________________________________

Firemen Find a Smelly Surprise

It was late at night. Somewhere in Taichung, people were sleeping. P.U.!!

There was a new, strong, bad smell. People woke up! They smelled it in their
houses. They smelled it out on the street. The smell was everywhere!
某一天晚上，一群台中居民從睡夢中驚醒。他們聞到一股奇怪的臭味！

People thought the smell was cooking gas. It's dangerous! So they called the
firemen!
他們以為是瓦斯外洩，所以立刻打電話給消防隊！

Fire trucks zoomed down the street. Their sirens went "woop woop!" Their
lights flashed! Eight firemen jumped out.
一收到通知，消防車跟消防隊員便快速趕到現場。

Where was the smell coming from? The firemen needed to find out. They knocked
on doors. They sniffed. They used a machine that looks for gas. But they did
not find any gas.
消防員到處尋找臭味的來源。但即使用了瓦斯偵測器，也沒找到瓦斯味從哪裡來。

The firemen sniffed and sniffed. Finally, they found where the smell was
coming from. It was coming from something on a scooter!
他們聞了好久才發現，臭味是從一台機車散發出來的！

What was making the bad smell? It was a durian!
原來臭味的源頭是一顆榴槤！

The durian is called the king of fruits. It is delicious! But it is very
smelly! It smells like cooking gas!
榴槤很美味，但也很臭。它的味道聞起來跟瓦斯一樣！

Everyone saw the durian. What a surprise! They laughed. It was not dangerous.
It was a smelly, smelly durian!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vocabulary
榴槤讓人以為是瓦斯漏氣了。

1. everywhere 到處。
What's that smell? 那是什麼氣味? It's everywhere! 到處都是!
I'm pretty sure it's cigarette smoke.我很確定是香菸。

2. street 街道。
Somebody is smoking out on the street.有人在外面街上抽菸。
Oh, I hate that! 真討厭!
Do you want me to yell at him? 你要我對他喊嗎?
No, I'll do it. 不要，我來對他喊。

3. surprise 驚訝。
Hey, hey! Please don't smoke here! 嘿，請你不要在這裡抽菸!
"Sorry!"
Wow, that's a surprise! 哇，真讓我驚訝。

4. look for 尋找。
Indeed, a very polite man. 真的是很有禮貌的人。
We should look for more neighbors like him.我們應該找更多像他那樣的鄰居。

今天你學到哪些單字?
everywhere到處 street街道 surprise驚訝 look for尋找
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Quiz

1. What did people think the bad smell was?
a. A scooter
b. A fruit
c. Cooking gas

2. How many firemen came to help?
a. Five
b. Eight
c. Ten

3. Where did the bad smell come from?
a. A machine
b. A durian
c. Fire trucks

Answers
1. c
2. b
3. b

________________________________

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

I'm Hope Ngo. And I'm Nancy Sun.

In this episode: More than 20 thousand people gather for a Swim in Sun Moon
Lake…

And, The Problem with Driverless Taxis.

Also in this episode's News Flash: the word "STAMINA" We'll have more on
these stories coming up.
________________________________

[超過2萬人 泳渡日月潭]
More than 20 thousand people swim in Sun Moon Lake

What do you like to do when you visit Sun Moon Lake [日月潭]?

Do you like to hike [走步道] around the lake?

Or do you like to ride a bicycle and explore [探索] the area?

If you like water sports, there are things you can do too.

Some people like to ride boats, while others enjoy taking out stand up
paddleboard [立式槳板 ].

Even though you can play sports in Sun Moon Lake, there is one thing you
can't do regularly.

You can't go for a swim.

That changes once a year, during the Sun Moon Lake Swimming Carnival, which
happened in September.
[但每年會有一次例外，就是在九月舉行的日月潭萬人泳渡嘉年華 ]

The event happened early in the morning... and the swimmers had to swim a
distance of 3 kilometers.

That's the distance between Chaowu Pier [朝霧碼頭 ] on the lake's northern
end to Ita Thao Pier [伊達邵碼頭 ] in the southern end.

That might sound like a big distance to swim... but that didn't keep more
than 24 thousand swimmers from joining the event.

The Sun Moon Lake Swimming Carnival is 43 years old this year.

And it was memorable because two people who were over the age of 75 were
finally allowed to take part!

But if you were over the age of 75 and you were interested... you had to do
two things before you could join.

You had to provide health documents [健康檢查證明]... and you had to have a
qualified lifeguard [救生員 ] with you.

One of the two seniors who took part was former president Ma Ying Jeou.

He swam in the Sun Moon Lake Swimming Carnival for the 12th time.

He said he joined the event every year "to stay fit, which is the most
important purpose." [最重要的目的。 ]

The Sun Moon Lake International Swimming Carnival is famous around the world.

It was recognized [承認 ] by the Olympic Committee [奧委會] as the largest
swimming event in the world in 1995.

It was officially inducted [進入] into the International Swimming Hall of
Fame [國際游泳名人堂 ] in 2002.
________________________________

[自動駕駛計程車的問題]
The problem with driverless taxis

We may not see driverless taxis [ 自動駕駛計程車 ] in Taiwan, but they can be
found in the United States.

There are driverless taxis in cities like San Francisco [舊金山 ], Los
Angeles [洛杉磯 ], and Atlanta [亞特蘭大 ].

Driverless taxis have been around for a few years.

A company called Waymo got their first license [證照 ] to test [檢驗]
driverless taxis in 2018.

And now, Waymo says it offers 250 thousand [二十五萬 ] rides a week!

But just because the technology [科技 ] is being used in some cities... that
doesn't mean it is perfect [完美的 ].

Waymo's technology can still develop problems, or "glitches" [故障 ].

And its most recent glitch involves an illegal U-turn [非法掉頭 ].

Police in the city of San Bruno in California, say they asked a Waymo taxi to
stop.

They saw the taxi make the illegal U-turn.

But when they stopped the car, they discovered [發現] the car had no driver.

Since there was no person in the car, the police could not issue a ticket,
because they cannot issue tickets to cars with no drivers.
[因為車內沒有人，警察無法開罰單，因為他們不能對沒有駕駛人的車輛開單]

The San Bruno Police told the story over social media [社交媒体], and
different netizens didn't react the same way to the news.

Some people were angry, because they think police should send the traffic
ticket to Waymo.

Some people were curious, because they want to know how the police got the
Waymo to stop the driverless taxi.

Waymo knows their car broke a law, but it doesn't know what went wrong.

The company says they watch their driverless cars closely so the taxis don't
make any mistakes.

The police are hoping Waymo will reprogram [重新程式設計] the driverless
taxis so they don't make the same mistake again.

What do you think?

Would you ride in a driverless taxi? And would you report the taxi if it
broke the law?
________________________________

So in today's News Bites:

You usually can't go for a swim in Sun Moon Lake.

But that changes once a year, during the Sun Moon Lake Swimming Carnival,
which happened in September.

This year, more than 20 thousand people took part in the event.
________________________________

And…

A driverless taxi was caught making an illegal U-turn in the United States.

But police didn't issue a ticket, because they said they had to issue a
ticket to a human driver.

And the taxi didn't have one.
________________________________

In today's News Flash, our vocab word is "STAMINA!"

That's spelled S-T-A-M-I-N-A.

"Stamina" is a noun. That's the ability to do something for a long period of
time.

"Stamina" is [耐力] in Mandarin.

For example: it takes stamina to be able to swim three kilometers across Sun
Moon Lake.

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!