A: Could you turn the TV down a bit, otherwise I won’t be able to hear the garbage truck.
B: OK. You know, when I came to Taiwan, one thing that I thought was the most interesting, or perhaps the most strange, was that the Maiden’s Prayer was used as the music for the garbage truck. After that, I didn’t dare play that tune on the piano. I was afraid people would throw garbage over me.
A: You crack me up. Apparently, in the past, some garbage trucks would play Beethoven’s Fur Elise.
照片:Pixabay Photo: Pixabay
B: The Maiden’s Prayer was written by a young Polish female composer in the 19th century. I’m really curious why this song was chosen for the garbage truck.
A: The story goes that, at the time, an official responsible for these things heard his daughter practicing this song, thought it sounded nice, and decided to use it.
A: 你把電視關小聲一點,不然我聽不到垃圾車來的聲音。
B: OK。你知道嗎,我來台灣覺得最有趣,或者說最奇怪的事,就是垃圾車竟然用《少女的祈禱》當作音樂。害我彈鋼琴都不敢再彈這首了,怕別人把垃圾丟到我身上。
A: 你也太好笑。不過好像以前有些垃圾車放的音樂是貝多芬的《給愛麗絲》。
B: 《少女的祈禱》是十九世紀波蘭一位年輕女作曲家寫的。我很好奇為什麼要選這首歌給垃圾車。
A: 聽說是當時負責相關業務的官員聽到女兒在練這曲子,覺得很好聽,就採用了這首歌。
(Translated by Paul Cooper, Taipei Times/台北時報林俐凱 )
Audio recordings for Speak Up! dialogues will be suspended until further notice due to the pandemic.
The strongest earthquake to hit Taiwan in 25 years killed at least 16 people and damaged dozens of buildings, but the destruction was largely contained thanks to decades of preparedness work. Taiwan sits on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of intense seismic activity along the Pacific Rim, and — much like neighboring Japan — has a long history of catastrophic quakes. How does April 3 compare with other recent quakes? The April 3 earthquake, which measured 7.4 on the moment magnitude scale, was felt across Taiwan. It was the most severe since a 7.6 magnitude quake in 1999 killed
A: Artificial intelligence technology has been causing controversy lately: a student was caught cheating with AI to win the grand prize in an art contest. B: That’s so absurd. Does this mean that AI paints better than humans? A: Maybe. Luckily, the student was later disqualified. B: And more absurdly, it’s becoming more and more popular to use AI technology to “resurrect” people. A: Yeah, some netizens even posted videos featuring the late singer CoCo Lee, who was “resurrected” by them with AI software. A: 人工智慧的爭議不斷,有學生違規使用AI參加美術展,甚至贏得首獎。 B: 真誇張,這是不是代表AI比人類還強大? A: 或許吧,幸好得獎資格被取消。 B: 還有更誇張的︰讓死者重現的「AI復活」技術越來越熱門。 A: 對啊,還有網友製作已故歌后李玟「復活」的影片呢! (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)
Around the time of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, the streets of Taiwan are filled with the delightful aroma of zongzi, a traditional snack made of sticky rice wrapped in leaves. The leaves are folded into a cone and then filled with sticky rice and other ingredients such as braised pork belly, peanuts and salted duck egg yolks. The filled leaves are then tightly tied with kitchen twine and ready for cooking. 每到六月端午時節,街頭巷尾就會飄出粽子的香氣。粽子是將糯米包進粽葉的傳統美食,先將粽葉折成圓錐狀塞入糯米,以及紅燒肉、花生、鹹鴨蛋黃等配料,用棉線綁緊後即可烹煮。 Dragon Boat Festival (n. phr.) 端午節 aroma
It’s another school day with the same ritual. You wake up to your smartphone’s alarm, scroll through messages during your commute, and listen to your favorite playlist with your wireless earbuds between classes. These devices, integrated smoothly into your daily routine, certainly make life more convenient. However, where do these devices end up after you replace them? In fact, the issue of electronic waste is a growing global concern. According to the United Nations, in 2019 alone, we generated an astonishing 53.6 million tons of e-waste—an average of 7.3kg per person. Projections hint at the figure soaring to 110