A: Did you know that somebody once asked Lee Kuan Yew, the former prime minister of Singapore, what the secret of Singapore’s success was, and he replied that one major factor was air conditioning.
B: What? Air conditioning? He meant air conditioners?
A: That’s right. He said that, for them, air conditioning was a most important invention. Without air conditioning, people in the tropics can only work in the early morning and after dusk.
Photo: Hung Jui-chin, Liberty Times 照片:自由時報記者洪瑞琴
B: Well, that makes a lot of sense. Even in Taiwan, it’s so hot in the summer that I often find it difficult to think, and it’s so humid that even breathing makes me feel sleepy. It must have been even worse in Singapore, so close to the Equator.
A: 你知道嗎,有人問新加坡前總理李光耀說,新加坡成功的秘訣是什麼,他說一個很重要的因素是空調。
B: 什麼?空調?你是說冷氣機嗎?
A: 對呀,他說空調對他們來說是最重要的發明。沒有空調的話,熱帶的人只能在一大早和黃昏以後工作。
B: 嗯,這真的很有道理耶!即使在台灣,夏天我常常熱到沒辦法思考,而且空氣很潮濕,光是呼吸都讓人昏昏欲睡,更不要說在赤道附近的新加坡了!
(Translated by Paul Cooper, Taipei Times/台北時報林俐凱)
English 英文:
Chinese 中文:
Tangbao are one of the most internationally renowned delicacies, that win the hearts of both locals and tourists. Their charm lies in the paper-thin flour wrapper that needs to be folded evenly almost 20 times. Folding a tangbao requires skill to deal with a bulging filling and a thin wrapper. Tangbao are served in a bamboo steamer in which they are steamed, not only adding to the visual appearance, but ensuring they do not get cold before reaching the table. The best way to enjoy a tangbao is to dip it in a mixture of vinegar and soy sauce with
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Have you ever wished for an extra hour to prepare for exams or finish homework? In some countries, people actually adjust their clocks to gain or lose an hour, all for the sake of Daylight Saving Time (DST). Specifically, clocks are set forward by an hour in March and then set back in November. One of the primary reasons for implementing DST is to make better use of natural daylight so that people can reduce energy consumption. The concept originated with Benjamin Franklin in 1784 and became widely adopted during World War I. Today, this system is in place