Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's new campaign against teenage binge drinking in Australia revived questions last week about his own drunken escapade in a New York strip club.
Reports of the night he spent at "Scores" in 2003 surfaced while he campaigned ahead of last November's election. The bookish and church-going Rudd apologized, and most Australians believed him when he said it was the second time in his life that he was drunk.
Still, the incident resurfaced last week when Rudd launched a 53 million Australian dollar (NT$1.5 billion) campaign to combat excessive drinking among Australians teens.
"It's a bit rich for a man who got famously stonkered at a lap-dancing club in New York five years ago to be lecturing the rest of us on binge drinking," columnist Miranda Devine wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Rudd admitted last Friday that he was no "paragon of moral virtue."
"I'll take any incoming flak about yours truly, but I've got one target in mind and that is to get that number down," he told Melbourne radio 3AW, referring to the 168,000 Australian teenagers under the legal drinking age of 18 who abuse alcohol.
The campaign includes television, radio and Internet spots to shock young people on the consequences of binge drinking, as well as grants to clubs and community groups to help change the drinking culture. Some sports stars have agreed to appear in the ads.
Australians are relatively tolerant of excessive drinking. Former prime minister Bob Hawke held a Guinness World Record for speed beer drinking during his days as a Rhodes Scholar.(AP)
上週，澳洲總理陸克文為改善青少年狂飲問題而推行的新計畫，讓他曾在紐約一間脫衣酒吧酒醉荒唐的事再度成為民眾質疑的話題。
他去年十一月參選澳洲總理前，曾被媒體揭露他二ＯＯ三年某夜光顧「Scores」脫衣舞俱樂部的往事；當時有書卷氣息且總是按時上教堂的陸克文就道歉說，那是他生平第二次喝醉酒，這說法說服了大部份澳洲民眾。
儘管如此，當上週陸克文提出一個五千三百萬澳幣（新台幣十五億元）的計畫，以導正澳洲青少年過量飲酒問題時，該事件又再度被拿來炒作。
專欄作家米蘭達．戴凡在《雪梨晨鋒報》中寫道：「被一個五年前在紐約脫衣舞夜總會喝得酩酊爛醉的人教訓『狂飲』，實在是讓我們感到有一點荒唐。」
陸克文上週五承認他自己「在道德上並非完人」。
他對墨爾本3AW廣播電台表示：「對於大眾的抨擊我都虛心接受，但是我心中有一個目標，就是要減少狂飲的青少年人數。」他提到，澳洲未達十八歲法定年齡就酗酒的青少年約有十六萬八千人。
這項計畫包括在電視、廣播和網路上安插廣告，以可能的後果來嚇阻年輕人酗酒，並補助俱樂部和社區團體，以期改善飲酒文化；已有若干體育明星同意參與廣告拍攝。
相對而言，澳洲人對過量飲酒相當寬容；前總理霍克在當「羅德學人」期間，還曾是金氏世界紀錄極速狂飲啤酒項目的紀錄保持人。（美聯社�翻譯：袁星塵）
Warning: Excessive consumption
of alcohol can damage your health.
警告：飲酒過量有害健康。
US President Donald Trump has renewed his ambition to take control of Greenland for national security reasons and questioned whether Denmark has any legal right to the Arctic island. The debate has revived scrutiny of how Greenland became part of Denmark, its current self-rule and path to independence, and Washington’s military footprint. HOW DID DENMARK GET GREENLAND? Greenland was inhabited by Inuit peoples from Asia and North America intermittently from around 2,500 BC. Around 985 AD, Vikings led by Erik the Red settled in southern Greenland, farming and building churches. Around the same time, ancestors of today’s Inuit arrived, living as hunters
Have you ever gazed at the night sky and felt as though the Moon loomed larger than usual? Your eyes were not deceiving you. The Moon’s apparent size can __1__ subtly depending on where it is in its orbit. On certain occasions, it reaches its fullest phase while at its closest point to Earth. When these two events __2__, scientists and the public refer to the spectacle as a “supermoon.” The Moon does not orbit our planet in a perfect circle. Instead, it travels along a more oval-shaped __3__, completing one full orbit every 27 days. Consequently, there are times when
AI-generated summaries are shaking up the media world. Tools like Google’s AI Overviews now provide users with direct answers above the search results, resulting in fewer people clicking on news links. For publishers who rely on that traffic to generate advertising revenue, this shift is hitting hard. The fallout is measurable. Many sites have seen a sharp drop in traffic since AI summary features rolled out. An analysis revealed that a news outlet that had once ranked first on Google lost up to 79% of its traffic when its link appeared beneath an AI-generated summary. Statistics also show that
1. 展出的是幾幅張大千的名畫。 ˇ There are some masterpieces painted by Chang Dai-chien on exhibition. χ There are some masterpieces painting by Chang Dai-chien on exhibition. 註：現在分詞 painting 表明主動的或未完成的動作，這裏必須用過去分詞。現代英語裡，正句裡的 painted 一字，往往略去。若將 painting 視為名詞，則應加s — paintings. 2. 書前面有簡短的序言。 ˇ There is a short foreword preceding the book. χ There is a short foreword preceded the book. 註：precede 作「在……之前」解。a short foreword 是放在述詞後的主詞，應用現在分詞 preceding 表明主動的動作，句義與 There is a short foreword which precedes the book. 相同。 3. 你知道昨天發生的事故有誰在裡面嗎？ ˇ Do you know anyone who was in the accident that happened yesterday? χ Do you know anyone who was in the accident happened yesterday? 註：錯句中的 happened 是過去分詞，一般過去分詞形式有被動的意義，但 happen 是不及物動詞，不能用作被動形式。若用現在分詞 happening 則表示未完成的動作，與中文原意不合。 請參考下列例句： 我上個月發表的有關創造力的文章，你讀過沒？ ˇ Have you read my article about
RSS