【每日阅读训练第二期——速度越障4系列】【4-4】

whitethelittle

小白来了，第一次发这个貌似几篇文章难度都不大，时政和影视资讯都有，如果这次大觉得确实有点简单的话我下次再找难点的，不过主要练习阅读中的pace和语感啦。还有最近是不是除了ZZ大家都没有问题啊，每天午夜10点问题的都好少啊,小白尽量保证每天10点左右的都在群里，大家踊跃问题一起讨论，逻辑语法（小白绝对不是NN）一起讨论讨论。




【速度】

North Korea Hails Late Kim's Son as 'Supreme Commander'

【计时1】
North Korea's state media on Saturdayhailed Kim Jong Un as "supreme commander" of the military, in a signthat the Stalinist nation's second generational transition of power is goingsmoothly.
It is the first time that one of theNorth's official outlets has used the title supreme commander - a post held byhis late father, Kim Jong Il - for the new leader, who is a four-star general,despite having little military experience and being in his late 20s.
South Korea announced Saturday it willsend two groups to North Korea to pay respects to the country's former leader,who is said to have died one week ago.
A spokesman for South Korea'sunification ministry, Choi Boh-seon, said no government officials will betraveling to Pyongyang.  Relatives of thelate former South Korean president Kim Dae-Jung and the late former presidentof the Hyundai Group, Chung Mong-Hun, will lead the South Korean delegations.
Also on Saturday, South Korean activistslaunched several huge balloons into the North carrying anti-regime leaflets andhundreds of pairs of winter socks that can be exchanged on the black market forfood.  In the past, Pyongyang hasthreatened to launch artillery at people floating contraband across the border.
North Korea proclaimed the beginning ofthe Kim Jong Un era on Thursday, describing him as the "successor" ofthe nation's revolutionary undertakings "and leader of its people."
An editorial in North Korea's officialnewspaper, Rodong Sinmun, said Kim Jong Un should move forward on a path ofself-reliance, while continuing the teachings of Kim Jong Il, whose death wasannounced this week.  The paper urged thenation to rally behind the young leader and faithfully uphold his leadership.
Kim Jong Il's death after 17 years inpower has sparked regional and Western concerns about the future of a countrywith a large army, a history of deep animosity toward its southern neighbor andbroad nuclear ambitions.
【字数321】
【计时2】
Thursday, South Korean President LeeMyung-bak told political leaders the ongoing transition in North Korea holdspotential for increased flexibility in Seoul's relations with Pyongyang.
Mr. Lee spoke as South Korea's chiefnuclear negotiator arrived in Beijing for what South Korean media described asan emergency meeting focusing on regional stability.  Ahead of the meeting, South Korean ForeignMinistry spokesman Cho Byung-jae said the envoys would discuss how to proceedon the North Korean nuclear issue.
New York City Battles Childhood Obesity

TheCenters for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States says everythird adult and nearly every fifth child in America is obese.  But health officials in New York are toutingan aggressive initiative that has resulted in a significant drop in the city'schildhood obesity rates.
Alex Schimke is a trim and fit New York sixthgrader.  He says he likes fruits,particularly strawberries.  But like mostchildren, he admits a taste for candy, cakes and other sweets.
"Areyou going to eat the cake or the apple for health?  Obviously, you're going to eat the apple, butyou want the cake," said Schimke.
Suchindisputable logic of children is not lost on New York City Health CommissionerThomas Farley.
"Childrenhave a natural preference for sweets, more so than adults.  On the other hand, as adults, we choose whatto put in front of our children," said Farley.
Farleysays New York has increased the amount of physical activity in local schools,and also improved the healthfulness of food in cafeterias.
"Theydo have apples.  Oh, yes! And they have asalad bar," noted Schimke.
Alexalso noticed that school vending machines now offer vitamin water instead ofsugary high-calorie beverages.  
Farleynotes that obesity rates in America began rising about 30 years ago, as manypeople traded physical labor on farms and factories for sedentary office jobs.
【字数313】
【计时3】
"hysicalactivity has all but disappeared out of most people's lives, unless they makeit a separate task," Farley added. "At the same time, and even more importantly, food has increasinglybecome cheap, ready to eat, available everywhere, and so people have adoptedhabits to snack constantly."
Farleysays the New York childhood obesity rate is still at 20 percent.  But New York's decline goes against a risingnational trend.  And the healthcommissioner is heartened that the rate has fallen at all for the first time indecades - 10 percent among five and six year olds - which gives him reason tobelieve some youngsters will adopt lifelong habits of healthy eating.

The Cat is Back in 'Puss In Boots'

Afurry feline from the "Shrek" films now has his own animatedadventure in the fairy tale comedy "uss In Boots."
Thisorange tabby cuts a dashing figure, from his wide-brimmed hat to his ruggedleather boots, with his deadly sword ever at the ready.
Sincehis first appearance in the 2004 hit "Shrek 2," audiences have wantedto know more about this "uss in Boots." Where did he come from? Howdid he become such a great fighter? Does he have a girlfriend?"
Sheis Kitty Softpaws, a sly feline every bit as daring as the hero. Salma Hayek isthe voice of Kitty and Antonio Banderas once again creates Puss.
"Itis almost embarrassing to say this, but it's easy. It is just fun,"Banderas says. "You don't feel that you are spending as much money as youdo when you are working on a traditional movie with everybody rushing youbecause there are 200 people there. It's a lot of fun."
DirectorChris Miller has been part of the creative team behind the "Shrek"films from the beginning. He credits Banderas with making Puss worthy of hisown movie.
【字数314】
【计时4】
"Westarted with a great character: bold, dynamic, colorful, romantic, larger thanlife. Everything just sort of springs off from the character that Antoniocreated. The look of the film is a reflection of his character."
Comicactor Zach Galifianakis costars as the voice of the film's villain, HumptyDumpty, and is quick to defend the egg who sat on a wall and had a great fall.
"Ithink Humpty Dumpty is a little bit all over the place and he is a littleemotional and greedy and a little vindictive," he says. "He is alsotrying to have a friendship, legitimate maybe, but his greed gets the best ofhim. I think down deep in his yolk, he's an okay guy."
Tweakingtraditional fairy tale characters is part of the fun in the "Shrek"films. The original "uss in Boots" came from French literature, butwith Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek as the lead voices, the heroes becomeHispanic and Banderas believes that sends a good message to young audiences.
"WhenI first came to America to do "The Mambo Kings" 21 years ago,somebody on the set said to me 'If you stay here, basically you are going toplay the bad guy in movies.' In these 21 years, everything changed verymuch," Banderas says. "In a way, it is a reflection of what ishappening in society, so we are actually very proud that our characters areLatinos and I think it is good for diversity and cultural interaction. Thismovie is going to be seen by kids, and they are going to watch the movie andsee that the heroes have strong accents and this is good."
Mexicanfilmmaker Guillermo del Toro, known for horror and suspense thrillers, is anexecutive producer on "uss in Boots," giving the film an edge aswell as that Latin flavor.
【字数313】
【计时5】
Angelina Jolie Makes Directorial Debut with 'In The Land ofBlood and Honey'

Americanmovie star Angelina Jolie is making her directorial debut with a film setduring Bosnia's civil war in the 1990s. In an exclusive interview with VOA'sBosnian service, Jolie says the message of the film, titled In the Land ofBlood and Honey, is one of tolerance and understanding.
AngelinaJolie is used to being in front of the camera. But for her latest project, theAcademy Award-winning actress stepped behind it... and into the brutality ofwartime Bosnia.
"Themore I learned about it and the more I read about it, the more angry I gotabout the lack of intervention," Jolie says,  "the more emotional I was about theviolence against women. And I wanted to do a film that would help to look intothe relationships between not just a couple, but also sisters, and fathers andsons, and mothers and children."
Joliewrote as well as directed In the Land of Blood and Honey. It is a love storybetween a Muslim woman and a Serb man during Bosnia-Herzogovina's bloody,three-year ethnic conflict.
Joliesays she hopes the film sparks discussion about the war and Bosnia's continuedstruggle since the 1995 peace agreement.
"Iwant people to remember Bosnia, and I want them to remember what happened, andI want them to pay respect to all of the people who survived, and today, toremember that this country still has so much healing to do,” she explains.
Asa United Nations goodwill ambassador, the mother of six and partner to BradPitt often brings her influence as an actress to global issues. But this timeis different.
"Thisfilm is the first time that these worlds have collided for me," Joliesays, "so this film means more to me than any film I’ve ever made."
Afilm festival in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo honored Jolie earlier this year,despite initial criticism from Bosnian sexual violence victims and a lawsuitalleging she stole plot pieces from a book.
Shecredits her Bosnian cast and war victims, organizations and officials sheconsulted with the result.
【字数361】
【自由阅读】
"It’snot an American film made about Bosnia. It’s a film made with one American andmany Bosnians and many people from the area, and we made it together," shesays.
Inthe Land of Blood and Honey opens in U.S. theaters on December 23. It has twoversions: one in English, the other in the Bosnian language.

【越障】
Russia's Crisis: This Winter, the Bears Will NotHibernate

Regardless of the occasion, it is always humbling to see60,000 people gathered in a single square, and it was no different on Saturday,Dec. 24, when at least that many gathered on Moscow's Sakharov Avenue to demanddemocracy, humility and respect from the Russian government. But the size ofthe crowd, which was larger than any demonstration the city has seen since thefall of the Soviet Union, was not as astounding as the composition of thecrowd. Among the protesters, practically at random, you could expect to runinto doctors, lawyers, engineers, big businessmen, small businessmen,academics, poets, filmmakers and students from every imaginable faculty ofRussia's best universities — not quite "the masses" of Russiansociety. Looking out onto a sea of them on Saturday, one had to wonder,"Where they have been all this time?"

At least since 2004, when Vladimir Putin began his secondterm as president, there was no secret as to the paternalistic system he wasbuilding. That year, gubernatorial elections were cancelled to allow theKremlin to handpick regional leaders. Election laws were changed to make wayfor what amounted to a one-party state. Political competition became extinct.Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the billionaire who challenged Putin in politics, was putin prison that year, where he still resides, and that year's presidentialelections were tainted by claims of fraud, just like every national electionthat followed. So why now? Why only after the faulty vote held on Dec. 4 haveRussia's citizens finally ceased to be a silent, apathetic mass?

The answers to be heard at Saturday's rally were asdiverse as the crowd itself, but they could be distilled to one potent Russianword: dostala, which means, "I'msick of it." They were sick of not being given a choice of their country'sleaders. They were sick of corruption and political paternalism. Unlike many oftheir counterparts in the Arab world, who rose up this year to overthrowdictators in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, these people were not sick from want andunemployment. "This is not an economic protest," says Maxim Yermolin,the general director of a marketing firm who attended Saturday's rally."These people are well-fed and financially secure. They've had a chance totravel around. They've seen that in Europe a government is not some godlikepower. It is a set of managers you hire for a while and then fire when theycease to be efficient. They want Russia to be like that, too."

Sooner or later, if that line of thinking is pursued,Putin has to go. But it is hard to imagine an easy transition that wouldsatisfy the protestors' demands. The institutions that usually allow for ahealthy renewal of power — competitive political parties, for one — have beendiminished under Putin, and his United Russia party controls the entirebureaucracy and nearly every elected body in the land. Some of the slogans atSaturday's rally do not give them much room to maneuver toward an exit. One ofthe most popular opposition leaders to speak on Saturday, Alexei Navalny, didnot even need to prompt the crowd to chant his favorite slogan. Theyspontaneously began, "We will not forgive, and we will not forget."It is a pledge that Navalny has long made explicit: Putin and his lieutenantsmust eventually be put on trial.

But, right now, that seems more like a bargainingposition than a political platform. With Putin still in control of the armedforces and the police, only a very small segment of his opponents want to riskpushing him into a corner. "Our goal is not to kick this or that personout of power," Gregory Yavlinsky, the founder of the liberal Yablokoparty, said from the podium on Saturday. "Our goal is to change thesystem." And with the people suddenly willing to take to the streets inprotest, the Kremlin has started slowly moving toward reform. Putin's protege,Dmitri Medvedev, who will step down as Russia's President in March, proposedlaws to the parliament on Friday that would allow new political parties toregister more easily. During his final state of the nation address the daybefore, he said, "I hear those who speak of the necessity of change, and Iunderstand them."

But the mechanisms the government is using to respond tothe clamor for change amount to more of Putin's system of "manageddemocracy." According to TIME's sources in the United Russia party, theregime intends to create new puppet parties that would fracture and distractthe opposition. These would be led not by independent figures like Navalny butby old-time Putin loyalists, two of whom attended Saturday's protest to shoreup their popular credentials. Neither received a pleasant welcome. AlexeiKudrin, Russia's former finance minister and an old friend of Putin's, wasbooed and whistled at when he took the stage; while Mikhail Prokhorov, thebillionaire-owner of the New Jersey Nets who claims to be challenging Putin forthe presidency, was heckled viciously as he walked through the crowd. Onemember of his entourage got punched in the face.

"The people are not stupid," Boris Akunin, anacclaimed novelist who spoke at the demonstration, told TIME afterward."They have been quiet all these years because they were coming of age. Butthey are adults now. They are smart and vocal, and they have reached a criticalmass." That is the ultimate lesson of Saturday's demonstration. For thefirst time since the collapse of communism, a truly vibrant civil society haserupted onto the scene, and it is demanding real democracy, not manageddemocracy. This is a political playing field that Putin's elite has neverencountered before, and nobody knows how or whether it will be able to adapt."Society has awoken from a long hibernation," says Mikhail Fedotov,the chairman of the Kremlin's human rights council. "So it turns out wearen't like bears. We are not going to sleep this winter."

【字数1003】

See TIME's 2011 Person of the Year: The Protester.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2103083,00.html

shelvey

哈哈，又一次成功占位！！

shelvey

1‘32
1’28
1‘29
1’27 额，第三篇没看懂在讲什么。。。。
1‘48
越障讲的是很多人反对普京的事情。今天键盘出了点问题，就不详打了。

hexiaomu77

1  01:51
2  01:47
3  01:42
4  01:32
5 01:50
越障:
1、what：俄罗斯的rally，人数空前的多，包括了教职工，商人…………
2、why：政府的一党专政包括选举，人民再也无法忍受，需要求的真正的民主
3、how：人民呼声大，几乎不需要可以的slogan，而政府对此必须要作出相应的制度改革，人们并不是要求putin下台
4、fact：regime只是创造一个新的puppy政府来安抚民心，这样做不能服众
5、conclusion：人们不笨，以前的方法已经不行了，需要拿出真正有效的措施来使得这些已经成熟的年轻人满意，俄罗斯已经度过冬眠期

xinnono

文章有点儿小粘连~ 不过还可以, 不算太影响阅读~

2'26
2'05
2'20
1'56
2'51

xinnono

1. dec 24th, big crowd gathered in russia moscow for democracy. not only the size is big, but the composition of the crowd is astounding, including students, businessmen, univerisity faculty,blabla, many many.
2. since 2004, putin does something for one-party state. it has like this for years, why now after dec 4th election, have russians stopped being silent?
3. when asking the crowd, the answers are different, but all about being tired of no choice of their leader. many other governments don't have god like power, but just like a set of managers citizens hire for a period of time, and fire when they're not efficient any more. russian people want that too.
4. if this is the direction to go, putin will be put down. people are asking putin to be on trial.
5. GY says the goal is to change the system, not to push putin into corner, because putin still has the military forces, and thus not many people want to risk pushing. government made the changes, which make it easier for the other parties to register.
6. putin's party may come up with some puppy parties. they showed up in the rally, but weren't welcomed.
7. BA told TIME that people are not stupid. they want the real democracy, not the managed ones.

myancamel

2‘24
1’57
1‘50
2’10
2‘30
1. 在示威，人很多
2.人们需要民主
3.人们不是要革命，人们sick
4.regime不能服众，没有反对党
5.人们不笨，需要更多的变革
6.putin所说的managed 民主，实际上都是他的朋友操纵的
7.人们不笨，现在觉醒的这些年轻力量，是统治者之前没有遇到过的，是否能应付好，也是未知数

抓抓sandra

好久没做速度越障啦，来给大家精神支持下。。。做完练习有进步可以给自己一个奖励，每一天比昨天进步一点就是胜利~yey~

shaoling

1'52
1'40
1'19
1'24
1'31
越障：5’51

好多地方都连在一起了，看到这种就影响心情，不想详写了。。。
希望LZ下次检查一下啊。。。

zz42050524

1’41
1‘47
1’22
1‘06
1’39