceX attempted to land the discarded first-stage booster on a barge, this time 644km off the coast of Cape Canaveral. Right before touchdown, 10 minutes into the flight, the TV camera on the platform cut out, drawing loud groans from the crowd gathered at company headquarters in Hawthorne, California.
“Didn’t expect this one to work (v hot reentry), but next flight has a good chance,” Musk said on Twitter — more than an hour after liftoff.
This mission required that the booster fly much faster than usual and therefore burn up more fuel, leaving less for a precision touchdown.
There were plenty of cheers, nonetheless, as the second-stage successfully lifted the satellite higher and higher, and even more when the satellite separated successfully in full camera view.
Musk said the target altitude of 40,600km was achieved.
“Thanks @SES_Satellites for riding on Falcon 9! Looking forward to future missions,” he said on Twitter.
Musk wants to retrieve and refly boosters to save time and money. Usually, the boosters just fall into the sea.
SES chief technology officer Martin Halliwell last week said that his company would have “no problem” launching a satellite on a recycled SpaceX rocket.
SpaceX is working to recover from a launch accident last summer shortly after liftoff. It hopes to resume space station deliveries for NASA in the next month or so.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2016/03/06/2003640962

KEYWORDS:
1. booster-升壓機；推進器
2. satellite-人造衛星
3. barge-駁船，大型平底船
4. orbit-（天體等的）運行軌道
5. hoisted-吊起；提起；舉起；升起
6. discard-拋棄，摒棄，丟棄
7. precision-精確（性）；精密（度）
8. altitude-高，高度；海拔
9. headquarters-總部，總署；司令部（全體指揮）人員
10.nonetheless-但是；仍然

Week five

Paris climate change deal an actionable plan: Tang Prize laureate

Taipei, April 22 (CNA) Former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, who was awarded the first Tang Prize in Sustainable Development in 2014, said the Paris Agreement on climate change "provides an actionable global plan for the coming years."

Her remarks came as representatives from more than 160 countries are expected to sign the landmark agreement at United Nations Headquarters in New York later Friday, which is Earth Day.

The pact will be signed by the highest number of governments ever to sign an international agreement, she said, confirming the significance and importance of the agreement, which was reached during the United Nations climate change conference in Paris last December.

"The road to this agreement has been long and uncertain," she said through a statement issued by the Tang Prize Foundation on Friday. "But this year's agreement provides an actionable global plan for the coming years."

On Earth Day, global leaders will gather in New York to sign the agreement, designed to combat climate change and unleash action and investment toward a low carbon, resilient and sustainable future.

The main aim of the agreement is to keep increases in global temperatures this century to well below 2 degrees Celsius and to drive efforts to further limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.

Brundtland, the "godmother of sustainable development," chaired the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) from 1984 to 1987. The WCED, also referred to as the Brundtland Commission in recognition of her leadership, coined the term "sustainable development" in a landmark report in 1987 titled "Our Common Future."

The 1987 "Brundtland Report" defined the term "sustainable development" as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

The concept supports economic and social development while also highlighting the importance of protecting the environment and natural resources.

Tang Prize Foundation CEO Chern Jenn-chuan (陳振川) visited Paris last year to set up a booth showcasing the foundation's emphasis on sustainable development at an exhibition on the sidelines of the U.N. Climate Change Conference.

The Tang Prize was established in 2012 by Taiwanese entrepreneur Samuel Yin (尹衍樑) to honor leading lights from around the world in four fields: sustainable development, biopharmaceutical science, sinology and rule of law.

The biennial prize takes its name from the Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.), a period considered to be the height of classical Chinese civilization, characterized by liberal policies and robust cultural activity.

The Tang Prize will announce its second round of recipients in June. 

http://focustaiwan.tw/news/asoc/201604220031.aspx

KEYWORDS:

1. conference-（正式）會議；討論會，協商會

2. uncertain-不明確的；含糊的；不確定的

3. combat -戰鬥，格鬥，反對

4. resilient-迅速恢復精力的

5. sustainable-支撐得住的；能承受的

6. compromising-妥協的；讓步的

7. showcase-顯示優點的東西；供亮相的地方（或媒介）

8. entrepreneur -企業家；事業創辦者

9. biopharmaceutical -生物製藥的

10.  characterized-描繪……的特性

Week four

‘The Revenant’ gets 12 Oscar nods

The Revenant and Mad Max: Fury Road were showered with honors by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, picking up Oscar nominations for best picture and best director.
There are to be six best picture nominees to join them: Bridge of Spies, Spotlight, The Big Short, The Martian, Brooklyn and Room. Notably not among them: Straight Outta Compton and Carol both of which were pegged to make the cut by awards handicappers.
The Revenant, directed by Alejandro Inarritu, drew 12 nominations in total — the most of any film — with Leonardo DiCaprio honored for his wounded frontiersman and Tom Hardy for his villainous supporting role.
With 10 nominations, George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road was the second most-honored film, although most of its support came from technical areas, like film editing, costume design and makeup and hairstyling. Behind Fury Road came The Martian with seven nominations — although its director, Ridley Scott, was prominently snubbed — and Spotlight with six.
The acting fields were filled with familiar faces. As expected, Cate Blanchett came away with her sixth best actress nomination for Carol. Jennifer Lawrence, now a four-time nominee, this time for Joy, joined Blanchett in the category. Also selected were Brie Larson from Room, Charlotte Rampling from 45 Years and Saoirse Ronan from Brooklyn.
DiCaprio, picking up his fifth acting nomination, is competing against the reigning best actor winner, Eddie Redmayne, who picked up a nod for The Danish Girl. Voters also backed Matt Damon (The Martian), Bryan Cranston (Trumbo) and Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs).
Concussion, starring Will Smith, and Beasts of No Nation, featuring Idris Elba, received nothing.
The racially diverse Creed, directed by Ryan Coogler, was shut out, except for a nomination for its war-horse supporting actor, Sylvester Stallone.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2016/01/16/2003637363

KEYWORDS:
1. revenant-歸來的人
2. nomination-提名；任命
3. frontiersman-邊遠地區居民；拓荒者
4. handicapper-決定優劣條件之人
5. prominently-顯著地；重要地
6.  snub-冷落，怠慢
7. villainous-惡棍的；惡棍似的；兇惡的

13 Week three

Paris terror attack

Paris attacks: What happened on the night

VERVIERS, Belgium — Black smudges and faded traces of gunfire on a red brick rowhouse here in eastern Belgium mark the death foretold of Abdelhamid Abaaoud. It is the spot where, 11 months before the announcement on Thursday that he had been killed outside Paris, he began plotting an elaborate campaign of terror across Europe.

Even as he defended the performance of the French service, Mr. Cazeneuve pleaded for more intelligence sharing, saying, “It is urgent for Europe to come together.”

Along the way, Mr. Abaaoud, 27, is believed to have organized a string of attacks that made him the most talked-about — and, in jihadist circles, feted — terrorist since Osama bin Laden.

French intelligence officials have concluded that Mr. Abaaoud was involved in at least four of six terrorist plots foiled in France since the spring, Mr. Cazeneuve said.

Before his deadly ambitions culminated in the massacres in Paris on Friday that killed 129 people, they included a thwarted attack on a Sunday-morning congregation at a Paris church and an attack on a Paris-bound train this summer that was halted when passengers overpowered the gunman.

The Paris prosecutor, François Molins, said in confirming Mr. Abaaoud’s death on Thursday that the delay in identifying the body, which was virtually pulverized, had been because it required fingerprint analysis. “We do not know at this stage whether Abaaoud blew himself up or not,” Mr. Molins’s office said.

Also killed in the raid was a woman identified by two French intelligence officials as Hasna Aitboulahcen, 26, who fired on police officers and then blew herself apart with a suicide vest.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/20/world/europe/paris-attacks.html?rref=collection%2Fnewseventcollection%2Fattacks-in-paris&action=click&contentCollection=europe&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection

WHY:terror attack
WHEN:13 November 2015

WHO:Abdelhamid Abaaoud

HOW:gun 

WHAT:terror attack 

WHERE:Paris

Keywords

     1.smudges: 汙點

     2.elaborate: 精心製作

     3.jihadist : (回教的)聖戰士

     4.urgent: 緊急的

     5.culminated: 達到最高點

     6.massacre: 大屠殺

     7.congregation: 集合

     8.prosecutor: 檢察官

     9.pulverize: 研磨

     10.intelligence: 智能

13 Week two

Why is EU struggling with migrants and asylum?

Europe is experiencing one of the most significant influxes of migrants and refugees in its history. Pushed by civil war and terror and pulled by the promise of a better life, huge numbers of people have fled the Middle East and Africa, risking their lives along the way.

More than a million migrants and refugees crossed into Europe in 2015, compared with just 280,000 the year before. The scale of the crisis continues, with more than 135,000 people arriving in the first two months of 2016.

Among the forces driving people to make the dangerous journey are the conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. The vast majority - more than 80% - of those who reached Europe by boat in 2015 came from those three countries.

Poverty, human rights abuses and deteriorating security are also prompting people to set out from countries such as Eritrea, Pakistan, Morocco, Iran and Somalia in the hope of a new life in somewhere like Germany, Sweden or the UK.

But as European countries struggle with the mass movement of people, some have tightened border controls. This has left tens of thousands of migrants stranded in Greece, raising fears of a humanitarian crisis.

As leaders grasp for a solution, they have increasingly looked to Turkey, hoping to slow the number of people setting off for European shores.

What routes are people using?

The most direct routes are fraught with danger. In 2015 more than 3,770 people drowned or went missing crossing the Mediterranean to Greece or Italy in flimsy dinghies or unsafe fishing boats.

Most of those heading for Greece take the relatively short voyage from Turkey to the islands of Kos, Chios, Lesbos and Samos. There is very little infrastructure on these small Greek islands to cope with the thousands of people arriving, leaving overburdened authorities struggling to provide vital assistance.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-24583286

WHY:Civil war in Syria
WHEN:2015

WHO:European nations

HOW:not given

WHAT:Poverty, human rights abuses and deteriorating security problems

WHERE:European countries

Keywords:

     1.migrant: 移居的

     2.scale: 刻度/尺度

     3.deteriorating: 不斷惡化的

     4.shore: 支柱/撐柱

     5.route: 路程/航線

     6.flimsy: 脆弱的/輕薄的

     7.dinghies: 小船/小艇

     8.infrastructure: 公共建設

     9. voyage: 航海/航行 

    10. assistance: 援助