[1.Feb.2020]A Warm-up Session for Sat. meeting

[Scarlet]

Keywords_20200201.hwp

<< A Warm-up Session Notice for Englisholc Saturday Meeting >>

Hello ! Englisholic Saturday meeting members ! 
We are going to run a warm-up session for 30 min (6:30-7:00 pm) before the Englisholic sat. meeting. 

We will study and analyze some good expressions and basic writing skills with small talk materials, which means that we are going to deal with Morning special materials briefly and if u want we can cover some other topics as well. This week I might preapre the game !~ 

This session is not for having discussion but for practicing useful expressions and making our skills more delicate. So if you want to brush up your basic disciplines into more proficient level or if you want to improve your understanding on the topics, please join us for 30 min. Warm-up session 🙂. 

Hope you are enjoying today's pre-meeting materials ! 

See you at the meeting 🙂

p.s. If you are planning to attend today's pre-meeting,

please reply to this post to prepare the printed materials.

Thank you !

With love, 
Scarlett  

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Small Talks : Morning Special (2020. Jan. 30. ~ 2020. Feb. 1.)

▶Touch! Global Headlines

HEADLINE 1 (2020. Jan. 31. Fri.)

With Tibet confirm‎ing its first cases of the novel coronavirus, the deadly pathogen has officially spread to all regions of mainland China.

HEADLINE 2 (2020. Jan. 31. Fri.) 

The European Parliament has ratified the UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement.

HEADLINE 3 (2020. Jan. 31. Fri.) 

The European Union reportedly wants to create a single market in data aimed at challenging the dominance of U.S. tech giants such as Facebook, Google and Amazon.

HEADLINE 4 (2020. Jan. 31. Fri.)

Teen climate activist Greta Thunberg has said she will hinder persons or companies trying to use her name for commercial purposes.

HEADLINE 1 (2020. Jan. 30. Thu.)

The number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus has overtaken the 2003 SARS outbreak inside of mainland China.

HEADLINE 2 (2020. Jan. 30. Thu.)

Scientists in Australia have become the first to recreate the novel coronavirus.

HEADLINE 3 (2020. Jan. 30. Thu.)

Europe and Russia have given lukewarm responses to U.S. President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan, while Palestine strongly rejected it.

HEADLINE 1 (2020. Jan. 29. Wed.)

Chinese authorities have said that the incubation period of the so-called Wuhan coronavirus is between 2 and 14 days, adding that reports saying the virus has infected 100,000 people are not true.

HEADLINE 2 (2020. Jan. 29. Wed.)  

Concerns over the Wuhan coronavirus have caused further steep drops on markets around the world.

HEADLINE 3 (2020. Jan. 29. Wed.)

The Pentagon has confirmed a U.S. military jet crashed in Afghanistan, whereas the Taliban in stark contrast has suggested the aircraft was shot down by the insurgent group.   

HEADLINE 4 (2020. Jan. 29. Wed.)

Former U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton has become a key figure in the case to remove U.S. President Donald Trump from office.

HEADLINE 1 (2020. Jan. 28. Tue.)

China has issued a blanket ban on the wildlife trade in efforts to contain a deadly virus thought to have jumped from animals to humans.

HEADLINE 2 (2020. Jan. 28. Tue.)

The outbreak of the Wuhan virus has resulted in the closure of major tourist attractions in Hong Kong, as well as the cancellation of public events and concerts.

HEADLINE 3 (2020. Jan. 28. Tue.)

New studies have suggested that China is the world's second-biggest arms producer.

HEADLINE 5 (2020. Jan. 28. Tue.)

U.S. basketball legend Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna have died in a helicopter crash in Southern California.

HEADLINE 1 (2020. Jan. 27. Mon.)

The U.S. has announced plans to move personnel stationed in Wuhan, China, the epicenter of a deadly virus outbreak.

HEADLINE 2 (2020. Jan. 27. Mon.)  

At least 31 people have been killed and more than 1,600 injured in a powerful 6.8 magnitude earthquake in Turkey.

HEADLINE 3 (2020. Jan. 27. Mon.)

At least 31 people have died in Madagascar after a week of heavy rains.

HEADLINE 4 (2020. Jan. 27. Mon.)

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has signed the Brexit withdrawal agreement in Downing Street.

HEADLINE 5 (2020. Jan. 27. Mon.)

As India celebrates its 71st Republic Day with Brazil’s president as the chief guest of the event, the two countries are set to bolster bilateral ties.

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▶News Focus 1 (2020. Jan. 31. Fri.)

Top universities in England have promised to offer more places to disadvantaged students, with the aim of halving the gap between disadvantaged and advantaged students over the next five years.

At the moment, students from wealthier areas are six times more likely to go to a selective university, but a recent report outlines plans for cream of the crop universities to widen their access, which would mean 6,500 more disadvantaged students at these universities each year from 2024-25.

If the universities don’t reach their targets by 2025, the schools may have to shell out.

- cream of the crop

[Noun] (idiomatic) The best or most desirable among some selection.

ex) They hoped to hire only the cream of the crop for the new project team.

- shell out

v. to pay out or hand over (money)

n. to pay for something, especially when it is a lot of money or you do not really want to 

ex) I'm not shelling out for another computer. 

▶News Focus 3 (2020. Jan. 31. Fri.)

Cigarette butts pile up in parks, beaches, streets and bus stops, places where all types of littering are frowned upon, and estimates are that over five trillion butts are generated by smokers each year worldwide.

But a new study has found that a used butt — one that is cold to the touch — can in one day give off the equivalent of up to 14% of the nicotine that an actively burning cigarette emits.

This is significant due to thirdhand smoke, which comes from the chemical residue that stays on surfaces such as walls, furniture, hair, clothing and toys after a cigarette has been extinguished. Like mainstream smoking and secondhand smoke, thirdhand exposure can increase the risk of cancers and cause numerous other health problems.

- frowned upon
- cold to the touch

▶ News Focus 1 (2020. Jan. 30. Thu.)

French riot police have forced more than 1400 migrants out of an illegal camp in Paris which was then destroyed.

Some 600 single men and 240 families had been living in the shanty town at Porte d’Aubervilliers. Those removed were taken to 17 so-called ‘reception centres’. There they will be given short-term accommodation before trying to claim asylum in France, or else being deported.

In November, France’s Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced tougher measures against people travelling illegally through France, saying camps would be shut, and that it would be harder for migrants to access non-urgent healthcare in the country.

- short-term

- Health care 

[Noun] The prevention, treatment, and management of illness or the preservation of mental and physical well-being through the services offered by the medical, nursing, and allied health professions.

▶ News Focus 2 (2020. Jan. 30. Thu.)

The coronavirus’ rapid spread worldwide is forcing Big Tech to confront the equally viral proliferation of misinformation.

Facebook confirmed that its partner organizations have issued nine fact-checks in recent days pertaining to several fake posts about coronavirus — the company labels the inaccuracies and lowers their rank in users’ daily feeds.

Twitter has reportedly been steering users toward more credible sources when they search for coronavirus-related hashtags, while Google tweaked its algorithms to prevent a large amount of harmful content from surfacing in search results.

- misinformation  

명사 Misinformation is wrong information which is given to someone, often in a deliberate attempt to make them believe something which is not true.

- pertaining

- tweaked : 

동사  If you tweak something, especially part of someone's body, you hold it between your finger and thumb and twist it or pull it.

동사  INFORMAL  If you tweak something such as a system or a design, you improve it by making a slight change.

▶News Focus 3 (2020. Jan. 30. Thu.)

A team of scientists have created a mathematical model for what they say is the ideal cup of coffee using around a quarter fewer beans.

The research team was made up of chemists, mathematicians, material scientists and coffee enthusiasts from five countries. Together, the researchers analyzed the standard 20-gram portion of coffee grounds typically used by espresso makers to see if there was a way this process could be optimized.

The team calculated the extraction yields of the different brewing methods, and found that If you use 15 grams instead of 20 grams of coffee, you can maintain the flavour and cut down on waste.

- ideal

- cut down on

▶ News Focus 1 (2020. Jan. 29. Wed.)

A 40-year-old mother and her three children, aged 10, 12, and 14, have miraculously survived for more than 30 days after getting lost in the Columbian jungle.

They were reported missing on December 19 and were found near a village in the northern Peruvian region of Yubineto close to the Colombian border, after surviving on fruits and berries.

Reports in the country said the missing group were found by members of the indigenous Secoya community who got in touch with Peruvian authorities.

- miraculously

- got in touch with

▶ News Focus 2 (2020. Jan. 29. Wed.)

During the kind of virus outbreak that China and other nations are now contending with, time is of the essence, but now the world is better equipped to deal with a problem like this than it used to be. Bluedot, a Toronto startup whose AI-driven health monitoring platform analyzes billions of data points, alerted its clients to the outbreak on Dec. 31, faster than the World Health Organization and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Bluedot uses different techniques to sift through global news reports, airline data, and reports of animal disease outbreaks,  allowing the company to send alerts to its clients in the public and private sectors.

- time is of the essence

1. [Phrase] Time is an essential consideration (in regard to an action or response); haste is necessary.

ex) When transporting organs for transplant, time is of the essence.

2. [Phrase] (legal,in a contract) Failure to complete the required performance by the date certain set forth will constitute an incurable breach. 

- sift through

[Phrase] to carefully examine a large amount of something in order to find something important or decide what is useful 

ex) I sifted through his papers for clues.

▶ News Focus 1 (2020. Jan. 28. Tue.)

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte apologized Sunday for the failure of officials in the Nazi-occupied country during World War II to do more to prevent the deportation and murder of just over 100,000 Jews.

Rutte made the historic apology at the country’s annual Holocaust commemoration in Amsterdam that came on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz Nazi death camp.

Holocaust survivor Zoni Weisz told Dutch national broadcaster NOS that it was touching. “It was beautiful,” he said, “It’s a shame it had to take 75 years before we were offered an apology.”

- Holocaust (usually uncountable, plural Holocausts) 

1. 명사  A holocaust is an event in which there is a lot of destruction and many people are killed, especially one caused by war. 

2. 명사  The Holocaust is used to refer to the killing by the Nazis of millions of Jews during the Second World War. 

- touching

- It’s a shame

▶ News Focus 2 (2020. Jan. 28. Tue.)

The Senate’s trial into the charges against U.S. president Donald Trump began on Jan. 21, marking it only the third time in American history that a president has been impeached.

While the trial has been live on TV and the internet and made the front pages of newspapers across the country, the public’s interest has waned.

Newswhip, a company that tracks how people engage with stories across social networks, said its data showed web content about impeachment peaked at around 80 million the week of Dec. 16. Last week, when the Senate trial began, it showed about 22 million.

- wane  

동사  If something wanes, it becomes gradually weaker or less, often so that it eventually disappears.

- engage

▶ News Focus 1 (2020. Jan. 27. Mon.)

When a report concluded that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' phone was hacked, it brought to the surface the issue of how high-profile people protect their information in cyberspace.

According to Mark Nunnikhoven, vice president of cloud research at software security firm Trend Micro, well-known individuals should take steps beyond the recommended security measures for the average Joe.

All smartphone users should turn on automatic software updates, create strong passwords and have their devices lock after 30 seconds or a minute of being idle.

On top of that, executives and celebrities should reset their phones every couple of months.

- high-profile  형용사 세간의 이목을 끄는 (→profile)

형용사 A high-profile person or a high-profile event attracts a lot of attention or publicity.

- average Joe 

[Noun] (idiomatic) A hypothetical average or generic individual; the common man (or person, by extension).

ex) Write the instructions so that any Joe Average can understand them. 

- idle

▶ News Focus 2 (2020. Jan. 27. Mon.)

The newly unveiled logo for US Space Force appears to have boldly gone where Star Trek went before.  Twitter users noted that the emblem, revealed by President Donald Trump, bears an uncanny likeness to the insignia from the cult sci-fi TV series.

Mr Trump tweeted: "After consultation with our Great Military Leaders, designers, and others, I am pleased to present the new logo for the United States Space Force, the Sixth Branch of our Magnificent Military!"

George Takei, star of the original 1960s Star Trek TV series, tweeted  in response:  “Ahem. We expect some royalties from this.”

- insignia  

명사  An insignia is a design or symbol which shows that a person or object belongs to a particular organization, often a military one. (=emblem) 

- uncanny 

형용사  If you describe something as uncanny, you mean that it is strange and difficult to explain. 

- likeness

▶ News Focus 3 (2020. Jan. 27. Mon.)

Starbucks has announced that it will strive to become “resource positive”. The announcement comes on the heels of BlackRock, the world’s largest investment firm, announcing a week ago it plans to overhaul its investing strategy to make sustainability the new standard. On Thursday, Microsoft said it is trying to remove more carbon from the atmosphere than it emits by 2030.

To help reach its long-term targets, Starbucks has set three preliminary goals for 2030: to cut carbon emissions by half in direct operations and its supply chain, to conserve or replenish half of the water taken for coffee production or operations and to reduce half of the waste sent to landfills by stores and manufacturing.

- strive 

- replenish

Article source : https://home.ebs.co.kr/morning/board/6/502387/view/10010654460?hmpMnuId=101

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<Questions>

Q1. What do you know about 'Wuhan coronavirus' ?

Q2. What is the insignia of your organization? In this sentence, insignia means a design or symbol which shows that a person or object belongs to a particular organization, often a military one. Do you like your organization's insignia? 

Q3. According to article, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte made the historic apology at the country’s annual Holocaust commemoration in Amsterdam that came on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz Nazi death camp. What is the reflection ? Do we have those culture in Asian culture? 

Q4. How do you maintain your smartphone safe? 

Q5. Can you feel the polarization between the rich and the poor in the educational field? 

[John Park]

It's good suggestion. I hope new presession goes well.