Emoji named word of the year

Mon, November 16, 2015

By Heather Kelly

Oxford Dictionaries' 2015 word of the year is difficult to pronounce. Because it has no letters. It is a cartoon yellow face, shedding two giant tears.

They are not tears of sadness for the English language. It is a happy crying face, most commonly used as an LOL alternative.

Every year, Oxford Dictionaries' lexicographers chose a word that captures the year's biggest trends or changes in the English language. The organization knew it wanted to pick an emoji for 2015. The tiny illustrations that pepper social media and text conversations have seen a surge in popularity in recent years.

"You can see how traditional alphabet scripts have been struggling to meet the rapid-fire, visually focused demands of 21st century communication," said Oxford Dictionaries' president Casper Grathwohl in a statement. "It's not surprising that a pictographic script like emoji has stepped in to fill those gaps."

The official name for the chosen emoji is "face with tears of joy," according to the Unicode Consortium, the organization in charge of emoji standards. It was first introduced in 2010 and variations can be found on Android and iOS devices, on the web, and across social media.

There are more than 1,000 emoji characters, but Oxford could only chose one. A taco or unicorn emoji would have represented the most buzzed-about newcomers. The red heart is one of the oldest emojis.

Oxford Dictionaries teamed up with SwiftKey, a maker of emoji keyboards, to identify the most commonly used emoji. It found the tears of joy face was the most frequently used emoji in 2015, making up 17% of all emojis in the U.S. and 20% in the UK.

The emoji is the latest in a string of light-hearted picks from Oxford Dictionaries. Last year it went with "vape," in 2013 it was "selfie," and in 2012 it was "GIF."

http://money.cnn.com/2015/11/16/technology/emoji-oxford-word-of-the-year/index.html

Structure of the Lead:

WHO-not given

WHAT- emoji, 2015 word of the year

WHEN-in 2015

WHERE-not given

WHY- The organization knew it wanted to pick an emoji for 2015. The tiny illustrations that pepper social media and text conversations have seen a surge in popularity in recent years

HOW-not given

Keywords:

1.      emoji 表情符號

2.      shed 脫落

3.      alphabet 字母

4.      script 腳本

5.      light-hearted 輕鬆的

Russian plane crashes in Sinai, killing all 224 people on board

Sun, November 1, 2015

By Don Melvin and Ray Sanchez

A Russian passenger plane crashed early Saturday in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 people aboard, officials said.

Russian state media reported that many of the 217 passengers on Kogalymavia Flight 9268 were Russians returning from vacation. The passenger manifest included 17 children but Russian officials said there were 25 aboard. There were seven crew members.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin tweeted that four victims were Ukrainian nationals.

The cause of the crash still is unknown, but it is most likely due to a technical failure, and there is no evidence of any terrorist action, Egyptian Airports Co. chief Adel Al-Mahjoob told CNN Arabic.

The Airbus A321 had a routine check before flight, showing everything was OK to proceed, Mahjoob said.

The so-called black boxes -- the flight data recorder and voice data recorder -- have been recovered and transported to Cairo for analysis, Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister Hossam Kamel said at a news conference.

"There was nothing abnormal before the plane crash," he said. "It suddenly disappeared from the radar."

Air traffic control recordings did not show any distress calls, Kamel said.

The plane departed the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, near the southern tip of the Sinai, on a flight to St. Petersburg, Russia. It vanished from radar 23 minutes into the flight, at 6:20 a.m. local time.

Egypt has been battling insurgents in the Sinai aligned with the terrorist group ISIS.

Islamists militants in the Sinai linked to ISIS claimed responsibility for the crash, according to an online statement.

But Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov said the claim that terrorists brought down the plane by using an anti-aircraft missile "cannot be considered reliable," according to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.

German air carrier Lufthansa and Air France have decided to reroute aircraft due to fly over the region.

"We will keep that measure in place as long as we are not sure of the circumstances and the reasons of the Metrojet crash," Lufthansa spokeswoman Bettina Rittberger said.

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/10/31/middleeast/egypt-plane-crash/index.html

Structure of the Lead:

WHO- all 224 people on board

WHEN- November 1, 2015

WHAT- A Russian passenger plane crashed

WHERE- in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula

WHY- The cause of the crash still is unknown, but it is most likely due to a technical failure, and there is no evidence of any terrorist action

HOW-not given

Keywords:

1.      manifest 名單

2.      nationals 國民;公民

3.      insurgents 叛亂分子

4.      missile 導彈

5.      reroute 變更路程

More than 100 jade hunters killed in landslide at Myanmar mine

Tues, November 24, 2015

By Tim Hume, CNN

At least 113 people were killed in northern Myanmar when a huge hill of tailings from a jade mine collapsed onto the huts of sleeping workers, according to state-run media.

Local officials estimate another 30 victims were "buried under the soil."

The collapse of the roughly 60-meter-high (200-foot-high) mound took place at about 3 a.m. Saturday in Hpakant, in Myanmar's northern state of Kachin, the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported.

Seventy huts containing sleeping workers were buried in the slide, with only five huts spared, according to the newspaper. The huts had been situated in a ravine between two huge hills of dump soil, it reported.

The military was working with local residents in rescue and recovery efforts, it reported Monday, warning that many more people remain missing.

The area produces some of the world's highest quality jade, a nearly translucent green stone that is highly valued in neighboring China.

Many workers, typically migrants from other parts of the country, eke out a livelihood in the shadow of the mines by sifting through the tailings for leftover jade, the newspaper said.

Local authorities said they had earlier issued notices telling the workers they could not stay on the site, according to the newspaper.

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/11/22/asia/myanmar-landslide/index.html

Structure of the Lead:

WHO- mine workers

WHEN- November 24, 2015

WHAT- a landslide at Myanmar mine

WHY- a huge hill of tailings from a jade mine collapsed onto the huts of sleeping workers

WHERE- in Hpakant, in Myanmar's northern state of Kachin

HOW-not given

Keywords:

1.          mound 丘

2.          hut 木屋

3.          spare 倖免

4.          ravine 山谷

5.          dump 垃圾

6.          translucent 半透明的

7.          eke out 勉強維持

8.          sift 篩選