뉴스&스피킹(영자신문)
하루 10분이면 영어에 대한 두려움을 극복하고 누구나 유창하게 영어를 구사하실 수 있습니다.
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South Korea Tries ‘Social Distancing’ to Prevent Coronavirus Spread An expression recently introduced by officials in Seoul closely describes life for many in South Korea these days: “Let’s Take a Break from Social Life.”
The government is working to limit face-to-face interaction to help prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.
The outbreak in South Korea has mostly been contained to the area near the southeastern city of Daegu. But, officials across the country are not taking any chances. They have suggested “social distancing” measures to help keep people away from each other
Nearly every part of social life in South Korea has been affected. Schools and universities are closed. Many companies are asking their employees to work from home. Christian religious centers are holding their services over YouTube. And South Korea’s soccer league has delayed the start of the season.
In Seoul, the capital city and home to half the country’s population, life goes on as usual -- only much more quietly. With many people staying home, Seoul’s infamously crowded streets now flow much faster. Although people still use public transportation, many buses and trains are much less crowded. Noisy protests, which are common in Seoul, are now almost non-existent.
Isolated, anxious
As the outbreak in the country continues, many South Koreans are not only trying to prevent the disease, but also fight off boredom.
“There is no more social life,” said Rosa Lee, who lives in Seoul. “I'm working at home right now...not meeting anybody.”
Park Sun-kyung was forced to work from home after someone in her office building in central Seoul was confirmed to have the new coronavirus. “It’s not very convenient - I need to be online all day,” she said. “I’m an outgoing person...It is really frustrating to stay home and not meet with people.”
Social distancing
All around the city, a marketing campaign urges people to take part in a two-week social distancing effort to halt the spread of the virus.
“Hold on! Let’s Take a Break From Social Life,” one sign at a bus stop reads.
Recommended steps include:
“Refrain from going outdoors and avoid physical contact with others.”
“Keep in touch with people by using social media measures instead of meeting them personally.”
“Keep your personal hygiene by washing your hands and wearing a mask at all times.”
Such policies are not officially required, unlike in China, which forcibly locked down tens of millions of people to contain the spread.
Mental health impact
However, being separated this way could affect people emotionally and physically, public health experts warn.
Jung Doo-young is with the UNIST Healthcare Center in Ulsan, about 300 kilometers from Seoul. Jung said, “If people are not active while staying inside, the body’s natural rhythms could become disrupted.”
The effects could be worse for people with existing mental health issues, such as anxiety or depression, said Kim Yoon-seok of Seoul’s Margeun mental health treatment center.
To help deal with possible problems, Seoul has set up a COVID-19 support group. COVID-19 describes the disease resulting from the virus. The group offers advice and information for dealing with coronavirus-related stress.
I’m Ashley Thompson.View -
Lack of Snow in Japan Changes Olympic Cooling Plans Japan has been collecting snow this winter to be used to help cool areas during this year’s Summer Olympics in Tokyo. But lower-than-usual snowfall this year has forced officials to rethink the effort.
Some of the work has taken place in the mountain city of Minami-Uonuma, in Niigata prefecture north of Tokyo. Workers have been trying to collect and store snow to bring by train to areas where Olympic soccer and basketball events will be held.
The snow is supposed to be used to cool buildings. Organizers also plan to give out the snow to Olympic visitors as they arrive for events. Summer temperatures around Tokyo often rise to at least 40 degrees Celsius. Organizers are also planning to use misting machines and water stations to keep Olympic attendees cool.
The use of snow to cool structures is not knew in Japan and some other countries. In Norway, for example, the country’s airport in Oslo uses snow collected and stored during the winter to cool buildings in the summer.
Usually, the mountains in Niigata receive some of the heaviest snow levels in Japan. But this year, snow amounts dropped sharply. They could end up being the lowest since recordkeeping began in 1981. The information on snow levels came from Japan’s Meteorological Agency.
Mutsumi Seki is helping lead snow collection efforts at the Minami-Uonuma project. Seki told Reuters, “We had to change the snow-gathering site from last year to an area where we can expect more snow.”
So far, the city has only collected 1,400 cubic meters of snow. That is lower than the 2,000 cubic meters it collected last year, when it tested the workability of the plan.
Snow depths in areas along the Sea of Japan fell by as much as 15 percent a decade in the years between 1962 and 2016. Those numbers come from a 2018 study by Japan’s Ministry of Environment.
Michael Mann is a professor at Pennsylvania State University. He told Reuters that the climate changes in Japan are “part of a much larger pattern of unusual warmth around the entire Northern Hemisphere this winter.” Mann added that he believes this pattern “is connected to human-caused planetary warming.”
Masami Yashima runs a resort in the city of Nagano, which is next to Niigata. He also said he believes that global warming is causing the drop in snowfall. “There’s very little snow. About a third of what we get here every year,” he said. “It’s very painful.”
Officials in Japan’s northern city of Sapporo are hoping to bring the 2030 Winter Olympics to that city. Sapporo hosted the Winter Olympics back in 1972.
This past December and January, very little snow fell in the area. Then, in early February, it finally arrived. A winter storm dropped about 34 centimeters of snow during a period of just six hours.
Local officials welcomed the snow. But they continue to watch the weather very closely, as they prepare for a possible Olympic award. One weather expert told The Associated Press he thinks the lack of snow – followed by the large amount falling in a short period – may also be a sign that the local climate is changing.
“We often have this kind of event,” said Dr. Tomonori Sato, a professor at Hokkaido University. “However, the magnitude was abnormal. This is maybe because of warming temperatures.”
I’m Bryan Lynn.View -
Nashville Expands Music Offerings to Movies, Video Games Nashville, Tennessee is already known to many Americans as Music City. It is famous for country music in the United States and is home to many recording companies.
But recently, music recorded for video games, television shows and movies could earn Nashville a new name: Soundtrack City.
The city is known for very good studio musicians. They work mostly on recordings rather than live performances. Musicians in Nashville have helped to make the soundtracks for some of the most popular video games in the U.S. These include “Madden,” “FIFA,” “Call of Duty” and “Star Wars.”
Also, more production companies have been bringing their film and TV soundtrack recordings to Nashville, including Netflix, Showtime, Sony and Focus Features. A program the state of Tennessee established last year gives financial support to companies for doing business in the city.
“Nashville has become one of the two or three major places to record in the world for film, game and television,” Steve Schnur told the Associated Press. He is president of music for Electronic Arts, or EA, the video game company.
In the past, Schnur worked for MTV and music production companies such as Arista. He also worked as a music supervisor on films before joining EA.
“I’ve been preaching Nashville for…some time and initially it was met with a little cynicism,” he said. “Nashville? Don’t they make country records there?”
For a long time, EA recorded soundtracks for their games with orchestras, or large groups of musicians, in Los Angeles, London and Eastern Europe. That changed about seven years ago when Schnur came to Nashville to record music for a game called “Dragon Age Inquisition.”
“It was like the world’s greatest band,” Schnur said of the 60-member orchestra gathered for the recording. “It really supported what Nashville is: a collaborative place.”
Nashville musicians were both fast and skilled, he added. This proved true even on complex songs written by well-known composers such as Hans Zimmer, Lorne Balfe, Jeff Russo and John Debney.
“This is a first-take town,” said Schnur. “You go to Prague, you’re doing six or seven takes.”
Now, Schnur estimates 90 to 95 percent of EA’s soundtrack music gets recorded in Nashville, with the rest recorded in London.
The music of video games often is very important to the gameplay in creating both emotion and attachment to the storyline. Kris Bowers is the composer behind the award-winning film “Green Book.” He came to Ocean Way Nashville Recording Studios to record the soundtrack for “Madden NFL 20.”
“I think the music immediately connects you, especially when there are strong themes or these melodies that you can’t forget…You hear it and you’re immediately transported to your childhood,” Bowers said.
Bob Raines is executive director of the Tennessee Entertainment Commission. He noted that Tennessee has to compete with neighboring states like Georgia and Louisiana for film and TV production. And music production was what put Tennessee ahead of its competition.
Raines notes that the state has the highest concentration of musicians in the U.S. It is second in the country for concentration of sound engineers. About five years ago, Raines said they started seeing growth in the soundtrack industry, so the state started working on a program to bring in business.
In six months, they brought five new musical projects to Tennessee that likely would have gone to Eastern Europe, Raines said. The projects were with Netflix, Showtime Networks, Focus Features, Sony and EA.
“We have a legacy of music as a state…so it was easy to promote,” said Raines.
Steve Schnur said now the problem is not bringing projects to Nashville. It is finding the time and space to record them.
I’m Pete Musto.View -
China's TikTok Keeps Growing Among US Youth The popularity of Chinese-owned video sharing service TikTok continues to grow among young people in the United States. In 2019, experts say the service more than doubled its American user base to 37 million. TikTok is especially popular with teens and young adults.
The service lets users create and share short videos, many of which are under 15 seconds. The TikTok app offers a wide choice of sounds, brief parts of songs and special effects tools to help create a video. Some TikTok-based memes go viral. Videos often include popular songs from well-known artists and TikTok has even helped launch the careers of new music stars.
TikTok is considered a competitor to video-sharing app Snapchat, as well as Facebook’s Instagram service. Snapchat and Instagram also mainly interest young users with a wide mix of photos and videos centered largely on fashion, pop culture and humor.
Last year, TikTok was the second-most downloaded app from Apple and Google stores. Only WhatsApp was downloaded more. Research company Sensor Tower estimates people have downloaded the TikTok app 1.65 billion times.
TikTok has been used by many major companies to reach young people who use little or no traditional media.
One of those companies is American-based e.l.f. Cosmetics. The makeup company’s chief marketer, Kory Marchisotto, told The Associated Press that TikTok is “where the Gen Z party is.” Gen Z is a name used to describe the generation born between the late 1990s and the early 2000s. “That’s where they’re all hanging out,” Marchisotto said.
Companies appearing on TikTok can make money through advertising. Often, the companies create user “challenges” as part of their ad campaigns. In challenges, users are invited to publish their own videos in which they perform similar dance moves. One campaign by e.l.f. Cosmetics, for example, asked people to wink and move their lips while following a song. TikTok users created 3 million videos that received more than 4 billion views.
While TikTok has continued to grow since its U.S. launch in 2017, it has also received media attention for being the first Chinese-owned social-media service to rise to major success in the U.S.
U.S. lawmakers have raised concerns about TikTok’s collection of user data and the possibility that the company could be sharing information with the Chinese government. In addition, the lawmakers said the app presents national security risks and could be used to censor material for users in the U.S.
TikTok has said it does not share information with the Chinese government and denies the app carries national security risks or is used to censor information.
Still, the concerns led the U.S. government to launch a national security investigation into TikTok. Also, the U.S. Department of Defense warned last December of possible security risks linked to the use of TikTok. The agency urged employees not to use the app. The warning led several military services to ban the use of TikTok on government devices.
In addition, some groups and parents have expressed concerns about videos appearing on TikTok that might be harmful for young users.
Nonprofit privacy group Common Sense Media has issued guidance for parents. The group notes on its website that many videos appearing on TikTok include offensive language and sexual subjects. For these reasons, the group urges parents to supervise what their children watch on TikTok and suggests that the service is best for those over age 16.
TikTok’s head of creator partnerships, Kudzi Chikumbu, told the AP the company is working hard to make sure the app is a “safe and positive environment.”
Last year, the company agreed to pay the U.S. government a $5.7 million fine for collecting personal information from children under age 13. Since then, TikTok created a separate part of the app that restricts possibly offensive material. The app requires users to be 13 years old, although it does not confirm users’ ages. TikTok says it does remove what it calls “wrongly created” accounts if they are reported by other users.
I’m Bryan Lynn.View -
French Farmers Seek to Reconnect Consumers to Their World Farmer Jerome Regnault works on a windy day in his fields, just west of Paris. As he looks around the property, he can see it is very different than it was when his grandfather worked the same fields.
Roads and housing developments are moving a lot closer. Technology and international markets are increasingly important to the success of his farm.
French farmers like Regnault say they now have another concern: agri-bashing.
Agri-bashing is the verbal criticism and sometimes even physical abuse of farmers. Critics accuse them of harming the environment, animals and the health of other people.
“It’s become unsupportable,” said Regnault. He has not personally been attacked, but knows of friends who have. He says that “worries over agricultural practices” do not justify people attacking farmers and their farms.
As the yearly agricultural show in Paris opened last week, many farmers spoke about their sense of becoming victims.
The show gives French children and their parents a chance to touch farm animals and reconnect with their agricultural past.
A growing farmers’ movement now wants to make that connection stronger. Some farmers are putting videos on social media to explain what they are doing. Regnault and a group of farmers launched a telephone hotline for questions and concerns.
“We realized that while farming had a negative image, farmers were seen in a positive light,” he said.
His group is called Ici La Terre (Here is Earth).
Hard times for European farmers
Across Europe and on other continents, farmers are under pressure to increase their harvests to feed a growing world population for less cost. Many farmers are also under pressure because of climate change. Now, they are pushing back.
In recent months, farmers and their machinery have stopped traffic in Germany, Spain, Ireland and the Netherlands, among other countries. They have protested such things as feared cuts in European Union aid to farmers, free trade deals and stronger environmental rules.
In France, officials have created pesticide safe areas around communities. They have announced plans to ban the herbicide glyphosate, which kills unwanted plants. Environmentalists say both measures fall short of what is needed. Farmers answered the environmentalists by leaving hay on a major road in Paris.
French President Emmanuel Macron told farmers he would fight in support of the EU’s assistance to farmers. He said the money will help them change to more environmentally friendly farming methods.
"It’s a policy of the future,” Macron said.
Yet some environmentalists say they, not farmers, are under siege.
“We believe agri-bashing doesn’t exist,” said Marie-Catherine Schulz-Vannaxay. She is an agricultural expert for the group France Nature Environnement. She said that many farmers just do not like being criticized.
For hundreds of years, agriculture controlled the French economy. Today, less than three percent of workers are involved with agriculture. About 20 percent of farmers live in poverty and their suicide rates are higher.
Ici La Terre
Some farmers are, in fact, changing. A new report finds about 10 percent of them are growing organic products.
Organic farming and other issues are discussed on the farming hotline. Launched in September, Ici La Terre now counts 130 farmers.
“We’re not trying to convince people, just to explain what we do and exchange,” Regnault said.
I’m Susan Shand.View