Words and Terms in the news

Silk Road (an ancient trade route between China and the Mediterranean)
oasis (in a desert, an isolated area of vegetation)
"The former Silk Road oasis of Hetian perches on the edge of China's Taklimakan Desert, a gravelly wasteland of scrub and rock." (page 26)

curtly (bluntly or gruffly)
"Yet when reached by phone, four local officials curtly denied reports of a protest, arrests or a curfew." (page 26)

tin-pot (insignificant or inferior)
petulant (easily irritated or annoyed)
"In recent weeks China has been acting less like a budding superpower than a tin-pot dictatorship—petulant, preachy, defiant." (page 28)

truncheon (a short, stout club used primarily by police officers)
quell (suppress or crush)
"Global audiences have seen images of truncheon-wielding riot police, sent to Lhasa and other Tibetan areas to quell anti-Beijing protests that began on March 10." (page 28)

agitprop (propaganda, distributed mainly through literature, drama, music or art)
"Each new clampdown—and the shrill agitprop that accompanies it—seems guaranteed to antagonize not only China's restive Tibetan and Uighur minorities but also the nations scheduled to compete at the Olympic Games in Beijing this August." (page 28)

© 2008