Episode Details

Hi there, and welcome to a new episode of News Bites! I'm Nancy Sun… And I'm Trevor Tortomasi. In today's news: Money with lucky numbers, flying upside-down rhinos, and a new PSY song makes history. All that and more, coming up next. ________________________________ "發發發" 央行特殊號碼鈔券開放競標 Lucky NT Bills Up for Auction Money comes in coins (硬幣) and dollar bills (紙鈔). If you look on a dollar bill, you'll see numbers that tell you how much it's worth (值). 100 means the bill is worth $100 NT. 1000 means the bill is worth $1000 NT. And that's true most of the time. But for some special dollar bills, they are worth much more. These Taiwan dollar bills have special serial numbers (序號). Some people think these numbers are lucky. Taiwan's Central Bank (中央銀行) says some of the numbers people like, are 666666, or 888888. The numbers 6 and 8 in Chinese sound like "things going well", and "prosperous (發)". And serial numbers like these make dollar bills worth a lot of money. In 2013, a $100 NT bill with the serial number "888888" was sold for $15,360 NT. The government has been selling dollar bills with these "lucky" serial numbers for many years now. The Central Bank says the government has made about $66 million NT selling these dollar bills. This week, more of these "lucky" bills went on sale. 中央銀行以網路公開投標方式開放民眾競標特殊號碼鈔券。 The bank says more than 4,500 dollar bills were sold. They were $100 NT, $500 NT, and $1000 NT bills. ________________________________ 倒掛犀牛飛向新家園 Flying Rhinos Upside-Down to Save Them Would you be surprised to look up… and see a rhino flying upside-down over your head? No, this isn't a crazy dream. Rhinos really are flying upside-down over parts of Africa. But this isn't for fun. Doing this may help some rhinos survive (生存、存活). The rhinoceros, or rhino for short, is a big strong animal. It lives in parts of Africa and Asia. They eat plants, and have very thick skin. But many rhino species are endangered (瀕危), or even close to extinction (滅絕). That's because people hunt them for their horn. Some people believe rhino horns can be used as medicine (藥). Some people use rhino horns to make jewelry or decorations (裝飾品). But now so many rhinos have been killed for their horn, that there aren't many rhinos left. So people had to come up with ways to help rhinos survive. Sometimes, they will move rhinos to safer places to live. Sometimes they do this using trucks. But sometimes the rhino's new home is hard to get to by truck. So scientists tried another idea. They carry rhinos by helicopter! Big rhinos can weigh up to 1000 kilograms… So this is not an easy thing to do! First they give the rhino some medicine to help it fall asleep. 為確保犀牛不會受到驚嚇，上路前專家會先用麻醉藥讓牠們睡著。 Then they use strong ropes to hang the rhino from the helicopter. And they also found that it's better for the rhino to be hung upside-down! The scientists found that the upside-down way helps rhinos get more oxygen (氧氣). It's also easier, faster, and cheaper (比較便宜) to tie the rhinos by their feet and fly them upside-down. Most times, these rhinos fly for close to 50 kilometers. The trip is about 20 to 30 minutes long. Experts say flying rhinos upside-down by helicopter will happen more and more in the future. They hope doing this will help save more rhinos. So, if you are in Africa, don't be surprised to see an upside-down rhino, hanging from a helicopter, swinging through the sky above your head! ________________________________ PSY和BTS Suga新單曲高登美國告示牌單曲榜 PSY and Suga Single Make Billboard Top 100 A new song from South Korean popstars Suga and PSY is making history. Suga is part of BTS. And you might know PSY from his 2013 smash hit "Gangnam Style". But now their new song "That That" is Number 80 on the Billboard Hot 100 list.