Shownotes Transcript
Hello everybody, and welcome to a new episode of News Bites!
I'm Paz Bueno…
And I'm Trevor Tortomasi.
In today's news:
A musician wins an award despite his condition, a secret forest is found in China, and a space rock passes by Earth!
All that and more, coming up next.
藝術家克服逆境贏得音樂獎 An Artist Overcomes Adversity to Win a Music Award
A Tainan musician (音樂家) won an award despite having a serious health condition.
Jeremy Lee was the winner of the ninth Hybrid Original Tournament.
With the help of his friends, a singer and a guitarist (吉他手), Lee competed with 150 teams.
The competition took place at Kaohsiung's Hanshin Arena last month.
His winning song is called "This Night, We Say Goodbye".
Lee started learning to play guitar and write songs in junior high school.
He developed a passion for music, and he won a national music competition when he was in college.
But before he could sign a contract with a record company, he was in a serious car accident. 還沒來得及與唱片公司簽約，就遭遇了一場嚴重的車禍。
He has severe paralysis (嚴重癱瘓) because of the accident ten years ago.
He cannot move his body from his neck down.
The accident did not end his music career (職業生涯), though.
He can create music using a mouth-operated computer trackpad. 他可以用口控電腦觸控板創作音樂。 Lee says he can continue his musical dream and winning the competition inspires (啟發) him to keep writing more songs.
在中國的天坑底部發現了一片秘密森林 A Hidden Ancient Forest was Discovered at the Bottom of a Sinkhole in China
Scientists have found an entire forest hidden at the bottom of a giant sinkhole (天坑) in China!
A sinkhole is a hole in the ground which is formed when the land collapses (倒塌), leaving a big hole.
It happens when the rock underneath the ground is washed away (沖走) by water.
Sinkholes can cause a lot of damage (損害) to the land around it.
The discovery was made this month by explorers (探險家) who found three ways to enter the cave.
They alerted (通知) scientists about the sinkhole in the Guangxi region.
It is 306 meters long and nearly 200 meters deep.
They found a lot of ancient (古老的) trees and plants.
Some of the trees are 40 meters tall!
Experts believe there are new species of animals and plants that have never been seen before living in the sinkhole. 專家認為，生活在天坑中的動物和植物可能是新物種。
Scientists have to hike (爬山) for hours to reach the secret forest.
But they are excited to find out more about its environment (環境).
美國NASA說今年最大的太空岩石上週末飛過 NASA Says the Largest Space Rock of the Year Flew By Last Weekend
A huge asteroid (小行星) traveled near our planet last Friday!
Well, it wasn't TOO close - it was about 2.5 million miles (250 萬英里) away from Earth.
Asteroids are giant space rocks in our solar system that orbit the Sun (繞太陽運行).
Sometimes they are called NEOs - "Near Earth Objects".
No asteroid has hit Earth in 66 million years, since the one that caused the dinosaurs to become extinct. 自從那顆導致恐龍滅絕的小行星以來，6600 萬年來沒有小行星撞擊地球。
The team at NASA that studies Near Earth Objects says the asteroid was discovered more than 30 years ago.
They have been tracking (追?) it for a long time.
The space rock is called 7335 and it's more than a mile in diameter (直徑超過一英里).
That's twice the length of the Burj Khalifa-the tallest building in the world!
This asteroid is one of more than 29,000 near-earth objects that NASA monitors (監視) every year.
Don't worry though-the chances of them hitting our planet are very, very low.
7335 will come back in June 2055.
Next time, it will pass by at an even farther distance from our planet. 下一次，它將在離我們星球更遠的地方經過。
So, in today's News Bites:
Jeremy Lee was the winner of the ninth Hybrid Original Tournament.
He has severe paralysis because of a car accident ten years ago.
But it does not stop him from following his passion.
And,
A hidden ancient forest was discovered at the bottom of a sinkhole in China.
Scientists have to hike for hours to reach the secret forest.
And they believe new species animals and plants will be found there.
And,
A huge asteroid traveled near our planet last Friday.
The space rock is called 7335 and it's more than a mile in diameter.
This asteroid is one of the near-earth objects that NASA monitors every year.
7335 will come back in June 2055.
And that's today's episode of News Bites!