Hi there, and welcome to a new episode of News Bites!

I'm Nancy Sun…

And I'm Trevor Tortomasi.

In today's news:

Spring in the air, garbage into art, and life is like the movies.

All that and more, coming up next.

________________________________

台北杜鵑花季朵朵盛開

Spring Arrives for the Taipei Azalea Festival

Spring has arrived!

The weather is getting warmer.

We are getting more sunshine.

And the flowers are blooming!

So Taipei is celebrating with the 2022 Taipei Azalea Festival.

Azaleas are shrubs (灌木).

And each spring, they grow beautiful flowers.

The flowers come in many different colors, including pink, white, and red.

Azalea flowers bloom for many weeks.

And they are Taipei's "city flower".

杜鵑花是台北市的市花。

Many places around Taiwan have an official flower.

Taoyuan's city flower is the peach blossom (桃花).

Yunlin's city flower is the moth orchid (蝴蝶蘭).

And Hualien County's flower is the lotus (蓮花).

All through this month, Taipei is holding Azalea events for people to enjoy.

Next weekend, there will be an Azalea Concert at Da-An Forest Park.

Many singers and bands will perform there.

There will also be a market at the park, with lots of arts and crafts to look through.

And of course, there will be lots of azaleas in bloom!

You can also see other flowers at the park, like hydrangeas, lilies, lavender, and many others.

大安森林公園裡，除了杜鵑花，還可以看到繡球花、百合、還有薰衣草。

Many places around the world hold flower festivals.

Brussels is the capital city of Belgium.

Every two years, almost a million flowers are laid on the ground in front of Brussel City Hall to make a "flower carpet".

兩年一度的比利時花毯節會在大廣場中鋪上數十萬朵鮮花組成的巨大花地毯，而每一次的主題都是不同國家文化。

What a fun way to enjoy beautiful flowers!

________________________________

海洋垃圾搖身變藝術品

U.K. Beach Cleaners Turn Trash into Art

Garbage and plastic in the ocean is a big problem.

All that trash is bad for the environment, bad for animals, and bad for us too.

Some people try to help by cleaning up beaches.

Usually, a group of people will bring lots of big garbage bags.

They will also use things like gloves (手套), and tongs (夾鉗).

And they will go to a beach, and pick up as much garbage as they can.

It's a great way to help protect the environment.

Now a group in the U.K. is taking that idea one step further.

They're turning that garbage into art!

The group is called Norfolk Beach Cleans.

Their goal is to keep the beaches in the area clean.

The woman who started the group is Emma Sturman.

Emma says she loves the sea and likes to scuba dive (潛水).

But she sees fish stuck in old nets, or seals with toys stuck around their necks.

And she wanted to help.

Emma says cleaning teams go out three or four times a month.

And they collect up to 750 kilograms of garbage every time they clean.

That's about as heavy as 80 watermelons!

Then, after they pick up all that garbage, they choose pieces of plastic, metal, and other materials (材料).

The colorful pieces are especially (特別) useful.

色彩鮮艷的塑膠塊、鐵片、和其他材料很適合當藝術品的素材。

Emma says the group takes these things and puts them together to make fun pictures.

They've made pictures of hearts, stars, and even seahorses.

Then they sell these pictures.

Some sell for around $10 U.S. dollars.

And the most expensive one sold for almost $54 U.S. dollars.

The group uses this money to buy more equipment to clean the beach.

Sounds like a great way to recycle (回收) and help the environment!

________________________________

莫利 林沃德的生活模仿藝術

Life Imitates the Movies for Molly Ringwald

In the 1980s hit movie "Sixteen Candles," actress Molly Ringwald plays a teenager whose family forgot that it was her birthday.

Just recently, Ringwald used social media (社交媒體) to talk about the time her mom forgot about her birthday, but in real life.

美國知名女演員莫利 林沃德的媽媽真的忘了她的生日了！

The actress shared a bunch of (一堆) text messages (簡訊) between herself and her mom, where she said "That's it? You don't have anything else to say to me today?"

Ringwald's mother then replied: "I didn't realize it was the 18th today. Happy birthday! I haven't got your present in the mail. Will do very soon."

The actress then said "Life imitates art." (生活模仿藝術).

The comment was a reference to Ringwald's popular 1980s movie.

We hope Ringwald's mom made up for lost time and did something special to mark the actress' special day.

________________________________

So, in today's News Bites:

Taipei is celebrating spring with the 2022 Taipei Azalea Festival.

Azaleas are Taipei's "city flower".

Next weekend, there will be an Azalea Concert at Da-An Forest Park.

________________________________

A U.K. group called Norfolk Beach Cleans is turning beach garbage into art

They collect up to 750 kilograms of garbage every time they clean.

Then they choose colorful pieces, and use them to make fun pictures.

They sell these pictures and use the money to buy more beach cleaning equipment.

________________________________

And,

In the 1980s hit movie "Sixteen Candles," actress Molly Ringwald plays a teenager whose family forgot that it was her birthday.

Just recently, Ringwald's mom really forgot her birthday, in real life!

The actress said "Life imitates art".

________________________________

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