Learning English - Words in the News

[megunz]

Hi everyone. I'm very glad to have my first topic in learning english club. As you see the name of topic - Learning English - Words in the News- we will talk about the words that are used in common news statements. I decide to have our first lesson from bbc news about japannes behavior in second world war . for the last point I want you all to be active here and let others learn more with your help. to do this , search and read news in english and paste the whole news here. some thing like the first lesson beneath this text. I will be grateful of your help . good luck
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FIRST LESSON: Textbook changes in Japan
The Japanese island of Okinawa has urged the government in Tokyo not to change school textbooks that say the Japanese army forced Okinawa civilians to commit suicide in the Second World War
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It's not the first time Japanese textbooks have been criticised for revising history. China has frequently accused Japan of glossing over wartime atrocities. But now education ministry officials are coming under fire from their own countrymen.
The dispute is over the events of the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. In March the ministry decided to tone down references to Japanese soldiers forcing civilians on the island to commit suicide, rather than surrender to American forces. It argued that the suicides were voluntary.
The local assembly in Okinawa has now issued a statement saying that's not so. Eye-witnesses at the time described fanatical soldiers handing out grenades with which people killed themselves. The assembly said it was an undeniable fact that the Japanese military were involved in the mass suicides, and that the truth should remain in print as a warning, to prevent a repeat of such tragic events. Some two-hundred thousand people died when American marines stormed Okinawa in 1945.
Keith Adams, BBC
glossing over
underplaying, not fully explaining the details of, somewhat ignoring
atrocities
terrible and cruel acts (against people)
coming under fire
receiving criticism
tone down
reduce, adjust to make less forceful
civilians
ordinary people who are not part of the military
Eye-witnesses
people who saw the event in question
fanatical
extremely enthusiastic (with a negative connotation/meaning)
handing out
giving
undeniable
certain, unquestionable
in print
written down as a record

سلام به همگي.
اميدوارم همتون خوبه خوب باشين . امروز با زدن اين تاپيك مي خوام راهي باز كنم براي هممون تا بتونيم از طريق مرور خبرها كه به نظر خودم مهمترين بخش هاي هر زباني در اين قسمت نهفته است ( از گرامرو لغت گرفته تا ... ) ، زبان انگليسي خودمونو تقويت كنيم . اميدوارم همه شما من رو تو اين كار كمك كنيد . حتي يك خط از يك خبر هم ميتونه براي پيشرفت ما مهم باشه . پس به اميد همياري همه شما.

[megunz]

Hi everybody . here we are going to have our second lesson. good luck.
Instant messaging

When you meet someone for the first time, do you ask their ASL? Do you LOL if they come out with something funny, and say 'CU L8er' when you finish the conversation? If you know what I'm talking about, then you are probably already a user of Instant Messaging, or IM.
The idea behind IM is simple. When you send someone an email, you don't know when you will get a reply. Your friend might not check their messages, or might not use that email address anymore. With IM, however, a program on your computer tells you when a friend is online. You can then send a message to your friend, who can type a reply instantly. To do this, you need an IM program, such as AIM, ICQ, MSN Messenger or Windows IM.
IM is already hugely popular in the USA, where people spend five times more time online than in Europe. However, IM is starting to take off in the UK, with over 3,000 people signing up to MSN Messenger alone every day. Worldwide, AIM, the IM service provided by AOL is by far the most popular. It has 195 million users who send about 1.6 billion messages every day. ICQ, which is owned by AOL, has about 140 million messengers, and MSN and Windows IM put together have about 75 million users.
The advantages of IM are obvious, but there is one very important disadvantage. You can only contact someone on the same network as you. If your friend is using AIM, and you are using MSN, you cannot talk to each other. This makes IM less useful than it should be. Imagine if you could not send an email from Hotmail to Yahoo. However, things look like they will change soon.
In general, the future looks bright for IM. Many programs also allow you to have voice conversations, have video conferencing - this means you can see the other person using a webcam - and also let you swap pictures, music and other files.
So, perhaps we'll all soon be asking someone's age, *** and location (ASL), and laughing out loud (LOL) when they say something funny. See you later! (CU L8er)




Vocabulary
come out with
here, say

program
computer software, application (note the American spelling)
online
connected to a computer network, in this case to an IM service
hugely popular
used by many people
take off
become popular
signing up to
becoming users of
owned by
if something is owned by someone, it belongs to them
obvious
evident, clear, easy to see and understand
the future looks bright
what will happen later is likely to be good
webcam
a camera which records moving images and sound and allows these to be transmitted over a computer network, e.g. the Internet, as they happen
swap
exchange

[Petros]

Thanx megunz

But Would you mind paying more attention to beginners?
Everybody who comes here criticize this section (English as a Foreign Language ) because of lacking informations for beginners. I just want you to translate the special terms in Persian beside English

Thanx again

[megunz]

Hi dear petros . I promise to do my best .