Surrounded by ocean, Taiwan is rich in ecological resources, including a resplendently unique organism that at first looks like a miniature Christmas tree. The common English name for the spirobranchus giganteus is Christmas tree worm. What is most surprising is that the Christmas tree worm is an annelid and a distant relative of the soil-covered earthworm.
The Christmas tree worm embeds itself inside the top part of choral reefs, and secretes a calcium-rich tube around its body, which serves as the worm’s home and protection. Dwelling inside the top of the coral reef, it subsists by filter feeding. The most beautiful part of the worm are its two Christmas-tree shaped “crowns,” which are actually highly modified palps located at the front of the mouth that allow any prey trapped inside of them to be transported to the worm’s mouth, but they are also used for respiration.
(LIBERTY TIMES, TRANSLATED BY KYLE JEFFCOAT)
環海的台灣,沿海有豐富的生態資源,包括一種豔麗非凡、乍看之下宛如迷你聖誕樹的生物,它就是英文俗名稱為「聖誕樹蟲」的旋鰓蟲。令人驚訝的是,屬於環節動物的聖誕樹蟲,遠房親戚竟是「灰頭土臉」的蚯蚓。
Photo Courtesty of Lee Chih-ying
照片:由李志穎提供
聖誕樹蟲會嵌入大型珊瑚的上方,身體分泌出一條鈣質的管腔,固定於珊瑚上面,做為住所並具有保護自己的作用,「定棲」在珊瑚上面的聖誕樹蟲,濾食水中的微生物來維生,這種生物顏色最豔麗的部分,是兩個組成狀似聖誕樹的「冠」,這種冠是高度進化的「口前葉觸鬚」,用來困住與運送微生物到口部,同時具有呼吸功能。
(自由時報記者張瑞楨)
Photo Courtesty of Lee Chih-ying
照片:由李志穎提供
Rice is an essential ingredient in Taiwanese cuisine. Many foods are made of rice, adding more variety to our cooking, such as rice cake, or “gui.” Wagui is made by steaming rice flour batter in a bowl. The term “gui” refers to a type of food made from rice, while “wa” refers to a bowl. The pronunciation of “gui” in Taiwanese Hokkien is similar to the word for “nobility” in Chinese, so it is common for people to prepare various types of gui, including wagui, as offerings to the gods or ancestors,. 米是台灣重要的主食,用米製成的食品十分多元,豐富我們的飲食,如米做成的「粿」。粿的意思是米做成的糕點,碗粿是將在來米漿倒入碗中蒸熟,因而得名。粿因為音同「貴」,因此碗粿等粿食常用作供品祭拜神明和祖先。 nobility (n.) 高貴,高尚;貴族 offering (n.) 供品 While Taiwan may not be
Drive-through (or drive-thru) restaurants provide people with the immense convenience of being able to purchase and pick up meals without needing to leave their vehicles. These restaurants have been around for decades, and their success has spawned a number of equally handy services. The drive-through concept originated with the drive-in restaurant, the first of which was established in the US in 1921. Patrons would order and eat the food that was delivered to their cars by workers called “carhops.” Ten years later, a drive-through service was introduced, but it was not until 1947 that the first exclusively drive-through restaurant opened its
On Tuesday last week, the flame for this summer’s Paris Olympics was lit at the birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games in southern Greece in a meticulously choreographed ceremony. It will then be carried through Greece for more than 5,000km before being handed over to French organizers at the Athens venue used for the first modern Olympics in 1896. The pageantry at Olympia has been an essential part of every Olympics for nearly 90 years since the Games in Berlin. It’s meant to provide an ineluctable link between the modern event and the ancient Greek original on which it was initially modelled. Once
A: “Forbes” magazine just revealed Hollywood’s top 10 highest-paid stars of 2023. B: How much did those superstars make last year? A: Denzel Washington was at No. 10, having made US$24 million, which is about NT$771 million. B: That’s an astronomical figure to me. A: No. 9 to No. 6 were: Ben Affleck with US$38 million, Jason Statham with US$41 million, Leonardo DiCaprio with US$41 million, and Jennifer Aniston with US$42 million. A: 《富比世》最近公布了好萊塢去年的片酬排行榜。 B: 大明星的片酬到底有多高? A: 第10名是丹佐華盛頓、片酬2400萬美元,大約7.7億台幣。 B: 天啊這根本是天文數字! A: 第9到6名是︰班艾佛列克、3800萬美元,傑森史塔森、4100萬美元,李奧納多狄卡皮歐、4100萬美元,珍妮佛安妮斯頓、4200萬美元。 (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)