Shownotes Transcript
Hello everybody, and welcome to a new episode of News Bites!
I'm Trevor Tortomasi…
And I'm Nancy Sun.
In today's news:
Taiwan waits longer, NASA rolls out the rocket, and the Ever Forward stops.
All that and more, coming up next.
台灣今年可能會維持檢疫規則 Taiwan Might Be Keeping Quarantine This Year
It has been difficult to travel in the past two years, because of the pandemic (疫情).
But it's been especially difficult because of quarantine (居家檢疫)!
That means new visitors (旅客) to each country have to stay inside alone, for up to 14 days.
And that makes traveling harder, because it can make each trip (旅程) 14 days longer.
Now that many people have gotten vaccines (疫苗) and gone back to work, most countries don't use quarantine as much anymore…
But a few countries still have strict rules (嚴格的規則) for quarantine… including Taiwan!
Many people in Taiwan don't want to leave, because they know they will have to stay inside when they come back.
And many are asking when we can spend less time in quarantine, or when we can stop completely.
Taiwan's Health Minister (衛生福利部部長) Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) says Taiwan might have to keep quarantine rules for this year.
He also says it's difficult to predict (預測).
Of course, many people agree that Taiwan needs to open up eventually (遲早)…
But before it does, we also have to make sure hospitals are ready to help everyone who gets sick. 台灣開放讓觀光客進來之前，我們要先確認醫院能夠準備好照顧所有可能會生病的人。
So until we can travel without worrying about quarantine, just remember that there are still lots of places to go in Taiwan.
And until then, remember to stay safe and healthy!
美國太空總署巨大的新火箭搬到發射台 NASA's Giant Moon Rocket Moves to Launchpad
It's already been almost 50 years since humans traveled to the moon.
But NASA (美國太空總署) wants to change that.
For years, they have been building a huge rocket (火箭), to take people back to the moon.
It's called the "Space Launch System" (太空發射系統), or "SLS", and it's about 100 meters tall.
That's almost one-fourth (四分之一) the height of the Taipei 101!
The SLS rocket is so big that NASA had to use a giant car, called the "Crawler Transporter", just to move it. SLS火箭大到NASA需要用一台巨大的【太空梭運輸車】，來搬運火箭。
The car is like a big, flat house with wheels (車輪), which drives the SLS rocket to the launchpad (發射台).
And it moves at a speed of only 1 kilometer per hour (時速1公里), so it took all night to drive the rocket just 7 kilometers!
Now, NASA scientists are getting ready for a rehearsal (排練), on this Sunday, April 3rd.
If everything goes well on that day, then scientists will plan the SLS's first launch for May, June, or July.
The first launch will send a test capsule to orbit the moon, so NASA can learn how to prepare for their next launch. SLS火箭第一次發射會發送一台不載人的測試性太空船去環繞月球，好讓NASA研究要怎麼準備下一次的發射。
Then, in two or three years, they will launch a ship with real astronauts (太空員).
It won't be long until there are people living on the moon again!
長榮集團又發生貨輪問題 Another Evergreen Ship has Big Problems
Hey, remember the "Ever Given"?
It's a giant cargo ship (貨輪), run by the Taiwan-based company Evergreen Group (長榮集團).
Last year, it got stuck (卡住) in a river in Egypt for six days.
And during that time, no other ships could move past it!
Well, the Evergreen Group has had another ship-related problem… 長榮集團又發生了一個跟船有關的問題…
Another one of its cargo ships, the "Ever Forward", got stuck for a while, too.
It was traveling through a deep river (很深的河) in the U.S., to deliver (運送) some cargo.
But then, it moved into water that was too shallow, and couldn't move any further. 它開到河水太淺的地方後就無法移動了。
Luckily, this time it didn't block (擋住) any other ships from moving past it.
It also didn't lose any cargo, and no one was hurt.
But we can still learn a lot from the irony (諷刺).
A ship called the Ever Forward… well, it stopped moving forward!
So be careful what you name your ships…
It might become the punchline of a joke (笑話的笑點)!
So, in today's News Bites:
Taiwan's Health Minister Chen Shih-chung says Taiwan might have to keep quarantine rules for this year.
He also says it's difficult to predict.
Many people agree that Taiwan needs to open up, but we also have to make sure hospitals are ready to help everyone who gets sick.
And,
NASA has been building a huge rocket, to take people back to the moon.
Its first launch will send a test capsule to orbit the moon, so scientists can learn how to prepare for their next launch.
Then, in two or three years, they will launch a ship with real astronauts.
And,
The Evergreen Group has had another ship-related problem.
One of its cargo ships, the "Ever Forward", was traveling through a deep river, to deliver some cargo.
But it moved into water that was too shallow, and couldn't move any further.
And that's today's episode of News Bites!