________________________________
The Mold Shop

In September, it rained... and rained... and rained. It was very wet in
Kaohsiung!
九月的高雄下雨下個不停，整個城市都變得非常潮濕！

When it rains so much, the air in homes can get wet. That makes things in
homes wet. When things stay wet, mold can grow.
一旦房屋裡的空氣和物品充滿濕氣，就可能造成發霉。

Mold looks fuzzy. It can be white or green or black. It does not smell good!
黴菌毛絨絨的，顏色有綠有白或黑色，而且有霉味！

In Kaohsiung, people had moldy shoes. They had moldy bags and jackets!
Many people went to a shop. This shop knows how to clean mold. The people
brought lots of moldy shoes, bags, and jackets.
在高雄，很多人帶著發霉的鞋子、包包和夾克到一家商店，希望店家能幫忙清除黴菌。

Workers at the shop were very, very busy. They needed to clean everything
fast. Mold grows and grows! It gets worse fast.
店裡的員工超級忙碌，因為黴菌不停地長，他們需要盡快把黴菌清掉。

Mold is not good for health. The workers wore masks and gloves to clean
things safely. They washed the moldy things by hand. They made sure all the
mold was gone!
黴菌對身體有害，所以員工都會戴著口罩和手套工作，並且確保黴菌完全清掉。

So how can you keep mold away? Do not leave wet shoes or bags in a closed
box. Fresh air helps keep mold away.
讓濕掉的鞋子和包包接觸新鮮空氣，就能減少發霉。

The next time it rains a lot, try to keep your things dry! Or you might find
mold on your things too...
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Vocabulary

發霉的衣物，可以交給專業的店家清除。

1. jacket 夾克。
Yuck! There’s mold on my jacket! 我的夾克上面長黴了!
Eww, that’s gross! 有夠噁心! You need to take it out and air it. 你得把它拿到外面讓它透氣。

2. wet 潮濕的。
Why is there mold? 為什麼會發霉?
It’s this wet weather. 都是這個濕答答的天氣。You’d better check your shoes.你最好檢查一下鞋子。

3. rain 下雨。
Oh no! Mold is on my favorite shoes, too! 糟了，我最喜歡的鞋子也有黴!
Did you wear them in the rain? 你下雨時穿著它嗎?
Yeah, but that was weeks ago! 對，可是那好幾個星期之前了!

4. dry 乾的。
Well, if you didn’t keep them dry, 要是沒有保持乾燥，mold could start to grow. 就可能開始發霉。

這些單字你記住了嗎? jacket夾克 wet潮濕的 rain下雨 dry乾的

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quiz

1. Why did workers need to clean things fast?
a. There were too many customers.
b. They wanted to go home early.
c. Mold grows and grows.

2. What did the shop workers wear to clean?
a. Jackets
b. Mold
c. Gloves

3. What should you do to keep mold away?
a. Keep things dry.
b. Keep things in a closed box.
c. Buy clean things.

Answers
1. c
2. c
3. a

 

________________________________

Hi and welcome to a new episode of News Bites!

I’m Allie Highsmith

And I’m Nancy Sun.

In today’s episode, researchers are worried about Taiwan’s judicial
independence.

And, more and more Southeast Asian people are moving to a surprising place.

Plus, in this episode’s News Flash, “shift.”
______________
國際團體報告指出，台灣的司法獨立分數下降了！
International report raises concerns about Taiwan’s judicial independence

Taiwan is number seven in the whole world for people’s participation in the
government (民衆參與政府度）.

That puts Taiwan on the same level as Finland (芬蘭).

That’s what a new international report says.

The report is from the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral
Assistance.

They look at four main factors (主要的因素) when they make the report.

Those include: representation (代表性), rights, rule of law (法制), and
participation.

They want to understand how healthy a democracy is.

They say that Taiwan’s democracy got less healthy last year in one big way:
judicial independence (司法獨立).

In 2024, Taiwan’s judicial independence was in the best group, but last year
it dropped (下降了) to the middle group.

That puts Taiwan next to the US, Argentina, Belgium, India, and Nigeria.

Taiwan was not the only country whose score in one of the four categories got
worse between 2020 and last year; over half of countries around the world had
the same problem.

2020年到2025年之間分數下降的不只有台灣；其實全球超過一半的國家都有同樣的問題。

But why did Taiwan’s judicial independence score get worse?

Well, that depends on who you ask, because the report did not say why.

Some people think it’s because the Constitutional Court (憲法法庭) has not been
able to work and some people think it’s because the government is interfering
with (干涉到) the courts.

Even though that score went down, Taiwan was one of only 13 countries whose
score for legislative oversight (監督) went up.

The report also says that things that China does around Taiwan are a risk to
democracy.
______________
格陵蘭人口不斷變動 來自東南亞的移民者貢獻到格林蘭的經濟
Greenland experiences demographic shifts as more southeast Asians move in

Maybe you’ve heard of a place called “Greenland” (格陵蘭)?

Greenland has been in the news a lot lately.

That’s because the president of the US says that he wants to invade (侵略)
Greenland and make it a part of the US.

蛤~？That’s crazy!

Yep, but it means that more people are hearing about Greenland more often.

Greenland is actually a part of a different country- Denmark (丹麥).

Now, something is changing in Greenland: more and more people from Southeast
Asia are going there.

Mostly in very rural (偏僻的) parts of Greenland.

This trend is one of the fastest population changes in Greenland’s recent
history.

There already aren’t very many people who live there- about 57,000.

Many young people moved away.

But the economy is getting bigger.

That means that Greenland needs more people to work there.

So now, many people immigrate (移民) from Southeast Asia.

The biggest groups of immigrants are from the Philippines and Thailand.

There are about 1300 people from the Philippines and 460 from Thailand.

That means the people from the Philippines are about 2.3% of Greenland’s
total population.

But just 5 years ago, there were only 270 Filipinos!

That means, the population of Filipinos has more than quadrupled in just 5
years!

五年前有270名來自菲律賓的移民者住在格陵蘭。現在有1300個菲律賓人在格陵蘭生活！這就代表，在短短的五年内，格陵蘭的菲律賓人人口增加了四倍！

Many of the migrant workers (移工) work at grocery stores, hotels, and
restaurants.

Now about 13% of Greenland’s workers are not from the island.

Experts say that the US president talking about Greenland so much has made
more people think about Greenland.

But not everything in Greenland is so perfect: in the winter the weather can
be really difficult.

The sun doesn't come out very often then and it’s very cold.

But some migrant workers think it’s worth it because of the higher salary
(薪資比較高).

Some people say that they wanted to move because they wanted to try living a
different way from how they grew up.

Even though there aren’t that many Filipinos in Greenland, the Philippines
actually sends many people to other countries to work or study.

About 10% of Filipinos live outside of the country.

In Greenland, lots of migrant workers live in the capital city (首都), Nuuk.

So some residents even started their own businesses for Asian immigrants.

Hey, that’s kind of like how in Taipei we have some Indonesian grocery
stores, or great Philippine food!

Yeah, exactly!

Don’t they miss home, living so far away?

Probably, but luckily there are other people from the Philippines or Thailand
to remember home with together.

People can gather (團聚) for religious reasons or for holidays.

But what do they miss the most?

One woman from Thailand says she misses 7-Elevens that are everywhere in
Thailand, but nowhere in Greenland!

And because there are more people from other countries in Greenland now, it’s
changing Greenland’s culture.

For a long time, the culture there was influenced by the relationship between
the Indigenous people there, called the Kalaallit, and the Danish government.

Now, with another migrant group coming in, it’s sure to change things too.

格陵蘭本來就是原住民的土地；後來有一些歐洲人搬過去，國家的文化有原住民和歐洲人的影響。現在有一些東南亞人也搬過去，肯定也會帶來新的文化變化！
_____________
RECAP

So in today’s News Bites…

An international report says that Taiwan’s judicial independence got worse
last year.

However, they also said that Taiwan’s rate of people’s participation in
government is one of the best in the world!

______________
And…

More and more Southeast Asian immigrants are moving to Greenland.

It’s the biggest population shift that Greenland has had for a long time.

People from the Philippines and Thailand are moving to Greenland so that they
can make more money and experience a different lifestyle.
______________
NEWS FLASH

In today’s News Flash, our word of the day is “shift.”

“Shift” is both a noun and a verb, and it’s very similar to the word “change.”

For example, in the news story, we talked about Greenland's population
“shifts,” meaning how the population is changing.

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!

See you next time, for another new episode of News Bites!