Pronunciation ChallengeCNN10: Pope Francis Visits Iraq / Supercentenarian Olympic Torchbearer / Food Delivery Robots

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Thank you, Ken. Have a good one, everybody.

【Transcript】

Pope Francis’ Historic visit to Iraq

We begin with breaking news today. Pope Francis, the current pontiff, is considered the 266th leader of the Catholic Church, but on Friday, he became the first pope ever to visit the Middle Eastern nation of Iraq. Today, Iraq is officially a Muslim country with significance to the world's Jews, Christians, and Muslims, the three Abrahamic religions. As part of his trip, Pope Francis visited what's believed to be the birthplace of Abraham in addition to a number of Christian sites, and he met with Christian leaders, Muslim leaders, and political leaders. For decades, Iraq has struggled with war, instability, and terrorism. Pope Francis said during his 4-day trip that hope is more powerful than hatred, and peace is more powerful than war.


Supercentenarian Olympic Torchbearer

Next week, on March 25, is the start of the Olympic torch relay, a tradition of the modern Olympics that dates back 85 years. The first torch relay took place in the year 1936, a group of runners carried a burning torch from Greece to Berlin, where the Summer Games were hosted that year by Nazi Germany. Over the course of 121 days for the torch relay, about 10,000 torchbearers will carry the Olympic flame across Japan, including one very special woman.

Meet the 118-year-old, Kane Tanaka. Tanaka is almost as old as the modern Olympics itself. She was 61 years old when Tokyo held its first Olympics in 1964 and has already lived through 49 Summer and Winter Olympic Games. Born in 1903, Tanaka has lived nearly her entire life in Fukuoka. She is currently listed by the Guinness World Records as the oldest living person on Earth. Despite her advanced age, Kane’s family says the 118-year-old has the heart and mind of a woman at least half her age, they also point out that COVID-19 will not stop her from what she wants to do. Kane Tanaka is going to walk over and hand the torch to the next relay runner, and her family would be by her side as she does that, which serves as a historic opportunity in an already extraordinary life, one which proves monumental memories can be made at any age.


Food Delivery Robots

For those avoiding social contact under the pandemic, food delivery service seems to be the way to go, but risks are still there when you receive your food from the delivery man. However, at Bridgewater State University, food delivery robots are now roaming in the campus and have become students’ best 6-wheeled friends. Check out today’s CNN10 video to find out more.


【Vocabulary】

1. supercentenarian
a person who is 110 years old or more

Ex: Imagine the stories you can hear from a supercentenarian, what a living history book.

2. A couple of
A few, some, a little in quantity.

Ex: I’ve been waiting for John for a couple of hours, where is he anyway?

3. flame
a stream of hot, burning gas from something on fire

Ex: The car flipped over and burst into flames (= started burning immediately).


【Epilogue】

Alright and that’s all the time we have for today.
Pope Francis visiting the middle east, supercentenarian in Japan participating in the torch relay…
It just feels as if the world is recovering, hope is among us again.
Let’s all keep our fingers crossed and believe that better days are just around the corner.
This is Ken Miao and I’ll see you guys again next week.
Peace!

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