Shownotes Transcript
Hi there, and welcome to a new episode of News Bites!
I'm Nancy Sun.
And I'm Trevor Tortomasi.
In today's news:
A Taiwan marmalade maker wins gold…
Brawn, not brains, helped dinosaurs survive…
And the U.S. government returns stolen artifacts.
All that and more, coming up next.
台灣的果醬師傅贏得金牌 A Taiwan Marmalade Maker Wins Gold
There's no doubt about it, British people love their marmalade (果醬).
They love marmalade so much, having marmalade on toast (土司) is considered part of a traditional English breakfast.
So it might be difficult to imagine that anyone can make marmalade better than the British people.
But a lady in Taiwan has proven that she can not only make marmalade as well as a British marmalade maker can, she can do it better.
Kuo En-chi of Nantou county is the owner of Lohas Edible Rose Garden.
She wanted to see how good her marmalade was, and she sent four samples (樣品) to the World's Original Marmalade Awards and Festival, which is held in England every year. 台灣果醬師傅的柑橘玫瑰果醬在英國的"世界原創柑橘果醬大賽"得到金牌。
Not only was her marmalade good enough for the judges, it even won gold for the "artisan and small producer category" (工藝師與小量生產者).
It was not easy.
Her "orange marmalade with rose" competed against over 3,000 other marmalades.
En-chi's orange marmalade with rose was not her only winning product.
The other three samples she sent ended up winning silver medals, too.
Unfortunately, Kuo could not attend the awards.
She didn't want to travel because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This year's contest was not the first time Kuo entered her fruit preserves.
Last year, she sent six samples to the organizer.
Those preserves ended up winning her one gold and four bronze medals.
And now she can sell her fruit preserves (果醬、水果蜜餞) at Fortnum and Mason (福南梅森).
It's one of the most exclusive (高級的、豪華的) groceries in the country.
想繼續活下去？恐龍需靠肌肉、不靠大腦 Brawn, Not Brains, Helped Dinosaurs Survive
Surviving a big disaster (大災難) is not easy.
You might think being strong is not enough.
You have to be smart, too, right?
But what if the opposite (相反) was true?
Scientists who study dinosaurs, called paleontologists (古生物學家) have found something interesting.
A big asteroid (小行星) hit Earth 66 million years ago.
And the scientists think that after that, dinosaurs with small brains ruled the world.
In fact, scientists say that while dinosaurs got bigger, their brains actually got smaller.
Scientists used special technology called CT scans (電腦斷層掃描) to study the fossils (化石) of 28 different kinds of mammals from one era (時代).
They then did the same on 96 mammals from another era.
The researchers looked at the size of these animals' brains.
Some scientists said that the mammals that lived after the asteroid were not that smart. 有些古生物學家覺得小行星撞地球以後，身體強壯的動物才能生存下去。
They think the survivors (生存者) were not that smart.
These animals' bodies got bigger very quickly.
But their brains did not develop (發展) until many millions of years later.
The scientists think that dinosaur brains only developed the parts of the brain that it needed to survive.
These include the sense of smell (嗅覺), sight (視覺), and hearing (聽覺).
They think dinosaur brains only started to develop after they had to start fighting for resources (爭奪資源).
Of course, the opposite is true today.
Mammals have the biggest brains in the animal kingdom!
美國歸還利比亞文物 The U.S. Sends Artifacts Back to Libya
Libya (利比亞) is thanking the United States for returning nine valuable antiques (古董、文物).
The antiques include stone heads (石像), huge jars (罐子), and pottery (陶器), which were taken out of Libya illegally.
The pieces were not stolen from Libya's museums.
But they had been illegally excavated (挖掘) and then shipped to the United States.
美國歸還了在利比亞非法挖出的被盜文物。
They were identified by archaeologists (考古學家) because they have a very distinctive (獨特的) style.
All the pieces are now at the Museum of Libya in the country's capital, Tripoli.
So in today's News Bites:
A lady in Taiwan has proven that she can make amazing marmalade.
Her special marmalade won a gold medal at the World's Original Marmalade Awards and Festival.
The festival is held in England every year.
Scientists say being big was more important than being smart for dinosaurs millions of years ago.
They scanned fossils of the animals that lived after an asteroid hit Earth.
The brains were much smaller than researchers had thought.
And…
Libya is thanking the United States for returning important artifacts.
The antiques were not stolen from museums.
They were dug up illegally, before being sent to New York.
And that's today's episode of News Bites!