每日英語跟讀 Ep.K407: About SKorea - 糞便變成電力和數位貨幣與南韓國人少一歲

每日英語跟讀 Ep.K407: About SKorea - South Korean toilet turns excrement into power and digital currency

 

Cho Jae-weon, an urban and environmental engineering professor at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology（UNIST）, has designed an eco-friendly toilet connected to a laboratory that uses excrement to produce biogas and manure.

南韓國立蔚山科學技術研究院的都市和環境工程教授趙宰元（譯音），設計出一種環境友善的馬桶，可透過與一間實驗室連線，將糞便製造成生物沼氣和肥料。

The BeeVi toilet - a portmanteau of the words bee and vision - uses a vacuum pump to send faeces into an underground tank, reducing water use. There, microorganisms break down the waste to methane, which becomes a source of energy for the building, powering a gas stove, hot-water boiler and solid oxide fuel cell.

這個馬桶名為BeeVi，為蜜蜂和視野的英文字詞的混成詞。它用真空幫浦將排泄物送至地下儲存槽，以減少用水。槽內的微生物將排泄物分解成沼氣，進而為大樓提供電力，點燃瓦斯爐、熱水器，以及做為固態氧化物燃料電池的燃料。

An average person defecates about 500g a day, which can be converted to 50 litres of methane gas. This gas can generate 0.5kWh of electricity or be used to drive a car for about 1.2km.

每人每天平均排便500公克，可轉換成50升沼氣，進而產生0.5千瓦時的電力，使汽車行進約1.2公里。

 

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Why Koreans could soon become a year younger 為什麼韓國人可能即將年輕1歲

"How old are you"? It’s a simple question with a clear answer. But for those in South Korea, answering this question is anything but straightforward.

「你幾歲？」這是答案很清楚的簡單問題，但是對南韓人來說，回答這個問題一點也不簡單。

In South Korea, when a baby is born they are considered a year old. Come New Year’s Day, they gain another year. This means a baby born in December would be considered to be two years old in just a few weeks.

在南韓，寶寶一出生就被認為已經1歲。到了新年，他們又多了1歲。這意味著，12月出生的寶寶，僅僅幾週就會被認為已經2歲大。

But this "Korean age" method may soon change as the country’s president-elect Yoon Suk-yeol is pushing for this centuries-old method of counting to be abolished.

不過，這種「韓國年紀」算法或許即將改變，因為該國總統當選人尹錫悅正推動廢除這種已有幾世紀之久的年齡計算法。

Lee Yong-ho, the chief of the president-elect’s transition committee, said the incoming administration was looking to standardise the way age is counted in order to bring South Korea in line with the rest of the world.

總統當選人交接委員會主席李勇浩說，即將上任的新政府正準備將計算年齡方式標準化，讓南韓與世界其他地方一致。Soure article: https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/world/paper/1485239 ; https://features.ltn.com.tw/english/article/paper/1517919