Hello everybody, and welcome to a new episode of News Bites!

I'm Ryan Drillsma…

And I'm Nancy Sun.

In today's news:

Will Taiwan boycott the Winter Olympics? Scientists make a big discovery, and Salma Hayak may continue to be a Marvel star.

All that and more, coming up next.

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台灣考慮抵制冬奧

Taiwan Mulls Boycotting Winter Olympics

Taiwan has a tough decision to make.

The 2022 Winter Olympics (冬季奧運) are coming up and they are taking place in Beijing.

They start on February 4th.

Taiwan is currently deciding whether it wants to send government representatives (政府官員) or not.

The United States announced on December 6th that it would boycott (杯葛) the Winter Olympics

To "boycott" means to not do something or not go somewhere for a political reason (政治理由).

The U.S. said it is because of how China has treated Uyghur people in Xinjiang.

美國說因為中國虐待新疆維吾兒族人，所以用外交方式抵制冬奧。

But U.S. athletes are still allowed to go and join in.

Other countries are thinking about boycotting the Winter Olympics, too.

This includes Australia and New Zealand.

The government of Taiwan said it needs to think about the situation.

But it will not affect the ability of Taiwanese athletes to go and join in.

Taiwan already has a difficult time joining international sports competitions (比賽).

In most competitions, it has to use the name "Chinese Taipei".

This is because China will not allow these competitions to recognize (承認) Taiwan as a country.

But Taiwan still participates (參與), because otherwise, our athletes would not be able to do their jobs.

但是台灣仍然利用中華台北的名份參加國際體育賽事，否則運動員都沒有發揮的機會。

What do you think? Should Taiwan boycott the Winter Olympics too?

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科學家檢驗古老足跡發現大突破

Scientists Become Shocked by Footprints

Scientists have made a very exciting discovery.

Some scientists recently took two pairs of footprints (足跡) found in the country Tanzania (坦尚尼亞) 50 years ago, and re-examined them, or looked at them again.

What they have found could show how humans evolved (演變) to walk on two legs.

Scientists originally (原本) thought one pair of footprints belonged to (屬於) a bear.

And the other belonged to a human ancestor, called hominin.

Now, they are pretty sure both pairs belong to the human ancestor hominin.

Hominins are our ancestors (祖先), and that means we evolved from them. People think hominins were the first of our ancestors to go from walking with four legs to walking with two legs.

Hominin是人類的祖先，也就是說我們是由Hominin演變而來的。有人認為他們是人類最早的，由四條腿走路進化到用兩條腿走路的祖先。

The footprints were made just days, or even hours apart.

But the feet that made them were pretty different.

And the two creatures that made them walked very differently.

這兩對足跡顯示走路的方式大不相同。

One hominin walked by crossing its left foot over its right foot, then its right foot over its left.

有一個是把左腳放在右腳前，然後右腳放在左腳前面走路。

The other walked more like we do.

另外一人跟我們的走路法比較接近。

Scientists say this could mean at that time, hominins learned to walk in different ways.

Or it could mean different species (種類) lived at the same time.

Human evolution is fascinating.

But discoveries like this show that it is not as simply as we originally thought.

人類演變真了不起，但它不是我們原先所想的那麼簡單!

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莎瑪·海耶克簽了多個漫威約

Salma Hayek Signs More Marvel Deals

A new addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe could be back in the future.

Salma Hayek recently made her Marvel debut in The Eternals.

In that movie, she plays Ajak, the leader (領導者) of the team.

Salma has since revealed that she has signed on to appear in future Marvel movies.

莎瑪·海耶克的第一部漫威電影永恆族十一月初上映了。

However, Salma stresses that just because she has signed the deals doesn't mean she will absolutely appear.

She says there is no guarantee that Marvel will want her back for later projects.

Salma also says she was intimidated (生畏) by joining the MCU.

She says the fans are so passionate, and she was afraid of disappointing them.

莎瑪說她和漫威簽了幾個未來電影的約，但她說這不代表她的角色一定會再出現。

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So, in today's News Bites:

Taiwan is currently deciding whether it wants to send government representatives to the Winter Olympics.

Many countries are boycotting it because of how China treats Uyghurs in Xinjiang.

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And,

Scientists have made a very exciting discovery.

Two pairs of footprints found 50 years ago both belonged hominins - human ancestors.

It could help us understand how humans learned to walk.

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And,

Salma Hayak has signed on to appear in future Marvel movies.

She plays Ajak in The Eternals.

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