Hi everyone, welcome to a new episode of News Bites! I'm Kelly Kimura… And I'm Nancy Sun. Coming up in today's news: Hualien holds a racing event for snails and a new airline for dogs takes flight. And in today's Tasty Tidbit, an elementary school baseball team is going to the U.S. thanks to one woman! Stay tuned for more on those stories! ___________________________________________________________ **花蓮舉辦蝸牛競賽 ** Hualien Holds a Snail Competition We humans have been using animals for sports ever since we were able to train (訓練) them. We race horses and dogs. Some people make dogs and roosters (公雞) fight. Using animals for fights is cruel (殘忍的). It’s also illegal (違法的) in most places. Recently (最近), animal competitions (競賽) have become more creative (更有創意) and interesting. Nepal (尼泊爾) has elephant soccer. California has dog surfing (衝浪). Here in Taiwan, we have snail (蝸牛) racing. Yes, you heard that right: snail racing. A snail competition was recently held in Fenglin Township (鳳林鎮) in Hualien. Fenglin Township is well known for its slow-paced lifestyle (慢節奏的生活方式). Ten years ago, an international association (國際協會) that promotes (推廣) a slow-paced lifestyle named Fenglin Township a “slow” city. It’s the first “slow” city in Taiwan. Its mascot (吉祥物) is a snail. So snail racing and Fenglin Township are a good match (絕配)! The snail racing competition promotes a slow-paced lifestyle. It also brings visitors – and snails – from all over Taiwan to this beautiful town. This year, 81 people brought snails to race in the competition. The race is on a cloth with two concentric circles (同心圓) on it. The snails start at the inner circle (內圈) and go to the outer (外) circle. The first one to crawl across 33 centimeters wins. Four races were held with about 20 snails in each race. The winner was a Giant African Snail. Its name is 宇宙強強滾, or “The Universe Rolls On.” It reached the outer circle in 1 minute and 25 seconds. The top three snails got a medal and sweet potato leaves (地瓜葉). One woman said she had picked up ten snails a week ago. She trained them with sweet potato leaves. She chose the best of the ten for the competition. Her snail won second place! It finished in 2 minutes and 15 seconds. 鳳林人希望能藉由這個活動把慢活的哲學推廣出去。 ___________________________________________________________ **狗狗航空公司起飛 ** A New Airline for Dogs Takes Off Do you have a dog? If you do, maybe you understand how it feels to leave your dog when you go on a trip. Poor dog! Sure, you can take your dog with you. It’s easy when you’re going on a road trip. Many dogs love riding in cars. But… what if you’re flying? Most airlines (航空公司) only allow dogs that are less than 9 kilograms in the cabin (機艙). However, they must be kept under the seat in a pet carrier (寵物籠). Large dogs must fly in the cargo hold (貨艙) under the cabin. Even on smooth flights (順利飛行), dogs are anxious (焦慮的). They are also not comfortable. A new airline started, and it’s what some dog lovers have been waiting for. A pet company started it with a private jet charter company (私人飛機包機公司). Dogs are treated like people are. Maybe they’re treated even better! The airline says dogs are their top priority (最優先). Before flights, the airline serves (提供) them snacks and gives them noise-canceling earmuffs (降低噪音的耳罩). During flights, the airline serves them drinks to help their ears with changes in air pressure (空氣壓力). The dogs can meet other dogs or stay in their seats. 唯一的缺點是昂貴的票價. A one-way trip from New York to Los Angeles costs $6,000 US dollars for one dog and one person. That’s about 195,000 Taiwan dollars! From New York to London, the price is $8,000 US dollars. That’s about 260,000 Taiwan dollars! Wow! The airline says the price will go down as more dogs fly with them. It’s expensive, but this new airline is still great news for dog lovers who fly with their dogs. ___________________________________________________________ So in today's News Bites: Animal competitions around the world are becoming more interesting. In Taiwan, Hualien holds snail races. The competition promotes the slow-paced lifestyle of Fenglin. ___________________________________________________________ And… Dogs are the top priority for a new airline. They can sit with their owners in the cabin. The airline serves the dogs snacks and drinks. But the tickets are not cheap. ___________________________________________________________ 趣味小點 Tasty Tidbit A baseball team from Pingtung is Taiwan's national champion in an international baseball league. Congratulations (恭喜)! The players are from Yu-Tian (玉田) Elementary School and Daping (大平) Elementary School. The next games are the international games in the U.S. in August. The trip will cost about $4,800,000 Taiwan dollars! The schools didn't know if they could get enough money to go. Then a woman called one school. She said she wanted to give the team all of the money! The school thought she was joking (開玩笑). That's a lot of money from one person! But that afternoon, she sent the money to the school's bank account (帳戶)! Wow! What a great thing to do! Good luck to the team! _________________________________________________________ And that's it for today's episode of News Bites! If you have a fun fact, a joke, or interesting news you'd like to share with us, record your message and send your Tasty Tidbit to us at [email protected]. You might hear it at the end of an episode! We'll see you next time for an exciting new episode of News Bites!