Shownotes Transcript
Hello everybody, and welcome to a new episode of News Bites!
I'm Ryan Drillsma…
And I'm Nancy Sun…
In today's news:
Reusable cups, bitterns back in Britain, and a piano in the sky.
All that and more, coming up next.
環保杯進入台灣市場 Company Introduced Reusable Cups to Taiwan
Mmm… bubble tea is delicious.
There's something about the sweet milky tea and chewy tapioca balls (珍珠) that I can't get enough of!
And tea shops are all over Taiwan… so if you're ever thirsty, or craving (嘴饞) bubble tea, you will only have to walk a short while before you can buy one!
But even though these stores are convenient, they present a big problem.
It's the cups!
When you buy a tea drink at a tea shop it comes in a clear plastic cup.
It's a single-use cup. That means you use it once, and then you have to throw it away.
This, of course, creates a lot of trash… and it is not good for the environment.
茶店通常用透明一次用性的塑膠杯，用好就要丟掉，造成嚴重垃圾的問題。
Luckily, a company is trying to help solve this problem.
GoodtoGo has introduced reusable cups (環保杯) to some shopping areas in Taipei and Taichung.
You can use a GoodtoGo kiosk (自動服務機) to borrow a cup.
You can even borrow them from some stores.
And you can take this to a tea store for the workers to make your drink.
Once you are finished, you can return the cup at a kiosk.
GoodtoGo then takes the used cups to be professionally cleaned. And then they are ready for another person to use.
當你用完杯子，可以拿去自動服務機歸還，公司就會送去專業清潔服務，徹底洗好之後給別人借用。
I hope more people start using reusable cups!
本以為已滅的鳥類返回英國 Bitterns Back in Britain
Can you hear that?
It sounds like a tuba (低音號).
I think it sounds like someone blowing over a glass bottle… but a little bit lower.
It's actually the sound of a kind of bird called the bittern (麻鷺).
Bitterns are noisy birds with speckled brown feathers.
They live all around the world but it can be hard to see them because their feathers act as a camouflage. 麻鷺是有著點斑棕色羽毛的鳥類，生活在世界各地，不過不容易看到。
It was thought that they were extinct (滅絕) in the U.K.
But British people have been seeing… and hearing… more and more over the past few years.
It's hard to miss such a unique call! 這麼獨一無二的鳥叫聲很難錯過！
Wetlands (濕地) are a bittern's natural habitat (棲息地).
The UK began draining its wetlands in the 1800s.
And lots of people hunted the bittern around that time.
By the 1870s people in the UK hadn't seen bitterns anymore… they were labelled as extinct in the country. 1870年英國的麻鷺就消失了，造成牠被誤以為已滅絕了。
But their numbers have started to climb (上漲) again.
11 males were counted in 1997… and then in 2019, there were at least 209 male bitterns in Britain!
And this climbed again to a record-breaking (破紀錄) 228 in 2021.
It's the male birds that make the strange sound… that's why they are counted.
Birds are such interesting creatures!
YT網紅天空中彈鋼琴 YouTuber Plays Piano in the Sky
A YouTuber believes he may be the first person ever to play an acoustic piano (鋼琴) from a hot air balloon (熱氣球) in the sky.
Joe Jenkins has become popular on the video-sharing platform for playing his piano in unconventional locations.
Joe Jenkins 在影音分享平台 YouTube 竄紅，影片內容通常是他在特殊的地方彈鋼琴。
And he often plays songs that match the settings.
He's played the Thomas the Tank Engine Theme at a train station.
And for one video, he dressed as Super Mario, and played the theme from the Mario Kart track Coconut Mall, while friends pushed him and his piano through a shopping mall! 在他一個影片中，他扮著超級瑪利歐去百貨公司彈鋼琴。
Despite doing it for his job, Joe says he's still afraid to play piano in public!
So, in today's News Bites:
GoodtoGo has introduced reusable cups to some shopping areas in Taipei and Taichung.
You can use a GoodtoGo kiosk to borrow a cup.
You can even borrow them from some stores.
Once you are finished, you can return the cup at a kiosk.
And,
Bitterns are noisy birds with speckled brown feathers.
By the 1870s people in the U.K. hadn't seen bitterns anymore… they were labelled as extinct in the country.
But their numbers have started to climb again.
And,
A YouTuber believes he may be the first person ever to play an acoustic piano from a hot air balloon in the sky.
Joe Jenkins has become popular on YouTube for playing his piano in unconventional locations.
And that's today's episode of News Bites!