2021 年 1 月 第一輯
Popular Science
Ig Nobel Prizes
Do you know any funny inventions? The Ig Nobel Prize is a prize to celebrate
this kind of invention. It was created in 1991 to honor inventions that first make
people laugh and then make them think. The name Ig Nobel Prize is a pun on the
Nobel Prize and the word “ignoble.”
This year one of the winners of Ig Nobel Prize is a knife made from frozen
human poop. Is it usable? In a story an old Inuit man made a knife from his own
frozen poop, and he used it to kill a dog. However, an experiment in real world
shows that this poop knife cannot be used at all. In any case, this still allowed a
team to win an Ig Nobel Prize.
Stephan Reber and his colleagues tried to understand how alligators make
sound. They put the animal in a box and let it inhale either normal air or helium.
This special experiment helps them win the prize.
The prize winners can get A LOT OF money, 10,000,000,000,000
Zimbabwean dollar, which is enough to buy an egg in Taiwan.
Do you know? Two scientists from Taiwan, Patricia Yang and David Hu, also
won the prize in 2019. So always pay attention to the strange things around,
maybe the next Ig Nobel Prize winner is you.
 Inuit 因紐特人，美洲原住民之一，分布於北極圈周圍
Zimbabwean 辛巴威的
（2020 搞笑諾貝爾獎報導與完整得獎名單）
（人類學家實驗古老因紐特人傳說！）
Vocabulary
prize 獎
pun
雙關語
poop 糞便
alligator
鱷魚
ignoble 卑鄙的
frozen
冷凍的
inhale 吸氣、吸入
helium
氦氣
Time to Think
1. (
2. (
3. (
) How many winners of Ig Nobel Prize are written in this reading?
(A) 1
(B) 2
(C) 3
(D) No idea.
) Which subject teacher is most likely to talk about the winners of Ig Nobel Prize in
this reading?
(A) Math
(B) History
(C) Biology
(D) Geography
) Four students are talking about this reading. Which one misunderstands it?
(A) Peggy
I can’t believe Ig Nobel Prize has been around for almost 30 years.
(B) Hank
Wow, it is also amazing that the Inuit man is able to cut things with a
knife made from his own poop.
(C) Cindy
I agree with you. I like Reber’s experiment because it is about how
alligators make sound.
(D) Eddy
I think that experiment is boring but I hope someday I can make so
much money like Stephan Reber.
4. What kind of weird discovery do you have? Try to share with your classmates.
 weird 古怪的
搞笑諾貝爾獎
你有聽過哪些有趣的發明嗎？「搞笑諾貝爾獎」就是慶祝這種發明的獎項。它成立於 1991
年，旨在紀念那些一開始讓人發笑，然後讓他們思考的發明。Ig Nobel Prize 這個名字是對應
「諾貝爾獎」和「粗鄙的」一詞的雙關語。
今年，搞笑諾貝爾獎得主之一是用冷凍人糞製成的刀。這刀可以用嗎？在一個故事中，一
個因紐特老人用自己的冰凍便便做了一把刀，然後用它殺了一條狗。但是，現實世界中的實驗
顯示，這種糞便刀根本不能用。無論如何，這仍然讓這個團隊贏得一座搞笑諾貝爾獎。
Stephan Reber 和他的同事試圖理解鱷魚如何發出聲音。他們把鱷魚放在盒子裡，讓它吸入
正常的空氣或氦氣。這個特殊的實驗幫助他們贏得了大獎。
獲獎者可以獲得高達 10 兆辛巴威幣的大筆獎金，足以在台灣購買一顆雞蛋。
你知道嗎？來自台灣的兩位科學家楊佩良和胡立德也於 2019 年獲獎。因此，請持續關注周
圍的奇異事物，也許下一屆搞笑諾貝爾獎的得主就是你。
Ans: 1. D
2. C
3. D
4. 自由發揮