creek英语新闻选编

Iceland’s

President Suggests Banning Pineapple onPizza

This is

What’s

Trending Today.

The last time this many people were talking about Iceland was in June, when the small

country’ssoccer

team defeate

d England in the Euro 2016

tournament

.

People were talking about players like Sigurdsson and Sigthorsson, who each scored goals in thegame.

Now, many people are talking about Johannesson. That is Gudni Johannesson, the President ofIceland.

Johannesson recently visited a high school. One of the students asked him what he thought aboutpineapple on pizza.

According to the Guardian newspaper, Johannesson answered questions on a range of topics,including his favorite so

ccer team. (Turns out it is Manchester United.)

He also said he was

“fundamentally

opposed”

to pineapple on pizza. And he would ban it, if hecould.

After the news of his opposition to pineapple made news around the world, he clarified hisposition on his Facebook p

age.

Johannesson

wrote: “I

like pineapples, just not on

pizza.”

He then ex

plained

that he was glad he did not have the power to ban pineapples from pizza. Hesaid he would not li

ke to live in a country that allowed its president to pass laws just because hedid not like something.

People are still talking about pineapple on pizza, however. They wrote messages on

Johannesson’sFacebook

page in

both English and Icelandic.

One person

wrote: “Thank

you for saying out loud that pineapples

shouldn’t

be allowed

onpizzas!”

Another

wrote: “I

love pineapple on pizza, but I

applaud

your attitude to

government.”

And still another

endorsed

his support of Manchester United.

One radio program in Canada

interviewed

Sam Panopoulos. He is a Greek immigrant

credited

with adding pineappl

e to pizza.

He said in the 1950s and 1960s, nobody in Canada was eating very much pizza. And no one wasmixing sweet and so

ur flavors.

Panopoulos said

“it

was

plain

,

plain

food.”

But after he started putting pineapple on pizza, everything changed. Pizza became moreinteresting.1

He sold pineapple pizza at his restaurant in Ontario, Canada for the next 40 or 45 years.

“You

can put whatever you want on it, and everybody eats

it,”

he said.

Now, we can thank the President of Iceland for the lesson on the history of pineapples on pizza.

And

that’s

What’s

Trending Today.

I’m

Dan Friedell.

Snapchat Prepares $$20 Billion IPO, Launches VideoGlasses

The owner of messaging service Snapchat is preparing for thetechnology

industry’s

biggest initial public offering, or I

PO, since2014.

Snap Inc. recently filed for the IPO, which will allow the company to offer stock shares to thepublic on the New York

Stock Exchange. According to multiple media reports, the IPO will happenin early March.

Based on its targeted share price, the IPO would put the Los Angeles- based

company’s

value atmore than $$20 billion

. That predicted valuation is based on the stock being offered at $$14-$$16per share.

Snap Inc. would be the biggest IPO in the technology industry since

China’s

Alibaba Group wentpublic in 2014.

The

company’s

26-year-old Chief Executive Officer, Evan Spiegel, is currently meeting withinvestors in the U.S. and a

broad to seek support for the IPO.

Snap Inc. began as Snapchat in 2011. It became a popular messaging app for sharing app was unusual b

ecause it automatically deleted photos after they were sent. Messagesbecame known as

“Snaps.”

Over the years, the company developed additional products related to photo and videomessaging. For example, user

s can add entertaining features like text and

animation

to photosand videos.

The company also added a

“Discover”

section containing short news videos. Another feature

called“Stories”

lets peop

le create collections of messages, videos and photos from the past 24 hours.

Some of Snap

Inc.’s

competitors

–

like Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp

–

have copied someof these features a

s a way to win new users.

Snapchap says it had 158 million active daily users at the end of 2016, with an average of 2.5billion Snaps created ev

ery day.

Most users of the service are between 18-34 years old. Those under 25 are most active and spendmore than 30 min

utes a day on the app, according to Snap.

Snap Inc. has said its goal is to

“

reinvent

the

camera”

to

“improve

the way people live

andcommunicate.”

It has sig

naled a desire to produce hardware to improve the Snapchat service.

One of the new products is a pair of sunglasses that can record short video clips. The companyjust started selling the

glasses online for just under $$130 in the United States.

Until now, the new glasses - called Spectacles

–

were only sold at limited places in the U.S. andsold out very quickly.

Spectacles look a lot like many other regular sunglasses. But they have a built-in camera in frontthat can record up t

o 10 seconds of video. They come in bright colors and were designed toappeal to people seeking a new, fun experie

nce on Snapchat.

Spectacles connect to Snapchat through Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, allowing users to immediately sendthe clips to others.

Snap Inc. is also reportedly developing products for future release related to virtual reality,augmented reality and faci

al recognition.

I’m

Bryan Lynn.

Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on reports from the Associated Pressand other sources.

Hai Do was the editor.

February 16, 2017

From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm David DeForestreporting.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu projected a message

of unity during aWhite House meeting Wednesday. Mr. Trump suggested that the U.S. could back

either a two-state or a one-state solution for the region depending on what both parties like.

Here is Mr. Netanyahu:

requisites

of peace: Recognition of the Jewish state, andIsrael's security needs west

of the Jordan. They remain pertinent. We have to look for new ways,new ideas, on how to reinsta

te them.

During their news conference, Mr. Trump asked Mr. Netanyahu to

panding settlements in Palestinian territory while the White House works on efforts to revive the

Middle East peace process.

President Trump struck back Wednesday at media reports about

alleged

links between him andRu

ssia.

In a string of Twitter comments, the president blamed the intelligence community for what hecall

ed

Reports appearing in The Washington Post last week revealed possibly improper conversationsbe

tween ousted National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and the Russian

ambassador

.

Later in public remarks, the president staunchly defended Flynn, saying he is a wonderful man th

athas been treated unfairly by the media.

a sad thing that he was treated so badly.

Some senior Republican senators vowed Wednesday to

investigate

the matter while oppositionDe

mocrats are calling for an independent probe

Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced

legislation

Wednesday to prevent thead

ministration from repealing sanctions on Russia without congressional approval.

This is VOA news.

U.S. retail sales and inflation rose in January, strengthening the case for the central bank to raisei

nterest rates. Retail sales advanced four-tenths of a percent for the month.