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:
Taiwan's population falls, a dog saves a man after a fall, and are dogs bilingual?
All that and more, coming up next.
台灣人口連續兩年下降 Taiwan Population Falls Again
Every year, a branch of Taiwan's government called the Ministry of the Interior publishes statistics about Taiwan's population.
內政部每年發布台灣人口的新統計。
The statistics (統計) include the size of Taiwan's population (人口).
This year, the statistics showed Taiwan's population got smaller again.
At the end of 2021, Taiwan's population was 23,375,314.
That's 185,222 people smaller than last year.
And it's the second year in a row the population fell.
One reason for this is that less babies are being born.
The number of babies being born has been falling for six years.
Over 210 thousand babies were born in 2015.
But just over 150 thousand were born last year.
Another reason is that more people are leaving Taiwan and less people are coming in.
Almost 180 thousand people emigrated, or left Taiwan, in 2021, and just under 17 thousand immigrated, or entered Taiwan.
This could be because of the pandemic, or it could be a phenomenon (現象) that is happening for other reasons.
The government did not make this clear.
Sometimes it does feel like there are too many people around… but the government is worried if the populations continues to fall, it could cause problems.
There may not be enough people of working age to support all the old people that will live here.
政府擔心人口下降過多可能造成工作年齡人口無法負擔已退休人口的生活費。
雪橇狗助受困主人保溫成英雄 Dog Saves Climber in Croatia Mountains
Dogs are said to be man's best friend.
And one dog recently proved this by keeping his owner warm until they could be rescued (援救).
A man was hiking in a mountain range in Croatia (克羅地亞的山脈) along with some other people and his 8-month-old best friend, North, who is an Alaskan malamute - a very fluffy gray and white dog.
But while the man was walking, he slipped and injured his leg.
狗狗的主人健行時滑倒，無法站起來。
He couldn't get back up.
And his friends couldn't reach him either.
The man was in danger because it was very cold.
Luckily, his dog was there to save the day.
While the man's other friends called for help, North lay on top of him, and he did this for 13 hours until the hikers could finally be rescued.
North used his body heat to keep his owner warm.
當主人的朋友去求救時，North趴在主人的身上幫他保暖，就這樣趴了13個鐘頭。
Finally the hikers were found by first responders - those are the people that go to rescue people from the mountains.
They said North saved his owners life.
And his owner called North "a real miracle" (真正的奇蹟).
Wouldn't it be great to have this good of a friend!
狗能聽得懂不一樣的語言 Dogs can understand different languages
Do you speak to your dog in more than language?
If you do, and you're afraid he or she may not understand, you have nothing to worry about.
Researchers in the United States have recently found that dogs are in fact, "bilingual" (雙語) and can tell different languages apart (分辨).
They even found that the older the dog is, the more adept the dog's brain was at distinguishing between the familiar (熟悉的), and unfamiliar language. Researchers (研究員) have also found that whales, songbirds, bats, and dolphins can "communicate" in different accents… and the accent depends on where they come from.
Dogs can understand different languages. Older dogs are more adept at telling languages apart. 狗能聽得懂不一樣的語言，而年長的狗語言能力比較好.
So, in today's News Bites:
This year, Taiwan's population got smaller again.
And it's the second year in a row the population fell.
The government is worried if the populations continues to fall, it could cause problems.
And,
A man was hiking in a mountain range in Croatia, but he fell and injured his leg.
His dog lay on him and kept him warm for 13 hours until they were rescued.
He called his dog "a real miracle".
And,
Researchers in the United States have recently found that dogs are "bilingual".
Dogs can understand different languages.
Older dogs are more adept at telling languages apart.
And that's today's episode of News Bites!