Hello everyone, and welcome to a new episode of News Bites!
I'm Paz Bueno…
And I'm Trevor Tortomasi.
In today's news:
A magazine ranks Taipei among world cities, wildfires in Europe, and an eco-mermaid swimming to raise awareness of pollution.
Stay tuned for these stories and more, coming up next.
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台北: 全球最宜居住城市第十名
Taipei ranked tenth most livable city in world
Taipei was named the tenth best city in the world for quality of living (生活品質) by Monocle, a lifestyle magazine from the U.K.
The magazine (雜誌) asked many people to answer questions and selected the world's top 25 cities.
They asked about cost of living, retail, hospitality, culture and access to green spaces.
他們問的問題包括生活成本、零售業、餐旅業、文化環境，以及能使用多少綠色空間。
In Asia, only Tokyo finished above Taipei, placing sixth.
The magazine says Taipei is a subtropical oasis teeming with stunning hiking trails and walkable city streets.
該雜誌說，台北是一個亞熱帶綠洲，擁有迷人的步道和好走的城市街道。
It says Taipei is known for food stalls(小吃攤) that are open 24 hours a day.
It also says Taipei is very safe, and has convenient public transportation.
The article also praised (稱讚) Taiwan for having a great healthcare system (醫療系統) and low living costs compared to other cities in the world.
The editors highlighted (強調) the many natural places in the city.
But the article also mentions some drawbacks (缺點).
It says people in Taipei need to cross the street more carefully.
And banks need an upgrade (升級) to make it easier for residents and travelers to manage their money.
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極端高溫 導致西班牙和德國野火蔓延
Extreme heat causes wildfires in Spain and Germany
There have been wildfires (野火) burning in parts of Europe because of very high temperatures (溫度).
In many cities in Spain and Germany, the temperatures have passed 38 degrees Celsius (攝氏38度) for a few days now.
Scientists say climate change is making the weather hotter and hotter.
Spain's worst affected region, near the Portuguese border, the northwest province of Zamora, was dealing with a very big fire.
西班牙受災最嚴重的地區，是靠近葡萄牙邊界的薩莫拉省，最近才撲滅非常大規模的火災。
More than 500 firefighters were fighting it.
There aren't that many people living in Zamora, but the fire spread to some areas with homes, forcing (強迫) some people to leave and move to safer places.
Lightning (閃電) started the fire in Zamora.
Fire has burned more than 61,000 acres, which is the size of about 39,000 football fields!
大火燒毀了超過61,000英畝的土地，大約是39,000個足球場的大小！
Winds and no rain have helped the fires.
As fires moved closer to populated areas (人口稠密地區), the authorities in Spain have evacuated (撤離) 15 small villages.
Some animals have been evacuated as well.
Many other areas of Europe have also faced very hot temperatures over the past few days.
In Germany, residents in villages southwest of the capital Berlin (柏林) were told to move because of fires.
Those living in nearby areas evacuated to a nearby community center.
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"生態美人魚"游泳對抗塑膠污染
'Eco-Mermaid' Swims to Fight Plastic Pollution
"Eco-mermaid" Merle Liivand broke her own record for swimming with a single fin (美人魚鰭).
She swam the distance of a full marathon in the waters of Biscayne Bay, Florida.
她在佛羅里達州比斯坎灣的水域，游了整場馬拉松的距離。
She even picked up trash as she went.
Ms. Liivand was born in Estonia (愛沙尼亞).
When she was a kid, she had lung problems (肺部問題), so she started swimming to get stronger.
Ms. Liivand moved to Florida, where she continued swimming in the ocean.
In one training session, she nearly swallowed some plastic that was floating in the sea.
在一次訓練中，她差一點就吞下一些漂浮在海中的塑膠。
That experience made her think of all the sea animals who face pollution (污染) every day.
She wanted to work to make people know more of plastic pollution.
She began swimming with a special single swimming fin attached to her feet.
她開始穿著特殊的美人魚鰭游泳。
This rubbery "monofin" allows her to swim by kicking both of her legs together, like a mermaid.
這種特殊的魚鰭讓她可以像美人魚一樣，用雙腳一起踢水來游泳。
Ms. Liivand set the world record (創下世界紀錄) for swimming with a monofin in 2019, when she swam 10 kilometers (10公里) off the coast of California (加州).
Last year, she set a new Guinness World Record (金氏世界紀錄) by swimming 30 kilometers, again in Florida.
Ms. Liivand says she knew she could go farther (可以游得更遠).
So for the last year, Ms. Liivand has been getting up at 4 in the morning every day, putting on her monofin, and going swimming.
On May 7th, Ms. Liivand broke the record once more, this time swimming the length of a full marathon (游完全程馬拉松的距離).
It took her 11 hours and 54 seconds to swim 42.2 kilometers.
The water was rough (波浪很大), and she ran into a few problems, but she didn't stop.
Along the way, Ms. Liivand picked up all the trash she found and put it in the kayak.
By the end of her marathon, the kayak held three bags full of trash.
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So, in today's News Bites:
Taipei was named the tenth best city in the world for quality of living by Monocle, a lifestyle magazine from the U.K.
The article mentions many advantages of living in Taipei.
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And,
There have been wildfires burning in parts of Europe because of the very high temperatures.
Scientists say climate change is making the weather hotter and hotter.
Many people were evacuated from their homes.
________________________________
And,
"Eco-mermaid" Merle Liivand broke her own record for swimming with a single fin.
She started swimming with a monofin in order to raise awareness of ocean pollution.
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And that's today's episode of News Bites!