Rio 2016 Olympics: Everything you need to know

Rio 2016 Olympics: Everything you need to know

26 April 2016, Olympics

As the 2016 Olympic Games edge closer, BBC Sport takes a look at everything you need to know ahead of the world's biggest sporting event this summer.

1. When are the 2016 Olympics?

Friday 5 August - Saturday 21 August.

2. Where are they being held?

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

3. When is the opening ceremony?

Friday 5 August at the Maracana Stadium. Rio is four hours behind the UK, so the ceremony start time for UK viewers will be 00:00 BST (20:00 local time).

4. Why was Brazil chosen?

Rio won the final round of voting (held in October 2009) by 66 votes against the 32 votes given to Madrid, the other finalist, after Chicago and Tokyo were eliminated in the first two rounds.

The deciding factors included South America never having hosted an Olympics, and the regeneration the Games would bring to Rio, Brazil and South America.

5. How many countries will compete?

206

6. Which sports will be in the 2016 Olympics?

42 sports will be contested - swimming, judo, volleyball and modern pentathlon are just some of the sports involved.

7. Could Russia be banned from taking part?

Russia's athletics federation was suspended by the IAAF (athletics' world governing body) in November last year after being accused of "state-sponsored" doping.

As a result, all Russian track and field athletes intending to compete in Rio will undergo a minimum of three independent anti-doping controls.

A decision will be made at the IAAF council meeting on 17 June as to whether Russia can send a team to the Olympic Games.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/olympics/36128926

Structure of the Lead：

WHO- Olympics

WHEN- 26 April 2016

WHAT- Everything you need to know about Olympics

WHY- not given

WHERE- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

HOW- not given

Same-sex marriage 'could be in Guernsey by summer'

2 January 2017

Employment and Social Security Committee Vice President Shane Langlois said the UK Privy Council had given Royal Assent to the local law, passed by the States in 2015.It will go before the States for final approval before coming into effect. However, Mr. Langlois advised couples against making any arrangements until a commencement date was announced. The States committed itself to introducing same-sex marriage more than a year ago, voting in December 2015, with support for the plans passing by 37 votes to seven. Under the legislation, couples will be able to get married in a civil ceremony.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-guernsey-38490813

Structure of the Lead：

     WHO- Shane Langlois

     WHEN- 2 January

     WHAT- permit same sex marriage

     WHY- not given

WHERE- Guernsey

     HOW-not given

Keywords:

1. legislation (.n) 立法

Artificial intelligence: Google's AlphaGo beats Go master Lee Se-dol

Artificial intelligence: Google's AlphaGo beats Go master Lee Se-dol

12 March 2016

Google's AlphaGo program was playing against Lee Se-dol in Seoul, in South Korea. Mr Lee had been confident he would win before the competition started. The Chinese board game is considered to be a much more complex challenge for a computer than chess."AlphaGo played consistently from beginning to the end while Lee, as he is only human, showed some mental vulnerability," one of Lee's former coaches, Kwon Kap-Yong, told the AFP news agency. Mr Lee is considered a champion Go player; having won numerous professional tournaments in a long, successful career. Go is a game of two players who take turns putting black or white stones on a 19-by-19 grid. Players win by taking control of the most territory on the board, which they achieve by surrounding their opponent's pieces with their own.In the first game of the series, AlphaGo triumphed by a very narrow margin - Mr Lee had led for most of the match, but AlphaGo managed to build up a strong lead in its closing stages.After losing the second match to Deep Mind, Lee Se-dol said he was "speechless" adding that the AlphaGo machine played a "nearly perfect game".The two experts who provided commentary for the YouTube stream of for the third game said that it had been a complicated match to follow.They said that Lee Se-dol had brought his "top game" but that AlphaGo had won "in great style".The AlphaGo system was developed by British computer company DeepMind which was bought by Google in 2014.It has built up its expertise by studying older games and teasing out patterns of play. And, according to DeepMind chief executive Demis Hassabis, it has also spent a lot of time just playing the game."It played itself, different versions of itself, millions and millions of times and each time got incrementally slightly better - it learns from its mistakes," he told the BBC before the matches started.This virtuous circle of constant improvement meant the super computer went into the five-match series stronger than when it beat the European champion late last year.

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-35785875

 Structure of the Lead：

     WHO- Lee Se-dol

     WHEN- 12 March

     WHAT- Alpha Go

     WHY- Not given

     WHERE- Seoul, South Korea

     HOW-not given

Keywords:

1. consistently (.adv) 一致地

2. vulnerability (.n) 弱點

3. commentary (.n) 評論

4. virtuous (.adj) 善良的

The British town that really wants to leave Europe

The British town that really wants to leave Europe

Sheena McKenzie, CNN

July 15, 2016

In Romford Market a busker's jaunty tune wafts over shoppers wandering under flapping Union Jacks.

"Stop your messing around. Better think of your future," he sings.

Last month Romford delivered its own message to European lawmakers: Leave.

In Havering, the borough where the town is situated, 70% of people voted to exit the European Union, making it one of the places with the highest percentage of Leave voters.

This is not rural England, where so many Brexiters hailed from. Romford is a mere 17 miles from Parliament, but a world away from London's liberal elite -- some of whom were so disappointed by the outcome they've called for the capital to break away from the UK and form its own city-state.

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/07/15/europe/romford-brexit-leave-remain-voters/

 Structure of the Lead：

     WHO- Brexiters

     WHEN- Last month

     WHAT- The British town that really wants to leave Europe

     WHY-not given

     WHERE-England

     HOW-not given

Keyword:

1. jaunty (adj.) 快活的

2. borough (n.) 區

3. wafts (v.) 吹送

4. elite (adj.) 高級的

How did IS spread across Iraq and Syria?

How did IS spread across Iraq and Syria?

22 December 2016

The jihadists exploited the chaos and divisions within both Syria and Iraq.

IS grew out of what was al-Qaeda in Iraq, which was formed by Sunni militants after the US-led invasion in 2003 and became a major force in the country's sectarian insurgency.

In 2011, the group joined the rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, where it found a safe haven and easy access to weapons.

At the same time, it took advantage of the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, as well as widespread Sunni anger at the sectarian policies of the country's Shia-led government.

In 2013, the group began seizing control of territory in Syria and changed its name to Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis or Isil).

The following year, Isis overran large swathes of northern and western Iraq, proclaimed the creation of a "caliphate", and became "Islamic State".

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-27838034

 Structure of the Lead：

     WHO-ISIS

     WHEN-2011, 2013

     WHAT-territory expansion

     WHY-ISIS wants to expand its territory

     WHERE- Syria and Iraq

     HOW-not given

Keywords

1. Jihadists (n.) 聖戰士

2. Rebellion (n.) 叛亂

3. Exploit (v.) 開拓

4. Seize (v.) 掌握

SpaceX's Elon Musk lays out the plan to put humans on Mars

CNNMoney (New York)First published September 27, 2016: 5:34 PM ET

The SpaceX CEO laid out his plan to colonize the Red Planet at the International Astronautical Congress, a meeting of multiple international space exploration associations in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Musk has long said he wants to make humans an "interplanetary species," and on Tuesday he addressed many of the technical, safety and cost challenges he'll face.

His goal is to bring the price of a ticket to Mars down to around $200,000 per person -- aboutthe median price of a house in the U.S. Compare that to $10 billion, which is what Musk said it would cost to go to Mars using current technology.

He explained that a few crucial technical advancements must be made to make that price point possible, including making rockets that are reliably reusable.

The small white figure on the lower right side of the spacecraft represents the size of a human compared to Musk's Mars-bound spacecraft.

SpaceX has already been heavily focused on that. The company has successfully landed six rockets that completed missions to orbit, and it intends to send one of those "used" rockets back into orbit later this year.

Related: SpaceX plans return to space by November, 3 months after blast

On the technical front, Musk has already introduced the world to the Raptor rocket engine he plans to use to take people to Mars, which is different that the engines used for the Falcon rockets that SpaceX has already sent on missions. The Raptor uses a different fuel and is far more powerful. The company completed a successful test fire of a Raptor rocket on Monday.

Musk said a spacecraft headed to Mars would need to use 42 Raptor engines at once

"You could lose multiple engines," he said Tuesday, "and continue the mission safely."

The initial goal is to pair the enormous rocket with a spaceship capable of carrying about 100 people (plus their luggage.)

http://money.cnn.com/2016/09/27/technology/spacex-elon-musk-mars-colonization/

 Structure of the Lead：

     WHO- Elon Musk

     WHEN-Tuesday

     WHAT- put humans on Mars

     WHY-. wants to make humans an interplanetary species

     WHERE-Mars, Mexico

     HOW-not given

Keywords:

Orbit (n.): 軌道

Enormous (adj.): 巨大的

U.N. Climate Change Conference Turns to Implementing Paris Agreement

U.N. Climate Change Conference Turns to Implementing Paris Agreement

By 

BILL SPINDLE and AMY HARDER

Nov. 7, 2016 5:30 a.m. ET

A year after nearly 200 nations agreed to a global pact in Paris to combat climate change, a United Nations conference this week ushers in the hard work of turning the plan into action.

The conference, known as COP22, which kicks off Monday in Marrakesh, Morocco, benefits from the unexpectedly quick adoption of the Paris agreement. It entered into force Friday after at least 55 signatories representing more than 55% of global emissions previously ratified it, including the U.S., China, the European Union and India.

“The politically difficult step was Paris,” said Robert Stavins, an environmental economist at Harvard University. “The technically difficult steps now remain.”

The agreement is a collection of self-imposed national plans for holding emissions to a level scientists believe will prevent global temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit). But the past year contained many reminders of how difficult implementing the agreement will be compared with the feel-good exercise of approving and ratifying it.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-n-climate-change-conference-turns-to-implementing-paris-agreement-1478514604

 Structure of the Lead：

     WHO- U.N.

     WHEN- Nov. 7, 2016

     WHAT- Implementing Paris Agreement

     WHY- U.N. Climate Change Conference

     WHERE- Marrakesh, Morocco

     HOW-not given

Keywords:

Usher in (phr.): 開始

Emission (n.): 發行

Ratify (v.): 批准