B*News Bites 文字檔 (國中)

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Hi everyone, it's time for a new episode of News Bites.

I'm Jacob Ingram.

And I'm John Seaward.

In today's stories…

A Kaohsiung neighborhood gets ready to move, and two scientists find something amazing deep in the Earth.

And in today's tasty tidbit: Electricity in the human brain.

Let's check it out.

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高雄大林蒲村民準備搬家

Kaohsiung Neighborhood Prepares to Move

Have you ever been to Kaohsiung?

Maybe you've been to Siaogang District (小港區).

It's one of Taiwan's biggest industrial areas (工業區).

It's really heavy industry down there!

There are big factories, making steel (鋼鐵), oil (石油), and every kind of chemical (各種化學品).

There's a company building huge ships, and a power plant burning coal.

小港工業區有工廠、造船廠、發電廠。

And right in the middle of it, there's a little village where people live.

It's called Dalinpu Village (大林蒲村).

For many years, the people of Dalinpu have had to live next to all of these factories and power plants.

Every day, they eat and sleep surrounded by the pollution (污染) from the industrial areas.

Now, the government (政府) says it will help the people move away from there.

They have agreed to spend 80 billion NT on the move.

The money will provide (提供) new homes to almost 6000 people from Dalinpu.

政府提供八百億元幫助近六千名居民搬家。

They will be able to escape the pollution, and live in a cleaner area.

Not everybody wants to leave Dalinpu.

Even though the air is dirty, some residents (居民) still regard it as home.

Some people have even lived there since before the area became an industrial zone.

But most people want to go.

In 2017, they had a vote, and 90% of people agreed to relocate.

90%的居民投票決定搬遷。

Now they need to decide where to go.

Many of the details (細節) still need to be worked out.

But people agree that they can't stay there much longer.

Each year, the pollution gets worse.

So, the residents of Dalinpu are getting ready to say goodbye to their old neighborhood (舊社區) and say hello to a cleaner, safer living environment (生活環境).

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地球內部的另一個行星

Another Planet Inside Earth

What is inside our planet (行星)?

Yes, our planet Earth (地球)!

We live on the surface (地表).

But if you dig down, deep into the ground, what is at the center of the planet?

In the past, people thought there might be a secret world down there.

Later, scientists found out that the core of the earth is made of hot rock and oceans of magma.

科學家知道地球的核心是由岩漿組成的。

But recently, scientists have made a startling discovery (驚人的發現).

They think there might be another planet inside Earth.

How can that be?

It started when scientists tried to test a theory (檢驗理論).

They wanted to know how the moon (月亮) was made.

According to the theory, another planet called Theia crashed into Earth billions of years ago.

根據理論，數十億年前，另一顆名為Theia的行星撞擊了地球。

The crash melted both planets, and blew lots of dirt and rocks into space.

Then, this rock came together to form the moon.

Scientists thought it was an interesting idea, but they weren't sure it was correct.

After all, nobody was around billions of years ago, so how could they know?

A couple scientists thought if planet Theia had crashed into Earth, maybe some pieces of Theia would still be inside our planet.

兩位科學家認為Theia 的一些碎片可能仍然存在於我們的地球內。

Dr Qian Yuan from California and Professor Hongping Deng from China used a computer to test the idea.

The test showed that part of the planet Theia would remain as blobs of rock (岩石團) inside Earth.

The amazing thing is, there really are two huge blobs of strange rock in the earth.

The blobs are deep underground, 3,000 kilometers below Africa and the Pacific Ocean.

他們確實在地下三千公里處發現了兩塊巨大的岩石。

Scientists know these blobs are different from the rest of Earth, but for a long time they have not known where these blobs come from.

Now, Dr Yuan and Professor Deng say these blobs might come from the planet Theia.

If that's true, it means there are parts of a completely different planet buried (埋著) under our feet.

Now, the scientists want to test rocks from the moon.

If the moon rocks are similar to the underground blobs in Earth, then maybe both of them came from the planet Theia.

如果月球岩石跟地下岩石團相似，那它們可能都來自Theia行星。

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So, in today's newsbites…

All the people from a Kaohsiung neighborhood are preparing to move away.

Dalinpu Village is polluted, because it is near an industrial area.

Now, the government has set aside some money to help nearly 6000 residents find new homes.

And…

Scientists think there might be another planet inside Earth.

They think the planet Theia crashed into Earth billions of years ago.

That crash might have left parts of Theia inside Earth, and also created the moon.

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And in today's Tasty Tidbit…

Did you know that the human brain generates about 20 Watts of electrical power?

While the brain represents only about 2% of a person's total body weight, it consumes about 20% of the body's energy.

The electrical activity generated by the brain, often measured in watts, is roughly equivalent to the power consumption of a dim light bulb.

And that's today's episode of News Bites!

If you have a fun fact or joke you'd like to share with us, record your message and send us your Tasty Tidbit to [email protected] and you might hear it at the end of an episode. We'll see you next time for an exciting new episode of News Bites!