Ming's Weblog

common words about conservation/protest (2)

homing8179 — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 16:00:46 +0000

This article reports Laden has created new videotape and urgued the terrorists to be loyal and cooperate each other to attack US troops in Iraq.

“Bin Laden urges Iraq insurgents to unite”Headlines form 24th October

Insurgent(n.)
Meaning:someone who is fighting against the government in their own country
Sentence: There were many insurgents in mainland early 90′s, seeking for the revolution one day since the government get poorly the job done.

disarray(v.)
Meaning:the state of being confused and lacking in organization or of being untidy
[synonym:disrupt]
Sentence: The suicide bomb disarrays the stability of politics in Pakistan.

Tribe(n.)
Meaning:a group of people, often of related families, who live together, sharing the same language, culture and history, especially those who do not live in towns or cities
Sentence: There are many tribes who live in the northern China.

The message from the videotape:”My mujahedeen brothers in Iraq, you are a people worthy of praise and flattery. You’ve done well to carry out a glorious duty by fighting the enemy. But some of you have lagged behind in carrying out another glorious duty, which is to unite as one—as God wants”

deprivation

homing8179 — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 15:13:35 +0000

“The survey interviewed 421 children whose families live in poverty and measured their deprivation through nine indicators.”

Brief description of the news: Recent survey conducted by some organizations showed that the poverty children usually have emotional problems.Social Welfare Department hence examined the reasons by the mean of interviewing 421 poverty-stricken children.

deprivation(n.)

Cambridge:when you do not have things or conditions that are usually considered necessary for a pleasant life:
Sentence:The economic deprivation from sending the troops reaches nearly 300 million.

cripple & bombard

homing8179 — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 15:49:34 +0000

This post will be replaced by theme collection about war soon.
“The revolution in 1966 was to cripple the government.This is why Mao taught the Red Guards the slogan ‘bombard the headquarters’ ”

Cripple(v.)
Cambridge: to cause serious damage to someone or something, making them weak and ineffective
Sentence from me: To cripple the terrorists successfully, US sent lots of troops to Iraq and fought against the terrorists.

bombard(v.)
In physics, we often use this word as “make a head-collision with another object”
Cambridge: to attack a place with continuous shooting or bombs

Sentence from me: The pan-democrat bombards and criticizes the speech of Donald Tsang last Friday, telling that under the extreme situation, the democracy will finally become “culture revolution”.

volcano

homing8179 — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 14:56:38 +0000

Headlines:”Tourist trade erupts at Philippine volcanoes”
[Normally we use "erupt" to describe the explosion of the volcanoes]

Cambridge:a mountain with a large circular hole at the top through which lava (= hot liquid rock), gases, steam and dust are or have been forced out:

Sentence from me: It is dangerous for mountain climbers to get closer to the active volcanoes.

Journal writing 2

homing8179 — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 04:50:04 +0000

Second Journal issue based writing:

Conservation of heritage vs. Economic development

Conservation of heritage started when the Queen Pier ended its service. Now, Wan Chai Market is being concerned from the demolition, because of the proposal of the Central (IV) reclamation. Therefore, the local action and other organizations are fighting against the government, urging the government to save the citizen’s memory of the old buildings. However, government emphasizes the importance of the economic development. Therefore, what is the balance between conservation of heritage and the economic development? What are the criteria to determine whether the old building should be conserved?

Heritages are the buildings which have special style of construction (mostly traditional style), last for a long span, have a historical meaning, and bring citizen’s memory back. Whether the buildings should be included in the conservation is not determined simply by the long span or history of the buildings, but it should consider the trends of the development at that time. In the 21^st century, the fishing boats and villages can’t be conserved since our living style is changing, from engaging in fishing or farming to commerce or financial sectors. To continue and meet our future development, the fishing and farming facilities have to demolish. Similarly, the conservation of heritage should not only consider the willingness of the citizen, but also consider the development of next generations, in order to live under well-developed infrastructure.

Also, conservation of the heritage should consider the meaningfulness and the usage of the buildings. In fact, some of the heritages have no usage after a particular period, such as Queen Pier. In early 90s, Queen Pier was constructed for ceremonial activities, such as inviting the Queen Mary to depart at the pier. It has no definite uses after the handover of Hong Kong in 1997. It is meaningless to protect the pier. Meanwhile, the traffic congestion is getting more serious in Central. To enhance the traffic flow, the demolition of Queen Pier is raised. Therefore, the determination of rescuing the Queen Pier or not is decided by the usage of the pier. Although in citizen’s mind, the historical meaning from heritages is quite subjective and different, preserving architecture should follow the criterion, which is not to influence the stability of the development in the society since harmonious society can motivate the discussion between the policy-makers and the citizen around the city.

Nevertheless, not all the heritages have no usage and have no clues to rescue, such as Wan Chai Market, which the construction is designed as Streamline. This market maintains the citizen’s memory about the Japanese occupation. Japanese at that time used the market for storage of the foods and giving aid for the soldiers, fighting against any attackers. Wan Chai Market, looking like a floating ship, are now treated as another place for elderly to rest. From the interview of ATV News, most of interviewers told that they are willing to protect the kinds of buildings since there are fewer and fewer buildings have this kind of architectures. Since the urgency of traffic jam is not serious in Wan Chai and the construction of the highway can be built between the buildings, the Streamline Market can be preserved if the government doesn’t take action to destroy the heritage. Therefore, the next criterion is to find out clues, which can preserve old buildings directly, before the demolition comes.

Overall, I think that there are different criteria we can follow in order to approach the balance of the economic development and the conservation of heritage, like consideration of the historical meaning and the usage of the buildings, the trend of the economic development and finding any solutions before the demolition. Although getting the full-support for taking an action is rarely possible, there are different keys to neutralize different opinions, through the discussion between the government and the public and collecting the view from the consultation, I guess one day we gather our views and establish well-developed infrastructures for the next generation.

TV review 2

homing8179 — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 04:47:31 +0000

Main News: Discovery of excessive amount of sugar in the “healthy” drinks

Review:

“Fitting the taste of customers can maintain our profit steadier.” The producers attempt to ignore the proportion of the nutrients and provide unhealthy drinks. Unfortunately, it is discovered recently by Consumer Council. The council found that most of the “health drinks” contain excess sugar which can cause people fat. Therefore, what are the motivations of producers to produce the “unhealthy” drinks? How can the consumer ensure that the drinks contain right proportion of nutrients?

The major reason of producing unhealthy drinks is that companies get their considerable profit from selling the drinks. Since people nowadays are willing to keep their body fit, this flourish trend stimulates the way to gain profit when selling keep fit product because of the great demand for the drinks or other accessories. Therefore, to cater the customers, the companies are eager to alter the proportion of nutrients and improve the taste of the drinks. This move enhances the companies to produce so-called “healthy” drinks.

Second reason is because of the keen competition in producing related-product. As many companies are engaged in this type of production, keen competition occurs in the market. To discriminate who is the winner or loser in the market, companies utilize any resources to enhance the goodwill of the companies, like price competition, posting advertisements, giving coupons or presents when buying certain type of product, so that more people purchase these drinks. This discrimination also encourages the change of the taste. Hence, customers are tricked by buying the goods.

How the customers testify whether the products contain correct proportions of nutrients? Only one thing that customers could do is not to purchase these products. This idea can assure the health of customers since it doesn’t need to observe or do experiment to examine whether it is healthy drinks. Also, the customers are suggested to read the nutrients table from the label so that customers can decide whether the goods are healthy. If the customers follow the suggestion, it is not difficult to isolate the “healthy” drinks and “unhealthy” drinks.

Meanwhile, the government can restrict the law of label abuse, such as higher penalty, longer time in jail, so that fewer companies are willing to pay this adventure. In fact, the government’s action is valuable since regular check is important to reduce the occurrence of label abuse. If the government actively participates in this kind of checks, the situation may not worsen as much as the present.

Journal writing

homing8179 — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 04:45:17 +0000

First issue-based journal writing

Do servants need to increase salaries?

Recently, Donald Tsang has proposed a plan of increasing about 5% of salaries of civil servants because of the great economic environment and the surplus of government budget. However, this move explores different demonstrations, especially the workers who participate in public services sector. Then, what are the problems when the government planed to increase the civil workers’ salaries? What should the government do at this moment?

First, I think that government has not considered the response of the public towards the plan. The main reason is lack of conversation to the public. In fact, to most of the policies, government will consult public’s point of view before the policy is established. However, when the government discusses about the salaries, there is gap between the public and the government. It seems that the government is not willing to disclose anything during the salaries’ investigation. So, when the plan is passed by Legislative Council, some people may think that the government always considers the civil workers first. The communication gap between the public and the government hence becomes greater and greater.

Besides lack of communication, the second reason is that the government treats the servants differently from the workers who work in public sectors. This leads unfairness to the public sectors. Since the government has reduced the fund or resources on the public sectors last few years, the organizations feel stress on allocating the resources and promoting the incentive of workers. As a result, the workers believe that government is able to raise the fund to the public sectors after increasing the salaries. The demonstrations hence occur recently to ask for more resources.

To cure with the problems, I think that the government at this moment should satisfy what they want as the demonstrations will affect the steadiness of different services. It is no contribution to the society. The government should also consider the ability of public sector to operate. With limited resources, public sectors will reduce the expenditure and provide poor quality of the service. Hence, there is no choice to stop the demonstration except accepting their demands, although this suggestion increases the burden of the government budget. If the government has worries about the burden, it can communicate with different sectors to draw the conclusion of the arrangement of resource allocation.

In the future, the government should enhance the transparency of any public-interest policies to the public. Although the government have revealed the investigation about the salaries each year, it is also essential to involve different sizes of companies in order to get the balance. This can allow the government controlling and handling the situation easier after the policy is introduced by the government. Also, the government should equalize the benefit of the civil servant and the public sectors. This can prevent arguments with different sectors

I hope that the government reflects on the planning of salaries and establishes policies with intelligence in the future

lingering

homing8179 — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 14:51:51 +0000

“When President Hu Jintao made a surprise visit to Guangdong at the height of the Sars outbreak in April 2003, few expected the trip would have a lingering impact on national politics.”

linger(v.)
Meaning: to take a long time to leave or disappear
Sentence: Weather Forcasts expected that the hazy and sunny weather will linger for few more days.

common words about conservation/protest

homing8179 — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 16:07:46 +0000

***This post will be updated if there are words related to this post***
“Guest house operators have joined the chorus of voices calling for a halt to heritage demolition.”
demolition(n.)
Meaning:when something such as a building is destroyed
Sentence: The typhoon Krosa has destroyed rural facilities in Taiwan yesterday.

chorus( v.)
Meaning:to say similar things at the same time; to speak together
Sentence: The pan-democrat has held the demonstration and joined the chorus of voices asking for 2012 universal suffrage

” Security forces shot dead as many as five people in chaotic confrontations in Myanmar’s biggest city yesterday.” from 27th September.

confrontation(n.)
Meaning: a fight or argument
Sentence: The confrontation between Anson Chan and Regina Ip are now getting frequently.

“Defiant Buddhist monks were hauled away into waiting trucks in the first mass arrests since protesters against the military dictatorship erupted on August 19.
defiant(adj.)
Meaning:proudly refusing to obey authority
Sentence:defiant terrorists has attacked the western countries these few years.

haul(v.)
Meaning:to pull something heavy slowly and with difficulty
Sentence: The man haul his car to the petrol station.

“The violent crackdown drew widespread international condemnation.”
Condemnation( n.)
Meaning: when you condemn something or someone
Sentence: The police officer draw a condemnation to farmer in South Korea because of their violent attack.

” The whole world is now watching Burma and its illegitimate and repressive regime should know that the whole world is going to hold it to account.
illegitimate(adj.)
Meaning:not legal or fair
Sentence:The illegitimate demonstration can’t be held in Hong Kong unless the demonstration is permitted.

” Buddhist monks had last month declared a boycott on donations from soldiers and their families as they spearheaded mass peaceful protests which brought as amny as 100,000 people onto the streets of the nation’s main city.”
Boycott(n.)
Meaning:to refuse to buy a product or take part in an activity as a way of expressing strong disapproval
Sentence: Regina Ip declared a boycott to join 2012 demonstration provided by pan-democrat.

“In a move certain to antagonise China, the US president also plans to meet the Tibetan exiled spiritual leader tomorrow”from “Bush plan to give Dalai Lama top medal defended”

Antagonise(v.)
Cambridge:hate, extreme unfriendliness or active opposition:
[Normally we use “towards” and “between” after “antagonise”

Sentence: “Though Hu antagonises towards me, I still support the referendum of Taiwan”, said Chan.(Dialogue is designed)

Remainder of commenting the post

homing8179 — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 04:21:23 +0000

To all the members of English Study group, please approval of any comments.Otherwise, the others can’t observe the comments in your blog.

After you have received the letter:
For example:
Title of the letter:[Ming's Weblog] Please moderate: “Connections & Vocabularies”
Message:
A new comment on the post #3 “Connections & Vocabularies” is waiting for your approval
http://homing8179.wordpress.com/2007/09/19/connections-vocabularies/

Author : WHM (IP: 210.87.251.43 , tmhaos04.imsbiz.com)
E-mail : whm@plk83.edu.hk
URL :
Whois : http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=210.87.251.43
Comment:
Well done, Ming. You have a good start and keep writing. I like you put your own guess and the dictionary meaning side by side. You don’t have to write very long.

The singular form of pundits is pundit.

Approve it: http://homing8179.wordpress.com/wp-admin/comment.php?action=mac&c=2 <–Approve the comment by pressing the links here
Delete it: http://homing8179.wordpress.com/wp-admin/comment.php?action=cdc&c=2
Spam it: http://homing8179.wordpress.com/wp-admin/comment.php?action=cdc&dt=spam&c=2
Currently 1 comments are waiting for approval. Please visit the moderation panel:
http://homing8179.wordpress.com/wp-admin/moderation.php

Thanks for your cooperation!

***Note: This post will be deleted next week***