________________________________

Boy Gets Stuck in Claw Machine

I'm at an arcade!

They have lots of driving games! But they make me carsick.
我人在遊樂場，這裡有好多賽車遊戲，但我會暈車。

Look! Over there! They have fighting games! Ugh… they're too scary for me!
還有槍戰遊戲，但我覺得有一點恐怖。

I know! I'm going over there to the claw machines!

Do you know what a claw machine is? Taiwan has lots!

A claw machine looks like a big glass box. There's always a prize in it! The
prize can be a toy, candy, or sometimes something expensive! Players can win
a cell phone from some claw machines!
我要去玩夾娃娃機。它像個大玻璃櫃，獎品有玩具、糖果，還可能有很貴的東西，像是手機！

To win a prize, a player picks it up with a claw. The claw is a metal robot
hand. Picking up the prize sounds easy doesn't it? But it's very hard!
你需要控制金屬爪子去夾獎品，聽起來很簡單，其實很不容易。

A boy played a claw machine. But he didn't win. What did he do then? He
climbed inside it. He wanted to take the prize!

But then the boy got stuck in the claw machine!
有一個男孩夾不到獎品，就爬進娃娃機裡面，結果卡在裡面出不來！

Some people got him out safely. But now he cannot play that claw machine for
one whole year! 後來大家把他安全救出來，但是他一整年不能再玩夾娃娃機了。

Hmm … I want a prize too. But I won't climb inside! I'll play the right
way… wish me luck!
________________________________________

Vocabulary
夾不到獎品的小男孩，乾脆爬進夾娃娃機的玻璃櫃裡。

1. prize 獎品。
Wait, I want to play this one. 等一下，我要玩這個。
You're such a child, Paz. 你真是個小孩。
Look at all these prizes. 你看這些獎品。
They are so much fun! 都很好玩呢。

2. toy 玩具。
They are just cheap toys. 它們都只是些便宜玩具。
You're not still playing with toys, are you? 你沒有在玩玩具了吧?

3. pick up 撿起來。
I am. And I like cheap toys. 我有，我喜歡便宜玩具。
Now I have to pick up this car. 現在我一定要夾這個汽車。

4. over there 在那裏。
Oh no! Why is it so hard? 糟糕，怎麼這麼難?
Come on. Let me buy you ice cream at the store over there.
來吧，我請你到那邊店裡吃冰淇淋。

你喜歡玩夾娃娃機嗎?

prize獎品
toy玩具
pick up撿起來
over there在那裏
________________________________________
Quiz

1. What does a claw machine look like?
A: A driving game
B: Some candy
C: A big glass box

2. What is always inside a claw machine?
A: A boy
B: A prize
C: An arcade

3. When can the boy play the claw machine again?
A: One week
B: One month
C: One year

Answers
1. C
2. B
3. C
 

________________________________

Hello and welcome back to a new episode of News Bites!

I’m Allie Highsmith.

And I’m Nancy Sun.

In this episode of News Bites: Taipei makes residents want to keep living
there ... and Japan’s oldest woman.

And in this episode’s News Flash: Floods
________________________________

臺北市是全球讓人願意長住的第一名
Taipei ranks number one in the world for staying power

A new ranking 排名 says that Taipei is the best city in the world for
“staying power!”

Um… what’s that?

“Staying power” is about how much people who live in a place want to stay
there.

It’s different from how much people want to move there.

The new ranking comes from the US-based design and architecture firm Gensler.

In Taipei, 64% of people say that they want to stay in the city.
臺北市百分之64的居民說，他們想要繼續住下去。

That’s first out of 65 cities.

The survey 民意調查 talked to 33,000 people for the City Pulse 2025.

After Taipei, the other cities with the best “staying power” were Ho Chi
Minh City 胡志明市, Singapore, Sydney雪梨, and Berlin柏林.

The report says that people want to move to new cities for different reasons
than they want to stay there.

They say that people move to a city because of things like how expensive it
is, safety, and healthcare.

But measuring how people decide to stay or not is different- it’s more about
if people feel at home or not.

The city needs to make people feel happy.

Some people who moved to Taipei and decided to stay there say that Taipei has
a great music environment.

Others say they like the pace of life in Taipei, where the environment is not
as stressful as in other Asian cities.

Taipei ranked high on economic strength, peace and stability, quality of
life, addressing homelessness, and reducing crime.

Researchers say that the staying power of cities closely reflects residents’
likelihood of leaving their current homes.

Taipei and Ho Chi Minh City were almost tied for the lowest average
likelihood of leaving (離開的可能性最低).

Next were Shanghai, Singapore, and Riyadh 利雅得.

The report found that people in the Asia Pacific Region are least likely to
leave where they live now.

And 80% of people in Taipei said they were satisfied or very satisfied.
百分之80的臺北市居民說他們很滿意或者是非常滿意。
________________________________

日本最長壽的老人換人了
Japan’s Oldest Person

Japan has a new oldest person!

...what?

Okay okay, so there was a 114 year old woman living in Japan, named Miyoko
Hiroyasu.

Okay...

She was the oldest living person in Japan, but she passed away recently,
according to the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare
(厚生勞動省).

That means, there’s a new oldest person in Japan, and her name is Shigeko
Kagawa.

Kagawa went to medical school, and graduated before World War II.
During the war, she worked at a hospital in Osaka (大阪).

Later, she ran her family’s clinic (診所) and retired (退休) at 86.
Wow! That’s a full life.

And, she also became an Olympic torchbearer (奧運火炬手) when she was 109,
during the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

That must make her one of the oldest Olympic torchbearers in history!
Kagawa is from Nara Prefecture (奈良縣), near Osaka in the Kansai region.

Kagawa was a doctor, so I guess it makes sense that she would know how to
live a healthy life and live a long time!

But she told journalists before that she didn’t have any secrets to stay
healthy.

She just said that she plays every day, and goes where she wants, eats what
she wants, and does what she wants.

好自在喔！

But she did emphasize (?調) that it’s important to stay active.

She said that when she was young, she always walked everywhere, but now
people mostly drive or sit on the subway.

Kagawa said that maybe walking so much made her strong and healthy.

Before Kagawa, the oldest person in Japan, Miyoko Hiroyasu, also had a very
active lifestyle.

Hiroyasu was born in 1911, and studied art in Tokyo.

She later was a teacher in Hiroshima prefecture (廣島縣) and had three kids.

She passed away in Oita Prefecture, where she spent time reading newspapers,
drawing, and playing cards.

Japan has a very long life expectancy (壽命很長).

That means, people born there can usually expect to live to be very old.

Japan’s average life expectancy for men and women is 85 years old.
日本人的平均壽命是85歲。

But women usually live longer than men, so Japanese women can expect to live
to be 87, while men can expect to live to 82.
但是女性通常活得比男生久，所以日本女性的平均壽命是87歲，男性是82歲。

Around the world, the average life expectancy is much lower, at only 73 years.
全球平均壽命是73歲。

The population in Japan is getting smaller and smaller, but the population of
elderly people is getting bigger and bigger.
________________________________

So, in today's News Bites:

Taipei ranks number one in the world for staying power!

That means, it makes people want to stay in the city.

Staying power is different from power of attraction, which makes people want
to move there.
________________________________

And,

Japan has a new oldest person.

She is 114 years old.

Japan has a very long average life expectancy, which means people usually
live to be very old.
________________________________

News Flash

In today’s News Flash, our vocab word is “flood!”

That’s spelled F-L-O-O-D.

“Flood” is both a noun and verb, and it’s when water fills a place.

Sometimes that’s because it rained a lot in a short time.

Flood is called 淹水 in Mandarin.

For example, some of our listeners might have heard about how many parts of
Taiwan flooded over the summer because it rained so much.

And now you know!
________________________________

If you have a fun fact or a joke you’d like to share with us, record your
message and send us your Bite-Sized Break to newsbites@icrt.com.tw, and you
might hear it in an episode!

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