Let's Get 7 in IELTS

Analysis has a long and, some might say, rather worthy history as a thoughtful documentary strand on Radio 4. So it was pretty surprising that the programme this week found itself at the centre of suggestions that it had been used by a Whitehall counter-terrorism unit as part of a "global propaganda push" against al-Qaeda.

The story on the front page of Tuesday's Guardian didn't actually name Analysis. The paper's home affairs editor Alan Travis reported that, according to a secret Home Office paper, the BBC was being targeted by the Research, Information and Communication Unit (RICU), which aims to counter al-Qaeda propaganda in Britain and overseas.

It was quoted by the Guardian as saying: "We are pushing this material to UK media channels, eg a BBC radio programme exposing tensions between AQ leadership and supporters." It was quickly apparent to us that the programme in question must be the 7 August edition of Analysis, presented by the BBC's Security Correspondent Frank Gardner, and broadcast in a slightly different form on the World Service this week.

The programme was called "al-Qaeda's Enemy Within" and explored how the war of ideas within the Jihadi movement is becoming as important as the military frontline. Was it the result of a "push" from RICU? Absolutely not. The truth couldn't be more different.

Henry Ford certainly is a great guy. He introduced mass-production, putting the whole world on the wheels. But his contribution to the world is not just his Model T, which, like the old Singer sewing machine, was built all but for eternity. Both machines were, of course, almost fool-proof easy to handle, and best of all, capitalists could increase the wages of workers and cut the prices of their products at the same time, thanks to mass-production and its resultant global popularization.
Things began to change after the economic globalization, whose inception historians would date back to the end of the Second World War. The United States won the war, and women's obsession with nylon stockings surged across the world where GIs spread the gospel of semi-transparent sexy hose. Incidentally, GI, which stands for "government issue," means the American soldier, who was ubiquitous the world over in the latter half of the 1940s. The best present a German or Italian or Japanese girl could have from her GI friend was the nylon stockings.

Well, they lasted almost forever. That made American hose-makers worry about their business prospective. The good lasting nylon stockings would saturate the market sooner than later. So they had to turn out flimsier stockings to keep their market wide open. Pantyhose now available doesn't last long. Other manufacturers followed suit, producing increasingly costly wares that have a much shorter lifespan.

As U.S. President George W. Bush prepares to leave the White House after eight years in office, he has once again revisited the sensitive issue of Washington's relationship with Taiwan.
During a meeting at the White House with Asian media reporters held on the eve of his last official trip to Asia, President Bush brought up the issue of Taiwan and his views about the current state of cross-strait relations.
 
Addressing what he termed the "Taiwan-Chinese relationship," President Bush said that following recent developments, "people who study this very closely will see that the issue is in a better place."

Russia and Georgia have signed a cease-fire accord over the weekend, ending a nine-day conflict. But Russian troops won't leave Georgia easily.
Fighting in Georgia (pop. 4.5 million), one of 12 states in the Caucasus, began last Friday when Tbilisi launched a military incursion into South Ossetia (pop. 70,000) to rout separatist rebels.
 
Russia, which supports the separatists as many of them carry Russian passports, responded swiftly, sending tanks across the border into S. Ossetia. Fighting quickly spread to Abkhazia (pop. 100,000), another breakaway region.

U.S. President George W. Bush likes to talk straight. His "bring them on" ranks with former CIA Director George Tenet's "slam dunk" as some of the most memorable quotes during his presidency. Harry Truman once called a critic of his daughter's musical talent an "s.o.b." Bush is said to have used the same kind of language to vent his anger against those he did not like.

 

Everybody is happy that Chinese Taipei is represented in the 16-day Summer Olympics in Beijing, which opened last Friday. We weren't always sure this would be the case. Not long ago, Taiwan was on the verge of boycotting the Games to make all concerned very unhappy. 
Taiwan threatened the boycott over what all non-Chinese would consider "no big deal." It was Beijing that started the row by insisting on using its Chinese translation of "Chinese Taipei" to designate the Olympic team of Taipei. That strange-sounding term was invented and coined in English to let Taiwan, which used to insist on calling itself the Republic of China, take part in the Olympics in the first place. In Beijing, it is translated into Chinese as "China, Taipei" or "Zhongguo Taipei." Its Taiwan counterpart is "Zhonghua Taipei" or "Chinese, Taipei." So far as the man in the street on either side of the Taiwan Strait is concerned, there's no difference between "Zhongguo" and "Zhonghua." The People's Republic of China is an English translation of "Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo." The Chinese title of the Republic of China is "Zhonghua Minguo." But even politicians acknowledge "Chinese" as "Zhonghua" and with the exception of a few, as "Zhongguo." Incidentally, "Zhong" means "the center," while "Hua" and "Guo" can be rendered as "flower" and "country." 

News Correspondent Richard LuiIt’s the first day of the month, and we have the first dustup on the explosive issue of race in the presidential election.
Thursday, Senator John McCain accused of Senator Barack Obama of bringing up race in the campaign. Until now it has been a subject off limits between the two presumptive nominees in the public forum.The issue popped when McCain campaign manager Rick Davis said that “Barack Obama has played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck. It’s divisive, negative, shameful and wrong.”When asked if his campaign manager’s comment was fair, McCain said, “It is, I’m sorry to say that it is, and it’s legitimate. And there is no place in this campaign for that, there’s no place for it and we shouldn’t be doing it”.Davis and McCain were responding to comments made by Obama earlier in the day.At one stop Obama responded to a recent attack ad with Paris Hilton and Britney Spears released by McCain:“What they’re going to try to do is make you scared of me,” Obama said. “You know, he’s not patriotic enough, he’s got a funny name, you know, he doesn’t look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills.”Obama used the wording of not looking like other presidents on dollar bills three times yesterday.The McCain camp implies Obama’s statements are allusions to Obama’s ethnicity; that Obama is biracial and the presidents on the dollar bills are white.Obama spokesman Bill Burton defends Obama’s statements. According to Politico.com, Burton said that McCain’s campaign was “misinterpreting” both the “tenor and the meaning” of Obama’s words.“I think they should probably be a little less paranoid about parsing every word we say and a little more focused on actually addressing the challenges that Americans expect the president of the United States to take on,” Burton said.So who’s playing the race card? Was it McCain by accusing Obama of playing the race card? Or was it Obama by bringing up the issue of how he looked versus presidents on dollar bills? Or was it McCain for using two tabloid queens who are white and blonde in his attack ad when asking if Obama is ready to lead? Are you dizzy yet?Is this latest duel about race, pettiness, or real issues? We’ll try to get as many of your comments as we can on air! And thank you for taking the time!
紅色ㄉ地方看不懂ㄚ
dustup 騷動;爭論;爭吵
explosive 爆發性的
race 比賽,競賽;人種;種族;民族
accuse 指控,控告;譴責;指責,把...歸咎(於)
bringing up 養育;提起...,談到
campaign 戰役;運動;競選運動
subject 主題;題目;題材
limit 界線;界限
presumptive 根據推定的;可據以推定的
nominees 被提名人
forum 公開討論的場所;討論會
pop 出現,發生
bottom 底;底部;下端
divisive 區分的;分裂的;引起不和的
negative 否定的;否認的
shameful 可恥的,丟臉的;不道德的,不體面的;猥褻的,下流的
legitimate 合法的;正當的,合理的
comments 批評,意見,評論;閒話,議論
ad
released 豁免;赦免;免除
patriotic 愛國的
camp  陣營;擁護某一主義(或黨派等)的人們
imply 暗指;暗示;意味著
statements 陳述,說明;聲明
allusions 暗示;間接提到;提及
ethnicity 種族地位;種族特點;種族淵源
biracial 二種人種間的(尤指黑、白人種的)
defend 防禦;保衛;保護
misinterpret 誤解
tenor 要旨,大意
paranoid 屬於偏執狂的
parse 從語法上分析
address 向...致詞,向...發表演說;對...說話
take on 承擔
versus (法律和運動用語,常略作v.或vs.)對;對抗;與...相對
tabloid 扼要的;摘要的,縮略的
blonde 白膚金髮碧眼的
dizzy 被弄糊塗的,愚蠢的
duel 決鬥;抗爭
pettiness 委瑣;器量小;卑鄙

It's been an eventful week for Turkey. On Sunday, 17 people were killed in bomb attacks in Istanbul and on Wednesday the Constitutional Court narrowly decided not to ban the governing AK party - which has been accused of being an Islamist party in violation of Turkey's secular constitution. 
 The World Tonight has given prominence to Turkey this week. We sent our reporter, Paul Moss, to cover the court decision - though in the event he landed a couple of hours after Sunday's bomb attacks and was on hand to report on that story for BBC Radio 5 Live and the Today programme as well The World Tonight.
Having our own reporter there enabled us to get access to interviews with Turkish politicians and people which we wouldn't normally get.
I have been asked why I decided to invest in this story by sending a reporter and devoting so much airtime to it.
The answer is simple - and I hope this came out in our coverage. Turkey is central to two major issues facing the world today - the relationship between Islam and democracy and the future development of the European Union, which Turkey wants to join.
 The country is a majority Muslim country that is also a democracy at a time when other Muslim countries in the region are not democratic in the sense that they have competitive elections that lead to a change of government. (There are Asian countries, like Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Iran that have a history of various models of electoral politics punctuated by military and authoritarian rule). 
The Turkish republic was founded by an army officer, Mustafa Kamal Ataturk, as the Ottoman Empire collapsed after the First World War. He established a secular state where before the Ottoman Empire had been an Islamic state in the sense that it claimed to be the successor of the original Caliphate.
He and his successor ruled the country until the first democratic election in 1950, but periods of democratic rule have been punctuated since by coups by the army which regards itself as the guardian of the secular state founded by Ataturk. 
The country has been governed by the AK (Justice and Development) Party for the past six years which was returned to power last year with a big majority. AK describes itself as a moderate conservative pro-Western party, its critics say it is a closet Islamist party trying to introduce an Islamic state by stealth.
So you have a tension between a democratic system that returns a government that many in the secularist establishment of the country regard as unconstitutional. What happens in Turkey will have an impact on the evolution of democracy in Muslim states. Our presenter, Robin Lustig, has also blogged on this.
Turkey also wants to join the EU - something opposed by many politicians in France and Germany but supported by governments such as the UK. A large Muslim country much of which is situated in Asia, rather than Europe, would inevitably change the nature of the EU.
The AK party is a strong supporter of EU membership so its future is important to that ambition - even if this ambition is now in jeopardy by apparent enlargement fatigue in the EU.
I believe Turkey is worth the coverage, but let me know if you agree. 
單字
accused 被告
ambition 有...野心;追求
apparent 表面的,外觀的;未必真實的
authoritarian 權力主義者;獨裁主義者
ban 禁止;禁令[C][(+on/against)]
caliphate 回教國王的地位
closet  私下的,祕密的
collapse 使倒塌;使崩潰
competitive 競爭的;經由競爭的,競爭性的
conservative 保守的,守舊的
constitution  保守的,守舊的
constitutional 體質上的;生來的;本質的;基本的
court 體質上的;生來的;本質的;基本的
critic 批評家,評論家
democracy 民主;民主主義
describe 描寫,描繪,敘述
devote 將...奉獻(給)[(+to)]
enlargement 擴大;擴展
evolution 發展,進展
fatigue 疲勞,勞累
govern 統治;管理
guardian 保護者,守護者;管理員
inevitably 不可避免地;必然地
jeopardy 危險,風險,危難
majority  多數,過半數,大多數
moderate 中等的,適度的
narrowly 狹窄地
politician 從事政治者,政治家
punctuate 在...中間加標點
secular 現世的;世俗的;非宗教的
situated 位於...的,坐落在...的
stealth 祕密行動;鬼鬼祟祟
unconstitutional 違反憲法的
various 不同的;各種各樣的,形形色色的
violation 違反;違背;違犯

At the risk of igniting yet another flurry of Apple v PC fervour, and with a heavy heart at returning to the subject so soon, Stephen Fry, who we love and admire, took a pop at the BBC over the weekend for not doing enough stories about Apple products. 
It's a criticism I haven't heard before. He feels we are running scared of an anti-Apple community backlash. My colleague, online technology editor Darren Waters, has written this heartfelt response to Stephen who's clearly now a signed up member of the anti-anti Apple Community (if that's possible).
By Darren Waters
I feel a little uneasy disagreeing with a national treasure, but I must take issue with Stephen Fry's comments about the BBC technology site in his latest Guardian Dork Talk column.