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

I'm Nancy Sun…

And I'm Trevor Tortomasi.

In today's news:

Taiwan's famous orchid show makes a comeback, a possum is fished out of the sea, and a comic books sells for a lot of money.

All that and more, coming up next.

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台灣國際蘭展回來了

Taiwan's Famous Orchid Show Makes a Comeback

Orchid fans in Taiwan are celebrating, because after two years, the Taiwan International Orchid Show is back!

The orchid show used to happen annually (每年一次).

But it was cancelled (被取消) for two years in a row, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This year, the show will be open for eleven days.

And there will be 200,000 plants, and 800 different kinds of flowers!

Orchids are a very popular house plant (室內植物), because they are beautiful and easy to take care of.

蘭花很美麗，而且照顧它們並不困難。

There are at least 25,000 different kinds of orchid species around the world.

And together, there are more orchids than there are mammals (哺乳動物) and birds.

The smallest orchid is probably no bigger than a 5 NT coin.

The largest can weigh at least a hundred kilograms.

Orchid flowers are so heavy they have to grow upside down (上下翻轉), because their branches cannot support them.

Orchids need up to seven years to bloom (盛開).

So, the orchids that you see in stores and in other people's houses could be at least a decade old (十歲以上).

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澳洲海裡撈出負鼠

Australian Diver Finds an Unusual Animal in the Sea

The possum (負鼠) is a marsupial (有袋動物) that can be found in parts of Australia and Indonesia.

The marsupial family includes animals that can only be found in Australia.

They are animals like kangaroos (代鼠), wallabies (小袋鼠), and quokkas (短尾矮袋鼠).

The most common possum in Australia is the brushtail possum.

It has a long, thick tail, that helps it hang onto tree branches.

But possums are a bit different from other marsupials.

Possums don't mind (不介意) living near humans.

They can even be found in Australia's big cities, like Sydney.

Possums sleep during the day, and stay awake all night.

They eat many different things.

They are omnivores (雜食動物), and eat insects and eggs.

Possums can even eat plants that might be poisonous (有毒) for other animals.

They like living in trees.

So a scuba diver (潛水員) in Australia was quite surprised when he was asked to rescue a very, very scared possum in the middle of an Australian harbor.

一位澳洲潛水員接受了一個很特別的任務：游入港口，救一隻嚇壞的負鼠。

The possum was holding on tightly to a mooring buoy (浮標) in the water.

The diver went in to rescue the possum, but the animal got scared and jumped into the water.

Two rangers (護林員) had to use a fishing net, to help bring the possum to safety.

They then took the possum to an animal hospital.

A vet (獸醫) checked him, and said he looked fit and healthy.

The possum was then released back into the wild (放生到野外).

The diver said this wasn't the first time he'd rescued an unusual (奇怪) animal.

He once had to rescue stranded (擱淺) penguins in the past.

He thinks the possum might have been trying to build a nest (巢) on a boat, and when the boat went out to sea, the possum got scared and jumped into the water.

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第一本漫威漫畫高價賣出

Marvel Comic Sells for a Mint

Do you like comic books?

Some people collect them.

And some comic books can be very expensive.

In fact, there is now a new most expensive comic book in the world.

That honor (榮譽) goes to Marvel Comics Number 1, which was released in November 1939.

Collectors say the book is important, because this is the comic book that started it all.

Without it, the Marvel Cinematic Universe wouldn't exist (存在).

這本「漫威漫畫第一號付費版本」的漫畫書，開啟了漫威王國，從漫畫書延伸到電影、電視節目，還有電玩遊戲。

The expensive comic book is called a pay copy.

That means it is the same one publishers use to write down how much artists and writers will get paid for their work.

Marvel Comics Number 1 sold for an eye-watering (令人心痛的、難以想像的) $2.4 million U.S. dollars.

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So in today's News Bites:

The Taiwan International Orchid Show is back!

The show was cancelled for the past two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This year, the show will be open for eleven days.

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Possums might be land animals.

But an Australian scuba diver had to rescue a very scared possum from the middle of the sea.

After the possum was checked by a vet, he was released into the wild.

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And…

The most expensive comic book ever is worth 2.4 million U.S. dollars.

This Marvel Comics Number 1 is special, because it's a pay copy.

That's the book publishers use to decide how much to pay artists and writers.

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