Delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the 32nd Golden Melody Awards ceremony will take place at the Taipei Music Center on Saturday. Taiwanese-language singer Olivia Tsao and Aboriginal-language singer Sangpuy are leading this year’s nominees with eight nods each.
The six nominees for the Best Mandarin Album include: Wan Fang’s “Dear All,” Shi Shi’s “Where is SHI?” Hebe Tien’s “Untold,” Soft Lipa’s “Home Cookin,” William Wei’s “Sounds of My Life,” and James Li’s “10 Days.” The Special Contribution Award is going to veteran rock icon Lo Ta-you for his influence on Mandopop over the past 40 years. Lo is best known for his 1982 classic “Lukang, the Little Town” and a dozen hits.
Although Taiwan already lowered the COVID-19 alert from level 3 to level 2, the Ministry of Culture pointed out last month that the physical show will be partially virtual, with a limited number of participants at the scene to avoid crowd gatherings, and some of the performances may be pre-recorded.
Photo courtesy of TY Music Company 照片:大右音樂提供
(Eddy Chang, Taipei Times)
受武漢肺炎(新冠病毒,COVID-19)影響,第三十二屆金曲獎頒獎典禮被迫延期,週六終於將在台北流行音樂中心登場。台語歌手曹雅雯及原住民歌手桑布伊則是入圍大贏家,今年各得到八項提名。
入圍最佳華語專輯獎的六張作品包括︰萬芳的《給你們Dear All》、孫盛希的《出沒地帶》、田馥甄的《無人知曉》、「蛋堡」杜振熙的《家常音樂》、韋禮安的《Sounds of My Life》、李泉的《十日彈》。本屆特別貢獻獎將頒給資深搖滾歌手羅大佑,以表彰他在過去四十多年來對華語流行樂壇的影響力,羅大佑以一九八二年的《鹿港小鎮》和其它多首金曲而聞名樂壇。
雖然台灣已將全國疫情警戒由三級調降為二級,文化部在七月即宣布,本次典禮將以實體加線上的方式舉辦,不但限制現場人數以避免群聚,部分表演也可能以事先預錄方式進行。
(台北時報張聖恩)
A: South Korean supergroup Blackpink has finally come to Taiwan, and I’m going to one of their Kaohsiung concerts this weekend. I’m over the moon. B: My goodness. However did you manage to get a ticket? I’ve heard that all tickets were snapped up. A: That’s right. They sold 90,000 tickets for the two shows, breaking Coldplay’s record of selling 80,000 tickets for two shows in Taiwan. B: No wonder Blackpink is the world’s top girl group. A: Well, I may be too excited to sleep tonight. A: 南韓女子天團Blackpink終於來台灣啦,而且我週末要去高雄看她們的演唱會,真開心。 B: 天啊,你竟然能搶到門票,聽說所有門票全都被秒殺了。 A: 對啊,這次兩場演唱會賣出九萬張門票,還打破Coldplay兩場賣出八萬張門票的紀錄。 B: 她們真不愧是全球最紅的女團! A: 我今晚可能會興奮到睡不著吧。 (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)
對許多人而言,雞蛋是生活上不可或缺的食物,不論是早餐三明治內的煎蛋、或是晚餐便當中的滷蛋,台灣人對雞蛋的需求量極大,根據統計,台灣人每年吃掉七十幾億顆蛋,是全世界雞蛋消耗量第一的國家。去年冬天開始禽流感侵襲全世界,全台雞蛋也受波及,嚴重缺貨,許多民眾排隊還不一定搶得到雞蛋,不只是大賣場與雜貨店,甚至早餐店都面臨了「缺蛋」的問題。全台面臨「蛋蛋危機」,政府也開始提出更多配套措施來應付目前缺蛋的窘況。本次就讓我們從「蛋荒」的議題來學各種描述社會現象及數據的英文吧! ========== 如何描述蛋荒? 一般講到「短缺」時,最常用shortage來形容,如去年的water shortage「缺水」、electricity/power shortage「缺電」。而現在全台面臨的就是一個egg shortage「蛋荒」。 Taiwan’s daily egg demand is about 24 million, while its daily production capacity during the shortage has been about 22.6 million eggs. (台灣每日的雞蛋需求約2,400萬顆,缺貨期間僅約2,260萬顆雞蛋。) shortage和shortfall的差別在於shortfall指的是「不足的(量)、缺額、短少的量」,簡單來說,fall short of…就是「短缺…」的意思。 Our sales have fallen short of the target set by the department. (我們的銷售額沒有達到部門設定的標準。) insufficient insufficient (adj)「不足,短少」在TOEIC測驗中經常出現,deficit (n)則可以解釋為「赤字、虧損」。 The bank just informed us that there were insufficient funds to make the transfer. (銀行剛通知我們帳戶資金不足以轉帳。) 另一個較難的單字是scarcity (n)「缺乏、不足、稀少」,形容詞為scarce (adj)。 The government decided to import eggs from other countries to address the scarcity. (政府決定從其他國家進口雞蛋來應付短缺的問題。) 「蛋蛋危機」? 造成這次蛋荒的原因究竟為何?根據報導,本次導致「蛋蛋危機」背後的因素相當複雜,從飼料價格上漲、日夜溫差大導致母雞致死率高、到禽流感肆虐等,都是引起缺蛋的主要原因。 The cold weather has been to blame, for some, and for others, the impact of avian influenza, climate instability, and rising international prices for materials. (天氣寒冷、禽流感、氣候不穩定以及國際原物料價格上漲都是罪魁禍首。) instability (n)「不穩定」,相反字為stability (n)、stable(adj)「穩定」,都是多益測驗高頻出現的單字。 Maintaining stability in the Taiwan Strait is important
Global population hits 8 billion 全球人口突破八十億! Humanity reached a milestone in November last year, when the global population exceeded eight billion people. Reaching this number means people are living longer, with generally better access to healthcare, food and sanitation than previous generations. Along with passing this milestone, many demographic changes are expected to occur in the coming years. A United Nations report shows that the world’s population will increase to around 9.7 billion people by the year 2050. It is predicted to peak three decades later at approximately 10.4 billion people and stay around this number until the end of the century. What’s interesting to note is
James is surfing the Internet for lessons. 詹姆斯正在上網搜尋課程。 必備單字 1. experience v.經歷;n.經驗(國中基本1200字) 2. offer v.提供 (國中挑戰800字) 實用字詞 1. PE (Physical Education) class 體育課 2. voucher 現金券 3. ASAP (as soon as possible) 盡快 閱讀技巧: 將長句分成短字詞,以利閱讀 Become a member/of fUN Learning,/and choose the courses/you like. 成為一個會員/「fUN Learning」的/並且選擇課程/你喜歡。 斷句練習: If you have questions, you can also ask our online teachers. 解答: If you have questions,/you can also/ask our online teachers. 假如你有問題,/你也可以/ 問我們的線上老師。 考題練習: TOEIC Bridge測驗 X 國中會考題型 1. Which is true? (A) fUN Learning is a school. (B) fUN Learning is for students only. (C) You can learn from fUN Learning at midnight. 2. What does “them” in the text refer to? (A) The members. (B) The courses. (C) The questions. 3. James bought three