LinguaLive Lv.1 20200609

News ①

Insect population shrinks 27% in 30 years.
「過去３０年で昆虫４分の１が消失」、研究
The world has lost more than one-quarter of its land-dwelling insects in the past 30 years.
（以下は難易度が高いため授業では扱いません。）
From bees and other pollinators crucial to the world's food supply to butterflies that beautify places, the bugs are disappearing at a rate of just under 1% a year, with lots of variation from place to place, according to a study published April 24 in the journal Science.

News ②

How do koalas drink? These scientists say they finally know the answer.
「水を飲まない」と思われていたコアラ
水分の摂取方法が解明される
How do koalas drink enough water to survive? For a long time, scientists have asked this question. In a new article published on May 2 in the journal Ethology, scientists looked at 46 observations of koala in the wild from 2006 to 2019, mostly at You Yangs Regional Park in Australia’s Victoria state.
The study said that koalas lick water running down tree trunks. This helps boost the water they get from eucalyptus leaves ― their main diet. Eucalyptus leaves have a high water content.
This study was important because it showed that observing animals in the wild helps tell us about an animal's normal behavior, said Valentina Mella, the study's lead author.
"If we watch them carefully, they will tell us," she said.
Koalas spend most of their lives high up in eucalyptus trees, eating around 500 grams to 800 grams of eucalyptus leaves a day. (Reuters)

News ③

Ex-AKB48 star Watanabe retires from showbiz
元AKB、渡辺麻友さんが芸能界引退
Mayu Watanabe, a former member of the popular Japanese all-girl idol group AKB48, has retired from the entertainment industry due to health reasons, her agency said June 1.
Watanabe, 26, has left the agency, saying health issues would make it difficult for her to continue working in the industry. She has had health concerns for several years.
Known affectionately as "Mayuyu" by fans, Watanabe left the group in 2017 and continued her career as an actress, starring in television dramas and on stage.(Kyodo)