On Lunar New Year my family usually celebrates the holiday at our house. My cousin and close friends come over. My cousins, Daniel and Iris Cherng, usually come to our party. When the kids are settled, my mom convinces us to eat first before the adults. She cooks up wonderful things to eat — food that children like, that isn't really that healthy or traditional. These foods include French fries, pizza, chicken, steak, and soda. The kids eat at the kitchen table while the adults eat in the dinning room. After about 15 minutes the kids are ready to have some fun. My brother, Phillip, and Iris go up stairs and listen to music on Phillip's computer. My friend, Dylan, Daniel and I play Daniel's XBOX 360 on our big screen TV. We play action games like Gears of War or Call of Duty 2. After the grown-ups are done eating and drinking, they tell us to use the other TV and they sing karaoke. Sometimes our parents ask us to join in, but people like me and Daniel refuse. Around 12am everyone leaves. Lunar New Year at my house rocks.(SPENCER LIN/LINCOLN CHINESE SCHOOL, CALIFORNIA, USA)
我們家族通常都在我家慶祝農曆新年,我的親戚和一些「麻吉」好友也會來一同過節。表哥程慧明和表姊程左容更是我們派對的常客。等小孩子安頓好後,我媽會要我們在大人開飯前先用餐。雖然她會準備一堆孩子們喜歡的美味佳餚,包括:薯條、披薩、雞肉、牛排及汽水等,不過它們對健康不太好也不夠傳統。孩子們在廚房的餐桌上吃飯,大人則在餐廳用餐。大約十五分鐘後,孩子們已經準備要來點餘興節目了。我哥至偉和左容表姊就到樓上用電腦聽音樂;我朋友迪倫還有慧明表哥和我,就在大螢幕電視上玩慧明表哥帶來的XBOX 360,我們玩的是《戰爭機器》或《決勝時刻2》一類的動作遊戲。等大人酒足飯飽之後,他們便要我們讓出大電視給他們唱卡拉OK。有時爸媽會叫我們一起同樂,但像我和慧明表哥就會拒絕。到了半夜十二點左右,大家才紛紛離開。我家的農曆新年實在棒極了。(林至彥,美國加州林肯中文學校)
Taiwanese cuisine boasts a rich culture of thick soups, with various options available at street vendors or high-end restaurants. In English, this style of dish is typically called “thick soup.” Western cuisine typically uses flour, cream, or mashed vegetables to create a creamy consistency, while in Taiwan, thick soups are made by simply incorporating food starch into the soup and creating a smooth and silky texture. Tutuo fish in thick soup is such a soup with fried tutuo fish chunks, shiitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and wood ears. 台灣羹品飲食文化豐富,無論是巷口小店或是高檔餐廳,都有提供羹料理。羹在英文稱作「濃湯」,西式濃湯是以麵粉、鮮奶油、蔬菜泥等達到濃稠的口感,台灣的羹湯用太白粉即能做出濃稠絲滑的湯頭。土魠魚羹就是在勾芡的羹湯中加入炸土魠魚塊、香菇、竹筍、木耳等食材的料理。 boast (v.) 擁有(令人驕傲的事物) consistency (n.) 濃稠度 chunk (n.) 厚塊,大塊 wood ear (n. ph.) 木耳 The star of this
Huge stretches of coral reef around the world are turning a ghostly white this year amid record warm ocean temperatures. On April 15, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirmed the world’s fourth mass global bleaching event is underway — with serious consequences for marine life and for the people and economies that rely on reefs. WHAT ARE CORALS? Corals are invertebrates that live in colonies. Their calcium carbonate secretions form hard and protective scaffolding that serves as a home to many colorful species of single-celled algae. The two organisms have evolved over millennia to work together, with corals providing shelter to algae,
A: So who were Hollywood’s highest-paid stars of 2023? B: No. 5 to No. 2 were: Matt Damon with US$43 million, Ryan Gosling with US$43 million, Tom Cruise with US$45 million, and Margot Robbie with US$59 million. A: Didn’t Tom Cruise top the list? B: Nope, Adam Sandler was No.1, having made US$73 million, which is about NT$2.34 billion. A: Wow, maybe I should change my career to acting. A: 好萊塢去年的片酬排行榜前幾名是誰? B: 第5到2名是︰麥特戴蒙、4300萬美元,雷恩葛斯林、4300萬美元,湯姆克魯斯、4500萬美元,瑪格羅比、5900萬美元。 A: 冠軍竟然不是阿湯哥? B: 是亞當山德勒、片酬7300萬美元,大約23.4億台幣! A: 天啊或許我也該轉行當演員啦。 (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)
A symbol of purity and cleanliness, the color white is the standard color for coats worn by doctors. While this has been the case for well over 100 years, it hasn’t always been so. In fact, before the late 19th century, doctors wore formal black attire, which was similar to that worn by clergymen. Black was chosen for practical reasons—it hid stains from medical procedures and presented a sense of seriousness. The major reason for the color change of the doctor’s coat was to distinguish qualified, professional doctors from those with little or no medical training. Since medical science