A piece of 27-year-old cake from the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana has been sold to an anonymous bidder at auction in Britain for £1,200 (NT$69,000).
The slice of marzipan and icing — decorated with the royal coat of arms — came from one of 22 cakes given to royal staff after Charles and Diana’s wedding in July 1981.
It was given to Moyra Smith, a member of the Queen Mother’s household, who kept the topping as a souvenir. When she died, her husband Don saw no reason to keep it.
PHOTO: AFP
“He had no particular feeling for it and will donate the money to several charities,” said auctioneer Dominic Winter in Gloucestershire, in the west of England, who sold the item two weeks ago.
Winter, who usually deals in antique books, said on his Web site: “The slice of cake icing is in remarkably good condition considering the difficulties involved in removing this from the cake.”
“A highly unusual — and probably inedible — collector’s item.”
(AFP)
二十七年前查爾斯王子和黛安娜王妃婚禮上的一塊蛋糕，在英國一場拍賣會上被一位匿名的買主以一千兩百英鎊（新台幣六萬九千元）標下。
這塊飾有英國皇室盾徽的碎杏仁糖霜蛋糕是一九八一年查爾斯和黛安娜婚禮結束後，分送給其他皇室成員二十二塊蛋糕中的其中一塊。
這塊蛋糕當時送給了皇太后的家族成員莫伊拉．史密斯，她把蛋糕上層的裝飾留下來當紀念品。莫伊拉過世後，她的丈夫唐恩覺得沒有必要再保存此物。
拍賣商多明尼克．溫特說：「他對這塊蛋糕沒有什麼特殊的情感，他將把拍賣所得捐給慈善單位。」溫特兩週前在英格蘭西部葛萊斯特郡的拍賣會上賣出此物。
平常多拍賣古董書籍的溫特在他的網站上表示：「有鑑於將蛋糕的糖霜移除不易，這塊糖霜的保存狀況出奇完好。」
「這是一項極特別的收藏品，但它大概已經不能食用了。」
（法新社�翻譯：袁星塵）
Monosodium glutamate (MSG) has been used in cooking for over a century to enhance flavor. It is often found in Chinese dishes and many other cuisines. Despite its common use, many people misunderstand the safety of MSG. The bad __1__ of MSG started in the late 1960s, when a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine described symptoms like a racing heart, weakness, and numbness after the writer ate Northern Chinese food. While no specific cause was __2__, a series of questionable studies in 1968 began to point the finger at MSG. In one such study, neurologist Herbert Schaumburg and
Even as he grows older, Microsoft founder Bill Gates still fondly remembers the catalytic computer code he wrote 50 years ago that opened up a new frontier in technology. Although the code that Gates printed out on a teletype machine may look crude compared to what’s powering today’s artificial intelligence platforms, it played a critical role in creating Microsoft in April 1975 — a golden anniversary that the Redmond, Washington, company celebrated on April 4. Gates, 69, set the stage for that jubilee with a blog post reminiscing on how he and his old high school friend — the late Paul Allen
The study had several issues. Small sample sizes made it hard to draw __7__ conclusions. Additionally, taking a __8__ like pure MSG on an empty stomach is likely to make a person ill in any case. Choosing individuals who already had a history of the symptoms could have created a bias because they were likely to __9__ the reactions again. When real scientific research on the effects of MSG was eventually done, many of the myths surrounding it were proven __10__. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other global organizations have found MSG safe to eat. Today, MSG
1. 為了在最短期間精通日文，他非常用功。 ˇ He is working very hard (in order) to master Japanese in the shortest possible time. χ He is working very hard for mastering Japanese in the shortest possible time. 註: 用 for ＋ 動名詞表示目的，是不合習慣的，應改用不定詞。請看下列句子： 農夫們拿起了武器來保衛他們的村莊。 The farmers took up arms to defend their village. 為了改進工作，我們修改了部分計劃。 We made some changes in our plan (in order) to improve our work. for 作「為了」解，後面跟名詞則是通順的。例如： 我們為這個計畫拚命。 We are working hard for this project. 我們正在為下一代創造更幸福的生活。 We are building a happier life for our children. 2. 他很怕冷。 ˇ The cold bothers him. ˇ Cold weather bothers him. χ He is afraid of the cold. 註: 我們在英漢詞典或中學課本中所看到的英文字詞的中文解釋，和它的英文原義往往只有局部相等。中文的「怕」只有在表達恐懼時，才能用fear 或be afraid of，不能隨便套用，請參考下面二例： 這錶不怕水。 The watch is waterproof. 我不怕熱。 The heat doesn’t
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