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

I'm Nancy Sun…

And I'm Paz Bueno.

In today's news:

Taiwan has a packaging problem, a boy finds a very old tooth, and Patron gets a medal.

All that and more, coming up next.

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台灣的包裝問題

Taiwan has a Packaging Problem

The next time your parents go to the supermarket, you might want to go with them.

When you're there, take a look at the produce (農產品) section.

There should be lots of fruits and vegetables there.

But there's also lots of something else.

Greenpeace Taiwan (綠色和平組織) says most stores that sell fruits and vegetables use too much plastic.

They say more than 90 percent of produce sold in Taiwan are wrapped (包裝) with plastic.

And all this is plastic we cannot use again.

It's called single-use plastic (一次性塑膠包裝)

And that's not all.

One university says Taiwan produces (製造) about 15,000,000 kilograms of plastic waste (塑膠垃圾) in total (總共) every year.

This is from all the packaging (包裝) used not just for fruits and vegetables, but for eggs, bottled drinks (瓶裝飲料), shampoo (洗髮精), and detergent (清潔劑) too.

Taiwan has tried to do many things to make less trash.

We now separate our waste, so that there is regular waste, food waste, and recyclable waste.

我們現在會做垃圾分類，分成一般垃圾、廚餘，還有回收物。

But Greenpeace says we can cut our waste even more.

It says stores can help do this if they stops using so many plastic wrappers and plastic boxes to start with (從這裡做起).

And we can do our part too!

We can bring our own bags to stores.

We can bring our own cups when we buy drinks like bubble tea.

And we can try to stop buying bottled water when we are outside.

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小男孩找到古老的牙齒

A Boy Finds a Very Old Tooth

Do you like dinosaurs (恐龍)?

If you do, then you probably know about the megalodon (巨齒鯊).

The megalodon is a giant shark which lived about 20 million years ago.

It could grow to between 16 to 18 meters long.

And it weighed around 60,000 kilograms.

Scientists say it probably enjoyed eating whales and seals.

They also say it was the biggest shark ever.

Scientists believe the megalodon was the king of all the oceans around the world, except the seas near Antarctica (南極洲).

The megalodon became extinct (滅絕) about three million years ago.

It is very hard to find fossils (化石) of the megalodon.

So scientists don't know what they look like.

But one boy got very lucky.

He found a megalodon tooth on a beach in England.

Six-year-old Sammy was on vacation with his family.

He said he found the 10-centimeter tooth on the beach (海邊、沙灘).

Sammy's mother said he had found other pieces of shark teeth on the beach.

But he had never seen anything as big, and as heavy as this one.

但是他從來沒有看過這麼大又這麼重的牙齒。

Sammy's parents sent pictures of the tooth to an expert (專家).

He examined (檢查) the tooth, and said the tooth belonged to a megalodon.

Sammy's treasure (寶藏) is even more important because shark teeth are not usually found on beaches in Britain.

Sammy was very, very excited when he found out how important his discovery (發現) really was.

He says he is now sleeping with it near his bed.

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Patron獲勳章

Patron Gets a Medal

Patron is a small, very cute brown-and-white-colored terrier (梗犬).

Before the war in Ukraine (俄烏戰爭), he was probably just like any other dog.

But now Patron and his owner are both heroes.

Patron, whose name means "ammo" (彈藥), has found more than 200 hidden bombs since the beginning of the war.

Patron在烏克蘭語意思是彈藥，牠在戰爭開始後已經找到200多枚埋藏的炸彈。

When he's not busy working, his owner says Patron loves to play with other dogs.

And even though he is a very active dog, he also likes to sleep.

Because of his work, Patron was awarded a special medal from Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy (澤倫斯基) for helping his country.

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So, in today's News Bites:

Greenpeace Taiwan says most stores that sell fruits and vegetables use too much plastic.

They say more than 90 percent of produce sold in Taiwan are wrapped with plastic.

We can all do more to make less plastic garbage.

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Six-year-old Sammy found a megalodon tooth on a beach in England.

An expert confirms the tooth is from a megalodon.

Sammy says he is now sleeping with it near his bed.

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And,

Patron is a small, very cute brown-and-white colored terrier.

Patron has found more than 200 hidden bombs since the beginning of the war.

Because of his work, Patron was awarded a special medal from Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy for helping his country.

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