Australia wins AI ’Eurovision Song Contest’

澳洲贏得人工智慧「歐洲歌唱」大賽

【摘要2020.5.19.自由】◎黃靖媗

Dutch broadcaster VPRO decided to organise an AI Song Contest after the country won the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest. The aim was to research the creative abilities of AI and the impact it has on us, as well as the influence it could have on the music industry, according to the official Eurovision website.

荷蘭廣播公司VPRO決定舉辦一場AI歌曲大賽，在這個國家贏得2019年歐洲歌唱大賽後。歐洲歌唱大賽官方網站指出，（比賽的）目標是研究AI的創意能力、對我們的衝擊，以及它對音樂產業的影響。

Thirteen teams entered the contest, with Australia beating out Sweden, Belgium, the UK, France, Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands to take home the title, giving fans a taste of Eurovision after 2020 contest was cancelled due to COVID-19.

共有13組人馬參賽，最後由澳洲擊敗瑞典、比利時、英國、法國、德國、瑞士與荷蘭等對手，將冠軍頭銜帶回家，在2020年歐洲歌唱大賽因為2019冠狀病毒流行病（COVID-19）疫情取消後，讓歌迷一嚐大賽的滋味。

The winning song, titled Beautiful the World, includes audio samples of koalas, kookaburras and Tasmanian devils, and was made by music-tech collective Uncanny Valley as a response to the Black Summer bushfires.

獲勝曲的題目為「Beautiful the World」，含有無尾熊、笑翠鳥與袋獾的聲音樣本，由音樂技術團體「恐怖谷」製作，回應黑暗夏日的叢林大火。

新聞辭典

artificial：形容詞，人工的、虛假的。例句：The skirt is made of artificial fibres. （這件短裙是用人工纖維製作的。）

beat out：片語，擊敗。例句：We beat out several rivals and got the champion.（我們打敗許多對手，贏得勝利。）

collective：名詞，集團、團體。例句：The successful result is due to our collective effort.（這項成功的結果是因為我們的共同努力。）

THE BIG APPLE HAS A BIG HEART

我愛紐約♥紅遍全球！

【摘要2020.5.19.蘋果】

Back in the 1970s, New York City suffered from a high crime rate. To make matters worse, the city government was running out of funds at that time, so it couldn’t even hire new police officers.

City leaders needed to act fast. How could they bring visitors and money back to New York? They decided to hire a well-known graphic designer to create a new logo to help market the city. The logo he came up with was “I ♥ NY,” and it has proven to be a huge success.

紐約市早在 1970 年代飽受犯罪率居高不下之苦。更糟的是，當時紐約市政府的財政拮据，因此甚至無法招聘新的員警。

紐約市府的領導階層需要迅速採取行動。他們要如何把遊客及金流帶回紐約呢？他們決定僱用一位知名的平面設計師來設計一個新標誌以幫助行銷紐約市。他構思出的標誌就是「I ♥ NY」，而這個標誌最終也證實是極為成功之舉。

生活必備字詞

●suffer from...　　蒙受⋯⋯（困難、疾病、痛苦等）
Everyone suffered from a shortage of food during the war.
●fund 　　n. 資金；基金
●graphic designer　　n. 平面設計師