Extensive Reading Lesson 45

吴宇森威尼斯获终身成就奖

据《国际财经日报》报道，周五，电影导演吴宇森获得威尼斯电影节金狮奖“终身成就奖”，他是第一个获此殊荣的华人导演。吴宇森被威尼斯电影节誉为“当代电影语言的革新家”。吴宇森前往好莱坞打拼之前，就已经在香港赢得口碑。今年7月，香港特区政府授予他银紫荆花勋章，以表彰他为香港电影发展做出的贡献。吴宇森最为人熟知的作品包括：《碟中谍2》和《变脸》。吴宇森监制的最新武侠片《剑雨》已经先行在威尼斯展映。

长春客货相撞17人死

周五下午14时30分，在吉林长春绕城高速上，一辆由哈尔滨开往青岛的长途卧铺客车左前轮突然爆胎，失控冲破隔离带，撞开对面车道一辆捷达轿车后，与一辆货车迎面相撞。事故造成17人死亡，37人受伤。客货车相撞后起火，一个小时之内，车辆被烧得只剩下空壳。据现场一位女性目击者称，当时他看到一位20岁左右的小伙踹开窗户，逃了出来，并未跑开，而是又救了三个人。他名叫陈旭，在后来的采访中，他说：“当时感觉自己还有很多力气去救人，但救出第3个人后，向前走了几步就晕倒了。” 公安部交通管理局和国家安监局已派员连夜飞抵长春，介入事故调查。

新西兰发生7.2级地震 2人伤

据美国有线电视新闻网报道，今日凌晨4点35分，新西兰南岛发生里氏7.2级地震。震中距克赖斯特彻奇市56公里。截止目前，地震未造成人员死亡。但有100多人因碰伤或擦伤在医院接受治疗，有2人重伤，其中一名50岁左右男子被倒塌的烟囱砸伤，另外一名被碎玻璃割伤。地震二十分钟后在震中不远处又发生了5.7级余震。克赖斯特彻奇市警方称地震发生后有抢掠行为，但是已被迅速控制。当地官员已经宣布城市进入紧急状态。另据人民网报道，75%城区供电、供水中断，排污系统遭受严重破坏，机场随即关闭。克赖斯特彻奇市大约有37万人。

韩外长柳明桓提交辞呈

据法新社报道，韩国外交通商部长柳明桓就其女被特招进入外交部任职而引起争议一事于周六提交辞呈。韩国政府发言人表示，柳明桓已经正式提出辞职，并愿意承担因录用女儿一事所引发的负面后果。柳明桓对于外交部录取女儿任高薪职位而公开表示道歉。在高失业率的韩国，韩国外长靠裙带关系为女儿获得职位这件事引来了一片争议和挞伐声。

美高中生想当“世界最恶'”

据英国《每日电讯报》报道，美国南达科他州一名18岁中学生约瑟夫•托马斯•汉森扬言要做“世界上最无耻邪恶的人”，他策划炸掉自己的学校，希望造成最大程度的混乱、破坏以及人员伤亡，还说会在自杀之前杀掉所有幸存者。他因非法持有多种枪械和制造炸弹设备而被捕。警方在他家里找到一个笔记本，记录了他正在策划的恐怖活动。他已出庭受审，可能将被判处最高20年有期徒刑。

男性失眠或致早亡

据英国《每日电讯报》报道，美国《睡眠》杂志刊登的一项最新研究称，男性严重失眠可使早亡危险增4倍。美国宾夕法尼亚州立大学医学院的研究者14年间跟踪调查了741名中年男性，调查发现，男性失眠症患者的死亡率是健康睡眠模式的男性的4.3倍。同时患有2型糖尿病或者高血压的男性失眠患者，其早亡危险则会增加7倍。然而，研究发现，女性失眠症患者的死亡率与正常女性死亡率则没有差别。

IBM致力于建立电子病历

据《华尔街日报》报道，IBM目前正致力于帮助广东的一些医院建立标准的患者病历，这些病历将被用于中药治疗效果的数据分析。IBM的介入正值中国医疗科技行业升温之际。中国会投入巨额资金用于医疗改革，这吸引了戴尔和微软等一些跨国科技公司，他们都争相想在这个巨大的潜力市场分得一杯羹。

谷歌人才向Facebook流失

谷歌正面临人才流失难题，主要是因为Facebook挖其墙角。根据TechCrunch网站报道，谷歌为留住一名员工，给他在15万美元年薪基础上加薪15%、所持公司股权翻4倍、另加一份50万美元的现金奖金。这位员工竟然拒绝了这一条件，暗示着Facebook的开价更高。

《生化危机4》东京首映

据MusicJapanplus网络音乐杂志报道，9月2日，《生化危机4：来生》在日本东京举行首映。主创米帅温特沃斯•米勒、米拉•乔沃维奇、中岛美嘉以及阿莉•拉特亮相红毯。《生化危机》系列是首部改编自电玩游戏的电影，这部最新的科幻恐怖电影还将发行3D版和IMAX版。日本歌手中岛美嘉在剧中饰演血腥残暴的僵尸。

艺术家开内衣画展

据美国在线报道，9月24日，艺术家纳塔莎•祖潘将在圣地亚哥的亚历山大•萨拉泽画廊开一场内衣画展。她10年前就曾在纽约的一家画廊开过这样的画展，不过在9•11之后就关门了。祖潘用乳胶和石膏将内衣固定在木头和帆布上作画，有时候也会用到纸牌﹑缎带等私人小玩意。当然，并不是所有的内衣都是她自己的，有些是朋友们捐赠给她的。报道称，即将在圣地亚哥展出的画作能卖到5000至25000美元不等，而萨拉泽画廊方面则表示尚不确定，因为很多作品已被买走，到时候画作稀缺就会涨价。

Woo awarded Golden Lion

Film director John Woo won the Golden Lion award for lifetime achievement at the Venice Film Festival Friday, becoming the first Chinese recipient of this honor, IBTimes reported. Woo, a native Chinese raised in Hong Kong, was praised by the festival "as an innovator of the contemporary language of cinema." Woo won great fame as a director in Hong Kong before he relocated to Hollywood. He was awarded a top official honor from Hong Kong in July for his contribution to his hometown's film industry. Woo's best-known films include Mission: Impossible II and Face/Off. Reign of Assassins, Woo's latest martial-arts movie, was shown out of the competition in Venice.

Bus-truck crash kills 17

At 2:30 pm Friday, a sleeper bus struck a car and then collided head-on with a truck after a sudden flat tire on a highway in Changchun, Jilin Province. 17 people were killed and 37 injured. The bus lost control after its left-front tire burst and sent the bus into the opposite lane. Both vehicles caught fire and burned for an hour. A witness said she saw a man in his 20s kick out a window and save three individuals. The man, Chen Xu, said in an interview: "I thought I could save more, but after I rescued the third person, I was so tired and I fainted." The bus was heading from Ha'erbin to Qingdao. State traffic and safety officials have been sent to the site to investigate the case.

IPowerful quake strikes New Zealand

A 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck near Christchurch on South Island, New Zealand, at 4:35 am Saturday, CNN reported. The epicenter was 56 km from Christchurch. No deaths were immediately reported. Roughly 100 people were being treated for minor bumps and cuts. A man in his 50s was hit by a falling chimney while another suffered serious injuries after being cut by glass. An aftershock with a magnitude of 5.7 struck not far from the epicenter about 20 minutes later. Police said there was some initial looting, but it was quickly brought under control. Officials declared a state of emergency. People.com.cn reported that power and water supply were cut to 75 percent of the city. The sewage system was severely damaged, and the airport was closed. Christchurch has a population of 372,600.

S. Korean foreign minister offers to resign

South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-Hwan Saturday offered to resign over the controversial hiring of his daughter, AFP reported. Yu offered to step down, taking responsibility for causing controversy over the issue of hiring his daughter, a spokesman for the ministry said. Yu apologized after his ministry hired his daughter for a well-paid job, which sparked allegations of nepotism at a time of high unemployment.

Student's 'psycho' ambitions

American student Joseph Thomas Hansen,18, plotted to blow up his school and cause as "much chaos, death and destruction as possible", because he wanted to become "the world's most infamous sociopath for the rest of mankind", the Daily Telegraph reported. Hansen planned to gun down any survivors of the explosion before taking his own life. The student from Sisseton High School in South Dakota was arrested in possession of a mini arsenal of guns and bomb-making equipment. When police raided his home in Claire City they found a notebook in which he boasted about the terror attack he was planning. He faces a jail term of up to 20 years.

Male insomniacs likely to die early

Men with severe insomnia are four times more likely to suffer an early death, a new study conducted by Penn State College of Medicine and published in the journal Sleep has found, the Daily Telegraph reports. Researchers followed 741 late middle-aged men over a 14 year period, and found that those who suffered from the condition were 4.3 times more likely to have died over that period than the others. Men who had hypertension or type 2 diabetes were seven times more likely to have died. There was no increase in mortality among women with chronic insomnia.

IBM works on medical records

IBM is helping a group of Guangdong hospitals standardize their patient records and showing them how to use the records to make statistical analyses of traditional Chinese medicine treatments, the Wall Street Journal reported. IBM's solution comes as competition in China's health-care technology industry is heating up. China's plan to spend billions on health-care reform has multinational technology companies like Dell and Microsoft racing to secure a slice of a huge potential market.

Googlers quitting for Facebook

Google is struggling to retain staff, with Facebook reportedly poaching its key workers. TechCrunch.com said one Google employee turned down a 15 percent rise on his US$150,000 salary, a quadrupling of his stock options, and a US$500,000 cash bonus to stay another year, suggesting that Facebook made an even better offer.

'Resident Evil: Afterlife' premieres

The new Resident Evil film, Afterlife, premiered in Tokyo on Sept. 2, MusicJapanplus reported. Wentworth Miller, Milla Jovovich, Nakashima Mika and Ali Larter all strolled down the red carpet. The films are based on computer games, and this latest sci-fi action horror will be in 3D and IMAX. Nakashima Mika is appearing in the movie as bloody zombie.

Panty-painting exhibition planned

Artist Natasha Zupan plans to exhibit her panty paintings at the Alexander Salazar gallery in San Diego on Sept. 24, AOL News reported. She created a similar exhibit ten years ago in a New York art gallery that closed in the aftermath of 9/11.The pieces consist of Zupan's underwear stuck to wood and canvas using latex and plaster. Other personal items in the display include playing cards and lace. Not all the underwear belongs to her; some was donated by friends. The paintings on display in San Diego will range in value from US$5,000 to $25,000. Salazar said many of the pieces have already been sold and scarcity is driving up the prices of the rest.