week three-救救菜英文

English Vinglish

Indian screen legend Sridevi triumphs in a gentle, but affecting, story of a woman’s awakening self-respect.

Fans of Indian cinema need no introduction to Sridevi, the star of more than 200 movies: admired for her sparkling comic timing, dancing prowess and acting chops, “Sri” ruled the marquee from the mid-‘70s to the early ‘90s before settling down to raise two daughters with her husband, producer Boney Kapoor.

It took a very special project indeed to lure this very special talent back to the big screen, andEnglish Vinglish is it.

Directed and written by Gauri Shinde, the film depicts the transformation of Shashi, a meek, put-upon Indian housewife who speaks only Hindi, into a confident citizen of the world, over the length of a four-week crash course in English.

The Eros release, which enjoyed acclaim (and according to reports, a standing ovation) at the Toronto International Film Festival, is up against strong competition from the satire Oh My God and India’s foreign language Oscar submission, Barfi!, but its universal message — conveyed with wit and heart — is persuasive enough to draw a sizable audience nevertheless. Indeed, a recent San Francisco Bay Area screening found the audience packed with families and young children, a heartening prospect given the film’s positive message encouraging diversity and tolerance.

Shashi is a dedicated mother and gifted cook, the wife of a busy executive in the western Indian city of Pune. Her laddoos (a golden, sweet snack ball) earn raves and she even runs a small catering business, but her family treats her like a servant. Her teenaged daughter treats her with contempt, while the casually masked cruelty of her husband’s words (Adil Hussain) cut her to the core: “My wife was born to make laddoos!” he gloats.

When Shashi is called upon to fly to New York City — solo — to help her sister arrange a niece’s wedding, she is terrified (look for Amitabh Bachchan in a short, but memorable, scene onboard her flight). Once in New York, the Hindi-speaking Shashi is faced with ever-mounting humiliations, in a series of beautifully mounted, yet squirm-inducing scenes.

It is at this point that Shashi realizes that her lack of English skills is holding her back, and so when she spies an ad for an English class on a passing city bus, she decides to sneak out of her relatives’ house and navigate New York City’s subways and buses to get there.

Her fellow international students include a Pakistani cab driver, a South Indian engineer, a Mexican nanny and a smitten French man (Mehdi Nabbou), also a cook, who tastes her laddoos and tells her, “You are an artist.” Shashi retorts, “When a man cooks, it’s an art. When a woman cooks, it’s just her duty.”

It’s no surprise that by the end of the film, Shashi will conquer her fears, but the route Shinde takes to get her there is distinctively Shashi’s. The image of the newly confident Shashi striding down a Manhattan street, a takeout coffee in hand and a trench coat belted over her sari, will make you smile days after you leave the theater.

There is a growing body of work that shows Indian female characters flexing their muscles:Gurinder Chadha’s Bend It Like Beckham; Deepa Mehta’s Water; the late Jagmohan Mundhra’sProvoked: A True Story, starring Aishwarya Rai; and Amol Palekar’s Anaahat/Eternity, starringSonali Bendre, spring to mind. And the work of Indian female filmmakers like Chadha, Mehta,Mira Nair and most recently Zoya Akhtar (Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara) is always worth a look.

With English Vinglish, female director Shinde — known for her documentaries and commercials — brings her own lifetime of experience into the picture. “It is my way of saying ‘Sorry’ and ‘Thank you’ to my mother, and a tribute to women,” Shinde writes in the film’s press notes.

Ultimately, what make English Vinglish memorable are the small, step-by-step choices Shashi makes to transforms herself. Yes, there’s grit there, but it’s tempered with compassion and dignity. The way the character has been crafted by Shinde, and interpreted by Sridevi, is gloriously feminine, and uniquely Indian.

來源:http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/film-review-english-vinglish-377518

What: not even

Who: Shashi

Where: Indian

Why: not even

When: the mid-‘70s to the early ‘90s

How: over the length of a four-week crash course in English.

Keywords

1. triumphs 勝利
2. cinema 電影
3. marquee 大門罩
4. talent 天賦
5. depicts 描繪
6. acclaim 歡呼
7. satire 諷刺
8. submission 提交
9. sizable 相當大
10. contempt 鄙視

week two- 朴謹惠密友干政

5 reasons why South Korea's president is unlikely to quit

Pressure is building on South Korean President Park Geun-hye to stand down after revelations this weekend she's been named as a "suspect" by prosecutors in a corruption probe.

The president is accused of colluding with three people close to her office, and an investigation will continue into her potential involvement in the unfolding scandal.

Park's office said she doesn't have anything to answer for, and has suggested the probe has been politically motivated.

Mass protests demanding Park step down show no signs of waning. However, despite the unrest, low approval ratings and the resignations of several key aides, analysts say the president is unlikely to resign.

Here's why.

1. With the presidency comes immunity

While Park remains president she's immune from prosecution, unless for insurrection or treason.

If she were to step down, she'd expose herself to potential arrest. Over the weekend, South Korean prosecutors officially indicted three people close to Park.

Her confidante Choi Soon-sil and former aide An Chong-bum have been charged with abuse of power, fraud and coercion. Another former aide, Chung Ho-sung, faces charges related to leaking classified documents to Choi through email, phone and fax.

2. There's no one to take over

In South Korea, the prime ministerial post is largely ceremonial. Though Park fired Hwang Kyo-ahn in early November, he represented her at APEC in Peru as Park hasn't been able to get her replacement approved by opposition parties.

She nominated Kim Byong-joon, a professor at Seoul's Kookmin University, as his replacement, but the National Assembly has not yet cleared Kim to take the role.

Local media reports have suggested that United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon -- who ends his term at the UN in December 2016 -- could run for president.

Ban hasn't confirmed speculation that he'll run, though South Korean news agency Yonhapreported in September 2016 that he rated well in approval surveys.

However, John Delury, an expert on Korean affairs at Yonsei University, told CNN that Ban's close association with Park's political party and his outsider status could be a disadvantage.

3. No push from within her party to go

While calls for Park to resign have grown in the wake of her corruption scandal, Paul Cha, an assistant professor specializing in modern Korean history at the University of Hong Kong, told CNN, that there were still no concrete reasons for Park to step down.

"There's been a tremendous domestic outcry and some leaders of opposition political groups have called for her to step down. But, in general, politically, the opposition seems more inclined to seek impeachment. Likewise, her own party has not placed pressure on Park to resign," pointed Cha.

Cha explained that though media reports had portrayed Park as weak-willed, she was not "running away" from public pressure by stepping down.

4. A weak opposition

While the public has vociferously called for Park to resign, Dave Kang, a professor of international relations and South Korea specialist at the University of Southern California, told CNN that the main opposition parties had not yet backed the public's claims.

"Everyone knows that there will be a power vacuum if she resigns," said Kang, noting that political "chaos" was likely to ensue.

"That's why the opposition hasn't come out for her impeachment. If Park steps down, elections will be called in 60 days and [the opposition] aren't ready to rule."

5. Her pedigree

Park is the daughter of Park Chung-hee, the country's president from 1961 to 1979, who was assassinated by his own intelligence chief. It came just five years after her mother's own mistaken assassination -- the bullet was meant for former South Korean President Park Chung-hee.

The elder Park was seen by many as a dictator who violated human rights and crushed dissent.

His daughter fought long and hard to get back into the Blue House to become country's first female president. She's unlikely to give it up without a fight.

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/21/asia/south-korea-protests-park/

who: Park Geun-hye 

when: not even

why:South Korea's president is unlikely to quit

what:5 reasons

where:South Korean

how:not evwn

1. suspect 疑似
2. corruption 腐敗
3. probe 探測
4. colluding 串通
5. potential 潛在
6. involvement 參與
7. unfolding scandal 展開醜聞
8. politically 政治上
9. unrest 動盪
10. prosecution 起訴

week one-布基尼

I created the burkini to give women freedom, not to take it away Aheda Zanetti

When I invented the burkini in early 2004, it was to give women freedom, not to take it away. My niece wanted to play netball but it was a bit of a struggle to get her in the team – she was wearing a hijab. My sister had to fight for her daughter to play, had to debate the issue and ask, why is this girl prevented from playing netball because of her modesty?

When she was finally allowed to play we all went to watch her to support her and what she was wearing was totally inappropriate for a sports uniform – a skivvy, tracksuit pants, and her hijab, totally unsuitable for any type of sport. She looked like a tomato she was so red and hot!

So I went home and went looking for something that might be better for her to wear, sportswear for Muslim girls, and I couldn’t find anything, I knew there was nothing in Australia. It got me thinking because when I was a girl I missed out on sport – we didn’t participate in anything because we chose to be modest, but for my niece I wanted to find something that would adapt to the Australian lifestyle and western clothing but at the same time fulfil the needs of a Muslim girl.

So I sat down on my lounge room floor and designed something. I looked at the veil and took away a lot of the excess fabric, which made me nervous - would my Islamic community accept this? The veil is supposed to cover your hair and your shape, you just don’t shape anything around your body. But this was shaped around the neck. I thought, it’s only the shape of a neck, it doesn’t really matter.

Before I launched it I produced a sample with a questionnaire to find out what people would think - would you wear this? Would this encourage you to be more active? Play more sport? Swim? A lot of people in my community didn’t know how to accept this, but I developed it commercially and made a good business.

The burkini came to everyone’s attention when Surf Lifesaving Australia introduced a program to integrate Muslim boys and girls into surf lifesaving after the Cronulla riots– they had a young Muslim girl who wanted to compete in an event. She wore a burkini.

After September 11, the Cronulla riots, the banning of the veil in France, and the international backlash that came with it – about us being the bad people all because of a few criminals who do not speak on behalf of Muslims – I really didn’t want anyone to judge girls wearing these. It’s only a girl being modest.

It was about integration and acceptance and being equal and about not being judged. It was difficult for us at the time, the Muslim community, they had a fear of stepping out. They had fear of going to public pools and beaches and so forth, and I wanted girls to have the confidence to continue a good life. Sport is so important, and we are Australian! I wanted to do something positive – and anyone can wear this, Christian, Jewish, Hindus. It’s just a garment to suit a modest person, or someone who has skin cancer, or a new mother who doesn’t want to wear a bikini, it’s not symbolising Islam.

When I named it the burkini I didn’t really think it was a burqa for the beach. Burqa was just a word for me – I’d been brought up in Australia all my life, and I’d designed this swimsuit and I had to call it something quickly. It was the combination of two cultures – we’re Australians but we are also Muslim by choice. The burqa doesn’t symbolise anything here, and it’s not mentioned in the Qur’an and our religion does not ask us to cover our faces, it’s the wearer’s choice to do so. Burqa is nowhere in any Islamic text. I had to look the word up, and it was described as a kind of coat and cover-all, and at the other end you had the bikini, so I combined the two.

This negativity that is happening now and what is happening in France makes me so sad. I hope it’s not because of racism. I think they have misunderstood a garment that is so positive – it symbolises leisure and happiness and fun and fitness and health and now they are demanding women get off the beach and back into their kitchens?

This has given women freedom, and they want to take that freedom away? So who is better, the Taliban or French politicians? They are as bad as each other.

I don’t think any man should worry about how women are dressing – no one is forcing us, it’s a woman’s choice. What you see is our choice. Do I call myself a feminist? Yes, maybe. I like to stand behind my man, but I am the engine, and I choose to be. I want him to take all the credit, but I am the quiet achiever.

I would love to be in France to say this: you have misunderstood. And there more problems in the world to worry about, why create more? You’ve taken a product that symbolised happiness and joyfulness and fitness, and turned it into a product of hatred.

Also, what are the French values? What do you mean it doesn’t combine with French values, what does that mean? Liberty? You telling us what to wear, you telling us what not to do will drive women back into their homes – what do you want us to do then? There will be a backlash. If you are dividing the nation and not listening and not working towards something you are naturally going to have someone who is going to get angry. If you are pushing people away, and isolating them – this is definitely not a good thing for any politician to do, in any country.

I remember when I first tested the burkini. First I tested it in my bathtub, I had to make sure it worked. Then I had to test it by diving in it, so I went to the local pool to test that the headband would stay put, so I went to Roselands Pool, and I remember that everyone was staring at me – what was I wearing? I went right to the end of the pool and got on the diving board and dived in. The headband stayed in place, and I thought, beauty! Perfect!

It was my first time swimming in public and it was absolutely beautiful. I remember the feeling so clearly. I felt freedom, I felt empowerment, I felt like I owned the pool. I walked to the end of that pool with my shoulders back.

Diving into water is one of the best feelings in the world. And you know what? I wear a bikini under my burkini. I’ve got the best of both worlds.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/24/i-created-the-burkini-to-give-women-freedom-not-to-take-it-away
who: not even
when: I invented the burkini in early 2004
why: this girl prevented from playing netball because of her modesty?
where: not even
what: she was wearing a hijab
how: not even

1. netball 網球
2. hijab 蓋頭
3. debate 辯論
4. modesty 謙虛
5. inappropriate 不當
6. tracksuit 運動服
7. unsuitable 不適合
8. fabric 布
9. questionnaire 問卷
10. swimsuit 泳裝

第九週-阿里辭世

Muhammad Ali's unique ring genius and legendary performances electrified the boxing world.

His outsized personality and refusal to conform to expectations of how a public figure should act, particularly one of colour, transcended sports and made him a global icon.

Ali died Friday at the age of 74. According to reports, he was battling respiratory issues complicated by the Parkinson's disease he was diagnosed with in the 1980s.

Ali's heavyweight boxing legend was forged over 56 wins in a 61-fight career. The fights that hold the greatest sway: Stunning upsets over the intimidating Sonny Liston (twice) and George Foreman, and breathtaking battles in a trilogy with perfect foil Joe Frazier, which set the standard for all sports rivalries.

Written off as a loquacious clown early in his career, and prematurely as washed up a decade later, the Louisville, Ky., native defied the odds time and again, becoming the first man to win the heavyweight title on three separate occasions.

Ali loomed large for people — even for those who didn't care about boxing or found it abhorrent. He forced society to confront feelings about civil rights, race, religion and war through his defiance of convention and his own government. He changed his name in 1964 in service of Muslim beliefs alien to most, and three years later refused to step forward for an induction order during the height of the Vietnam War.

"I ain't got no quarrel with those Vietcong," he said. "They never called me nigger."

Ali was 29-0 when he was stripped of his heavyweight title and forcibly sidelined for three-and-a-half years beginning in early 1967 for refusing to serve in the U.S. Armed Services.

He faced a five-year prison term and his passport was revoked, taking away his livelihood. The Supreme Court eventually reversed the conviction 8-0, but he endured scorn and lost millions at the peak of his abilities.

After retirement came the 1984 diagnosis of Parkinson's syndrome, a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system. In a cruel irony, the silver-tongued shouter's voice was reduced to a barely audible whisper. The fleet-footed Ali Shuffle gave way to a mummified gait.

Ali became a martyr to some and to others an advertisement for the abolition of the sport. To others still, he was an exemplar of bravery and persistence in the face of disease, as he continued to champion peace and children's causes, travelling extensively when called upon to promote understanding  between East and West, Muslims and Christians.

http://www.cbc.ca/sportslongform/entry/muhammad-ali-dominated-boxing-ring-and-led-fight-against-racism

Why:His outsized personality and refusal to conform to expectations of how a public figure should act, particularly one of colour, transcended sports and made him a global icon.

Who:Muhammad Ali's

Where:not even

What:not even

When: 1980s.

How:not even

1. expectations 期望
2. transcended 超越
3. respiratory 呼吸
4. diagnosed 診斷
5. heavyweight 重量級
6. intimidating 恐嚇
7. breathtaking 驚險
8. loquacious 貧嘴
9. separate 分離
10. abhorrent 可惡

第八週-三星note 7手機自燃

The Galaxy Note 7 will be banned from all US airline flights

Samsung’s recalled Galaxy Note 7 smartphone will be banned from US airline flights. The order comes from the FAA and the Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) and follows an announcement from earlier this week that Samsung is ending production of the phone entirely. The ban takes effect Saturday at noon eastern time.

The devices will not be allowed on planes even if they are turned off, a dramatic escalation of the current restrictions which only require that the phones be turned off and not charged or stored in checked luggage.

“We recognize that banning these phones from airlines will inconvenience some passengers, but the safety of all those aboard an aircraft must take priority,” said Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx in a statement. “We are taking this additional step because even one fire incident inflight poses a high risk of severe personal injury and puts many lives at risk.”

It’s not surprising that the FAA would make this move. Dozens of the recalled phones have been catching fire, including one on a Southwest Airlines jet that was parked at the gate. Samsung has yet to explain exactly what happened to cause its phones to spontaneously burst into flames, but reports suggest that Samsung itself may not even know the cause yet.

Banning a single consumer device, especially one as widely owned as the Note 7, is perhaps unprecedented. The banning of hoverboards from many planes would be the closest comparison, but that was for an entire class of devices that were admittedly fire-prone because of cheap materials — and it was an airline-by-airline ban rather than something coming down from regulators.

It’s not clear which entity would be responsible for stopping passengers from bringing the Note 7 on board a plane. A TSA spokesperson we spoke to said that TSA agents would not be searching for their phones specifically, but if “they encounter one at a checkpoint, they would inform the owner that the phone is not allowed on the aircraft and direct the passenger to leave the checkpoint and come back without the phone.” If a Note 7 phone is discovered in checked baggage, TSA will turn it over to the airline.

“Samsung, together with carriers, is working to communicate the U.S. Department of Transportation’s new order to ban all Galaxy Note7 devices in carry-on and checked baggage on flights,” said a Samsung representative in an emailed statement to The Verge. “We have encouraged airlines to issue similar communications directly to their passengers. Any Galaxy Note7 owner should visit their carrier and retail store to participate in the U.S. Note7 Refund and Exchange Program now. We realize this is an inconvenience but your safety has to remain our top priority.”

Samsung is expected to lose billions on the unexpected shutdown of the phone, and likely billions more in goodwill and brand equity as consumers choose to avoid Samsung products.

We have reached out to the FAA and PHMSA for comment.

http://www.theverge.com/2016/10/14/13288978/samsung-galaxy-note-7-flight-ban-faa-us

who:Galaxy Note 7 smartphone

when:The ban takes effect Saturday at noon eastern time.

why:banned from US airline flights

where:from the FAA

what:not even

how:not even

Keywords

1. recalled 回憶
2. entirely 完全
3. dramatic 戲劇性
4. escalation 升級
5. luggage 行李
6. aircraft 飛機
7. spontaneously 自發地
8. unprecedented 前所未有
9. hoverboards 氣墊板
10. spokesperson 發言人

第七週-ISIS伊斯蘭國

What is 'Islamic State'?

The jihadist group Islamic State (IS) burst on to the international scene in 2014 when it seized large swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq. It has become notorious for its brutality, including mass killings, abductions and be headings. The group though has attracted support elsewhere in the Muslim world - and a US-led coalition has vowed to destroy it.

What does IS want?

In June 2014, the group formally declared the establishment of a "caliphate" - a state governed in accordance with Islamic law, or Sharia, by God's deputy on Earth, or caliph.

It has demanded that Muslims across the world swear allegiance to its leader - Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim al-Badri al-Samarrai, better known as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi - and migrate to territory under its control.

IS has also told other jihadist groups worldwide that they must accept its supreme authority. Many already have, among them several offshoots of the rival al-Qaeda network.

IS seeks to eradicate obstacles to restoring God's rule on Earth and to defend the Muslim community, or umma, against infidels and apostates.

The group has welcomed the prospect of direct confrontation with the US-led coalition, viewing it as a harbinger of an end-of-times showdown between Muslims and their enemies described in Islamic apocalyptic prophecies.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi: Islamic State's driving force

What's the appeal of a caliphate?

What are its origins?

IS can trace its roots back to the late Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian. In 2004, a year after the US-led invasion of Iraq, Zarqawi pledged allegiance to Osama Bin Laden and formed al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), which became a major force in the insurgency.

After Zarqawi's death in 2006, AQI created an umbrella organisation, Islamic State in Iraq (ISI). ISI was steadily weakened by the US troop surge and the creation of Sahwa (Awakening) councils by Sunni Arab tribesmen who rejected its brutality.

Baghdadi, a former US detainee, became leader in 2010 and began rebuilding ISI's capabilities. By 2013, it was once again carrying out dozens of attacks a month in Iraq.

It had also joined the rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, setting up the al-Nusra Front.

In April 2013, Baghdadi announced the merger of his forces in Iraq and Syria and the creation of "Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant" (Isis). The leaders of al-Nusra and al-Qaeda rejected the move, but fighters loyal to Baghdadi split from al-Nusra and helped Isis remain in Syria.

At the end of December 2013, Isis shifted its focus back to Iraq and exploited a political stand-off between the Shia-led government and the minority Sunni Arab community. Aided by tribesmen and former Saddam Hussein loyalists, Isis took control of the central city of Falluja.

In June 2014, Isis overran the northern city of Mosul, and then advanced southwards towards Baghdad, massacring its adversaries and threatening to eradicate the country's many ethnic and religious minorities. At the end of the month, after consolidating its hold over dozens of cities and towns, Isis declared the creation of a caliphate and changed its name to "Islamic State".

The rise of 'Islamic State'

How much territory does IS control?

In September 2014, the then director of the US National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), Matthew Olsen, said IS controlled much of the Tigris-Euphrates river basin - an area similar in size to the United Kingdom, or about 210,000 sq km (81,000 sq miles).

A year later, the US defence department declared that IS frontlines in much of northern and central Iraq and northern Syria had been pushed back significantly byUS-led coalition air strikes and ground operations. IS could no longer operate freely in roughly 20-25% of populated areas in Iraq and Syria where it once could, it said.

The defence department estimated that IS had lost approximately 15,000-20,000 sq km (5,790-7,720 sq miles) of territory in Iraq, or about 30-37% of what it controlled in August 2014, and 2,000-4,000 sq km (770-1,540 sq miles) in Syria, or about 5-10%.

Despite this, IS has been able to capture new territory of strategic value over the same period, including the city of Ramadi in Iraq's Anbar province and Palmyra in Syria's Homs province.

Analysts also note that the US figures do not necessarily reflect the situation on the ground. In reality, IS militants exercise complete control over only a small part of that territory, which includes cities and towns, main roads, oil fields and military facilities.

They enjoy freedom of movement in the largely uninhabited areas outside what the Institute for the Study of War calls "control zones", but they would struggle to defend them.

Similarly, it is not entirely clear how many people are living under full or partial IS control across Syria and Iraq. In March 2015, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross put the figure at more than 10 million.

Inside areas where IS has implemented its strict interpretation of Sharia, women are forced to wear full veils, public beheadings are common and non-Muslims are forced to choose between paying a special tax, converting or death.

How many fighters does it have?

In February 2015, US Director for National Intelligence James Clapper said IS could muster "somewhere in the range between 20,000 and 32,000 fighters" in Iraq and Syria.

But he noted that there had been "substantial attrition" in its ranks since US-led coalition air strikes began in August 2014. In June 2015, US Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken said more than 10,000 IS fighters had been killed.

To help mitigate the manpower losses, IS has turned to conscription in some areas. Iraqi expert Hisham al-Hashimi believes only 30% of the group's fighters are "ideologues", with the remainder joining out of fear or coercion.

A significant number of IS fighters are neither Iraqi nor Syrian. In October 2015, National Counterterrorism Center Director Nicholas Rasmussen told Congress that the group had attracted more than 28,000 foreign fighters. They included at least 5,000 Westerners, approximately 250 of them Americans, he said.

Studies by the London-based International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ICSR) and the New York-based Soufan Group suggest that while about a quarter of the foreign fighters are from the West, the majority are from nearby Arab countries, such as Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and Jordan and Morocco.

What about its targets outside Iraq and Syria?

In late 2015, IS began to lay claim to attacks outside its territory. An Egyptian affiliate, Sinai Province, said it downed a Russian passenger plane in the Sinai peninsula, killing all 228 on board. It gave no details, but the UK and US later said it was likely that a bomb caused the crash - whether or not a bomber was linked to IS.

IS also claimed twin blasts in the Lebanese capital Beirut which killed at least 41 people. Militants from the Lebanese movement Hezbollah have been fighting in neighbouring Syria on the side of IS' enemy, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

And then on 13 November, at least 128 people were killed in a wave of attacks around Paris. IS said it was behind the violence - French President Francois Hollande described it as "an act of war".

Battle for Iraq and Syria in maps

What weapons does IS have?

IS fighters have access to, and are capable of using, a wide variety of small arms and heavy weapons, including truck-mounted machine-guns, rocket launchers, anti-aircraft guns and portable surface-to-air missile systems.

They have also captured tanks and armoured vehicles from the Syrian and Iraqi armies. Their haul of vehicles from the Iraqi army includes armoured Humvees and bomb-proof trucks originally manufactured for the US military.

Some have been packed with explosives and used to devastating effect in suicide bomb attacks.

The group is believed to have a flexible supply chain that ensures a constant supply of ammunition and small arms for its fighters. Their considerable firepower helped them overrun Kurdish Peshmerga positions in northern Iraq in August 2014 and the Iraqi army in Ramadi in May 2015.

Where does IS get its money from?

The militant group is believed to be the world's wealthiest. It initially relied on wealthy private donors and Islamic charities in the Middle East keen to oust Syria's President Assad. Although such funding is still being used to finance the travel of foreign fighters to Syria and Iraq, the group is now largely self-funding.

The US Treasury estimates that in 2014 IS may have earned as much as several million dollars per week, or $100m in total, from the sale of crude oil and refined products to local middlemen, who in turn smuggled them in Turkey and Iran, or sold them to the Syrian government.

But air strikes on oil-related infrastructure are now believed to have diminished such revenue.

Kidnapping also generated at least $20m in ransom payments in 2014, while IS raises several million dollars per month through extorting the millions of people living in areas under its full or partial control, according to the US Treasury.

IS is believed to raise at least several million dollars per month by robbing, looting, and extortion. Payments are extracted from those who pass through, conduct business in, or simply live in IS territory under the auspices or providing services or "protection".

Religious minorities are forced to pay a special tax. IS profits from raiding banks, selling antiquities, and stealing or controlling sales of livestock and crops. Abducted girls and women have meanwhile been sold as sex slaves.

Islamic State: Who supports the jihadist group?

Iraq and Syria: The hostages

Why are their tactics so brutal?

IS members are jihadists who adhere to an extreme interpretation of Sunni Islam and consider themselves the only true believers. They hold that the rest of the world is made up of unbelievers who seek to destroy Islam, justifying attacks against other Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

Beheadings, crucifixions and mass shootings have been used to terrorise their enemies. IS members have justified such atrocities by citing the Koran and Hadith, but Muslims have denounced them.

Even al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, who disavowed IS in February 2014 over its actions in Syria, warned Zarqawi in 2005 that such brutality loses "Muslim hearts and minds".

Why is 'Islamic State' so violent?

'Islamic State' deploys asymmetry of fear

來源:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29052144

Why:not even

Where:

Islamic State 

Who:

Islamic State

What:

The jihadist group Islamic State (IS) burst on to the international scene in 2014 

When:

it seized large swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq.

How:not even

Keywords

1. swathes條
2. abductions綁架
3. coalition聯盟
4. vowed發誓
5. establishment建立
6. accordance按照
7. Ibrahim 易卜拉欣
8. jihadist聖戰者
9. supreme最高
10. offshoots 分支