Robofest Champs and 8YO Fashion

News Bites

Hi everyone, welcome to a new episode of News Bites! I'm Kelly Kimura… And I'm Jacob Ingram. Coming up next in today's news: Taiwan wins awards at the Robofest World Championship and an eight-year-old is a fashion trendsetter at school! And in today's Tasty Tidbit, a man mails a postcard from one cool post office to another! Stay tuned for more on those stories! ___________________________________________________________ 台灣奪得世界機器人大賽冠軍 Taiwan Wins at the Robofest World Championship Taiwan is a leader in robotics (機器人技術). And smart students here are already becoming leaders in robotics! Last month, the Robofest World Championship (錦標賽) was held for three days at a university in Michigan, in the U.S. Students from 16 countries, from Grades 4 to 12, competed (競爭). Over 500 students competed in 100 teams. Taiwan had 50 students in 12 teams. They won eight awards (大獎)! In the two exhibition competitions (展覽競賽), Taiwan won first place awards. In the senior exhibition competition, a team named "SmartHome Hub" from National Pingtung Senior High School competed against 11 teams. The SmartHome Hub team won scholarships (獎學金) to the university for $80,000 US dollars, or over two and a half million Taiwan dollars. In the junior exhibition competition, a team named "Dreamer" competed against 13 teams. For this exhibition competition, teams thought of a problem that a robot could fix or something it could do. Then they designed, made, and programmed (寫程式) their robot. They made a video and wrote reports for the judges (裁判). Then they showed their robot, gave a 4-minute report in English, and answered the judges' questions. Taiwan also won in the game competitions. In the senior game competition, a team named "Just Right," from Cheng Yi Senior High School in Kaohsiung, won first place. It competed against 21 teams. This team also won $80,000 US dollar scholarships. In the junior game competition, a team named "Justice," also from Cheng Yi Senior High School, won sixth place. It competed against 29 teams! Whoa! The teams played a two-minute game called "Autonomous (自駕) Taxi." Their robots picked up small balls and delivered them to different boxes. In the game, the robots were taxis picking up and dropping off people and food orders! In the senior medical (醫療的) robot competition, a team named "FAME" won third place. They got scholarships for $56,000 US dollars, or $1,800,000 Taiwan dollars. This new wave of young leaders in robotics will help Taiwan make smarter and faster robots! 這些學生的創新想法，可以幫助台灣在機器人領域更成功. ___________________________________________________________ 八歲男孩成為時尚潮流領袖 An Eight-Year-Old Boy Is a Fashion Trendsetter It's Wednesday, a school day, and the kids are looking good. It's because of one classmate in a rural (鄉村的) school in a small rural town. One day he decided he wanted to wear a suit to school. That was okay. Kids in most public schools in the U.S. don't wear uniforms. They can choose the clothes they want to wear. So this 8-year-old boy chose a green three-piece suit: pants, vest, and jacket. He put on a nice white shirt and a necktie too. His classmates were surprised at first. They didn't know why he was dressed up (穿得那麼正式) They didn't know what to think! Was this strange or was this cool? Hmmmmm… The boy kept wearing suits to school. He knew he was dressed differently from everyone else. But he didn't care. He liked dressing up. He said, "I can be who I want to be." Kids got used to (習慣) seeing him dressed up. One by one, they started dressing up too. And… they thought they looked good! It made them feel good! Even if a dress or a jacket was itchy (發癢), they felt good. One boy said he felt like a president (總統)! So the boy in the three-piece suit became a fashion trendsetter (時尚潮流引領者). And students decided that Wednesdays are "Dapper (穿著考究的) Wednesday." Kids dress up… if they want to. The school has a "Dapper Closet (衣櫥)." People donate (捐贈) dressy (比較正式的) clothes there so that every child can dress up… if they want to. One teacher thinks dressing up is a great idea. He says the kids are different when they're dressed up. They seem to feel better about themselves all day. But the boy who wears suits doesn't think all kids need to dress up. He says they should wear what they want to wear. That's what he does! 這個小男孩有信心做自己，真是太好了. ___________________________________________________________ So in today's News Bites: Smart students in Taiwan are already becoming leaders in robotics. At the Robofest World Championship, eight teams from Taiwan won awards. Some teams also won scholarships. ___________________________________________________________ And… An eight-year-old boy became a fashion trendsetter when he wore a suit to school. Students didn't know what to think at first. Then they started to dress up and liked it. Now they dress up every Wednesday… if they want to! ___________________________________________________________ 趣味小點 Tasty Tidbit For a little money, a stamp will send mail very far. An Italian man loves stamps. He sends postcards from interesting post offices. He sends them to other cool post offices. This year, he sent a postcard from the Penguin (企鵝) Post Office, the southernmost post office in Antarctica (南極洲). He sent it to the only cave (洞穴) post office in the world. The postcard left Antarctica on a cruise ship (遊輪). Then it went to the U.K. by plane. Thirty-two days after it was mailed, the postcard arrived at the cool cave post office in Slovenia (斯洛維尼亞)! Postojna Cave is a wonderful world with a train and… baby dragons! ___________________________________________________________ And that's it for today's episode of News Bites! If you have a fun fact, a joke, or interesting news you'd like to share with us, record your message and send your Tasty Tidbit to us at [e-mail]. You might hear it at the end of an episode! We'll see you next time for an exciting new episode of News Bites!