AS IT IS 2016-01-07 Rosa Parks, #Twitter10k and 700-Year-Old Ship

AS IT IS 2016-01-07 Rosa Parks, #Twitter10k and 700-Year-Old Ship

This is What’s Trending Today…

Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks is a hero from the American civil rights movement in the 1950s.

Parks, an African-American, is famous for not giving up her seat on a segregated¹ bus in favor of a white passenger. She was arrested by police for disobeying the rules.

This happened in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955. But since then, Rosa Parks’ name is sometimes used when Americans are talking about taking a political or social stand.

Maybe you are following the story about the men who are occupying a U.S. federal building in rural Oregon. Some believe that Ammon Bundy and his followers² are taking a stand.

This morning on Twitter, people expressed their outrage³ when a Twitter account that people thought belonged to Bundy compared what is happening in Oregon to what Parks did 60 years ago.

Rosa Parks’ name was mentioned on Twitter all day as people expressed their opinions.

Gwen Ifil hosts a political talk show on PBS in the United States.

She wrote: “I was so excited to see Rosa Parks trending. Then, cruel disappointment.”

But later in the day people said they didn’t think the account @Ammon_Bundy belonged to the militia⁴ leader. A reporter from the broadcaster MSNBC who is following the story in Oregon says Bundy does not have a Twitter account.

Until then, several stories had already been written about Bundy’s alleged⁵ comparison.

Twitter Character Count

Everyone who uses Twitter has another problem.

You compose an awesome⁶ “tweet,” but run out of room, like this:

The 140-character limit is to blame.

Twitter started as a “micro-blogging” service almost 10 years ago.

But when more people started using the social media platform, the complaint of “I don’t have enough room” was heard far and wide.

Instead of a short “quip,” people started sending a series of tweets on the same topic. Sometimes it was hard to understand which tweet should be read first.

Well, it looks like Twitter is thinking about expanding its character limit to 10,000. The service thinks increasing the character limit might entice⁷ new users to join the platform.

That’s why the hashtag #Twitter10k started trending.

Some people are for the expansion.

But either way, lots of people have an opinion.

Over 124,000 tweets were sent with that hashtag.

An Old Ship Is Discovered

A construction crew in Alexandria, Virginia, near Washington, D.C., unearthed⁸ an interesting artifact this week.

A ship from the 1770s emerged¹⁰ as a construction team was digging out land where a hotel will soon be built.

The archaeological company found some old wood at the site. It turns out the wood was part of a 50-foot long section of a boat that may have been three times that size.

One of the archaeologists called the discovery “the jewel in the crown.”

The firm that is building the hotel is going to pay to remove the ship. The City of Alexandria will have to decide how to preserve the ship.

And that’s What’s Trending Today.

Words in This Story

awesome – adj. extremely good

entice – v. to attract (someone) especially by offering or showing something that is appealing, interesting, etc.

militia – n. a group of people who are not part of the armed forces of a country but are trained like soldiers

platform – n. something that allows someone to tell a large number of people about an idea, product, etc.

artifact – n. a simple object (such as a tool or weapon) that was made by people in the past

emerge⁹ – v. to rise or appear from a hidden or unknown place or condition :to come out into view

take a stand – v. to believe in something strongly

preserve – v. to keep (something) in its original state or in good condition

1 segregated   

分开的； 被隔离的

参考例句：

• a culture in which women are segregated from men 妇女受到隔离歧视的文化
• The doctor segregated the child sick with scarlet fever. 大夫把患猩红热的孩子隔离起来。

2 followers   

追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件

参考例句：

• the followers of Mahatma Gandhi 圣雄甘地的拥护者
• The reformer soon gathered a band of followers round him. 改革者很快就获得一群追随者支持他。

3 outrage   

n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒

参考例句：

• When he heard the news he reacted with a sense of outrage.他得悉此事时义愤填膺。
• We should never forget the outrage committed by the Japanese invaders.我们永远都不应该忘记日本侵略者犯下的暴行。

4 militia   

n.民兵，民兵组织

参考例句：

• First came the PLA men,then the people's militia.人民解放军走在前面，其次是民兵。
• There's a building guarded by the local militia at the corner of the street.街道拐角处有一幢由当地民兵团守卫的大楼。

5 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

6 awesome   

adj.令人惊叹的，难得吓人的，很好的

参考例句：

• The church in Ireland has always exercised an awesome power.爱尔兰的教堂一直掌握着令人敬畏的权力。
• That new white convertible is totally awesome.那辆新的白色折篷汽车简直棒极了.

7 entice   

v.诱骗，引诱，怂恿

参考例句：

• Nothing will entice the children from television.没有任何东西能把孩子们从电视机前诱开。
• I don't see why the English should want to entice us away from our native land.我不明白，为什英国人要引诱我们离开自己的国土。

8 unearthed   

出土的（考古）

参考例句：

• Many unearthed cultural relics are set forth in the exhibition hall. 展览馆里陈列着许多出土文物。
• Some utensils were in a state of decay when they were unearthed. 有些器皿在出土时已经残破。

9 emerge   

vi.（从水中等）出来，出现，浮现，形成

参考例句：

• The baby's head was starting to emerge from the womb.婴儿的头开始从母亲的子宮中露出来。
• It's still hard to tell who will emerge victorious.鹿死谁手尚难逆料。

10 emerged   

vi. 浮现, (由某种状态)脱出, (事实)显现出来

参考例句：

• They emerged from the church into the bright daylight. 他们走出教堂来到明亮的日光下。
• The swimmer emerged from the lake. 游泳者从湖水中浮出来。