news: 小貝新西蘭掉根薯條 球迷網上拍賣

Fans sell Beckham leftovers through Internet auction
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5 Y$ Q: R+ u7 z　　Fans of football superstar David Beckham are cashing in on his recentvisit to New Zealand by trying to sell his food scraps and dirty disheson the Internet.
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　　Among the items put up for sale on NewZealand website Trade Me are a half eaten corn cob, a nearly emptybottle of Coca-Cola and a single French fry, which the seller saidBeckham had dropped during a stroll around Wellington.
　　
+ `/ E& ~2 E  \9 L6 R, O, _8 n　　Thechewed corn cob and soft drink came from a chicken restaurant whereBeckham ate on Thursday night. The seller was also auctioning the plateand knife and fork he had used at the restaurant.
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9 E3 u: E5 \$ h8 ]* u& o0 O　　The sellervouches for the items』 authenticity and suggests they are ideal foranyone "who actually cares about David Beckham."
　　
　　The French fry attracted an initial bid of one dollar (75 US cents), rising to three dollars by late afternoon Wednesday.
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　　Beckham was in the New Zealand capital for three days last week withhis LA Galaxy football team to play an exhibition match against localteam Wellington Phoenix.
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6 X% j# `& f1 l7 [8 z　　He left on Sunday to rejoin wife Victoria as her reformed group The Spice Girls played a concert in Vancouver.
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- I  R% ?5 X3 f$ b- x* J( z　　 足球巨星大衛‧貝克漢姆近日在新西蘭逗留期間吃剩的東西和用過的餐具竟被球迷當成「寶貝」在網上販賣。
　　
　　這些在新西蘭「易我」網上拍賣的「寶貝」包括，啃了一半的毒命棒、一旗喝完的可樂和一根薯條等。據賣家介紹，這根薯條是小貝在惠靈頓閒逛時掉的。
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9 Q8 X) G/ V2 g　　而啃了一半的毒命棒和快喝完的可樂是上週四晚小貝在一家炸雞店進餐時吃剩下的。小貝在這家餐廳用的盤子和刀叉也被賣家拿到了網上拍賣。
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0 d" ]/ c- M# x8 ?1 B0 J　　賣家保證東西絕對是「真品」，還稱這些東西對於「真正在乎小貝」的人來說是很理想的紀念品。
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$ q" R7 d# ], V( [0 B　　那根薯條的起拍價為1新元（相當於75美分），到了昨天下午晚些時候，已經被拍到了3美元。
　　
　　上周，小貝與他的洛杉磯銀河隊在新西蘭首都惠靈頓逗留了三天，與當地的惠靈頓鳳凰隊踢了一場友誼賽。
　　
+ e" D  d# D0 H' T" H8 z3 m7 _　　小貝於上週日離開惠靈頓，前往溫哥華去見妻子維多利亞，為她的辣妹回歸演唱會助興。
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" ^0 S0 k" m. ^6 |) a0 x　　美國研究：離婚不利於環保
　　Stay married -- divorce is bad for environment
　　
9 Q. v" v& L  p1 e　　Irked spouses looking for a reason to stay married were offered anovel rationale by US researchers on Monday: divorce is bad for theenvironment.
　　
( F% q4 h( ~; f4 F2 R9 C% z　　The global trend toward higher divorce rateshas created more households with fewer people, scientists at MichiganState University reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences.
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　　More households means more houses, fuel and water are needed for them, the researchers wrote.
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- M% e2 O3 W1 a( r( @2 D　　"Globally, the number of households is increasing much faster than thenumber of people," said co-author "Jack" Liu in a telephone interview.
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3 M4 s, G( \0 R　　"Even in regions with declining population, we see substantialincrease in the number of households. Divorce is the main reason forreducing the number of people in a household," he said.
　　
, x) l1 i7 [/ [$ r; S4 J6 M　　Theaverage divorced person』s household is about 40 to 50 percent smallerthan the average married person』s household, Liu said. But whetherthere are three or six people in a house, the amount of fuel needed toheat them is about the same.
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　　Divorce tosses out any economies of scale, the researchers found.
　　
　　In the United States, divorced households used 73 billionkilowatt-hours of electricity and 2.850 trillion litres of water in2005 that could have been saved if households had stayed the same sizeas when they were married.
　　
　　In the United States and 11 othercountries such as Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Greece, Mexico and SouthAfrica between 1998 and 2002, if divorced households had combined tohave the same average household size as married households, there couldhave been 7.4 million fewer households.
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& B% w% O$ x# X6 {) g# s　　The number ofdivorced households in those countries ranged from 40,000 in Costa Ricato almost 16 million in the United States around 2000. The number ofrooms per person in divorced households was 33 percent to 95 percentgreater than in married households.
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　　"If you really want toget divorced, you know that two people cannot stay together, you don』twant to stay together forever, then maybe you remarry with somebodyelse, or live together with somebody else you like," Liu said.
　　
　　 如果「怨偶」們想找個不離婚的理由，可以聽聽美國研究人員於本週一提出的新理論：離婚危害環境！
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　　密歇根州立大學的科學家們在《國家科學院院刊》上發表研究報告稱，全球離婚率日益上升導致家庭數量增多，家庭成員減少。
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: z) j/ h4 l5 `7 P/ P9 d　　研究人員稱，家庭增多意味著需要更多的住房、燃料和供水。
　　
　　研究報告撰寫人之一Jack Liu在接受電話採訪時說：「從全球範圍來看，家庭數量的增長比人口增長快得多。」
　　
. B- ~# j3 y' q( C2 }4 G　　他說：「即使在人口負增長地區，家庭數量的增長也相當可觀。離婚是造成家庭成員減少的主要原因。」
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5 q) J8 g5 E! L5 k' m　　Jack Liu說：「一般來說，單身離婚家庭的「規模」要比正常家庭小約40%至50%。但無論一家有三口人還是有六口人，供暖所需的燃料是一樣多的。」
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　　研究人員發現，離婚會破壞「規模經濟」。
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" h6 T+ A4 J  K  R$ X) W0 k　　2005年，美國的離婚家庭共用電730億千瓦時，用水28.5億立方米(1升=0.001立方米)。如果家庭規模保持不變，跟這些人離婚之前一樣，那麼這些被消耗的水電就可以節省下來。
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　　從1998年到2002年，在美國以及巴西、哥斯達黎加、厄瓜多爾、希臘、墨西哥和南非等其它11個國家，如果單身離婚家庭重新組合後達到與正常家庭相同的規模，那麼家庭數遼以減少740萬個。
　　
　　2000年前後，這些國家的離婚家庭數量在4萬（哥斯達黎加）和1600萬（美國）之間不等。離婚家庭的人均房間數比正常家庭多33%至95%。
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. X- O; Q0 Q: \( M　　Jack Liu說：「如果你確實想離婚，覺得兩個人無法在一起生活了或者不想一輩子呆在一起，那麼你可以考慮再婚，或與你喜歡的人同居。」