第八週--Pokemon Go

Why everyone is addicted to Pokemon Go

By Claire Williams

Since the release of Pokémon Go in early July 2016, the app has outperformed all expectations. At the time of this writing, over 7.5 million users had downloaded the game in the United States alone, sending Nintendo's stock climbing by 10% in the first week. What makes Pokémon Go so massively appealing? Let's take a look at some of the factors behind the game's success.

Millions of fellow trainers

As previously mentioned, millions of people joined up as Pokémon trainers within the first week—according to some estimates, the game has been installed on 1 in every 20 Android devices in the U.S. That huge and immediate fan base means the app is not just a game, but a social experience. Players have organized huge Pokémon Go outings, including a Poké-walk in Australia that drew over 2,000 people for a day of catching and camaraderie. Trainers marched single-file through the park like leaf-cutter ants, only pausing to hit up Pokéstops or pursue a Pikachu.

An excuse to explore

Pokémon Go is an augmented-reality game utilizing real-world locations and points of interest as a focus within the app. In order to fully experience everything it has to offer, you must venture out into the community to explore Pokéstops and Gyms, usually located at public buildings, historic sites and other landmarks. By playing the game, you also get a chance to learn more about your neighborhood and city—enjoying sights you might not otherwise have seen.

Family friendly

Pokémon Go is one of those games that unites family members of all ages. Schoolkids and millennials alike are familiar with the franchise via Nintendo's games and the television series, which first premiered in 1997. Older generations will appreciate the lack of squeaky character voices in the app. We've seen grandparents walking with their grandkids, enjoying the game together. It's also a great way to get your children off the couch and active—not always an easy task in the digital age. A walk through your local downtown, park, or botanical garden is a great way to have fun and experience nature together.

Collecting is fun

Since time immemorial, humans have enjoyed collecting things. From rocks to coins, the tradition of collecting goes way back. This tendency has not lessened in the digital age, as illustrated by the success of games such as Neko Atsume, Dragonvale, and Pokémon Go. Once you get started, you don't want to stop until you "catch 'em all."

Friendly competition

Pokémon Go has an element of competitive gameplay adding to the fun. Gyms in the game are not held by fictional characters, but by other trainers. Join one of three teams, and use your Pokémon to attack a Gym in a hostile takeover, or defend it on behalf of your team. Gyms in populated areas may change hands multiple times per day, and everyone understands that's the way things are. Battles are conducted between trainers and the game's AI, and there's no in-game communication system—which means there's very little chance to have hard feelings if your Pokémon is defeated.

No entry fee

Pokémon Go, like its augmented-reality predecessor Ingress, is free to play. Where there is an in-game store allowing the purchase of additional items, it's completely optional. If you are consistently visiting Pokéstops to collect items, you should have no problem keeping your bag overflowing with Pokéballs, incense, potions, and other goodies.

Replay value

On average, Pokémon Go trainers have been using the app for 43 minutes a day—longer than the average user's daily Twitter time. Unlike many collecting games which involve only a few minutes a day to check in on your creatures and care for them, Pokémon Go can be played for as long as you have the will or stamina to keep going. There's always the possibility of a new Pokémon just around the corner. You don't ever "win" the game, and even if you manage to collect all of the original 151 Pokémon, it's likely that future updates will expand the Pokédex to include later generations.

Accessible to everyone

Perhaps the most brilliant thing about Pokémon Go is there's very little knowledge barrier for those new to the genre. You don't need to know the name of every Pokémon in the Pokédex, you don't need to know much about battle strategy (although a little primer on which types are weakest against each other would be helpful), and you don't need to  know the lore and history of Ash and the other characters found in the television series or previous games. The story of the game is simple—the world around us is filled with mystical creatures, and it's your mission to catch them, befriend them, and train them to be stronger. That's a mission we can all get behind.

http://www.looper.com/18330/everyone-addicted-pokemon-go/

Structure of the Lead：

WHAT-the release of Pokémon Go  

WHEN-  in early July 2016

WHY- not given
WHERE- not given
WHO- not given
HOW- has outperformed all expectations
Keywords:
1.fan base:粉絲
2. camaraderie:友誼
3.utilizing:利用
4.millennials:千禧世代(出生於1980至2000年的人)
5.franchise:授權
6. hostile:敵對的
7.predecessor Ingress:先前的版本
8.stamina:精力.活力
9.genre:類型
10.lore:知識.學問

第七週:尼斯恐攻

Nice attack: truck driver named as France mourns 84 killed in Bastille Day atrocity – as it happened

By The GUARDIAN

16 Jul 2016

Nearly 24 hours after a Bastille Day celebration was transformed into a nightmare, “locals and visitors returned to the Promenade des Anglais to lay flowers for the dead and to wonder exactly how, and why, the unthinkable had come to pass,” my colleague Sam Jones reports from the city.

Throughout Friday, impromptu shrines had sprung up along the metal barriers that closed off the promenade. From one hung a tricolor with a black ribbon sewn on to the white central stripe. At another, a picture of Buddha watched over a dozen small candles. Someone had left a cigarette lighter and more nightlights on the ground so others could light candles and offer prayers.
Madame Bourmault, who lives two minutes from the promenade, came to one of the shrines with a bunch of flowers in her hand and tears in her eyes.
“I can’t sleep and I can’t breathe. It’s just horrible,” she said.
“What else can you say?” She had been down by the firework display on Thursday night, and seen a sudden tide of people screaming and running away. “In a fraction of a second, the music stopped and there was a lot of screaming. Everyone was running and no one was helping.”
On Bormault’s mind was a question that many around the world are asking: how had the truck managed to get on to the promenade? “It’s normally closed to traffic,” she said. However, she did not blame the police. “I don’t know what else the police could have done, but I don’t understand how the truck got in.”
She added: “You can’t put a policeman behind everyone - and there area lot of crazy people in this world.”
Leila Pasini, an Italian tourist from Milan on holiday in Nice, had been on the promenade before the attack but had returned to the flat where she was staying to make sure her dog was OK.
“We left just before the truck came and then I looked out of the window and saw a river of people running and crying. It looked like the apocalypse but I didn’t know what was going on.”
Pasini said she had heard that the truck had been close to the promenade for a long time and that the driver had explained that he was delivering ice.
“I don’t know whether that’s true or not,” she said. “But if it is true, then that’s very serious. Why would a truck be there for so long?”
By nine o’clock last night, life on the Rue de France, which runs close to the promenade, was slowly returning to normal. A few hundred yards from the scene of the atrocity, people walked their dogs and sat eating on restaurant terraces. Past them walked couples carrying flowers and clutching each other’s hands tightly.
Ita Murray and her friend Jackie Ellis, had arrived in Nice from London a few hours before the attack. They had intended to go and watch the fireworks but the day’s traveling had got the better of them and they chose to stay on their balcony.
“About 11, we saw all these youngsters running and screaming,” said Murray. “They were tearing around and we thought it was a prank.”
It wasn’t until nine on Friday morning, when they were awoken by phone calls from their anxious families, that they understood what all the shouting and running had been about. And that their fatigue had been a blessing.
“We were just too tired,” said Ellis. “Otherwise we would have been up
there because there’s always something going on.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2016/jul/14/nice-bastille-day-france-attack-promenade-des-anglais-vehicle?page=with:block-5789464de4b033b610b6e3e7#block-5789464de4b033b610b6e3e7

Structure of the Lead：

WHAT- celebration was transformed into a nightmare

WHEN- Nearly 24 hours after a Bastille Day celebration

WHY- not given

WHERE- Promenade des Anglais

WHO- not given

HOW- not given

Keywords:

1.impromptu:事先無準備的

2. sprung up:突然出現.湧現

3.promenade :海濱人行道

4.tricolor:法國國旗(大寫)

5.fraction:片段

6.apocalypse:世界末日.大災難

7.atrocity:暴行

8.clutch:握住.抓取

9.fatigue:疲勞

第六週--熊本地震

Japan earthquake: Powerful new tremor in Kumamoto

16 April 2016

By BBC News

A more powerful earthquake has rocked the southern Japanese city of Kumamoto in the middle of the night, a day after an earlier tremor killed nine people.

The magnitude-7.3 quake hit at a depth of 10km (six miles) at 01:25 on Saturday (15:25 GMT on Friday) in Kyushu region. At least three people died and hundreds were injured.

A village has been evacuated after a dam collapsed, media reports say.

A tsunami warning was issued, and lifted some 50 minutes later.

Japan is regularly hit by earthquakes but stringent building codes mean that they rarely cause significant damage.

This new earthquake in Kyushu was much bigger and hit a wider area than the one that struck Kumamoto on Thursday night, says the BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Tokyo.

In one town near the coast, the city hall has been so badly damaged there are fears it could collapse. A hospital has been evacuated because it is no longer safe.

Thousands of people have fled on to the streets and into parks - where they are huddled under blankets looking dazed and afraid, our correspondent says.

But there are numerous reports of people trapped inside buildings, including at least 60 inside an old people's home.

Public broadcaster NHK says the dam collapsed in the Nishihara village.

elevision pictures showed thousands of people filling streets and parks, looking dazed across the region.

NHK had warned of sea waves of up to 1m (3ft).

Japan's nuclear authority said the Sendai nuclear plant was not damaged.

The quake was originally assessed as magnitude 7.1 but revised upwards to 7.3 later.

Gavin Hayes, a research geophysicist with the US Geological Survey (USGS) in Colorado, told the BBC that the latest earthquake would hamper the earlier rescue operation that was already under way.

He said more damage could be expected as the earthquake had been shallower and the fault-line had been much longer.

"The ground surface would have moved in the region of 4-5m. So, you are talking very intense shaking over quite a large area. And that's why we'll probably see a significant impact from this event."

The Associated Press news agency said guests at the Ark Hotel near the Kumamoto Castle, which was damaged, woke up and gathered in the lobby for safety.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36059487

Structure of the Lead：

WHAT- A more powerful earthquake has rocked

WHEN- in the middle of the night, a day after an earlier tremor killed nine people

WHY- not given
WHERE- the southern Japanese city of Kumamoto
WHO- not given
HOW- not given

Keywords:
1.magnitude:震度
2. evacuated:疏散.撤離
3.fled on:逃跑
4.huddled:混亂.擁擠
5.correspondent:記者.特派員

第五週---火箭回收

Space X finally knows what caused its FALCON 9 ROCKET to explode

Elon Musk says the problem has "Never been encountered before in the history of rocketry.”

November 8, 2016

By Sarah Fechth

After SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket exploded while being fueled for a test fire in September, the company said it would be launching again by November. It appears the skeptics were right: It's now November, and SpaceX rockets still aren't flying—though the company is making progress. CEO Elon Musk says the company has identified the cause of the September explosion, and the Falcon 9 could be fixed and flying by mid-December.

Yesterday Musk explained to CNBC why it took so long to get to the bottom of the explosion: “It was a really surprising problem. It’s never been encountered before in the history of rocketry.”

The problem has to do with some super-cold oxygen reacting with the carbon fiber composites within the fuel tank.

The Falcon 9 rocket flies by combusting liquid kerosene with oxygen. Because there's no oxygen in space, the rocket needs to bring its own. To pack in as much fuel as possible, most rockets cool oxygen gas until it's liquefied; SpaceX takes it one step further by cooling it even more, possibly to increase the density and thus how much fuel the rocket can carry.

Well, it turns out that the supercooled oxygen might have been too cold—cold enough to actually solidify.

SpaceX likes its oxygen tanks to be kept at about -340 degrees Fahrenheit, and the stuff ices over at -362 degrees. According to the New York Times, the liquid helium containers inside the oxygen tank could have been responsible for pushing to oxygen over the brink. Helium, which is used to pressurize the oxygen tank, is stored at even colder temperatures than oxygen, at -452 degrees.

Musk didn't elaborate on how the solid oxygen formed or what happened after that, but the leading theory is that the solid oxygen may have ignited one of three carbon composite helium containers inside the oxygen tank, triggering the explosion that annihilated SpaceX's launch pad.

"This is the toughest puzzle that we've ever had to solve," Musk told CNBC.

Now that the company has a real lead on the problem, they can get to work on fixing it. SpaceX is targeting a return-to-flight in mid-December, although they haven't yet revealed what payload will be launched.

http://www.popsci.com/spacex-falcon-9-explosion-reason

Structure of the Lead：

WHAT- SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket exploded

WHEN- In September
WHY- The company has identified the cause

WHERE- Not given
WHO- SpaceX CEO Elon Musk
HOW- being fueled for a test fire in September
Keywords:
1.skeptic:懷疑者
2.composite:混合物、合成物
3.combust:燃燒
4.kerosene:煤油、航空煤油
5.solidify:凝固
6.helium:氦(礦物質)

7.elaborate on:解釋、闡述
8.ignite:燃燒、點燃
9.trigger:觸發、引起
10.annihilate:消滅、毀滅、殲滅
11.payload:裝載量

第四週---火星探險

Mars Rover Curiosity Hits the Road Again After Short Circuit

March 13, 2015 07:00am

By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity is back in action for the first time after suffering a glitch late last month.

    The 1-ton Curiosity rover transferred powdered rock sample from its robotic arm to an analytical instrument on its body on Wednesday (March 11), and then drove about 33 feet (10 meters) toward the southwest on Thursday (March 12), NASA officials said.

Curiosity had been stationary since Feb. 27, when it experienced a short circuit while attempting to transfer the sample, which the rover had collected from a rock dubbed Telegraph Peak.

"That precious Telegraph Peak sample had been sitting in the arm, so tantalizingly close, for two weeks. We are really excited to get it delivered for analysis," Curiosity Project Scientist Ashwin Vasavada, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said in a statement.

Engineers have spent much of the past two weeks trying to figure out exactly what caused the short circuit. Testing suggests that it originated in the percussive mechanism for Curiosity's arm-mounted drill (which hammers as well as rotates to bore into rock).

The rover team will continue their analyses to determine how to proceed with future drilling work, NASA officials said.

Curiosity has performed six sample-collecting drilling operations since landing on Mars in August 2012. Analysis of some of these samples has helped rover scientists determine that the Red Planet could have supported microbial life in the ancient past.

Curiosity is moving away from an outcrop at the base of the towering Mount Sharp called Pahrump Hills, which the six-wheeled robot has been studying since last September. Curiosity will head to higher ground on Mount Sharp, via a valley called Artist's Drive.

"Road to Wellville: In good health, doing science & heading higher on Mt Sharp," NASA officials said Thursday via Curiosity's official Twitter account, @MarsCuriosity.

Mount Sharp has been Curiosity's prime science destination since before its November 2011 launch. The rover's handlers want Curiosity to climb up through the mountain's lower levels, reading a history of Mars' changing environmental conditions as it goes.

Curiosity transferred some Telegraph Peak powder to its Chemisty and Mineralogy instrument, or CheMin, on Wednesday. The rover will also deliver some of the sample to its Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument soon, NASA officials said.

http://www.space.com/28823-mars-rover-curiosity-short-circuit-drive.html

Structure of the Lead：

WHAT- Back in action for the first time

WHEN- after suffering a glitch late last month

WHY- not given
WHERE- not given
WHO- NASA's Mars rover Curiosity
HOW- not given

Keywords:

1.Curiosity:好奇號

2.circuit :巡迴

3.sample-collecting:樣本收集

4.microbial:微生物的

5.transfer:轉移
6.analysis:分析
7.instrument:工具.儀器

第二週---敘利亞內戰

Break your heart until it opens

September 3, 2015

By Hussain Makke

    A mother is holding her 3 month old baby above the water as she kicks her legs as hard as she can to stay afloat. 

    Gasping for air, she is running out of energy as well as breath. Her hands begin to fall the weaker she grows until the frozen baby’s body touches the water, which urges the mother to kick more violently and raise her arms higher to save her child. Soon, she will have exhausted herself, and with no one to aid her in the middle of the ocean, this Syrian refugee, who felt that taking the risk on these waters was safer for her and her child than to remain in her homeland, will drown. Her baby, innocent and unperceiving of this devastating world it was born into, will also drown.  The world will not know their names. They will be known as the mother and baby who drowned at sea as they tried to seek refuge in a country where they were not welcomed. A fate shared all too well by the Rohingya Muslims who were pushed out at sea, refused entry into surrounding countries. Thailand will not take them, neither will Malaysia. No, they belong to the sea. And in the sea they will drown.

A line rings true from the artist Kareem Dennis: I’m not related to the strangers on the TV, but I relate because those faces could have been me.

How true. You see, many of us live life oblivious to the world around us. We have become desensitised enough to all this corruption and oppression that we somewhere down the line subconsciously decide that it’s all just too much for us, and the oppressed become faceless numbers. We feel sadness for a moment, but soon enough we move on in life without giving them a second thought. Is this how hard our hearts have become? The worst thing that can ever happen to a human being is for him to lose his sense of feeling, to lose his emotion. To become cold. The greatest blessing for a human being is to hold onto the softness of his heart, to cry and to feel. We are a society in a world where becoming cold is the norm. How ironic that the ones who can help us keep this softness we so desperately need are the Syrian children whose bodies were carried by the waves of the sea until they appeared lifeless on Turkish shores, or the Iraqi fathers who watched their wives and daughters get raped in front of them, or the young Albinos who are literally hunted for the way they look. When you think of the oppressed of this world and truly try to relate to them, to associate yourself with them, your heart will soften through their hardships. These afflictions could easily have been yours, and one day they very well may be.

I do not write these words to depress you, and I understand that the sadness may cause some people distress and that is why they ignore it, but when you direct this sadness to the heavens it allows you to grow into a glorious human being. The circumstances of the world must not destroy us, but must push us to become better people inside and out.

We must live the history of our Islamic figures as if they were alive today. So many times the Quranic stories are just that to us, stories. No, make it real, as real as these words you are reading right now. Imagine being a follower of Moses (a) in the extremely oppressive circumstances under Pharoah, and the desperation he must have felt. Imagine how alone lady Mary (a) was in her mission to deliver a saviour to the people. Imagine the plight of the Prophet Muhammad (S) in exile for three years attempting to lead his hungry, exhausted followers and keep them together, only to lose his beloved wife Khadija (a) and uncle Abu Talib in the space of a week. Who could he turn to? With his broken but soft heart, he turns to Allah (swt), and carries on through his love for his people.

Why are we so in love with Imam Ali (a)? Because he felt society’s pain, and his ‘I’ had become ‘we‘. His personality attracted all others. He was not an individual separated from others. He was a limb or organ of a whole body. He himself said that a pain in one part of society, as in a body, made itself felt in the other parts, one of which was himself. One of the Imam’s governers once attended a feast, which prompted the Imam to send him a letter of protest. The Imam’s problem with this feast wasn’t about there being any forbidden acts involved, ie drinking or gambling, but because one of his governors attended a feast where no poor people were able to attend.  He says, “I never believed a governor and representative of mine would attend such a party of the nobility.” He then describes his own life and says that he felt other people’s pain more than his own and their pain prevented him from feeling his own. He was not unaware of the destiny of others. The men and women of God throughout history always felt the difficulties of their people, and they would turn to their Lord. The same Lord who is watching and hearing us right now. This is all one epic story that we are all a part of, under one Lord. The Lord of Moses (a), Mary (a), Muhammad (P), and Ali (a). Like them, soften your hearts and turn to Him to complain of this lower world, and ask for His help and guidance.

Before coming to prayer, think of these people. Let these feelings run through your body, ponder upon the words of the Quran and the Ahlulbayt concerning this dunya. This world was made to break your heart, so let it. Do not fall for it, do not hold onto it. Keep breaking your heart until it opens. Until it softens. In prayer you will feel different, in your qunoot you will feel different, and in your duas you will feel different.

Look at the words of the dua after the Isha prayers, in realising our weakness: ‘Lord, I wander in different lands searching for my sustenance, and I am so confused. I do not know if it lies in the plains or the mountains, on the ground or in the air, on land or in the seas. I have full knowledge that You know all of these.’

Or in the dua after asr prayers:

‘Lord, I seek your protection from a self that is never satisfied. From a heart that is not humbled. From knowledge that is of no avail. From a prayer that is not accepted. From a supplication that is unanswered. Lord, I ask you for ease after difficulty, relief after misfortune, and comfort after hardship.’

How will saying these words feel when you say them through the oppressed voices throughout history? Imagine saying these words through the tongue of the drowning mother, or even the tongue of our beloved Prophet (S) under all his hardships. Your entire perspective of self will change, and like Imam Ali (as), you will no longer believe in ‘I’, but you will become a ‘we’.

And bit by bit, we can save the world. Live with the Prophet (S). Live with the oppressed throughout history. Live with the oppressed of today.

Break your heart.

…and to Aylan Kurdi, the young Kurdish -Syrian child in the photograph: You were not welcomed in any of the lands of this world, so you were invited by the Beloved into the Heavens.

http://www.aimislam.com/break-your-heart-until-it-opens/

Structure of the Lead：

WHAT-  hold her baby and kick her legs

WHEN- not given

WHY- can to stay afloat
WHERE- above the water
WHO- A mother and her 3 month old baby
HOW- not given

Keywords:

1.refugee:難民

2.drown:淹死

3.:

4.:

5.:

第三週---美白人警殺黑人

Freaky Coincidence! Michael Brown And Eric Garner Were Both Black

Dec. 4, 2014  
by clickhole

If you’ve been paying attention to the news lately, you might have noticed that a lot of people are talking about the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. 

  At first glance, these deaths might seem completely unrelated: Brown was killed in Ferguson, MO and Garner was killed in Staten Island, NY almost an ENTIRE MONTH apart.

But when you look closer, you might notice a really freaky coincidence between the two deaths: Both Michael Brown and Eric Garner were black.

Weird, right? Well, this insane rabbit hole goes even deeper. Ready for a mindfuck? This is Darren Wilson, the man who killed Michael Brown:

And here’s Daniel Pantaleo, the man who killed Eric Garner:

Just normal guys, right? Guess again: Wilson and Pantaleo are BOTH police officers. That’s right: The guy who killed Michael Brown and the guy who killed Eric Garner had the SAME EXACT JOB.

It’s like something out of a science-fiction movie.

You’re probably thinking that the strange coincidences end there, but take a look at this:

Yep. You saw that right. Through some sort of incredible random chance, both Brown’s death AND Garner’s death resulted in absolutely no indictment for the men who killed them. You’re more likely to get struck by lightning than witness this ridiculous level of coincidence.

Is your mind blown? We thought so. But this gets even crazier. In 2006, a man named Sean Bell was shot and killed in New York City. The man who shot him was, that’s right, ALSO A POLICE OFFICER, just like Darren Wilson and Daniel Pantaleo.

Yep. Incredibly, Sean Bell was black, just like Michael Brown and Eric Garner. You can’t make this stuff up!

You’d think this incredible train of freak coincidences would stop here, but it just keeps going: Somehow, Brown’s death, Garner’s death, and Bell’s death all bear unbelievably creepy similarities to the deaths of John Crawford in Beavercreek, OH, Akai Gurley in Brooklyn, and Tamir Rice in Cleveland.

Somehow, all of these people were killed by police officers who faced little or no consequences for killing them, and, through mysterious cosmic forces that are impossible to explain, all of them were black men, except for Rice, who was a black 12-year-old boy (though despite this one big difference, his death is still eerily similar).

Can you imagine how completely WTF it would be if there were EVEN MORE examples of black men getting killed by police officers? We’re not sure if we’d be able to handle it. That would just be too freaky.

So, there’s your Twilight Zone moment for the day. The odds of something like this happening in the exact same way over and over again are completely astronomical, and we’ll probably never see it happen again.

Still, it’s the kind of crazy random coincidence that makes you go.

http://www.clickhole.com/article/freaky-coincidence-michael-brown-and-eric-garner-w-1545

Structure of the Lead：

WHAT- pay attention to the deaths of  Michael Brown and Eric Garner

WHEN- lately

WHY- not given
WHERE- not given
WHO- you
HOW- not given

Keywords:
1.coincidence :巧合
2.indictment :控告
3.ridiculous:荒謬的
4.similarities:類似
5.random:偶然的行動

第一週---2015年代表字

Oxford’s 2015 Word of the Year Is This Emoji

Nov. 16, 2015 2:08 PM

By Katy Steinmetz

It's a historic moment of recognition for little images that have been gaining popularity since 1999.

    Oxford Dictionaries made history on Monday by announcing that their “Word of the Year” would not be one of those old-fashioned, string-of-letters-type words at all. The flag their editors are planting to sum up who we were in 2015 is this pictograph, an acknowledgement of just how popular these pictures have become in our (digital) daily lives:“Although emoji have been a staple of texting teens for some time, emoji culture exploded into the global mainstream over the past year,” the company’s team wrote in a press release. “Emoji have come to embody a core aspect of living in a digital world that is visually driven, emotionally expressive, and obsessively immediate.

    ”Oxford University Press—which publishes both the august Oxford English Dictionary and the lower-brow, more-modern Oxford Dictionaries Online—partnered with keyboard-app company SwiftKey to determine which emoji was getting the most play this past year. According to their data, the “Face With Tears of Joy” emoji, also known as LOL Emoji or Laughing Emoji, comprised nearly 20% of all emoji use in the U.S. and the U.K., where Oxford is based. The runner-up in the U.S., with 9% of usage, was this number:Caspar Grathwohl, the president of Oxford Dictionaries, explained that their choice reflects the walls-down world that we live in. “Emoji are becoming an increasingly rich form of communication, one that transcends linguistic borders,” he said in a statement. And their choice for the word of the year, he added, embodies the “playfulness and intimacy” that characterizes emoji-using culture.Though this marks a historic moment of recognition for the pictures plastered throughout tweets and texts, Oxford has not added or defined any emoji in their actual databases. Nor, says a spokesperson for the publisher, do they have plans to do so at this point. The word emoji, however, has been in both the OED and Oxford Dictionaries Online since 2013.

     Japanese telecommunications planner Shigetaka Kurita is credited with inventing these little images in 1999, taking the emoticons that had been gaining steam on the Internet to an iconic level. Inspired by comics and street signs, the name for the alphanumeric images comes from combining the Japanese words for picture (e-) and character (moji). “It’s easy to write them off as just silly little smiley faces or thumbs-up,” sociolinguist Ben Zimmer told TIME for a story on how emoji fit into humans’ long history of using pictures to communicate. “But there’s an awful lot of people who are very interested in treating them seriously.”

http://time.com/4114886/oxford-word-of-the-year-2015-emoji/

Structure of the Lead：

WHAT- A historic moment. 

WHEN- Since 1999 that has been gaining popularity.

WHY- Recognition for little images.
WHERE- not given
WHO- not given
HOW- not given

Keywords:
1.pictograph:象形文字
2.emoji :表情符號
3.transcend:超越.勝過
4.linguistic:語言學的
5.iconic:圖標的