Shownotes Transcript
Hello everybody, and welcome to a new episode of News Bites!
I'm Trevor Tortomasi…
And I'm Ryan Drillsma.
In today's news:
Food gets expensive, a robot touches the sun, and a family gets a Christmas surprise.
All that and more, coming up next.
餐廳漲價 政府要查 Taiwan Government Investigates Rising Restaurant Prices
How much do you pay for hot pot?
And how much for a hamburger?
Well, it might be a different amount of money than it was a few years ago.
That's because the prices (價錢) of many foods in Taiwan have been getting higher…
The higher prices are mostly at hot pot restaurants (火鍋) and places that sell fast food (速食).
For example, people are having to pay more money for dumplings from Bafang (八方雲集).
Prices are also rising (漲價) at famous locations like Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐).
Their steamed buns (包子) and xiaolongbao (小籠包) have gotten more expensive.
But why?
Well, that's what Taiwan's government has put together a team to find out!
Taiwan's Ministry of Justice (法務部) has started to look into the changing prices.
They will make inspections (檢查), to ask the restaurants why prices are getting higher.
The restaurants will have to give proof of where they are getting their food, and how much money they are paying. 餐廳必須告訴法務部食物的來源，以及原料的成本。
The Ministry of Justice says the main food suppliers (食材供應者) of these restaurants have not seen big price changes in meat, vegetables, or fruit.
So the government will continue to investigate suppliers, to find any inconsistencies. 所以政府會繼續調查，看看為什麼原料沒怎麼漲，售價卻上揚。
We'll see what they find, and maybe the prices can go back down…
Until then, eating less fast food and hot pot is healthier anyway!
美國太空總署探測器 首座【接觸】太陽的太空船 NASA Probe Becomes First Spacecraft To 'Touch' The Sun
Every day, we can feel the sun (太陽).
It makes things brighter, it keeps us warm, and it can even give us a sunburn (曬傷).
But can we actually touch it?
Well, first of all, the sun is about 150 million kilometers (一億五千萬公里) away from our planet Earth.
And we don't really have a good reason to send a real person all the way there.
But one machine, called the Parker Solar Probe (派克太陽探測器), has been studying the sun for years already…
And this month, it got closer to the sun than we've ever been before!
The Parker Solar Probe, also called the P.S.P., is a spacecraft that was sent into space in the year 2018.
It was made to fly very close to the sun, to help us learn more about the stars of our universe. 這枚探測器會盡量接近太陽，好讓我們更了解宇宙中的恆星。
And for three years, it has been flying around the sun's corona (日冕).
"Corona" means "crown", so the sun's corona is a hot area of light that stretches far out from the sun… about 13 million kilometers above its surface! 【Corona】也有【王冠】的意思，所以太陽的日冕就是它周圍的光環，它的範圍是從太陽表面往外延伸一千三百萬公里。
And the corona can get up to around 1 million degrees Celsius (攝氏一百萬度).
That's even hotter than the sun's surface (日冕比太陽表面溫度還要高)!
We don't think the P.S.P. could touch the sun's surface, but this month, it finally flew inside the corona for the first time.
It's a lot like if a ship from outer space touched our sky, and breathed our air, but didn't touch our ground.
So, do you think the P.S.P. touched the sun?
Either way, we're probably more comfortable just feeling the sun from over here!
有人發現 毒蛇躲在聖誕樹裡! Venomous Snake Found In Family's Christmas Tree
We hope you've had a Merry Christmas this year!
Maybe you decorated (裝飾) your house, saw family and friends, and got some presents…
Well, usually Christmas presents are under a tree, but this year, one family in South Africa (南非) got a bigger surprise INSIDE their tree…
It was a tree snake!
One day this month, the family noticed their cats staring up into the tree's branches… 有一天，這個家的主人注意到，他們的貓咪一直瞪著聖誕樹。
When they looked closer, they found a snake!
And after finding its picture on the internet, they realized it was a kind of snake called a "boomslang", which is one of the most venomous snakes in Africa. 他們上網查詢這條蛇的照片，發現牠是一種叫做【boomslang】的非洲樹蛇，而且是非洲最毒的蛇之一！
The family quickly called a snake catcher, who came to rescue the snake.
He said it was probably looking for food and water, then got scared and hid (躲起來了) in the tree.
Luckily (幸好), everyone was safe in the end, but still…
Watch out for presents that you might not expect!
So, in today's News Bites:
Taiwan's Ministry of Justice has started to look into higher prices at restaurants.
They will investigate the restaurants, to find any inconsistencies.
The restaurants will have to give proof of how much money they are paying for food.
And,
The Parker Solar Probe is a spacecraft that flies very close to the sun, to help us learn more about stars.
For three years, it has been flying around the sun's corona.
And this month, it finally flew inside the corona for the first time.
And,
One family in South Africa found a snake in their Christmas tree!
They looked it up, and realized it was a very venomous kind of snake.
The family quickly called a snake catcher, who came to rescue it.
And that's today's episode of News Bites!