bombshell (n.) 突發而驚人的事
stun (v.) 驚愕
e.g. The Dumbledore bombshell has stunned Potter fans around the world and left many wondering why Rowling waited until the conclusion of her seven-book series to reveal the sexuality of the Hogwarts headmaster.
Example from: "Rowling knew early on Dumbledore was gay" by thestar.com
relapse (v.) 舊病復發、故態復萌
e.g. Asked if she ever doubted Ms Wong’s purpose, Dr Sam insisted the patient had some symptoms at each consultation and denied any improper issuing of certificates. “Although the patient felt better sometimes, the disease would sometimes relapse. I thought she should have a rest before going to work.”
Example from: "Doctor gave woman 30 sick notes in 10 weeks" by SCMP
backslide (v.) 墮落、背離、退步
paralysis (n.) 癱瘓、停頓
e.g. But instead of the hoped-for reforms, the Chinese government appears to be backsliding on its promises, including in Hong Kong where we have near total political paralysis, not the promised road to full democracy.
Example from: "China's Olympic Opportunity" by Martin LEE
經過三代的努力，藍水滴終於變成我喜歡的模樣，就是頭頂開花。哈哈！（不要怪我品味特別，這個模樣很像花瓶，kawaii...）本來打算如果第三代仍然沒有開花，便會養第四代的栗子頭。現在不養了，但又喜歡第四代，矛盾。
The government should set up a mental health bureau and pay serious attention to the worsening problems caused by mental illness, an advocacy group and legislators said yester
day.
They said Hong Kong did not spend enough helping mental patients and their relatives, which could exacerbate their problems.
The calls came as a survey found 70 per cent of the mental patients' relatives were depressed.
The Alliance for Advocating Mental Health Policies, which interviewed 113 relatives of mental patients, found 33 per cent showed serious symptoms of depression that required immediate help.
While lower-income families were more likely to suffer from symptoms of depression, sharing a home with a mentally ill relative also increased people's chances of becoming depressed.
Fernando Cheung Chiu-hung, the legislator representing the social welfare sector, said the results indicated the government could target this group for extra attention.
Medical legislator Kwok Ka-ki said the government tended to underestimate the problem of mental illness and was not providing enough resources.
He said loss of productivity from mental illness reached 4 per cent of gross domestic product in some developed countries.
A European Commission study in 2005 determined that depression would be the major cause of disability in the developed world by 2020.
Dr Kwok said the fact the government was spending just HK$3.1 billion a year, or less than 0.25 per cent of GDP, on mental illnesses indicated it had a backward mindset.
The government should set up and fund an independent body on mental illnesses.
"Cancer, for example, can kill a person but it is not communicable. But mental illness has a spiralling effect," he said.
Alliance spokeswoman Annie Cheng Tsui-hung said the government should first set up more service centres especially designed for family members of the mentally ill.
"According to government statistics, there are 200,000 people suffering from mental illnesses. Based on families of three, the number of family members being affected is at least 400,000," she said.
A call was made yesterday for tougher penalties for careless driving after a school bus driver who ran over and killed an elderly woman was sentenced to community service.
Lee Kwok-wah, 60, was handed 120 hours' community service and disqualified from driving for six months by a magistrate who said the driver might not have noticed the petite 78-year-old as she crossed the road at a point where she possibly should not have done.
Making the order in Sha Tin Court, Timothy Casewell took into account the grounds that Lee was his family's sole breadwinner and had a 30-year clean record.
Lee had earlier been acquitted of the more serious charge of dangerous driving causing death.
The chairman of the Legislative Council's transport panel, Andrew Cheng Kar-foo, said the Road Traffic Ordinance should be reviewed and the maximum penalties for both offences increased.
"This will help to alert the Department of Justice and the court that more scrutiny must be paid to sentencing and conviction," he said. "There are too many [fatal] cases that made us feel uncomfortable with [the penalties]."
The maximum penalty for careless driving is a six-month jail term and a HK$4,000 fine. For dangerous driving causing death, the maximum fine is HK$50,000 and five years in jail.
Yesterday's case was the third in the past month in which the lenience of the sentences was questioned.
Making his order, the magistrate said Lee's driving skill "was not the sole cause" of the fatal accident in Yi Shing Square, Sha Tin, on November 17 last year.
He had earlier ruled that the woman, just 1.4m tall, might have been standing in the blind spot in the mirror the driver used to show areas obscured by his vehicle's body.
He also said the prosecution had failed to show that the woman had crossed the road properly. But as the driver of a large vehicle, Lee should have scrutinised his surroundings carefully.
Last month two Kowloon City Bus drivers, both charged with dangerous driving causing death, were fined. Yeung Kam-ming, 49, was fined HK$4,000 and disqualified from driving for two months after his double decker ran over and killed an 80-year-old jaywalker in Mong Kok.
A HK$5,000 fine and 12 months' disqualification was imposed on Lee Wai-man, 52, whose double-decker rammed a container truck on a Yuen Long highway and two passengers were thrown from the upper deck through a torn-off roof, killing one.
Insufficient population, high costs and a reclamation dispute had once been the major stumbling blocks for a rail extension into the island's oldest district.
The calls for the extension date back to 1985, when the Hong Kong Island Line opened.
Residents were denied access to rail services because of planning guidelines that said a rail would be built only when the area population reached 500,000. Although the threshold was lowered to 300,000, the district still failed to get what it wanted, having a population of about 270,000.
At one point, the government hoped a massive reclamation project on Green Island would justify extending the rail service. But the project was scrapped because of a property market slump and opposition to harbour reclamation.
Hope resurfaced in 2000 when the second railway development study listed the West Island Line together with the South Island Line in a blueprint for rail extension. But subsequent plans by the MTR Corp had to be modified in view of costs and local district development plans.
The original proposal of developing a rail loop linking Western and Southern districts was scrapped, and the two projects were delinked.
In 2005 the government finally approved the project, but the MTR Corp found it difficult to finance it without government funding or being given property development rights in Ka Wai Man Road. The government eventually agreed to inject HK$6 billion instead of offering the land to the rail operator.
今天又呆坐OT個半小時，沒錯，是呆坐 + 個半小時！要明白OT是沒有補水的。其實只要工作真的多得做不完，OT無補水我是接受的，但請不要OT無聊無野做浪費時間！唉……明天一定要準時閃人！加油呀！
原來無所事事吹冷氣是會頭痛的。痛到爆炸！
看到同事可以調到新部門去，以後可以準時下班，羨慕！
