Hello there! You're listening to an all-new episode of News Bites.

I'm Paz Bueno…

And I'm Nancy Sun.

In today's news:

Taiwan is number one in internet speed, and a marsquake shakes up scientists.

And in today's Tasty Tidbit…words that have all five vowels in them!

Keep on listening to find out more about those, coming up next.

________________________________

網路速度 台灣稱霸世界

Taiwan Zooms to the Top with World's Fastest Internet

Imagine clicking on your favorite movie and having it play instantly, no waiting (立刻就能播放，不用等待).

Or starting an online game without any lag (延遲).

That's the magic of fast internet!

Internet speed is how quickly digital information (數位資訊) travels from the world to your devices.

The faster it is, the smoother (順利) your online adventures.

From streaming videos to downloading big files, everything zips along quicker.

從串流影片到下載大檔案，一切都快多了。

And for the second year, Taiwan has the fastest internet in the whole world!

A company called Statista says that Taiwan's internet is super quick.

Imagine downloading a 5GB HD movie in just 4 minutes and 27 seconds.

想像一下只需要4分鐘27秒就能下載5GB的高畫質電影。

That's how fast it is in Taiwan!

Everywhere in Taiwan, the internet runs at an average speed of over 153 megabits per second.

Last year, Taiwan was also at the top, even faster than Japan!

This year, France was almost as fast as Taiwan, but not quite.

The Netherlands, Slovakia, and the United States were also in the top five fastest countries.

荷蘭、斯洛伐克和美國也名列五個網速最快的國家。

But not every place has fast internet.

In China, it takes almost an hour to download the same movie!

And in Afghanistan, it would take more than six hours.

在阿富汗，可能需要超過六小時。

Statista figured this out by looking at lots of internet speeds from a special study of many countries.

Statista這家公司是在許多國家進行特殊研究之後，得出這些數字。

In Taiwan, you can watch movies, play games, and do your homework online superfast.

It's great to have the fastest internet!

________________________________

科學家揭開火星大地震之謎

Mars Shakes Up Scientists with a Big Quake Mystery

Mars, our red neighbor in space, isn't as still and silent as we once thought.

火星，我們在太空中的紅色鄰居，並非我們以前認為的那樣安靜沉默。

Just like Earth has earthquakes, Mars has its own version called marsquakes (火星震)!

These are shakes that happen on the surface of Mars, but they're a bit of a puzzle because Mars doesn't have tectonic plates (板塊) like Earth does.

Earth's top layer, called the crust, is divided into these tectonic plates that move around, and that's what makes earthquakes.

地球的最上層，叫做地殼，地殼分裂成好幾個板塊，它們的移動就造成了地震。

Mars has a top layer too, but it's just one big piece, not many.

But that does not mean all is quiet on the red planet.

NASA's InSight lander felt the biggest shake on the planet ever recorded.

美國太空總署的洞察號探測器，測到有紀錄以來最大的火星震動。

This was a 4.7 magnitude quake.

是規模4.7的地震。

That's not huge for Earth, but for Mars, it's a big deal!

Scientists first thought a space rock crashing into Mars made the quake.

But they didn't find any new big holes on Mars, so that wasn't it.

They now think it was Mars itself moving that caused the quake.

This is exciting because it helps scientists learn more about Mars's tectonic processes and what's going on under its surface.

這令人很興奮，因為它幫助科學家了解更多火星的構造，以及它的表面下各種活動。

The robot found over 1,300 quakes on Mars before it finished its job last year.

These shakes tell scientists that Mars is not totally quiet inside.

Understanding quakes on Mars is really important, especially if people are going to go there one day.

They need to know what to expect.

So, even on a quiet planet like Mars, there's still a lot going on that we can learn about.

________________________________

So, in today's News Bites:

For the second year in a row, Taiwan has the fastest internet in the whole world!

A company called Statista says that Taiwan's internet is super quick.

Everywhere in Taiwan, the internet runs at an average speed of over 153 megabits per second.

________________________________

And,

Just like Earth has earthquakes, Mars has its own version called marsquakes!

And NASA's InSight lander felt the biggest shake on the planet ever recorded.

This is exciting because it helps scientists learn more about Mars's tectonic processes and what's going on under its surface.

________________________________

趣味小點

Tasty Tidbit

In English, there are five vowels: A, E, I, O, and U.

Most words have one, two, or three vowels… but some special words have all five!

When a word has one of every vowel, just one time each, we call that word a "supervocalic".

For example, the words "boatbuilder", "businesswoman", or "ambidextrous", are all supervocalics.

They can also be a few words together, like "fountain pen", or "Julia Roberts", as long as each vowel is only used one time.

The shortest supervocalic in English is "sequoia", which is a kind of tree. And guess what? Even the word "supervocalic" is supervocalic!

There are still many more supervocalic words in English. Can you think of any?

If you have a fun fact, a joke, or interesting news you'd like to share with us, record your message and send us your Tasty Tidbit to [email protected], and you might hear it at the end of an episode!

We'll see you next time for an exciting new episode of News Bites!