B*News Bites 文字檔 (國中)
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Hi there! It's time for another episode of News Bites!
I'm Nancy Sun.
And I'm Jacob Ingram.
In today's news:
More garbage in the river, and a new topping on your pizza.
And in today's Tasty Tidbit…
Winter is coming! And we've got the jokes to get you ready for chilly winter! Stay tuned!
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淡水河垃圾量三年增一倍
Tamsui River Garbage Doubles in Three Years
It's the year 2023 and it's hard to believe people just throw trash into the rivers and oceans.
But that is still happening.
A local environmental NGO (非政府組織), recently released the results of a survey.
The Society of Wilderness (荒野保護協會SOW) says the amount of garbage along the Tamsui River and its tributaries (支流) has doubled in the past 3 years.
How did they figure this out?
The society asked 36 volunteers to collect data.
They covered the entire Tamsui River basin, estuaries (河口) and nearby areas.
They traveled just over 283 kilometers on bicycle and foot.
They picked up as much trash as they could, and put them into 14-liter garbage bags.
In total, they collected 56,617 bags of garbage.
That works out to about 156 bags of garbage per kilometer.
In 2020, it was 73 bags of garbage per kilometer.
This year, they also found that 80% of the garbage was concentrated (集中) along the river banks.
And single-use plastic items took up almost 70% of the waste.
This includes plastic bottles, containers, food packaging bags and disposable tableware.
The SOW thinks the increase of the plastic garbage was due to the pandemic.
During the pandemic, there was a huge demand for food delivery and takeaways.
This led to the increase of single-use plastic waste.
這些垃圾幾乎都來自於民眾在上游人煙稀少區域非法丟棄垃圾。
When there is heavy rain or a typhoon, the garbage is brought downstream.
This is a huge threat to the eco-system of the river, especially the Mangrove Conservation Area (紅樹林保護區).
Garbage gets stuck in the mangrove forests very easily.
The SOW suggested that we need to use less disposable items.
Authorities aid they would continue to strengthen the promotion of waste reduction.
And people really should think twice about dumping garbage illegally.
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香港披薩店推出蛇肉披薩
Pizza Chain Sells Snake Pizza in Hong Kong
We've talked before about strange new pizza toppings.
Remember durian pizza, bubble tea pizza and pig's blood cake pizza?
All these were made by pizza restaurants in Taiwan.
And pizza shops in Japan have made pork bone soup ramen pizza.
Now, it's Hong Kong's turn.
A Hong Kong pizza chain is working with a very old restaurant to make a special pizza.
They're turning a traditional dish into pizza.
It's snake stew pizza!
披薩連鎖店在香港地區推出全新「蛇肉披薩」。
What's on this pizza?
There's shredded snake meat (蛇肉絲), black mushroom and dried ham.
Snake stew has long been a local delicacy (美食) in Hong Kong and southern China.
Local people eat it during the colder months.
There's a saying in Cantonese (廣東話), the best time to eat snake is "when the autumn wind begins to blow."
This is because during this time, snakes have fattened up to prepare for winter hibernation (冬眠).
Eating snake is not a totally new idea.
Snake meat is on the menu in some Asian countries.
And snake parts are used in traditional Chinese medicine.
But people have very different opinions about this new snake stew pizza.
Some who don't eat snake say the idea is very scary.
But some who like to eat snake meat are excited about the pizza.
Some people say the snake meat tastes even better with cheese.
It looks like the fusion of pizza and traditional dishes is getting really popular.
It makes people wonder what's next on the menu.
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So, in today's News Bites:
The Society of Wilderness says the amount of garbage along the Tamsui River and its tributaries has doubled in the past 3 years.
36 volunteers picked up garbage from the entire Tamsui River basin, estuaries and nearby areas.
In total, they collected 56,617 bags of garbage.
The SOW suggested that we need to use less disposable items.
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And,
A Hong Kong pizza chain is working with a very old restaurant to make a special pizza.
They're turning a traditional dish into pizza.
It's snake stew pizza, with shredded snake meat, black mushroom and dried ham.
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趣味小點
Tasty Tidbit
Brrr…
Have you been feeling the chill? It seems like winter is coming soon.
Here's a joke to warm you up.
You ready?
What did one snowman say to the other?
"Do you smell carrot?"
And here's fifth-grader 葉峟希 telling us what she likes about winter.
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[CLIP]
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If you have a fun fact, a joke, or interesting news you'd like to share with us, record your message and send us your Tasty Tidbit to newsbites@icrt.com.tw, and you might hear it at the end of an episode!
We'll see you next time for an exciting new episode of News Bites!