Week 6 - The Aunt of Drowned Syrian Boy Says It Is Not Too Late To Save Other Refugees

Sept. 15, 2015

Tima Kurdi awoke on Sept. 2 at home in Vancouver to dozens of missed calls on her phone from relatives in Syria. The news was grim: Her brother Abdullah’s wife and two children had drowned crossing the Mediterranean from Turkey to Greece. And within hours, her nephew — three-year-old Aylan Kurdi — would become the world’s most famous casualty, a dead toddler in a red T-shirt and black sneakers washed ashore on a Turkish beach. “Every day kids have drowned,” Kurdi says, sitting in a Brussels hotel room on Monday. “But before Aylan died, people read it and moved on. That boy, that picture, meant something.”

Two weeks on, it has become clear how much Aylan Turki’s death meant. The image of Aylan’s body, in his neat clothes and a fresh haircut, jolted leaders into action after months of dithering over one of the biggest refugee crises in about 70 years. Within days the U.S., Germany, and France offered to settle tens of thousands of Syrian refugees, for the first time in the five-year war. On Monday and Tuesday European Union ministers met in Brussels to discuss Europe’s first unified asylum policy. Although they battled to agree on binding quotas to host those who’ve flooded across E.U. borders, refugee advocates says Aylan’s death has nonetheless marked a sharp turning point for Europe. “If Aylan had not happened I don’t think Europe would be having this existential discussion,” says Sam Barratt, campaign director for the New York-based activist organization Avaaz, which financed Tima Kurdi’s Brussels trip. “Without that photo, the E.U. would have kicked the issue into the long grass.”

For Aylan’s aunt, 44, who works as a hairdresser in Vancouver, it has been a bitter price to pay. Sunk into an armchair, Kurdi wrings her hands as she describes how the loss of Aylan, his brother Galib, 5, and their mother Rehana, has shattered her family, leaving them exhausted with grief and uncertain about their future.

Her brother, deep in mourning, returned home to the war-ravaged town of Kobani to bury his wife and children. He sits for hours in the cemetery, where he has put toys on the boys’ graves. Kurdi says that he sometimes talks to his children in their bedroom where they lived until they fled, arranging their toys as he pretends to put the boys to bed and kiss them goodnight. “I am really worried about him,” says Kurdi, who remains determined to bring Abdullah to Canada. His asylum application sits in her desk drawer in Vancouver, and she says she will submit it soon. Abdullah will yet not contemplate leaving his family’s graves. “He says to me, ‘leave me alone with my pain right now,'” she says. “I will give him the space right now. But I am sure he will come.”

Since Abdullah could not afford the $5,000 or so needed to flee Kobani, Kurdi sent him money to pay smugglers to take his family across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe. They hatched that plan after it appeared that Canada would not grant the family asylum; a previous attempt to bring her older brother Mohammed to Canada stalled because the Canadian authorities required official documents that had been impossible to obtain in Syria, she says. Mohammed is now a refugee in Heidelberg, Germany.

Kurdi says she remains overwhelmed with a sense of guilt and anguish, believing that her generosity towards Abdullah directly caused the three deaths. Kurdi says when she first reached Abdullah after the drowning, “I was screaming, ‘I am sorry, so sorry, it is my fault.’ He said, ‘don’t blame yourself. You are the best sister in the world.'” Yet those words have been little help. “If I didn’t give them money they would be alive today,” she says, choking on tears, and explaining that she had been desperate to help the family flee Syria, after her father, who lives in Damascus, described Galib suffering. “Well, he is not in pain anymore,” Kurdi says in a near whisper.

Kurdi has seen her own relatively carefree life drastically upturned since Sept. 2. She says about 3,000 emails, mostly unopened, have poured in from strangers across the world; one European woman wrote that Aylan’s photo had so shaken her, that she ran to her daughter’s day-care center to hug her.

Kurdi’s sudden, unwitting celebrity is a highly unlikely twist of fate. She moved to Vancouver 22 years ago to marry her first husband. There she raised her son Alan, little Aylan’s anglicized namesake, who traveled to Brussels with her this week. She says that until the Syrian war erupted in 2011 she thought about her homeland only “now and then,” traveling to Damascus every two years or so, for summer visits.

Now Kurdi is a voice in the fraught political debate about refugees, and one of the few recognizable Syrians is speaking on the issue. She became a public figure just for hours after her nephews and sister-in-law had died, when she gave a tearful press conference in Vancouver.

On Tuesday, Kurdi addressed E.U. politicians in the union’s Brussels headquarters, pleading with them to take in Syrian refugees. And on Monday she met the U.N.’s refugee chief António Guterres and Jean Asselborn, Foreign Minister of Luxembourg, which currently holds the E.U. rotating presicency. For Kurdi, it is one way to find something positive from her family’s huge loss. “I’m doing this to honor them,” Kurdi says. “It is too late to save Aylan, Galib and Rehana. But it is not too late for millions of other refugees to be saved.”

http://time.com/4034620/aylan-kurdi-tima-kurdi/

Structure of the Lead

Who- Tima Kurdi, Aylan Kurdi, Galib

When- Sept. 2 .2015

What- Two children had drowned.

Where- Mediterranean from Turkey to Greece

How- The news has impacted all people around the world.

Keywords:

1.      casualty (n.)傷亡

2.      toddler (n.)孩子;嬰兒

3.      unified asylum policy (n.)統一庇護政策

4.      quotas (n.)配額

5.      advocate  (v.)主張;提倡

6.      existential (a.)存在的

7.      armchair (n.)扶手椅

8.      shatter (v.)粉碎

9.      anguish (n.)痛苦

10. fraught (a.)誤人子弟的

Week 5 - Curiosity Rover Finds Evidence of Liquid Water On Mars

29th, September, 2015

Where there is water, there is life. This is a statement that has been reaffirmed over and over again. Whether it is in the acidic waters surrounding volcanoes or in the dark and frozen wastes of the icy Antarctic, wherever we find liquid water, we find life. That’s what makes the most recent find by NASA’s Curiosity rover so amazing—Evidence of liquid water on Mars.

In 2002, we discovered that there was ice on the Red Planet. More recently, we found that Mars has more than just a little ice. It has glaciers. Ultimately, this frozen ice contains enough water to cover the entire planet in a meter of water. But liquid water is an entirely different ball game.

The major question that is now being asked is, how can a planet with an average temperature of -55°C (-67°F) have liquid water?

In work that was recently published in the journal Nature Geoscience, the scientists behind the discovery detail their ideas about the Martian water cycle. The team, led by planetary scientist Javier Martín-Torres, who hails from the Luleå University of Technology in Sweden,  asserts that salt is likely responsible for the pockets of water. Much like life is able to subsist in the near-frozen water of the Antarctic because of salt, the scientists state that salt could be present at such quantities that it alters the freezing point of the water, lowering the temperature at which the water freezes so that, in order to solidify, the water has to get a lot colder than it does on Earth.

Previously, we have detected evidence of salts on Mars, and it is this previous evidence that forms the basis of the team’s conclusion.

Ultimately, it is believed that the water cycle starts when vapor from the thin Martian atmosphere cools and gets absorbed by salt on the surface of the planet. Then, during the evening, when temperatures go well below zero, the salts become so saturated by water vapor that they form “liquid brines in the uppermost 5 cm [2 inches] of the subsurface”. These small liquid pools stick around until the daytime temperatures turn the pools back into vapor. As the day progresses, and things start to cool, the liquid water again appears.

Sadly, Curiosity hasn’t been able to capture any images of liquid water on Mars because, well, the technology hasn’t been invented yet. Yes, of course we do have cameras on Mars (as our many pictures attest); however, the cameras don’t work in the subzero temperatures where the liquid water exists on the Red Planet.

So on to the main event: Do these pools contain life? Well, we don’t know for sure. However, we do know a few things that allow us to make guesstimates. First, since the temperatures are so low, we know that life as we know it cannot exist. Second, since the pools appear to dry during the day, it is unlikely that any life at all could survive. But despite the fact that it is rather unlikely, it is certainly not impossible. And, well, that’s something.

http://futurism.com/curiosity-rover-finds-evidence-of-liquid-water-on-mars/

Structure of the Lead

Who-NASA’s Curiosity

When-28th, September, 2015

What- Curiosity found liquid water in the Mars.

Why-People want to know whether there is any live in the Mars.

Where-Mars

How-They has sent Curiosity to the Mars and observed it for many years.

Keywords：

1.reaffirm (v.)重申

2.acidic (adj.)酸性的

3.ultimately (adv.)最終地

4.hail (n.)冰雹

5.subsist (v.)生存

6.vapor (n.)蒸氣

7.saturated (adj.)飽和的

8.brines (n.)鹵水

9.uppermost (adj./adv.)最上方

10.guesstimate (n.)猜測

Week 4 - NASA’s Kepler Mission Discovers Bigger, Older Cousin to Earth

July 23, 2015

NASA's Kepler mission has confirmed the first near-Earth-size planet in the “habitable zone” around a sun-like star. This discovery and the introduction of 11 other new small habitable zone candidate planets mark another milestone in the journey to finding another “Earth.” 

The newly discovered Kepler-452b is the smallest planet to date discovered orbiting in the habitable zone -- the area around a star where liquid water could pool on the surface of an orbiting planet -- of a G2-type star, like our sun. The confirmation of Kepler-452b brings the total number of confirmed planets to 1,030.

"On the 20th anniversary year of the discovery that proved other suns host planets, the Kepler exoplanet explorer has discovered a planet and star which most closely resemble the Earth and our Sun," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. “This exciting result brings us one step closer to finding an Earth 2.0."Kepler-452b is 60 percent larger in diameter than Earth and is considered a super-Earth-size planet. While its mass and composition are not yet determined, previous research suggests that planets the size of Kepler-452b have a good chance of being rocky.

While Kepler-452b is larger than Earth, its 385-day orbit is only 5 percent longer. The planet is 5 percent farther from its parent star Kepler-452 than Earth is from the Sun. Kepler-452 is 6 billion years old, 1.5 billion years older than our sun, has the same temperature, and is 20 percent brighter and has a diameter 10 percent larger.

“We can think of Kepler-452b as an older, bigger cousin to Earth, providing an opportunity to understand and reflect upon Earth’s evolving environment," said Jon Jenkins, Kepler data analysis lead at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, who led the team that discovered Kepler-452b. "It’s awe-inspiring to consider that this planet has spent 6 billion years in the habitable zone of its star; longer than Earth. That’s substantial opportunity for life to arise, should all the necessary ingredients and conditions for life exist on this planet.”

To help confirm the finding and better determine the properties of the Kepler-452 system, the team conducted ground-based observations at the University of Texas at Austin's McDonald Observatory, the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory on Mt. Hopkins, Arizona, and the W. M. Keck Observatory atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii. These measurements were key for the researchers to confirm the planetary nature of Kepler-452b, to refine the size and brightness of its host star and to better pin down the size of the planet and its orbit.

The Kepler-452 system is located 1,400 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus. The research paper reporting this finding has been accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal.

 https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-kepler-mission-discovers-bigger-older-cousin-to-earth

Structure of the Lead

       Who- NASA’s, Kepler-452b(Earth 2.0)

       When- July 23, 2015

       What- NASA found a planet which looks like our Earth..

       Why- To find earth-like planets..

       Where- Solar system

       How- By sending Kepler to out space.

Keywords：

1. habitable (a.)適合居住的

2. orbit (v.)環軌道運行 (n.)軌道;(人生)旅程

3. exoplanet (n.)外星球

4. administrator (n.)管理者

5. headquarter (v.)設總部於…

6. diameter (n.)直徑;放大率

7. composition (n.)組成;成分

8. substantial (a.)大量的;牢固的

9. planetary (n.)行星

10. constellation (n.)星座

Week 3 - Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement speech

June 12, 2005

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphies. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart. Even when it leads you off the well worn path, and that will make all the difference. (This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents’ garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And the most important have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and Polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

http://mepopedia.com/forum/read.php?33,7604

Structure of the Lead

       Who- Steve Jobs
       When- June 12, 2005
       What- Steve Jobs addressed a speech.
       Why- Stanford’ students graduated.
       Where- Stanford
       How-Tell those students three stories of him.

Keywords：
1. commencement (n.)畢業典禮;開端
2. unwed (a.)未婚的
3. popped out (v. ph)衝出;冒出
4. relent (v.)變溫和;態度軟化
5. stumble (v.)蹣跚;佇足
6. san serif typefaces (n.)有襯線、無襯線字體
7. proportionally (adv.)成比例地
8. diverge (v.)偏離
9. renaissance (n.)再生;復活
10. intellectual (n.)知識分子

Week 2 - Fifa corruption scandal

28 May 2015

Fifa, football's world governing body, has been engulfed by claims of widespread corruption since this summer, when the US Department of Justice indicted several top executives.

Why does this matter?

The World Cup is the most-watched sporting event in the world, larger even than the Olympics. It generates billions of dollars in revenue from corporate sponsors, broadcasting rights and merchandising. These arrests and investigations cast doubt over the transparency and honesty for the process of allocating World Cup tournaments, electing its president, and the administration of funds, including those earmarked for improving football facilities in some of Fifa's poorer members.

Why were the officials accused?

The FBI has been investigating Fifa for the past three years. The investigation was initially sparked by the bidding process for the Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022 World Cups, but was widened to look back at Fifa's dealings over the past 20 years.

The Department of Justice's indictment says that the corruption was planned in the US, even if it was then carried out elsewhere. The use of US banks to transfer money appears to be key to the investigation.

Mr. Blatter consistently denied wrongdoing while several of his close colleagues were indicted by the US. In September, he was named as the subject of a separate criminal investigation launched by Swiss prosecutors.

How much money is involved?

The US indictment alleges that US and South American sports marketing executives paid and agreed to pay "well over $150m" in bribes and other illegal payments to obtain lucrative media and marketing rights to international football tournaments.

That does not include other possible alleged corruption around the world.

Fifa makes nearly all its revenue from the World Cup. Last year's tournament cost the host country Brazil an estimated $4bn, and yet Fifa made more than $2bn from the tournament via sponsors, the sale of broadcasting rights and merchandising. The costs of the next two World Cups are expected to dwarf this: Qatar 2022 is reported to be costing above $6bn.

What next for Fifa?

Mr. Blatter has promised to step down as Fifa president in February, despite having been re-elected only this summer, just days after the Zurich hotel raid.

As the scandal refused to abate, he agreed to curtail his presidency and leave office within months, once a successor had been chosen. He also said he was working on reforms to his organization.

It is unclear if the Swiss investigation against Mr. Blatter will prevent him from continuing in office.

Meanwhile, the man widely tipped to be his successor, Mr. Platini, has now been named as a recipient in 2011 of a "disloyal payment" from Mr. Blatter - reportedly for work carried out nine years earlier. Mr. Platini has issued a statement saying he was entitled to the money, and is helping the Swiss authorities with their investigation.

He has also denied any wrongdoing and has not been named as a suspect. However, he may have to answer further questions if he is to remain a contender for the top job at Fifa.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32897066

Structure of the Lead.

        Who- Fifa, Mr. Blatter, the USA, FBI

        When- 28, May, 2015

        What- Fifa has been engulfed by claims of widespread corruption

        Why- the corruption was planned in the US and use US banks to transfer money

        Where- The USA

        How- Mr. Blatter agreed to curtail his presidency and leave office within months, once a successor had been chosen

Keywords：

1. engulf (v.)吞沒;吞噬

2. generate (v.)生成;產生

3. transparency (n.)透明度

4. allocate (v.)分配;調配

5. indictment (n.)起訴書

6. lucrative (a.)賺錢的

7. allege (v.)斷言

8. abate (v.)緩和;廢除

9. curtail (v.)縮短;簡略

10. successor (n.)繼承人;接班人

Week 1- Myanmar Rohingya Refugee

13 May 2015

A group of 350 migrants from Myanmar have told an activist by phone that they have been stranded at sea without food or water for four days.

The migrants, including 50 women and 84 children, say that many people are now falling ill after the boat crew abandoned them at the weekend.

Their exact position is still unclear, said Chris Lewa of the Arakan Project which works with the Rohingya minority.

Indonesia and Malaysia have been turning away migrant boats.

Thailand has launched a crackdown to disrupt people smuggler networks since the discovery of dozens of bodies in abandoned camps along regular trafficking routes.

No help

A ship passed by the drifting ship on Tuesday but did not stop.

"I heard the boat's engine and then all the people screaming, shouting for help, trying to get attention - then the noises faded away and it became very quiet. All I could hear was the children crying," Ms. Lewa told the BBC on Wednesday.

The migrants have been at sea for two months but their situation only became critical once their crew abandoned the boat and left them without a working engine.

Ms. Lewa said that the migrants could see land but could not reach it. "They have a compass but no-one knows how to use it," she added.

On Tuesday, the migrants thought they might be close to the Malaysian island of Langkawi.

There is growing concern over the health of some of the passengers.

"One man said some people had died but others later contradicted him so the situation is very unclear," said Ms. Lewa.

As many as 8,000 migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar are believed by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to be stranded at sea.

People smugglers are reportedly refusing to land their boats because they do not want to follow their usual route through Thailand after the government launched a campaign there against them.

Jeff Labovitz, an IOM spokesman, told the BBC on Monday that the discovery last week of the remains of dozens of people in abandoned camps in the south of Thailand had prompted a police crackdown.

Another IOM spokesman, Joe Lowry, said that many on board the migrant boats needed urgent help because they were suffering from beriberi - a disease caused by vitamin deficiency which "leaves you like a walking skeleton".

Ms Lewa said that some people in Myanmar were no longer attempting the perilous journey.

Boat people

Two boats which originally intended to leave last week have been disembarked, she said. More than 200 passengers were forced to pay a fee to be allowed to leave the vessels.

Five other boats however were reported to have set out regardless of the dangers.

On Tuesday, Indonesia said it had turned away a boat carrying hundreds of migrants believed to be from Myanmar and Bangladesh. What has happened to them is not yet known.

A senior Thai official told Reuters news agency on Wednesday that Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia would all continue to turn the boats away.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-32718238

Structure of the Lead.

        Who- migrants from Myanmar、Indonesia、Malaysia、Thailand

        When- 13 May 2015

        What- migrants from Myanmar didn't receive any help

        Why- migrants fling from Myanmar  were refused to land on by Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand

        Where- Myanmar

        How- many on board the migrant boats needed urgent help because they were suffering from beriberi

Keywords：

1. activist (n.)活動家

2. exact (n.)準確;精確

3. crackdown (n.)嚴厲打擊

4. disrupt (v.)破壞

5. smuggler (n.)走私者

6. compass (n.)指南針;羅盤

7. contradict (v.)頂撞;牴觸

8. deficiency (n.)不足;欠缺

9. skeleton (n.)骨架

10. disembark (v.)登陸