week-six Paris terror attack

Father's Talk With Son About Paris Terror Attack Goes Viral

A heart-wrenching video of a French father reassuring his young son about the Paris terror massacre has been shared more than 11 million times on Facebook.

In the clip, which aired on Canal+ television show "Le Petit Journal," a reporter asks the boy if he understands why extremists killed people in Paris on Friday.

The father, later identified as Angel Le, tries to explain the floral tributes outside the Bataclan theatre, where the majority of the victims of Friday's attacks were killed.

"What about the baddies, Dad?" asks his son, Brandon. "They've got guns."

"They've got guns but we have flowers," Le replies.

In a comment posted on the Facebook clip, Le wrote: "I'm the dad with the little boy, thank you all for the great comments that you have posting for us. When when I see all this support it tells me one thing: I'm proud to be French and proud of my fellow countrymen!"

Here is the interview in full:

Journalist: Do you understand what's happened? Do you understand why these people have done this?

Boy: Yes, because they are very, very, very bad. Bad people aren't very nice. And you have to be very careful because you need to move house.

Father: No, don't worry, we don't have to move. France is our home.

Boy: But what about the baddies, Dad?

Father: There are baddies everywhere. There are bad guys everywhere.

Boy: They've got guns. They can shoot us because they're very, very bad, Daddy.

Father: They've got guns but we have flowers.

Boy: But flowers don't do anything. They're for... they're for... they're for...

Father: Look, everyone is laying flowers here.

Boy: Yes.

Father: It's to fight against the guns.

Boy: Is it for protection?

Father: That's right.

Boy: And the candles too?

Father: They're so we don't forget the people who have gone.

Boy: Oh. The flowers and candles are there to protect us?

Father: Yes.

Journalist: Do you feel better now?

Boy: Yes, I feel better.

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/paris-terror-attacks/fathers-talk-son-about-paris-terror-attack-goes-viral-n464981

Structure of the Lead：

     WHO-a French father and his son

     WHEN-Nov,17,2015

     WHAT-there was a conversation of them.

     WHY- because of the terror attack in Paris

     WHERE-in Paris

     HOW-The father told his son that they had flowers and candles to fight against the guns. 

keywords

     1. heart-wrenching 打動人心的

    2. reassuring 安慰

    3. massacre 殘殺
    4. clip 剪輯

    5. extremists 極端份子

    6. floral tributes 獻花
    7. majority 大多數

    8. baddies 壞人 
    9. fellow 同類

  

      

   

week-five Singles’ Day

Alibaba's Singles' Day sales surge 60 percent to $14.3 billion

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's total value of goods transacted during its Singles' Day shopping festival was 91.2 billion yuan ($14.32 billion), the Chinese e-commerce giant said in Beijing on Thursday.

The numbers got a boost this year from adding the sales from various new channels, including its affiliates and investees. In all, the figure for this year's Singles' Day is up 60 percent from 2014.

The results are preliminary and unaudited, Alibaba said. Of the total value of transactions, 68 percent was through orders from mobile devices.

Six years ago, Alibaba turned Nov. 11 into China's equivalent of United States shopping event Cyber Monday. It has now become larger than both Cyber Monday and Black Friday combined, and a closely watched barometer of the company's performance.

"Alibaba is positioned as the number one player in the Chinese e-commerce market, so it has to be seen to be maintaining, or gaining ground really," said Duncan Clark, chairman of Beijing-based tech consultancy BDA.

The company shares were trading down 2.1 percent at $79.71 in New York at 1713 GMT (12:13 p.m. ET) on Wednesday, after the shopping festival's results were announced.

Singles' Day was originally a mock celebration in China for people not in relationships. But Alibaba in 2009 co-opted the event into a consumption-fest for all, featuring steep discounts and other promotions aimed at attracting droves of customers online. Alibaba's sales data have been closely watched as a gauge of Chinese consumption as economic growth slows.
One of the new sales channel pumping Alibaba's Singles' Day sales was Suning Commerce Group Co, in which it bought a 20 percent stake in August. Suning's in-store sales will count toward Alibaba's total gross merchandise volume, as long as they go through final processing online, an Alibaba spokesman said.

Alibaba has stressed its focus on international e-commerce this Singles' Day. "Within the next five years, we expect China will become the world's largest e-commerce market for imported products," President Michael Evans told reporters on Wednesday.

However, the event could be risky for brands, said Brian Buchwald, CEO of consumer intelligence firm Bomoda.

"If you're a new brand to the market, you don't want to train your consumer to wait for a sale but you also need to use this holiday to break in with a top spending consumer," Buchwald said.

"In the end, you want the consumer to come back and pay full price."

Speaking at the company's Singles' Day celebration in Beijing, Jack Ma, the company's eccentric founder and executive chairman, told reporters the event's annual growth in the future should be over 50 percent.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-alibaba-singles-day-idUSKCN0SZ34J20151112

Structure of the Lead：

     WHO-Alibaba Group

     WHEN-Nov,11,2015

     WHAT-It earned much money during the Singles' Day shopping festival.

     WHY-Because of there were many discounts.  

     WHERE-in Beijing

     HOW-It used many promotion activities to attract customers.

keywords

     1. affiliates 子公司

     2. investees 接受投資者

     3. preliminary 初步的

     4. unaudited 未經審核的

     5. mock 虛擬

     6. gauge 標準

     7. stake 利害關係

     8. merchandise 商品

     9. brand 品牌

     

 　

week-four Yangtze River shipwreck

Chinese ship death toll up to nearly 400

‘SECURITY’:Victims’ family members told reporters that they were concerned about the significant numbers of police parked outside of the hotels they are staying in

Reuters, JIANLI, China

The death toll from a Chinese cruise ship that capsized during a storm on the Yangtze River jumped to 396 yesterday, leaving less than 50 still missing, as the boat operator apologized and said it would cooperate with investigators.

Only 14 survivors, one of them the captain, have been found after the ship carrying 456 overturned in a freak tornado on Monday night.

Rescuers are searching the cabin of the ship, which was righted and raised on Friday, looking for more bodies.

The top and bottom floors of the four-level ship are the current focus of the search, but, due to the level of damage, it might take some time to complete the search, state TV said.

Jiang Zhao (姜曌), general manager of the company which operated the Eastern Star, bowed in apology for the disaster during an interview with state media reported late on Friday, saying the company would “fully” cooperate with the investigation.

Beijing has pledged there would be “no cover-up” in the probe.

Police have detained the captain and chief engineer for questioning as part of the investigation. An initial probe found the ship was not overloaded and had enough life vests on board at the time of the incident.

The disaster has now caused a higher toll than the sinking of a ferry in South Korea in April last year that killed 304 people, most of them children on a school trip. It is also China’s worst shipping disaster in seven decades.

More than 1,400 family members have arrived in Jianli in central Hubei Province, where the ship went down, with many expressing frustration at the lack of information from the government.

The government said that it is doing everything possible to help the relatives, including providing free accommodation and medical services, and state TV yesterday ran an interview with a tearful family member saying how happy she was with all their help.

However, relatives speaking to reporters have expressed concern about security apparently being focused on them, including the number of police cars parked outside of hotels where they are staying.

Yesterday morning, a daily government briefing for family members was cut short after an argument broke out with a representative of the local government. One woman was carried out of the briefing after she fainted.

“There is no information at all. Every day we’re here procrastinating, wasting time. There’s no clear-cut answers, there’s no progress to inform us of,” said Wang Shuang, 24, whose mother and uncle were on the Eastern Star.

Aware of the sensitivity of the disaster, the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s Politburo Standing Committee, China’s apex of power, this week called on local authorities to “earnestly safeguard social stability.”

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2015/06/07/2003620138

Structure of the Lead：

     WHO-shipwreck victims in china

     WHEN-Jun 07,2015

     WHAT-There were 400 people died in the disaster,and only 14 survived.

     WHY- because of the tornado

     WHERE-on the Yangtze River

     HOW-The general manager of the company apologized  and they  cooperated with investigation.

keywords

    1. cruise ship 遊船

    2. capsize 傾覆

    3. pledge 發誓

    4. cover-up 掩飾

    5. accommodation 住處

    6. fainted 昏厥

    7. clear-cut 清晰的

    8.  earnestly 認真的