Week2:Malaysian Airlines

Missing Malaysian Airlines MH370: Plane search area changed as new details of satellite phone call revealed

The search area to be scoured for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 is set to be changed following new analysis of an attempt to call the plane by satellite phone. With only weeks to go before contractors head back underwater in the most extensive aviation recovery operation of all time, officials said they have new data suggesting the Boeing 777 may have taken a different path.

Investigators have developed new methods for analysing data from attempted satellite calls in the months since the plane vanished while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on 8 March.


And in a press conference today, the Australian deputy prime minister Warren Truss said that research suggested the jet “might have turned south [towards the southern Indian Ocean] a little earlier than we had previously expected”.


The overall search area remains unchanged, Mr Truss said. However, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau chief commissioner, Martin Dolan, said he would meet with international experts next week to decide whether the 60,000-square-km (23,000-square-mile) zone should be extended or shifted south based on the new analysis.


“We think we may extend that area farther south; that's the thing we're currently considering,” Mr Dolan said.


The new analysis data comes from two calls Malaysia Airlines staff tried to make to the flight’s crew after MH370 was reported missing from radar screens.


Mr Dolan said the new analysis suggested the jet was already flying south when the first phone call was attempted, less than 20 minutes after the plane dropped off military radar.


“Previously, there was the possibility that it could have been quite a bit later, so we had to do our modelling based on a range of possibilities as to where the aircraft turned,” Mr Dolan said.


In three weeks, the Dutch contractor Fugro Survey Pty Ltd will begin the operation with three vessels towing underwater vehicles equipped with side-scan sonar, multi-beam echo sounders and video equipment, Mr Truss said.


Malaysia, as the country where the Boeing 777 was flagged, has overall responsibility for the crash investigation. But Australia has search and rescue responsibility, and China – the country of origin for most of the passengers – said today that it too agreed the search will “not be interrupted or given up”.

Website:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/mh370-missing-plane-search-area-changed-as-new-analysis-of-satellite-phone-call-revealed-9696796.html

Structure:

When: 2104/3/8

What: search for Malaysian Airlines MH-370

Key words:

Scoured (v.)搜羅

Contractors (n.)承包商

Vessel (n.)船

side-scan sonar (n.)側掃聲納

Week1:Ukrainian crisis

Five things to know about Ukrainian crisis

Why did protests erupt in Ukraine?

Ukrainians who want closer ties to Europe instead of Russia filled the streets to object when President Viktor Yanukovych refused at the last minute to sign a trade pact three years in the making with the European Union.

Why did Yanukovych refuse?

Yanukovych, who won election in 2010 on a campaign of closer ties to Europe, said the deal did not provide enough aid to Ukraine to make up for the loss of trade from Russia. Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, had threatened retaliation, such as a shutoff of natural gas supplies in winter, if Ukraine signed. The EU says it is still willing to sign the pact, and Yanukovych says he may reconsider.

Why is Ukraine torn between two sides?

Once a captive of the Soviet Union, Ukraine has moved fitfully toward more Western ideals of free trade and human rights since it gained independence from communist rule in 1991. Many Ukrainians want a more liberal society like in the West. Since coming to power in 2000, Putin has said he views dissolution of the Soviet dictatorship as a tragedy and seeks to reimpose the will of Moscow on former republics.

Does it matter?

The West, led by the United States, spent decades during what is referred to as the Cold War trying to restore democratic rule in nations forcefully occupied by the Soviet Union, which attempted to spread communism and anti-Western ideals worldwide. Allowing Russia to coerce former captive nations back into its fold could bolster the influence of a nation that has an increasingly abysmal human rights record.

Who are the Ukranians?

Ukraine is the largest country in Europe with a population of 40 million people. More than 2 million Americans and Canadians claim Ukrainian descent. Ukraine has become a major producer of agricultural products and has significant untapped energy resources. Its industrial base includes aerospace and steel.

Five million Ukrainians died from famine under Soviet domination and an estimated 5 million more died under Nazi occupation during World War II. It was among the first Soviet republics to declare independence and establish a democracy.

Website: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/12/03/ukraine-five-things/3852841/

Structure:

Who: Ukrainian

What: They protest on the street

When: 2013

Where: Ukraine

Keywords:

Retaliation (n.)報復

Soviet Union (n.)蘇聯

Liberal (n.)自由

Dissolution (n.)解散

Reimpose (v.)重新實施

Coerce (v.)脅迫

Abysmal (a.)深的