據「羅盤報」(Kompas)報導,佐科威7月中前往東努沙登加拉省(East Nusa Tenggara)的西南巽巴縣(Southwest Sumb)參加檀香嘉年華時,當地居民送他2匹特別品種的小馬。肅貪委員會主任吉里(Giri Suprapdiono)表示,當時總統不好意思拒絕熱情的支持者,所以便帶回這2匹七歲、價值為7000萬印尼盾(約新台幣15萬8200元)的小馬。
Have you ever wanted to visit a faraway place but can’t because it takes too long to get there? Someday soon you may be able to get there faster. A company called Space X is working on exactly that. The trip from New York to London takes about seven and a half hours by plane. Space X wants to fly rockets that will make the same trip in only 29 minutes.
Saving time when traveling has always been important to humans. The distance from Taipei to Kaohsiung is 361 km. That would take days on foot! Taking a car, bus or regular train will get you there in about four hours. The HSR (high speed rail) can do it in only one and a half hours! That means you have more time to do other things, like explore the city. Imagine the extra time you would have if you could take a rocket!
Even though getting to new places in a rocket would be very convenient, there are some problems too. The technology for a passenger rocket can look a lot like the same rockets that countries use to attack each other. Some people are worried it will be difficult to tell the difference between an intercontinental ballistic missile (IBM) and a passenger rocket.
Traveling by rocket may not be very comfortable. Rockets speed up very quickly, making some people sick.
火箭之旅也許會很不舒適。火箭加速極快,這會讓乘客感到身體不舒服。
不一定省時
It takes time to get everyone on and off of a train or plane. Some people think it will take even longer for rocket ship passengers. That means for some trips, it might not be faster than a regular airplane.
Rocket fuel is like gasoline for a car—it burns and leaves behind things that pollute our air.
火箭燃料就像汽車行駛需要汽油,燃料燃燒後,殘留的物質會汙染空氣。
票價昂貴
Sure, these rockets may be fast and cool, but how much are the tickets? Flying in an airplane from Taipei to Los Angeles costs thousands of dollars. The same trip could cost much, much more than that!
Space X is working on taking you to the other side of the world. In the future, they even want to fly passengers to the moon and build a city on Mars. In the meantime, they recently helped Taiwan. In August this year, Space X used their Falcon 9 rocket to launch Taiwan’s first homegrown satellite into space, the Formosat-5.
Space X正在研發地球上的火箭之旅,未來,甚至還可用火箭載客到月球,或到火星建造城市。Space X最近也協助臺灣,今年八月該公司的「獵鷹九號」火箭,將臺灣第一枚自主製造的「福衛五號」衛星,發射到太空裡。
道地說英語
skyrocket(像火箭一樣)一飛沖天
If something becomes very popular quickly, like those fidget spinners did, we might say that it skyrocketed. You might hear adults talk about the prices of things skyrocketing, or going up quickly.
I'm not sure if I will be home when my order arrives. Will there be a tracking number or link to check the delivery status?(我不確定當我訂的東西抵達的時候我會不會在家。有沒有訂單編號或是連結可以確認運送進度呢?)
Let me check the status of your order for you. Could you give me your tracking number?(讓我為您確認您的訂單進度。您可以給我您的訂單編號嗎?)
◎ 要退 / 換貨
退貨的英文是 return;換貨則是 exchange,那辦理退 / 換貨可以說 make a return / exchange。像是你收到商品之後覺得商品尺寸不合(too large / small)、瑕疵商品(a faulty item)、與商品描述不符合(does not match the description),那你可以這樣要求退換貨:
I purchased a blouse online, but it turned out to be too large for me. How do I make an exchange?(我在網路上購買了一件上衣,但結果它對我來說太大件了。我要怎麼換貨呢?)
客服人員可能會提醒你退換貨的時候要連吊牌(tag)以及收據(receipt)一同寄回:
Hi there. Please note that the return package should include the tags and receipt.(您好。請注意退貨包裹須包含吊牌以及收據。)