News feed：Mission accomplished

[2021.01.20] 發表

【明報專訊】GEOFFREY MA (馬道立), who had served as Chief Justice of Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal for the past 10 years, retired on January 11. In a farewell sitting, Ma said human rights are fundamental to the Basic Law. Borrowing the quote from the Bible by Lord Denning, a late prominent judge in the UK, he said, ''I wish I could say I fought the good fight, I finished the course, I kept the faith.'' Ma has been succeeded by Andrew Cheung, a permanent judge of the Court of Final Appeal.

The rest is history

THE first volume of Hong Kong Chronicles (《香港志》), a series of Hong Kong history, has been unveiled. This 66-volume project will be completed by 2027 and covers 7,000 years of Hong Kong history up to 2017, linking the city's heritage to China's. The rest is history. This ambitious project is led by an institute under former Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa's Our Hong Kong Foundation (團結香港基金), a patriotic think tank, costing HK$780 million. The institute says the history books will remind people that Hong Kong has long been a part of China since ancient times, denying that they are written to brainwash people.

COVID mutants

THE new version of the COVID-19 virus identified in South Africa is more dangerous than that found in England, as it has mutated much quicker than the latter, enabling it to escape from antibodies, small proteins generated by the immune system after injection to help stamp the virus out. Scientists say that it might be more resistant to vaccines, and that vaccines should be launched more quickly around the globe.

■Gear up

Circle the correct answers.

(1) Who is Geoffrey Ma?

(See picture)

(2) According to one passage, it is confirmed that the new version of the COVID-19 virus cannot be blocked by vaccines.

( True / False / Not given )

(3)Hong Kong Chronicles is a mainland China-led history project.

( True / False / Not given )

(Answers on next text)

■Glossary

late (adj) 已故的

succeed (v) 繼任