【每日阅读训练第四期——速度越障16系列】【16-09】文史哲

ElenW

又到我啦哈哈哈~~~每次找文章都是一个大挑战啊  佷希望是能够跟上大潮流的~~~~伤脑筋啊 ~~~这次的文章有一篇是关于最近的一部很火的美剧的 不知道大家看过没~~去文章中找找看吧 啦啦啦啦  有空喜欢的话去看看啦~~~P.S：该篇文章是由阅读小分队里面的一位热心的 好心的 朋友提供的~~~谢谢你！嘻嘻嘻 希望你能看到~~
SPEED
[Time1]
Pop diva, feminist icon, overexposed celebrity or working mother — no matter what you think of Beyonce Knowles, one thing is for certain: we are now living in the age of Beyonce.
Last month, she sang the US national anthem at Obama’s inauguration ceremony, performed at the Super Bowl, had a self-directed bio documentary aired on HBO, and announced a world tour, The Mrs Carter Show, starting in April.
And these events weren’t even her official comeback since her last album 4 launched in 2011 and the birth of her daughter in January 2012. Her fifth album, set to be released in April, is the real deal — at least for fans like me who are into Beyonce for her musical genius rather than her superstar divaness and overwhelming media exposure
Besides owning all her solo albums, I have been a fan of Beyonce since she was in Destiny’s Child. When I first listened to The Writing’s on the Wall, the R&B group’s breakthrough 1999 album, like the rest of the world, I was conquered.
I soon noticed that most of the songs had Beyonce’s name in the writing credits. But for the past decade, during which Beyonce’s career has soared, there have been less of these idiosyncratic girl-power hits.
Singers like Prince or Michael Jackson were clearly invested in their musical reputation and made epic, historic music. But in Beyonce’s case much of her recent music has not been so unforgettable.
I personally wish Beyonce had spent more time being a genius. But for now her focus seems to be elsewhere. Perhaps she’s looking forward, not backward. Maybe making classic albums isn’t the part of her career she’s paying attention to. Or maybe she’s realized that while there are plenty of music geniuses, there’s only one Beyonce.
(296)

[Time2]
SEOUL—South Korean police are investigating one of the country's biggest Internet shutdowns yet for evidence of a North Korean cyberattack, after simultaneous outages Wednesday paralyzed computer systems at major television networks and banks for several hours.
Servers at three TV stations, a number of commercial banks including Shinhan Bank and Nonghyup, and two insurance companies were either shut down or severely disrupted from around 2 p.m. local time, police and government officials said. Some systems were still down in the late evening.
Government and military sites weren't affected by the attack, but the military raised its information surveillance status.
Television broadcasts continued throughout the outages and bank branches remained open, although some retail- and business-banking services were inaccessible to staff. Banks said automated teller and Internet banking operations were affected.
Speculation immediately focused on North Korea. South Korea's communications watchdog said the attacks were caused by malicious code, but it didn't have any evidence linking the attack to North Korea. There were reports of skulls appearing on the screens of affected computers.
North Korean state media made no comment on the incident.
Investigations into hacking attacks can take weeks or months.
"We're looking into the cause of the shutdown, but we can't say North Korea is behind it," said a representative for South Korea's president, Park Geun-hye.
(218)


[Time3]
SOME inventions are so simple, you have to wonder why no one has come up with them before. One such is the electronic cigarette. Smoking tobacco is the most dangerous voluntary activity in the world. More than 5m people die every year of the consequences. That is one death in ten. People smoke because they value the pleasure they get from nicotine in tobacco over the long-term certainty that their health will be damaged. So it seems rational to welcome a device that separates the dangerous part of smoking (the tar, carbon monoxide and smoke released by the process of combustion) from the nicotine. And that is what an e-cigarette does. It uses electricity from a small battery to vaporise a nicotine-containing solution, so that the user can breathe it in.
E-cigarettes do not just save the lives of smokers: they bring other benefits too. Unlike cigarettes, they do not damage the health of bystanders. They do not even smell that bad, so there is no public nuisance, let alone hazard, and thus no reason to ban their use in public places. Pubs and restaurants should welcome them with open arms.
No wonder the e-cigarette market is growing. Though still small compared with that for real smokes, it doubled in America last year and is likely to do so again in 2013 (see article).
Who could object? Quite a lot of people, it seems. Instead of embracing e-cigarettes, many health lobbyists are determined to stub them out. Some claim that e-cigarettes may act as “gateways” to the real thing. Others suggest that the flavourings sometimes added to the nicotine-bearing solution make e-cigarettes especially attractive to children—a sort of nicotine equivalent of “alcopop” drinks. But these objections seem to be driven by puritanism, not by reason. Some health lobbyists are so determined to prevent people doing anything that remotely resembles smoking—a process referred to as “denormalisation”—that they refuse to endorse a product that reproduces the pleasure of smoking without the harm.
In some places politicians and other busybodies are listening. Several countries (including Austria and New Zealand) restrict the sale of e-cigarettes, for example by classifying them as medical devices; others (Brazil and Singapore) ban them altogether. Some airlines, too, ban passengers from using e-cigarettes on their planes.
(380)
[The Rest]
We don’t mind if you do
This is wrong. Those charged with improving public health should be promoting e-cigarettes, not discouraging their use. Of course, e-cigarettes should be regulated. Nicotine is an addictive drug, and should therefore be kept out of the hands of children. E-cigarettes should be sold only through licensed outlets, and to adults. It would also be a good idea to do some proper research on them. Nicotine is, after all, a poison (its real purpose is to stop insects eating tobacco plants), so there may be some residual risk to users. But nicotine poisoning is pretty low on the list of bad things that ordinary cigarettes are accused of. Some researchers reckon nicotine to be no more dangerous than caffeine, which coffee plants similarly employ as an insecticide.
The right approach is not to denormalise smoking, but to normalise e-smoking. Those who enjoy nicotine will be able to continue to use it, while everyone else will be spared both the public-health consequences of smoking and the nuisance of other people’s smoke. What’s not to like?
[Time4]
WITH only a single dissenter among nearly 3,000 delegates, on March 14th the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s legislature, vested Xi Jinping with the formal title of state president. He had already been made head of the Communist Party and of the armed forces in November. Now Mr Xi is ready for a new role as global statesman—and the world is wondering how he will act.
One of the few clues may be found in his decision to go to Moscow on March 22nd (he will continue to Africa, see article). At a time when the Americans are talking of reordering their security priorities with a so-called “pivot” towards Asia, some Chinese commentators have interpreted Mr Xi’s decision to visit Russia first as a gesture aimed at America. China, after all, sees the pivot as menacing, despite American efforts to persuade it otherwise.
First trips matter: leaders meet friends before those with whom they have trickier relations. China and Russia, antagonists a few decades ago, are now on remarkably good terms. President Vladimir Putin has been assiduous in cultivating Mr Xi. Both countries resent American global dominance, as well as Western intervention in others’ affairs, notably in Syria. And as a new report by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace points out, with tensions between China and Japan rising alarmingly over island disputes, Mr Xi may want to reaffirm smooth relations on China’s long Russian flank.
Staying cordial with Russia is a priority for China. A Sino-Soviet split in the late 1950s taught both countries how draining tensions can be along a border that today stretches more than 4,000km (2,500 miles). Yet for all their “strategic friendship”, relations are not as good as they could be. To Chinese chagrin, the Russians have supplied advanced weaponry to India and Vietnam, two countries that are not on stellar terms with China. From Russia’s perspective, whereas China was until recently a chief buyer of Russian arms, it has now become a chief competitor—often with copied Russian designs.
Energy also reveals the limits to Russian and Chinese cosiness. The two countries have bickered long and hard over China’s request for access to more of Russia’s oil and gas. Proposals to pipe natural gas from Russia to China have been stalled for years because of haggling over prices (see article). Hopes were raised last month when Gazprom, a Russian energy giant close to Mr Putin, said it would sign a gas deal with China by the end of the year. There have been false dawns before, though recent negotiations have been unusually intense.
[Time5]
Mr Xi is certainly fond of nationalist rhetoric. On March 17th, at the end of the 13-day annual session of the NPC, he repeated some favourite catchphrases. The country had to “strive to achieve the Chinese dream of the great renaissance of the Chinese nation”. The army issued a circular to troops promising to provide “robust support” for this endeavour. That will not reassure neighbours who worry about China’s growing assertiveness in disputed regional waters, and who turn to America for help.
However, Mr Xi is not intending to turn his back on America. President Barack Obama’s new treasury secretary, Jack Lew, visited Beijing this week. Mr Xi assured him that ties with America were of “great importance”. His trip marks a resumption of high-level contact between the two countries after a hiatus of several months, while America was absorbed by its presidential election and China by the handover to Mr Xi. The new secretary of state, John Kerry, is likely to visit Beijing in April.
These visits are a sign that both countries are anxious to resume normal business. They have urgent matters to discuss, from growing American concern about Chinese state-sponsored computer hacking to the perilous state of relations between China and Japan, which could draw in America if shots are ever fired.
A recent shuffle of China’s most senior diplomats suggests that Mr Xi is emphasising the management of prickly relations with America and Japan. At the NPC session, the foreign minister, Yang Jiechi, was promoted to state councillor, making him a senior adviser to Mr Xi on foreign affairs. Mr Yang has given the Americans tongue-lashings in the past. However, Michael Yahuda, a professor emeritus at the London School of Economics who taught Mr Yang in the 1970s, describes him as a “highly polished” diplomat who was well regarded in Washington during his service as China’s ambassador a decade ago. Mr Yang’s harsher tone in the past three years has matched that of higher-ups, and is in line with the “sharper and more nationalistic approach” of Mr Xi, says Mr Yahuda.
Mr Yang’s successor as foreign minister is Wang Yi, an Asia specialist who was China’s ambassador to Japan from 2004 to 2007. In Tokyo Mr Wang helped to heal relations after earlier bad blood. But today Sino-Japanese relations are much worse, with China challenging Japanese control of the Senkaku islands (Diaoyu in Chinese) in the East China Sea. To date, Mr Xi has shown no sign of wanting to wind down the confrontation.
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OBSTACLE

“House of Cards” is an original release from Netflix, a DVD-distribution and streaming company that has decided, after several years of selling tickets to the circus, to jump into the ring. Adapted from a British political thriller, and produced by David Fincher, the series stars Kevin Spacey as a mercenary Democratic House Majority Whip and Robin Wright as his wife. This prestigious résumé has turned “House of Cards” into big news—not least because Netflix has cleverly released all thirteen episodes at once. As a model of TV production, it’s an exciting experiment, with the potential to liberate showrunners from the agony of weekly ratings. It suggests fresh possibilities for the medium, feeding an audience that has already been trained to binge on quality TV in DVD form.
As a television show, however, “House of Cards” is not so revolutionary. This isn’t to say it’s bad, or not worth watching, or unmemorable. (Certain lines, such as “Twitter twat, WTF?,” might become catchphrases—for all its elegant contours, the show is marbled with camp.) Over a recent weekend, “House of Cards” acted something like a Scotch bender, with definite highs and lows. I found the first two episodes handsome but sleazy, like a C.E.O. in a hotel bar. Yet by Episode 5 I was hypnotized by the show’s ensemble of two-faced sociopaths. Episode 8 was a thoughtful side trip into sympathy for Spacey’s devilish main character, but by then I was exhausted, and only my compulsive streak kept me going until the finale—at which point I was critically destabilized and looking forward to Season 2.
Sensually, visually, “House of Cards” is a pleasure. Its acrid view of political ambition is nothing new (that perspective is all over TV these days, on shows like HBO’s “Veep” and Starz’s “Boss”), but the series has some sharp twists, with an emphasis on corporate graft and media grandstanding. There’s also one truly poignant plot about a working-class congressman hooked on drugs. Yet, in the days after I watched the show, its bewitching spell grew fainter—and if “House of Cards” had been delivered weekly I might have given up earlier. Much of the problem is Spacey himself, as Francis (Frank) Underwood, a wheeler-dealer who is denied the job of Secretary of State, and then conspires, with his steely wife, to go even higher. Spacey’s basilisk gaze seems ideal for the role, but he’s miscast by being too well cast—there’s no tension in seeing a shark play a shark. It’s a lot easier to buy his opposite number, the investigative blogger Zoe Barnes (the awesomely hoydenish Kate Mara), who strikes up an affair with Underwood in return for access. Her hair slicked down like a seal, her eyes dead, and her T-shirt sexily V-necked, Barnes is like some millennial demon from the digital unconscious, catnip for condescending older men. You could criticize the show’s portrayal of female reporters as venal sluts in black eyeliner, but it’s hard to object too much, since Mara’s performance, which has a freaky, repressive verve, is the liveliest thing in the show. Robin Wright is regal as Claire, Underwood’s charity-running wife, and Sakina Jaffrey makes a quiet impact as the President’s chief of staff, a restrained professional who in this lurid context feels downright exotic.
Fincher’s Washington is full of eerie imagery, such as a homeless man folding a twenty-dollar bill into an origami swan, and it’s magnificently lit (although I don’t understand why a sought-after journalist like Zoe lives in a flophouse full of spiders). But eventually the show’s theatrical panache, along with Spacey’s Shakespearean asides to the camera, starts to feel as gimmicky as a fashion-magazine shoot, with melancholic shots of Claire jogging in a graveyard. The show may be made of elegant material, but it’s not built to last—it’s a meditation on amorality that tells us mostly what we already know.
And, honestly, the more I watched, the more my mind kept wandering to Shonda Rhimes’s “Scandal”—an ABC series that’s soapy rather than noirish but much more fun, and that, in its lunatic way, may have more to say about Washington ambition. “Scandal,” which is inspired by a real-life political “fixer,” started slowly, as a legal procedural blended with a Rielle Hunter-flavored Presidential affair. It took a season to shed its early conception of Kerry Washington’s P.R. bigwig Olivia Pope as a “white hat.” But, once it did—whoa, Nelly. Popping with colorful villains, vote-rigging conspiracies, waterboarding, assassinations, montages set to R. & B. songs, and the best gay couple on television (the President’s chief of staff, Cyrus, and his husband, James, an investigative reporter), the series has become a giddy, paranoid fever dream, like “24” crossed with “The West Wing,” lit up in neon pink. Last week’s episode was such a #GameChanger—that’s the hashtag that the show’s creator used to advertise the episode—that Twitter exploded with exclamation points.
Because “Scandal” is so playful, and is unafraid to be ridiculous, it has access to emotional colors that rarely show up in Fincher’s universe, whose aesthetics insist that we take it seriously. Like Underwood, Jeff Perry’s Cyrus is a Machiavelli who cozies up to the President, but he’s got rage, wit, and a capacity for passion, not just oleaginous asides. During last week’s episode, he and his husband faced off, naked, in a fight about Cyrus’s crimes. (They’d stripped to demonstrate that they weren’t wearing wires.) The scene was absurd, but also genuinely intimate, with all the daring that “House of Cards” lacks. Rhimes’s show is made under the opposite circumstances from Fincher’s: nearly twice as many episodes, ratings pressure, constant threat of cancellation, a ravenous tweeting audience. These forces wreck other network dramas, and Rhimes’s previous shows have flown off the rails, but “Scandal” has only got stronger. It’s become more opera than soap opera, as the critic Ryan McGee observed online. Like much genre fiction, “Scandal” uses its freedom to indulge in crazy what-ifs: What if everyone but the President knew that the election was fixed? What if the President tried to divorce his pregnant wife? What if—well, I don’t want to spoil everything, but you might consider jumping in at the beginning of Season 2. It’s a different kind of binge watch.
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kun5850

交作业

lolitagrace

1-2'07
The author is a fan of Beyounce, he introduce it's a Beyounce of music age but he mentioned the Beyound doesn't release less powerful music pieces in recent years than previous years.
2-1'44
The South Korean occurred a serous hacking attacks lead to some important department or institution such as bank, whose system shutdown.Maybe the attack is related to the North Korean but it's not for sure.
3-3'12+1'13
The e-cigarratte is one of simple inventions, separating the dangerous part from tobacco , but a lot of people begin to ban use e-cigarrate.
The author suggest the e-cigarrte should be promoted, but ban it. Meantime, e-cigarrete should be regulated and far away from children.
4-2'57
The reason why the new president, Mr. Xi choose first to visit Russia
5-2'57
The worsen relation among China, Japan and American.
6-Obtacle
The evaluation about the Tv show "House of Cards". The author's attitude is not so positive

zjy604

(1)2'10'' I adimire Beyonce so much for her great genius in music. But at this time Beyonce seems to pay attention to elsewhere rather than to music.
(2)2'02'' South Korea suffered a internet shutdown due to a cyberattack. Some people suspect that it is North Korea who commit this cyberattack, but they have no evidence.
(4)3'18''
(5)3'05''

一粒黄豆。

3/30【16-09】文史哲
1'44
The author is a big fan of Beyonce, and he/she show some concerns about Beyonce's music, wishing Beyonce had

soent more time being a genius.
1'26
South Korean's computer systems at major television networks and banks were hacked. Speculation focused on North

Korea, but no evidence can prove the speculation.
2'16
Although e-cigarettes save the lives of smokers and have no public nuisance, they have been banned by many places

and countries.
2'31
Mr Xi decided to go to Moscow on March 22nd, and some Chinese commentators have interpreted Mr Xi's decision to

visit Russia first as a gesture aimed at American.
However, relationship between China and Russia is complex: They are not only friends but also competitors.
2'44
Visits from America are a sign that both countries are anxious to resume normal business.
Today Sino-Jananese relations are much worse, and, to date, Mr Xi has shown no sign of wanting to wind down the

confrontation.
------------
越障5’15
The author is obviously helping to sell the "House of Cards". He/she introduces background of the episodes and is expecting to watch Season2.

段落之间空一行看起来会更舒服一些哟~~~

Apolloemma

1.        Author shows his or her personal highest respect to the musical genius ——Beyonce.
2.        South Korea suffered the biggest cyberattack.
3.        Author thought that although e-cigarettes provide smoking pleasures without any harms, some health lobbyists are still determined to hold their stands and ban people from using e-cigarettes.
4.        Borders and energy are still two principal factors that could affect Sino-Soviet relationship in a bad way.

SMS

33:26
time 1 (296) 2:51 Feminist icon, Beyounce's career has soared. Making classic album is not the part of her career she is paying attention to.
time 2 (218) 1:56 Seoul
time 3 (380) 3:01 ban passengers from using e-cigarette on their plane
time 4          3:40
time 5 (418) 3:28
obstacle (1043) 6:47 spoil everything

cookiezwy

00‘02’05
Beyonce is coming back; the author has all her albums and witness the developmental process of her.
00'01'50
The South Korea is just experincing a big Internet shutdown. They suspect the North Korea yet lack evidence.
00'02'46
E-cigarrete is popular now since it not only let people who smoke enjoy, but also spell out the danger of harm the public.
Some others opposed it, and diffrerent countries have different attitudes towards them.
00‘03’20
China's new leader Xi Jingping has been elected. His first visiting stop is Russia to build strategic relationship with
it against the US and western countries. However, there are some tension between them in arms selling and energy providing.
00'03'39
China and America are going to resume their dipolmacy. Yang Jiechi has become more hardlined and his successor as foreign
minister Wang Yi who was the former China's ambassador to Japan.
00'07'36
The author talks about and evaluates the TV series- House of Cards. In general, it is nothing new despite some alluring point.

最后一篇好难啊，全是人名和不熟悉的词汇，基本没怎么读懂。。看来我要精读了。（btw， much homework to make up）

zxppx

1.1-59
A talented singer, Beyonce sang the national song in the President Obama's inauguration adress. Her fourth album is going to see fans in April, making so many fans very exciting. The author is also one of her fans, and collects all her albums. Unlike other famous singers, Beyonce now does not put a lot of her energy into the albums. The author thinks the answer maybe that there are a lot of genius, while there is only one Beyonce.
2.1-39
There is a shutdown happened in some banks and other agencies in South Korea. Some banks have to be closed, causing a lot of troubles to many people. However, the government, outside of the hacking attack, is inquiring the cause of the cyberattack, finding no evidence to show the North Korea responsible for it.
3.2-36
As we know, the nicotine of smoking can do harm to our health and even kill millions of people. Now the e-c is developed to stop the harm coming from the nicotine by removing it when people smoke, thus causing no harm to people around the smoker. Some people are very glad to embrace the product, thinking that it is possible for people to smoke in the opean areas, but others do not favour the product. What's more, some countries still ban on using the product in somewhere, except in hospital. Some airports ban it, too.
4.3-04
The Chinese President Xi Jinping mading a meeting with the Russia Premier Pu, showing the long corporative relationship between the two countries, while America may be disappointed with the meeting. Both China and Russia hate the agressive power of United States, harming other countries as often as possible. What's more, Russia sell military equipment to some countries who have good relationship with China. China hopes to buy more oil and gases from Russia, which has a plenty of minerals and oil stock. An official in Russia shows that there will be a sign to sell these resources to China in the end of the year, although it seems to have many variations.
5.3-11
Xi will go to some countries to meet their leaders. In April the sectorary of United States will come to China, seeming to be very important for both countries. Considering the hacking attack and the nervous relationship between China and Japan, China and America should have a deep talk with each other. The former spokeman of diplomatic department Yang jiechi is promoted to help Xi deal with important national events. The successor is Wang, who worker as the ambassador in Tokyo.
6.8-01
The House of Cards is aired, causing a lot of interests and criticisms. The author thinks it is interesting and looks foward to the Season 2. The show is more like a opera than bubble drama and gives people a lot of space to image what will happen. It's a series of story happened in corporate, but it is still full of policital atmosphere.

泡泡teasea

1.38"
1.09"
1.43"
2.18"
2.09"
5.03"

jichuanlan

2'00" A crazy fan's narrate for Beyonce's music and her come back.

1'39" 这条新闻有意思哈 Bank and TV stations in Seoul-capital city of South Korea, has been affected by a hacking attack, which caused breakdown in bank machine and TV broadcast. Media believe North Korea is related to this attack.

2'28" An explanation of electronic cigarete. This solve the health concern for people suffered cigars. First the way the e-cigar worked. Second, the opinions for the e-cigar. Then voices from opponents.

2'53"哇政治盲表示好喜欢Elen选的文章么么哒
After Xi Jinping was elected as the new president of PRC, his first ambassary trip to Russia has revealed the complex relationship between these two giant Countries. Despite long inter-dependent relationship. Russian sells wapon to India and Vietnam, China learn the arms design.

2'58" US government will meet Mr. Xi in April, and there is still no sign to communicate with Japan.

6'08" 表示木有看过这个剧，一团雾水。 Introduction to the actors and actresses in the tv series. Then some senses happened in season 1, introduction to season 2.