作者，配音：(Brody)

第二配音員，編輯：(Trevor)

Hi, it's time for another episode of News Bites!

I'm Trevor Tortomasi…

And I'm Brody Halverson.

In today's stories:

Taiwanese Buddhists meet the Pope, a new wild river park in Europe, and beautiful lights in the sky of New Zealand.

Let's learn about this news, right now!

________________________________

台灣佛教僧侶拜訪天主教宗

Taiwanese Buddhists Meet the Pope

Taiwan has lots of Buddhists (佛教徒).

These people follow Buddhist traditions (傳統) and work to help others.

But, Buddhism is not the only religion (不是唯一的宗教).

There are also many Catholics (天主教徒), in Taiwan and around the world.

And the leader of the world's Catholics is the Pope (教宗).

Buddhists and Catholics follow different religions (信仰不同的宗教), but they want to get along with each other.

That's why Taiwanese Buddhist monks (僧侶) recently went to meet Pope Francis (教宗方濟各).

The monks are all part of Taiwan's Buddhist Association (佛教總會).

The Taiwanese monks went all the way to the Pope's home in Europe, the Vatican City (歐洲的梵蒂岡城).

They went to the Vatican to promote cultural exchanges (推動文化交流) and world peace (世界和平).

At the meeting, the monks said they want harmony between Eastern and Western religions (東西方宗教的和諧).

At the end of the meeting, the Catholic Pope and the Buddhist monks prayed (祈禱) for peace in the world.

With the Pope in his white robes (白色的長袍), and the monks in their orange robes (橘色的長袍), they all prayed together.

Pope Francis says the meeting can help them learn from one another, and shows how different religions can work together.

________________________________

歐洲第一個野生河流公園

Europe's First Wild River Park

Albania (阿爾巴尼亞) is a country in southern Europe (南歐).

The nature there (那裡的大自然) is very beautiful.

They have warm weather, sunny beaches, and high mountains.

They also have something special… the last wild river (野生河流) in Europe.

What's a wild river?

That means there are no dams (沒有水壩) on the whole river.

That's important, because when people build dams, fish cannot swim up the river.

A dam on a river also makes it hard for animals and plants to live there.

Today, most rivers have at least one dam.

But Albania's Vjosa River is the last river in Europe with no dams.

For that reason, the river supports lots of wildlife (野生動物), including otters (水獺) and lynx (山貓).

Now, Albania wants to protect this wild river.

The Vjosa River will become a national park (國家公園).

The river is more than 270 kilometers long, and this whole length will be protected.

That's good news for all the wildlife that lives along the Vjosa River.

It's also good news for the people of Albania.

They hope the new park will bring more tourists to their country.

And as long as the Vjosa River is protected, no dams will be built, and the river can stay wild.

只要 Vjosa 河得到保護，就不會修建水壩，河流就可以保持原樣。

________________________________

紐西蘭驚人的南極光

Amazing Southern Lights in New Zealand

Have you heard of the Northern Lights (北極光)?

These are beautiful lights that appear in the night sky.

But, the North is not the only place with lights in the sky.

There are also "Southern Lights" (南極光).

You can see them if you travel far to the south, in places like Australia (澳洲) and New Zealand (紐西蘭).

Recently, the southern lights in New Zealand have been brighter than usual (比平常亮一點).

More and more people are chasing (追逐) the southern lights.

That means they travel around New Zealand to take pictures of the best southern lights.

They use social media to trade advice on how to find the lights.

他們使用社群媒體交換關於如何找到南極光的建議。

So, what do the lights look like?

If you look with your eyes, they look like white lights moving across the sky.

But if you use a camera, you can see many more colors!

Looking through a camera, the lights appear to be (看起來) pink, purple, yellow, and green.

That's why people like to take photos of these amazing lights.

Now is the best time to see the southern lights of New Zealand!

________________________________

So, in today's News Bites…

Buddhist monks from Taiwan went to see the Pope.

They met Pope Francis at his home in the Vatican City.

The Buddhist monks and the Catholic Pope prayed for peace together.

________________________________

And,

There is a new park along a river in Albania.

It is the first wild river park in Europe.

The park will protect this river and the wildlife that lives there.

________________________________

And,

Many people are chasing the southern lights in New Zealand.

The lights are especially bright this year.

People want to take pictures of these colorful lights in the sky.

________________________________

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