Ready to chow down? 準備好大吃一頓了嗎？

You're listening to another episode of News Bites!

I'm Paz Bueno…

And I'm Trevor Tortomasi.

In today's news:

Taiwanese students overcome odds to win, fewer turkeys for Christmas, and China's new space crew.

Stay tuned and we'll tell you more about these stories, coming up next!

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清華大學勇奪世界超級電腦競賽總冠軍

NTHU Students Win Computer Competition

For our first story, we're talking about high-performance computing (高效能運算) or HPC.

HPC is the ability to process data and perform complicated calculations at high speeds.

HPC 是高速處理數據和複雜計算。

It sounds pretty difficult (困難), doesn't it?

Well, a team of students from National Tsing Hua University (國立清華大學) finished first place in an HPC competition!

Last month, NTHU computer science professor Jerry Chou led a team of six students to join the Student Cluster Competition (SCC世界超級電腦競賽).

They faced six teams from the U.S., and one team each from Germany, Singapore, and Switzerland.

他們面對來自美國六個團隊，以及來自德國、新加坡和瑞士的個一隊。

The teams had eight hours to create an HPC system using no more than 3,000 watts of power.

團隊有八個小時的時間來創建一個 高效能運算系統，使用的功率不超過 3,000 瓦。

Then, they had 48 hours to use the system to solve four application questions (解決四個應用問題).

That's a total of 56 hours!

If that wasn't hard enough, the Taiwan team faced the competition with additional challenges.

如果這還不夠難，台灣隊還面對更多挑戰。

Their team leader was injured in a traffic accident (交通事故受傷), and he almost couldn't join the competition.

On top of that, some of their equipment got damaged on the way (設備在途中損壞).

The team was forced to adjust their plans.

這個團隊被迫重新調整計劃。

But these things didn't stop them from doing their best.

They overcame challenges (克服挑戰) with great teamwork!

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The good news is that Taiwan is showing its talents in HPC.

The bad news is that people may not have enough turkeys for Christmas.

禽流感影響英國火雞供應

Bird Flu Affects UK Turkey Supplies

In the last two years, the whole world was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Countries are reporting confirmed cases (確診病例) even today.

But did you know there's another virus sweeping the world (另一種席捲全球的病毒)?

We're talking about bird flu, or the avian influenza (禽流感).

Millions of birds have been culled (撲殺) around the world to prevent the spread of bird flu (預防傳播).

In the UK, the bird flu has heavily affected supplies of free range turkeys (放山火雞).

That's because free-range turkeys live out in the open (生活在戶外).

Half of the free-range turkeys produced for Christmas have been culled, or have died from bird flu.

So the UK government has ordered all poultry and captive birds in England to be kept indoors.

英國政府下令將所有家禽和飼養的鳥類關在室內。

But it's more expensive (昂貴) to keep turkeys indoors, especially when they're already used to living outdoors.

And many people are worried there might not be enough turkeys for the holiday season.

We hope there will be enough turkey for every family to enjoy!

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Now let's zoom out (把鏡頭拉遠) and talk about a place much farther than the UK.

We're talking about…space!

中國把另一組太空人 送上天宮太空站

China Sends New Crew to Tiangong Space Station

There are two permanently inhabited space outposts orbiting Earth.

現在太空中有兩個太空站環繞地球運行。

One is NASA's International Space Station…

…and the other is China Manned Space Agency, or CMSA's Tiangong Space Station (天宮太空站).

The Tiangong space station was launched (發射升空) in April 2021.

Its mission is to help researchers conduct science experiments in space (在太空中進行科學實驗).

So far, there have been three crewed missions (載人任務) aboard the station.

And last month, another crew of three Chinese taikonauts (太空人) took off to board Tiangong!

They traveled aboard the Shenzhou-15 spacecraft (神舟十五號太空船).

They have three main goals in their mission:

Perform the first in-orbit crew handover, test the station's capabilities, and install equipment to complete the station's construction.

完成首次在太空中交接，測試太空站的能力，並且完成太空站所有建設。

The first mission is already completed.

It marks the beginning of a regular crew rotation (太空人定期輪換) in the Tiangong Space Station.

The new crew is staying on the station for six months.

In the next ten years, China plans to launch two crewed missions every year.

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So, in today's News Bites:

A team of students from National Tsing Hua University finished first place in an HPC competition.

They faced six teams from the U.S., and one team each from Germany, Singapore, and Switzerland.

They faced many challenges at the Student Cluster Competition, but they overcame them with great teamwork.

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In the UK, the bird flu has heavily affected supplies of free range turkeys.

So the UK government has ordered all poultry and captive birds in England to be kept indoors.

But some people worry there won't be enough turkeys for Christmas.

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And,

The CMSA has sent a crew of three taikonauts to live on the Tiangong Space Station.

They traveled aboard the Shenzhou-15 spacecraft.

In the next ten years, China plans to launch two crewed missions every year.

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