News feed：National treasure
【明報專訊】160 years ago, during the Second Opium War (英法聯軍之役), a horse head sculpture, among the 12 zodiac animal sculptures (十二生肖獸首銅像), was looted from Beijing's Old Summer Palace (圓明園). It has returned to its original location, the first one to do so. In 2007, Stanley Ho (何鴻燊), a Macao casino tycoon, bid HK$ 69.1 million for the sculpture. He then donated it to the Palace last year.
Special vending machines
EARLIER the Hospital Authority piloted the vending machines for the distribution of specimen collection packs in general out-patient clinics. More vending machines have been installed to distribute the packs, in accordance with the Centre for Health Protection's measure for tracking COVID-19 cases. Citizens are encouraged to take one, collect their specimen and give it back to the health authorities. The MTR has also set up vending machines at 10 MTR stations' unpaid areas, distributing 10,000 packs per day.
Cultured meat
THE Singaporean authorities have approved American start-up Eat Just's plan to sell lab-grown chicken. They are the world's first to do so. The chicken are made of cultured chicken cells, the exact ingredients approved by the government. A new product, the chicken will only be available in a local restaurant, and will be widely distributed in the future. Would you want to have a try?
■Gear up
According to the passages on this page, circle the correct answers.
(1) The chicken was made in labs.
( True / False / Not given )
(2) Every citizen is legally required to take one specimen collection pack.
( True / False / Not given )
(3)The horse head sculpture originally belonged to China.
( True / False / Not given )
(Answers on next text)
■Glossary
loot (v) 搶掠
specimen (n) 樣本
out-patient (adj) 門診
cultured (adj) 培養的
[Smarties' Power English 第297期]
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