Spiders living in a boy's ear 男孩耳朵裡長了蜘蛛

　
ALBANY, Oregon - When a young boy went to see his doctor complaining of constantly hearing a faint popping noise he did not expect to be told he had spiders living in his ear.
Imagine this fella in your ear...!

It was not long before the sound in the nine-year-old's head started to become earache, so his mother took him to a GP.
Diane Courtney told the doctor in their home town of Albany, Oregon, that her son was hearing noises like "Rice Krispies".

And after a short examination, Jesse Courtney literally could not believe his ears when the doc told him that a pair of eight-legged creepy crawlies had set up home in his head.

"They were walking on my eardrums," Jesse said, explaining the popping noise.

When Dr David Irvine flushed out the boy's left ear canal, the first spider came out dead.

But the other little blighter needed a second dousing before it came out - still alive.

Jesse was given the spiders - now both dead - as a souvenir and has taken them to school to show his pals. (AP)


♣Words and Expressions♣

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˙faint -- (adj.) 微弱的；模糊的；暗淡的；虛弱得頭暈的，行將昏厥的。它亦可當名詞和動詞用，意為「昏厥；暈倒」。這個字與 feint (n./v. -- 意為「佯攻；虛擊」) 發音相同，拼字也相近，別搞混了。
˙popping noise -- (n.) 劈啪劈啪砰砰的雜音。
˙fella -- (n.) 即 fellow (傢伙)。
˙GP -- (n.) 普通科醫生；一般家庭醫師。這是 "general practitioner" 的縮寫。
˙Rice Krispies -- (n.) 西式爆米花。 這是西方小朋友喜愛的一種早餐麥片，取用時會發出劈啪劈啪砰砰的聲音，所以男童的母親說他兒子的耳鳴聲像 Rice Krispies。
˙creepy crawly-- (n.) 爬蟲。crawly 在此當名詞用，但單獨使用時大多用作形容詞，意為「令人毛骨悚然的」，與 creepy 的意思完全一樣。
˙flush out -- (v.) 沖洗，沖出。
˙blighter-- (n.) 傢伙。與 fellow, guy 意同。
˙douse -- (v.) 沖洗。在此 dousing 相當於 flushing。

'McRefugees' spend nights in Hong Kong Mcdonald's「麥克難民」在香港麥當勞一待數晚

'McRefugees' spend nights in Hong Kong Mcdonald's 「麥克難民」在香港麥當勞一待數晚
By Associated Press美聯社 Translated by Wu Mong-jane翻譯：吳孟真

1
No longer just a restaurant for people to munch a burger, McDonald's in Hong Kong has recently become a shelter for some down on their luck.

香港的麥當勞已不再只是吃漢堡的地方。它最近成了生活不順遂的人的避風港。

2
People who cannot afford high rents or who want to save a few dollars on late-night transportation have opted to sleep in some of the fast food restaurants which operate around the clock, the mass-market Apple Daily said Monday.

擁有廣大讀者的蘋果日報於星期一指出，負擔不起昂貴房租，或是想要省下夜間交通費的人，常選擇在全天候營業的速食餐廳過夜。

3
A picture taken by the newspaper at 4 a.m. in a downtown McDonald's in Tsim Sha Tsui showed at least eight men resting on their arms and occupying a table each. 一張凌晨四點在市中心尖沙咀的麥當勞拍攝的照片中，至少有八個人撐著手臂歇息，每個人都佔著一張桌子。

4
The paper called these people "McRefugees" - a term imported from Japan, where a growing number of working poor have been spending the night at McDonald's. 蘋果日報將這群人稱為「麥克難民」。這個名稱來自日本，表示在麥當勞過夜與日俱增的窮苦勞工。

5
A man the paper identified only by his surname, Lo, was among some 10 people sleeping recently in one of the McDonald's in Hong Kong. "I had lost my job for about a month. I have no money to pay my rent, so I come here to sleep," the man in his 30s was quoted as saying by the newspaper. “It's better than sleeping in parks.” 報紙引述了近來在香港一家麥當勞過夜的十幾個人之中，一位三十多歲羅姓男子的話語。他說：「我在一個多月前失業，沒有錢支付房租，於是來麥當勞睡覺。這比睡在公園好。」

6
A woman said she was sleeping at McDonald's to save a few dollars on transportation. "I'm a nightshift waitress. I finish work at 2 a.m. I sleep here until dawn when the train resumes services," she said, referring to Hong Kong's Mass Transit Railway which runs its last train shortly after midnight on weekdays. 一位女士表示，她是為了節省交通費而在麥當勞過夜。她說：「我是夜班的女恃，每天凌晨兩點下班。我在這裡待到早晨的第一班車開為止。」這番話點出了香港的大眾運輸鐵路，在午夜過後不久即停開的情況。

7
McDonald's said that they "haven't received any complaints regarding customers staying in the restaurants for a long time," it said in a written reply to The Associated Press. 麥當勞在一份給美聯社的書面回信中表示，他們「還未聽到任何有關顧客停留在店裡太久的抱怨」。

8
The fast food chain has increased the number of its 24-hour restaurants from a few to 55 last year as it realized Hong Kong people are working and dining at late hours. 體認到香港人民在深夜時間仍會工作和吃飯的習慣後，這家速食連鎖餐廳便將其二十四小時營業的店面，在去年由原本的少數幾家，增加至五十五家。

Millions in Taiwan suffer from insomnia 國內上百萬人有睡眠問題

People for whom falling asleep has become a much dreaded nightly battle might be suffering from sleep disorder, said the Taiwan Society of Sleep Medicine yesterday, disclosing that 4.8 million people in Taiwan have difficulty sleeping at night.
據台灣睡眠醫學會調查發現，國內有四百八十萬人有失眠症狀，夜夜與周公搏鬥，專家認為這些人當中可能有些已罹患睡眠問題。

A TSSM study shows that more and more people in Taiwan are troubled by lack of sleep, with 24.8 percent reporting some type of sleep disorder, and 11.5 percent suffering from chronic insomnia, which translates into more than one in every 10 people having serious difficulties sleeping on a regular basis.
台灣睡眠醫學會調查顯示，國內飽受失眠所苦的人越來越多，其中有百分之二十四點八的人出現睡眠障礙，甚至有百分之十一點五的人已經罹患慢性失眠，換句話說，台灣每十人當中就有一人失眠成性。

The study also indicated that more women suffer sleeplessness than men, with menopausal women having the most difficulty falling and staying asleep at night due to the changes in their hormone levels.
研究也顯示，女性睡眠問題比男性嚴重，其中以更年期女性因體內荷爾蒙有所改變而無法成眠。

取材自Taiwan New Online
原網址: http://www.taiwannews.com.tw/etn/news_content.php?id=413202&lang=eng_news&cate_img=logo_bilingualnews&cate_rss=news_bilingual