Week 4- TransAsia Airways plane crash

TransAsia Airways plane crashes in typhoon-hit Taiwan, killing 47

BY FAITH HUNG AND MICHAEL GOLD

TAIPEI Wed Jul 23, 2014 6:39pm EDT

A TransAsia Airways turboprop plane crashed on its second attempt at landing during a thunderstorm on an island off Taiwan on Wednesday, killing 47 people and setting buildings on fire, officials said.

The plane, a 70-seat ATR 72, crashed near the runway on the island of Penghu, west of the mainland, with 54 passengers and four crew on board, they said. No one was killed or hurt in the buildings.

Eleven injured people on the plane were taken to hospital, the government said.

The aircraft took off from Taiwan's southern city of Kaohsiung, headed for the island of Makong, but crash-landed in Huxi township of Penghu County, the main island of the chain also known as the Pescadores.

"It was thunderstorm conditions during the crash," said Hsi Wen-guang, a spokesman for the Penghu County Government Fire Bureau.

"From the crash site we sent 11 people to hospital with injuries. A few empty apartment buildings adjacent to the runway caught fire, but no one was inside at the time and the fire was extinguished." About 100 firefighters were sent to the scene, as well as 152 military personnel and 255 police, he added.

According to an official at the Civil Aeronautics Administration, air traffic control reported that the inclement weather at the time of the crash did not exceed international regulations for landing.

Visibility was 1,600 meters and the cloud cover was as low as 600 meters, added the official, who declined to be identified.

Television networks aired footage of TransAsia's president, Chooi Yee-choong, bowing in apology.

"We express our deepest apologies to everyone for this unfortunate event."

Typhoon Matmo hit Taiwan on Wednesday, bringing heavy rain and strong winds, shutting financial markets and schools. It passed the island and headed into China, downgraded from typhoon to tropical storm.

TransAsia Airways is a Taiwan-based airline with a fleet of around 23 Airbus and ATR aircraft, operating chiefly short-haul flights on domestic routes as well as to mainland China, Japan, Thailand and Cambodia, among its Asian destinations.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/23/us-taiwan-crash-idUSKBN0FS1EK20140723

Structure of the Lead：

   WHO- A TransAsia Airways turboprop plane

   WHEN- Wednesday

   WHAT- killing 47 people and setting buildings on fire

   WHY- it crashed on its second attempt at landing during a thunderstorm on an island off Taiwan

   WHERE- Penghu

   HOW- not given

Keywords：

1.     turboprop(n.)渦輪螺旋槳式飛機

2.     runway(n.)(機場的)跑道

3.      township(n.)小鎮

4.     Pescadores (n.)澎湖群島

5.     spokesman (n.)發言人

6.     adjacent(adj.)毗連的，鄰接的

7.     extinguish(v.)熄滅

8.     personnel (n.)人員

9.      Civil Aeronautics Administration (n.)交通部民用航空局

10.  inclement(adj.)天氣險惡的

11.   exceed(v.)超過

12.   decline (v.)下降；下跌

13.   footage (n.)（以呎表示的）英尺長度

14.  shut(v.)關閉

15.   downgrade (v.)降低

16.   fleet (adj.)快速的；敏捷的

17.   short-haul (adj.)短程運輸的

18.   domestic (adj.)國內的

Week3 -- Taiwan 4th Nuclear Plant

Taiwan to halt construction of fourth nuclear power plant

TAIPEI, April 27 Sun Apr 27, 2014 4:08pm BST

The Taiwan government will halt construction at the island's fourth nuclear power plant, an official said on Sunday, as local opposition to atomic energy continues to mount.

President Ma Ying-jeou met with lawmakers from his Kuomintang Party (KMT) and reached a decision to seal off the plant's first reactor after the completion of safety checks, KMT spokesman Fan Chiang Tai-chi told reporters.
Construction of the second reactor will be halted immediately, the spokesman added.
The move is the latest sign of pressure on Ma's administration from opposition parties and anti-nuclear activists, who are concerned about the safety of such facilities in earthquake-prone regions of Taiwan following the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan.
Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in downtown Taipei over the weekend, urging the government to abandon nuclear energy.
On Friday, Ma refused opposition demands for an immediate referendum on the future of Taiwan's contentious fourth nuclear plant, but reiterated that the government would hold such a vote before the facility starts operations.
The news triggered a 2 percent drop in Taiwan's share market due to fears higher electricity prices could dent the economy.
The fourth plant is located in northern New Taipei City.
Taiwan's three current nuclear power facilities would have to serve longer if the fourth one does not start operating as planned, the economics ministry has said.
Taiwan's first nuclear plant is set to be decommissioned from 2018-19, while the second is set to close between 2021 and 2023.
Some 40 percent of the island's electricity is generated by burning coal, 30 percent using natural gas and 18.4 percent by nuclear power plants, according to the economics ministry.
Taiwan sits near the so-called ring of fire region of seismic activity around the Pacific Ocean. (Reporting by Faith Hung; Editing by Dale Hudson)

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/04/27/taiwan-nuclear-idUKL3N0NJ08C20140427

Structure of the Lead：

  

WHO- The Taiwan government

WHEN-Sunday

WHAT- halt construction at the island's fourth nuclear power plant

WHY- local opposition to atomic energy continues to mount.
WHERE- not given

HOW-not given

Keywords：

1. halt(v.)暫停；停止
2. atomic (adj.)原子的
3. mount (v.)登上；爬上
4. seal off封閉, 封鎖
5. lawmaker(n.)立法者
6. reactor(n.)核子反應爐
7. spokesman (n.)發言人
8. opposition parties (n.)反對黨
9. activists (n.)激進主義者
10. earthquake-prone(adj.)地震頻繁的
11. Fukushima (n.)福島
12. downtown (adj.)市中心的
13. abandon(v.)放棄
14. referendum (n.)公投
15. contentious (adj.)有爭議的
16. reiterate (v.)重申
17. trigger (v.)引起；觸發
18. share market (n.)股市
19. dent (v.) 塌陷；下跌
20. ministry (adj.)(政府的)部
21. decommission (v.)退役
22. generate(v.)產生
23. seismic (adj.)地震的

WEEK 2--Flight MH370

New underwater discoveries in hunt for MH370, though no sign of plane

AFP
September 28, 2014, 12:18 am TWN

SYDNEY -- Remnants of volcanoes, towering ridges and deep trenches have been discovered on the seabed of the southern Indian Ocean by experts mapping the underwater terrain as part of the search for missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370.
Australian authorities released the three-dimensional images on Friday, revealing for the first time details about the seafloor where efforts are being concentrated to find the jet, which is presumed to have crashed into the sea on March 8.
The area in which the plane is thought to have gone down is remote and largely unexplored, and officials are conducting an intensive survey of the seabed before the underwater probe for the plane can begin.
“The recently acquired high-resolution bathymetry (underwater survey) data has revealed many of these seabed features for the first time,” the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, the agency leading the search, said in a statement.
“It is also revealing finer-scale seabed features that were not visible in the previous low-resolution, satellite-derived bathymetry data.”
The MH370 search area far off Western Australia includes the seabed on and around an extensive, mountainous ridge that once formed the margin between two geological plates.
The expanse has many of the features typically found in such areas, with the tectonic movements having created now-extinct volcanoes, rugged ridges up to 300 meters high and trenches some 1,400 meters deep compared to the surrounding sea floor, the ATSB said.
The bureau said the identification of these features would assist in navigation during the underwater search phase for the Boeing 777, which is due to begin next month.
Australia has vowed to do all it can to find the last resting place of MH370, which was carrying 239 people, many of them Chinese passengers, when it went missing during a routine flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
The plane is believed to have crashed into the southern Indian Ocean far off the west coast of Australia after mysteriously diverting off-course, but a massive air, sea and underwater search has failed to find any wreckage.
Experts have used technical data to finalize its most likely resting place ahead of next month's underwater search.

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/asia/australia/2014/09/28/418184/New-underwater.htm

Structure of the Lead：

   WHO-experts

   WHEN-not given

   WHAT- search for missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370

   WHY- because remnants of volcanoes, towering ridges and deep trenches have been discovered

   WHERE- the seabed of the southern Indian Ocean

HOW- by experts mapping the underwater terrain

Keywords：

1.      Remnant(n.)殘餘；殘骸

2.      towering(adj.)高聳的；高大的

3.      ridges(n.)山脊；山脈

4.      trenches(n.)溝渠；溝

5.      seabed(n.)海床

6.      map(v.)勘測

7.      terrain (n.)地域；地帶

8.      seafloor (n.)海底

9.      presume(v.)假定；認為

10.  probe (n.)徹底調查

11.  bathymetry(n.)海深測量術

12.  Bureau(n.)局；處

13.  Margin(n.)邊緣

14.  expanse (n.)廣闊的區域

15.  tectonic(adj.)地殼構造上的

16.  navigation(n.)航行；航運

17.  Kuala Lumpur吉隆坡(馬來西亞的首都)

18.  divert(v.)轉移

19.  wreckage (失事船或飛機等的)殘骸