week4

‘The Imitation Game’ Distorts Alan Turing‘s Legacy

by MATTHEW GAULT

The framing device in The Imitation Game is an act of treason.

That’s not a hyperbolic dig at a bad movie, but a simple truth. The hot, new Oscar-nominated biopic about Alan Turing—brilliant mathematician, hero of World War II and father of computer science—opens and closes with him committing treason.

It’s 1951 and someone has broken into Turing’s home. The police investigate and Turing blows them off. He doesn’t want more men ruining his privacy. He has important research to do.

The detective in charge pursues the case, anyway. He’s convinced the grumpy college professor is a Soviet spy. The truth is that Turing is gay and the burglar was his lover’s friend.

The detective discovers this and brings Turing in for questioning. Homosexuality was a crime in England until 1967.

During the interrogation, Turing reveals he worked at Bletchley Park during World War II. He confesses that he broke the Enigma code—the famous cipher used by the Nazis—and helped end the war early.

It’s a story that was still classified at the time, and contained information Britain didn’t want to get out. Although the war was over, much of the world anticipated another conflict erupting, this time between the West and Russia.

The filmmakers want the audience to feel that Turing has been hiding all his life, and is now revealing his true self. He was a man who imitated normal behavior but never understood it. As a trope, this interrogation scene serves as a confession framing the story of his life.

But revealing his war record is treason, a crime Turing never committed. Nor was he ashamed of—or afraid—to reveal his sexuality.

It was an open secret. When questioned by the police, he readily admitted the fact because he felt it would soon no longer be a crime.

These are just two of the many ways The Imitation Game screws up one of the greatest stories of World War II.

Film adaptations of a life will always change facts and cut out complicated information. Such is the nature of movies—bio pics are themselves condensed and entertaining versions of a subject’s life.

These films work best when they focus on one aspect of a famous life and capture that essence.

Walk the Line works because it’s the love story of Johnny Cash and June Carter as told through their music. Raging Bull works because director Martin Scorsese juxtaposed Jake LaMotta’s control in the ring against his instability outside of it. Amadeus works because the audience watches a genius through the eyes of a jealous rival.

The Imitation Game doesn’t work. The filmmakers want audiences to believe a myth about Turing that isn’t true—that he was a misunderstood genius who didn’t understand human relations and single-handedly broke the enigma code.

In the film, Turing is rude to everyone around him. “You wouldn’t understand,” is his catch phrase. One telling scene consists largely of a female friend explaining the basics of courtship to him in bar.

It’s true that Turing was a genius, but The Imitation Game would have audiences believe he was the kind of asshole-misfit genius only found in Hollywood films. The real-life Turing was affable, possessed a mischievous sense of humor and had many friends at Bletchley Park.

He did enjoy working alone and would—at times—talk over people, but most people found him charming.

The movie also depicts Turing as the driving force behind cracking the Enigma code. In this depiction, he built the computer that decoded it, and pulled his fellow cryptographers kicking and screaming to the answers.

In truth, Turing had great help from the hundreds of other scientists working to break the Nazi code. He did pioneer many code-cracking techniques, but couldn’t have accomplished so much without the help of his co-workers.

Turing based the bombe—his code-breaking computer—on an existing Polish design. He constructed the machine alongside Gordon Welchman—a mathematician not even mentioned in the film.

The real Turing was a brilliant, affable man with many friends and a charming personality. The Imitation Game’s Turing doesn’t understand an invitation to lunch from his coworkers.

The filmmakers took a complicated and interesting story about cryptography and the birth of computer science and turned it into A Beautiful Mind set during World War II.

Structure of the Lead：

   who-Alan Turing

   when-not given

   What-opens and closes with him committing treason

   Why-Not given

   How-Not given

Key Words:

framing-取景

hyperbolic-誇張的

grumpy-性情乖戾的

interrogation-問診

asshole-混蛋

week3

New Year's Eve stampede kills 36 on Shanghai waterfront

(Reuters) - A stampede killed at least 36 people during New Year's Eve celebrations in Shanghai, authorities said, but police denied reports it was caused by people rushing to pick up fake money thrown from a building overlooking the city's famous waterfront.

The government in China's gleaming business capital said large crowds started to stampede on Chen Yi Square, in the riverside area known as the Bund, just before midnight.

It was the worst disaster in the cosmopolitan city since 58 died in an apartment building fire in 2010.

The cause of the crush has still to be confirmed, though state media and some witnesses have said it was at least partly triggered when people rushed to pick up coupons that looked like bank notes.

A man named Wu, who brought one of the 47 injured to hospital for treatment, said the fake money had been thrown down from a bar above the street as part of the celebrations.

But Shanghai police said on their official microblog that while closed-circuit television footage did show some bills had been thrown from a bar in a building overlooking the Bund, which a small number of people picked up, this did not cause the crush.

"This incident happened after the stampede," police said in a brief statement, without saying what the real cause was.

Another witness, who gave his family name as Wei, said there had been a problem away from the area where the fake bills were thrown, with people trying to get on to a raised platform overlooking the river.

Xinhua news agency said that people had been trampled on after falling down on the steps up to the platform.

"We were caught in the middle and saw some girls falling while screaming. Then people started to fall down, row by row," a witness surnamed Yin told Xinhua.

Some Chinese media outlets carried criticism of the authorities for lack of adequate policing and planning.

Police officer Cai Lixin said they did not have a large presence on the Bund as there were no formal New Year events planned, Caixin magazine said.

Foreign media were forbidden from attending a police press conference, underscoring government sensitivity about any critical coverage of disasters.

State media said many of the dead and injured were students, and 28 of the dead were women.

Authorities had shown some concern about crowd control in the days leading up to New Year's Eve. They recently canceled an annual 3D laser show on the Bund, which last year attracted as many as 300,000 people.

On New Year's Eve, Beijing also canceled a countdown event in the central business district, Chinese media said, due to police fears about overcrowding.

President Xi Jinping has asked the Shanghai government to get to the bottom of the incident as soon as possible, and ordered governments across the country to ensure a similar disaster could not happen again, state television said.

The Shanghai government said on its official microblog that an inquiry had begun, and that all other New Year events had been canceled.

Photographs on Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, showed densely packed crowds of revelers along the Bund where buildings from Shanghai's pre-communist heyday face the Huangpu River and house upscale restaurants, bars, shops and hotels.

In 2004, 37 people died in a stampede in northern Beijing, on a bridge at a scenic spot, during the Lunar New Year holiday.

(Aditional reporting by Pete Sweeney and Fayen Wong, and Judy Hua in BEIJING; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Mark Bendeich, Ryan Woo and Mark Trevelyan)

Structure of the Lead：

   who-people in Shanghai

   when-new year eve

   What-A stampede killed at least 36 people

   Why-Not given

   How-Not given

Key Words:

  stampede-踩踏

  waterfront海濱

  cosmopolitan-國際化

  surname-姓

  

week2

Mastermind of Peshawar school attack killed

Pakistani troops have killed the Taliban leader who planned the massacre of 132 children at a Peshawar school earlier this month, a senior government official claimed.

Saddam Jan, commander of one of the most militant Taliban factions waging war against Pakistan, was killed on Christmas Day in a shoot out with army forces in Khyber agency, a remote tribal area close to the Afghanistan border.

Shahab Ali Shah, a local government official, said Jan "was responsible for facilitating the massacre at the Army Public School and College".

"He was the mastermind of several attacks carried out throughout the country. We had credible reports that he facilitated the Peshawar school attack," he said.

He added: "He was killed by security forces in Jamrud Tehsil late on Thursday night." Another six militants were arrested during the raid.

Analysts said his killing was a major setback to the Tehrik-e-Taliban alliance because Jan was one its few commanders still mounting regular attacks on the country’s government and military.

He was killed in Gundi, Jamrud, as part of an intensification of anti-Taliban operations by the Pakistan Army following the massacre at Peshawar’s Army Public School on December 16th in which 148 were killed, including 132 pupils.

The deliberate targeting of children by seven Taliban gunmen was greeted with horror throughout Pakistan and Afghanistan where both Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders denounced it as "un-Islamic”.

Since then the government has ended its moratorium on capital punishment and executed six convicted terrorists as part of a renewed campaign against terrorist groups.

It has announced new military courts to fast-track trials of terrorist suspects and new curbs on madrassa seminaries, which have been blamed for encouraging students to join terrorist groups.

The Peshawar school massacre is believed to have been ordered by Umar Mansoor on behalf of Maulana Fazlullah, the Tehrik-e-Taliban’s top leader.

But according to Pakistani officials the planning of the operation was carried out by Saddam Jan, the leader of the umbrella group’s Tariq Gedar faction.

He was also said to be the mastermind behind the 2013 attack on a team of polio immunization workers in which 11 security personnl were killed and an attack which killed eight government paramilitary Scouts and several tribal elders.

Brigadier (retired) Mahmood Shah, a former head of security in the lawless tribal areas, said that Saddam Jan’s death was a serious blow to the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan when it was already facing an Army onslaught.

“Saddam, a commander of the Darra Adam Khel chapter of the TTP was a significant man because he had been fighting the security forces at a time when most Taliban have gone into hibernation”, he said.

Jan had attacked Army personnel and members of the Lashkar Islam militant group which opposes the Taliban, he added.

Last week Army forces killed seven militants including the brother of Taliban commander Umar Mansoor who ordered the Peshawar school massacre.

Last year, the security forces had killed Tariq Afridi, a previous TTP commander in Darra Adam Khel and also killed his successor Jangreiz Khan shortly after.

“Taliban are on the run and losing important commanders is a sign that they are getting weaker and weaker”, Mr Shah said.

Talat Khan, another security analyst, said that the Army offensive in the area and revulsion over the massacre of children in Peshawar had prevented Taliban fighters finding sanctuary among local people.

“The TTP’s attack on the Army Public School has enraged and saddened the people due to which they do not want to provide sanctuaries to the TTP’s men”, he said

Structure of the Lead：

   who-Taliban leader

   when-this month

   What-Kill by Pakistani troops

   Why-Not given

   How-Not given

KeyWords:

  massacre-大屠殺

  militant-激進
  commander-指揮官
  setback-挫折
  sanctuary-避難所

  

  

  

.

week 1-air asia 8501 crash

AirAsia Flight 8501: Pilots Cut Power To Critical Computers Shortly Before Crash: Report

The pilots of AirAsia Flight 8501 cut power to a critical computer system designed to prevent the aircraft going out of control a short time before the plane crashed in the Java sea Dec. 28, according to people with direct knowledge of the investigation into the crash, cited in a Bloomberg report.

The decision to cut power to the computers was reportedly a factor in causing the crash. The sources said that the pilots were attempting to address alerts from other flight control computers, and subsequently cut power to the entire system, which comprises two separate computers that back each other up.

An aviation safety consultant told Bloomberg that Airbus, the manufacturer of the aircraft in question, an A320, discourages pilots from cutting power to systems, as the aircraft is highly dependent on its computer systems, and one component of the system can affect others.

Questions about the flight's final moments still remain, but significant information about those last seconds has come to light in recent days.

Yesterday it was revealed that that Flight 8501's relatively inexperienced first officer was at the aircraft's controls when it made what investigators described as an “unbelievably” steep climb, ascending 5,000 feet in just 30 seconds.

Such a rate of climb is outside the performance envelope of the A320. It is believed that the climb may have slowed the aircraft to the extent that its wings ceased to generate lift.

"It is not normal to climb like that. It's very rare for commercial planes, which normally climb just 1,000 to 2,000 feet per minute," Indonesia's transport minister, Ignasius Jonan, told the BBC. "It can only be done by a fighter jet," he added.

The first officer, Rémi-Emmanuel Plesel, had just over 2,200 hours of logged flight experience, while captain Iriyanto had more than 20,000 hours.

Data from the aircraft's black box recorders has given investigators a “pretty clear picture” of what happened in its final moments, according to Reuters.

Indonesian search and rescue teams recently suspended an operation that was attempting to lift the aircraft's fuselage from the sea floor using balloons. The wreckage is reportedly too fragile to be lifted and authorities believe that no bodies remain inside.

Structure of the Lead：

   who-AirAsia Flight 8501

   when-Dec. 28

   What-the aircraft going out of control

   Why-Not given

   How-Not given

KeyWords:

  investigation-調查

  subsequently-後來
  comprise-包括
  component-部件
  Reuter-路透社

Taiwanese firm at centre of ‘gutter oil’ scandal ordered to pull products

Taiwan has ordered the cooking oil supplier at the centre of a snowballing food scandal to pull all of its "Chuan Tung" lard oil products from shop shelves, even if they passed food safety tests.

The order followed reports that edible oil firm Chang Guann had blended "gutter oil" - illegally produced oil usually made from recycled kitchen waste - with fresh lard oil to produce 782 tonnes of Chuan Tung brand oil.

The scandal has rocked the food industry, with revelations that the oil was sold to more than 1,000 food manufacturers, bakeries, restaurants and night markets and used in a huge range of products, from mooncakes and dumplings to instant noodles, crackers and buns.

The scare has spread to Hong Kong, where Maxim's Group has admitted using Chang Guann oil to make 9,000 pineapple buns a day for the past three years. Yesterday, dumpling franchise Bafang Yunji said it had stopped selling curry dumplings at its 54 stores in Hong Kong because the curry paste supplier in Taiwan sourced its oil from Chang Guann.

Dr Philip Ho Yuk-yin, the Centre for Food Safety's consultant of community medicine, said the centre had phoned more than 100 businesses and sent emails to 10,000 or so others to verify whether they had used the oil. Only "dozens" returned calls and none replied to emails.

Hop Hing Oil Procurement said yesterday it had imported oil from Chang Guann. But it added that the oil was not the same type as the suspected gutter oil. The oil was supplied for bakery products and dim sum and all had been recalled.

Ho also said the centre had taken 46 food and oil samples from importers for laboratory tests. Tests on most samples have been completed. No samples were made from gutter oil.

Taiwan's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released test results yesterday showing that one sample of the oil sold under the Chuan Tung brand met hygiene requirements. However, samples from two other batches - obtained by prosecutors investigating the scandal - failed the tests.

The FDA also said there was no record of Chang Guann importing gutter oil from the mainland. But the company had imported 87 tonnes of lard oil from Hong Kong and 672 tonnes from Japan.

Cabinet spokesman Sun Li-chyun said the government understood there could be "mixed feelings" about the decision to pull the products. "Even though it passed the test, [the oil] must be removed from shelves because Chang Guann used recycled oil, which is a violation of the food safety law here."

He said Premier Jiang Yi-huah had stressed that any manufacturers found to have violated food safety laws must be punished severely.

The FDA tests included scans for moulds and heavy metals.

The authorities tested three samples from the underground factory in the southern county of Pingtung that supplied the product to Chang Guann. Two of those samples had more than triple the acceptable level of benzo(a)pyrene, a carcinogenic compound. Another series of samples of pre-refined oil from Chang Guann exceeded acceptable acid value levels, as did the underground factory samples.

Chen Hui-fang, head of the FDA's research and inspection section, said it also tested Chuan Tung lard. "Our lab results show that Chuan Tung lard had been refined and, except for the heavy metal part - the test for which has yet to be completed - the lard oil met all [safety] requirements."

---

Oil has many ways of entering the gutter

The term "gutter oil" first caught the mainland public's attention in 2010 when a professor in Wuhan revealed that up to 10 per cent of cooking oil used on the mainland could be made from recycled kitchen waste.

He Dongping, of Wuhan Polytechnic University, estimated then that restaurants and food stalls throughout the country used about three million tonnes of illegally produced oil every year, igniting a food scare.

Gutter oil refers to oil that is made by recovering and reprocessing liquid or solid kitchen waste scooped from gutters, waste bins or even sewers.

Structure of the Lead：

   who-Taiwan

   When-September,8,2014

   What-has ordered the cooking oil supplier at the centre of a snowballing food scandal

   Why-Not given

   How-Not given

KeyWords:

  

 supplier-供應商

 shelves-貨架

 consultant-顧問

 procurement-採購

 laboratory-實驗室

 prosecutors-檢察官

   

week 6-actor, Ko, Jaycee, drug, arrest

Jaycee Chan has been formally arrested on drug charges, nearly a month after he was caught smoking marijuana in Beijing.

The prosecutor's office, or procuratorate, in Beijing's Dongcheng district approved the arrest of Jaycee Fong Cho-ming, son of international kung fu icon Jackie Chan, on suspicion of "accommodating drug users".

This signals that authorities are moving forward with the case against Jaycee, who is currently in detention.

Jaycee, 32, was taken away by police on August 14 with his friend Taiwanese actor Ko Chen-tung, 23, for doing drugs at a foot massage parlour in Beijing.

Police recovered more than 100 grams of marijuana from Chan's home in Beijing.

Mainland media reported that Jaycee Chan admitted that he first abused drugs in the Netherlands in 2006, while Ko did so for the first time in Jaycee’s home two years ago.

The public security bureau of Dongcheng had sought the procuratorate’s approval for Chan’s arrest on September 10, the statement on Weibo said.

Chinese police need official approval from prosecutors to formally arrest a suspect. During a period of formal arrest, police can continue to investigate. If they decide to criminally charge him, a trial would follow.

The maximum sentence for allowing others to take drugs in a property, workplace or hotel is three years’ imprisonment.

Ko was given a sentence of 14 days in administrative detention after he admitted using marijiuana.

On his release, he appeared at a news conference with his parents and agent and apologised for smoking the drug. 

Jackie Chan, who was named an anti-drug ambassador in 2009 by Chinese authorities, has publicly apologised for his son’s drug use and pledged to work with him on his recovery.

A series of celebrities have been detained on drug charges following a declaration in June by President Xi Jinping that illegal drugs should be wiped out and that offenders would be severely punished.

Performing arts associations and theatre companies in Beijing have pledged not to hire any actors connected with drugs, and national associations representing film actors, directors and producers have reportedly issued a notice saying members who repeatedly take drugs will be expelled and banned from making movies.

Structure of the Lead：

   who-Jaycee Chan

   When-August,14,2014

   What-Jaycee Chan has been formally arrested on drug charges

   Why-Not given

   How-Not given

KeyWords:

   marijuana-大麻
   prosecutor-原告
   suspicion-懷疑
   imprisonment-徒刑  
   ambassador-大使
   detain-扣留
   offender-犯罪份子
   
   
   
   

week 5

The Islamist group Boko Haram has seized Chibok, the Nigerian town from which it kidnapped 276 schoolgirls earlier this year, in a show of strength that makes the teenagers’ safe release a more distant prospect than ever.

The militants attacked at about 4pm on Thursday, destroying communications masts and forcing residents to flee, according to witnesses. One described running past bodies strewn on a street.

The fall of Chibok is hugely symbolic. The town in north-east Nigeria became the centre of world attention in April when Boko Haram fightersstormed the government girls secondary school, forced students onto trucks and drove them into the bush. There was a global Twitter campaign, BringBackOurGirls, and criticism of the government’s response.

Tsambido Hosea Abana, a community leader from Chibok who has cousins and nieces among the 219 teenagers still being held, said on Friday: “Our girls are in the bush and they are killing the parents. We are talking about the lives of the parents and adults now. This thing has gone beyond anyone’s control.”

Speaking from the capital, Abuja, Abanda said he had sisters, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews in Chibok. “I’ve only heard from one. He was on his way to Chibok and he met people running away so he turned around. A villager told me he saw corpses lying in the street; he could not count them because he was running.”

He joined criticism of the military’s handling of the crisis. “They are not doing well. How can they just run away when they hear ‘Allahu Akbar’? They are handing over weapons to these boys.”

Boko Haram’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, claims to have carried through his promise to marry off the teenagers still being held and said they had all converted to Islam.

Enoch Mark, a Christian pastor whose daughter and niece are among the kidnapped, told Agence France-Presse “Chibok was taken by Boko Haram. They are in control.”

Mark said the attack on the town, which residents have warned of for some time, appeared to come after Boko Haram overran the towns of Hong and Gombi in neighbouring Adamawa state. “They came in and engaged soldiers and vigilantes in a gunfight,” he added.

“Some of us managed to escape. All the telecom towers in the town were destroyed during the attack with RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades]. No one can say what the situation is in the town in terms of destruction to property.”

Pogo Bitrus, chairman of the elders forum in Chibok, also confirmed the attack but said Boko Haram may have had inside information about security. “The vigilantes use shotguns and cartridges and have been short in supply, so the leader left yesterday for Maiduguri to procure more in the event of any attack,” he told AFP.

“But Boko Haram launched the attack while he was still in Maiduguri. He was due to come today, so it looks like they knew what was happening.”

Bitrus said the vigilantes were preparing for a counter-attack and troops had been deployed from Damboa, 22 miles away by road to the north-west. “I can assure you they are going to retake Chibok,” he added.

Boko Haram – whose name means “western education is sinful” – have been waging a deadly five-year insurgency aimed at creating a hardline Islamist state in the north of Africa’s most populous country. In October the government announced a ceasefire had been agreed, but the group’s leader denied this and has intensified attacks since.

Last Monday, 58 boys were killed when a suspected Boko Haram suicide attacker detonated explosives at a school in Potiskum, Yobe state.

Two weeks ago it took the commercial hub of Mubi, killing dozens and torching houses, and renamed it “Madinatul Islam” (“City of Islam” in Arabic), residents told AFP. It introduced its strict version of Islamic law, including amputations for alleged thieves.

However, in a rare setback, about 200 vigilantes and hunters armed with bows and arrows, clubs, spears, machetes and home-made guns helped the Nigerian military regain control of Mubi, which had been the biggest town under the extremists’ control.

One resident, who asked not to be named, told AFP: “I saw the Boko Haram fighters fleeing in droves in their vehicles when the hunters and vigilantes entered the town.

“Their emir [leader] was captured by the hunters and made to sit outside the military barracks that he and his men turned into their base. He had his hands tied from the back and we swarmed to have a look but we were later dispersed by the hunters.”

Mubi is the first town Boko Haram has lost since August, when it declared a caliphate in areas under its control. But celebrations were cut short when Boko Haram fighters seized the towns of Gombi, Hong and the major prize of Chibok.

Earlier this week president Goodluck Jonathan, whose leadership during the crisis has been widely questioned, announced his intention to seek another term in office, pledging to defeat the insurgents and free the schoolgirls.

Structure of the Lead：

   WHO-The Islamist group Boko Haram

   When-this year

   What- kidnapped 276 schoolgirls

   Why-Not given

   How-Not given

KeyWords:

militant-激進
mast-桅杆
strewn-散落
niece-侄女
nephew-侄子
barrack-軍營