Maggie the elephant looks through her cage at the Alaska Zoo in Anchorage, Alaska on Oct. 27, 2007. 本月二十七日，大象梅姬在阿拉斯加安克拉治的阿拉斯加動物園中，從她的籠子中向外望。
The elephant in the picture is called Maggie. Maggie is 25. She has lived in a zoo in Alaska, to the northwest of Canada, since 1983. 圖片中的大象名叫「梅姬」，她今年二十五歲。梅姬從一九八三年開始，就住在加拿大西北邊的阿拉斯加州的一所動物園中。
Yesterday Maggie moved to California, in the west of the US. California is much warmer than Alaska. Her new home is at the Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS). 梅姬昨天搬到美國西南方的加州。加州跟阿拉斯加比起來，氣候暖和了許多。她的新家是一所表演動物福利協會。
Maggie has been all alone in Alaska since the zoo's other elephant, Annabelle, died in 1997. Her new home is much nicer than her old one. In Alaska she lived in an elephant house with concrete floors and a small outside area. Her new home has 30 acres, and she will share it with nine other elephants. 自從一九九七年阿拉斯加這所動物園的另一隻大象安娜貝爾過世後，梅姬就一直獨自生活著。她的新家比之前那裡舒適多了。在阿拉斯加，她住的大象屋子是水泥地板，而且只配置了一個很小的戶外活動區。加州的新家就不一樣了，這哩足足有三十英畝，而且她也多了九隻大象作伴。
Maggie was Alaska's only elephant, so some people wanted to keep her in Alaska. Other people felt sorry for Maggie, because she lived alone and hadn't been very well. 梅姬是阿拉斯加州的唯一一隻大象，因此有些人希望可以將她留在阿拉斯加。但其他人卻覺得這樣梅姬太可憐了，因為她孤單地生活在這裡，身體狀況也並不太好。
In the end a retired television game show host, Bob Barker, promised to donate $750,000 (NT$24.4 million) for her care in California. 最後，一位退休的電視節目主持人包柏．貝克答應捐贈七十五萬美元（約合新台幣兩千四百四十萬元）作為梅姬到加州後的照料費用。
Last weekend hundreds of people attended a two-day going away party for Maggie at the zoo. Many wrote special goodbye wishes on long sheets of white paper hung up at the elephant house. 上週末，動物園為梅姬舉辦為期兩天的歡送派對，許多民眾都在象屋掛的白色長紙條上，寫下特別的道別祝福。
(catherine Thomas, staff writer, with AP)
TODAY'S WORDS 今日單字
1. performing adj. 表演的 (biao3 yan3 de5)
例: Many of the animals at the shelter used to be performing animals in the circus.
(這間收容所裡的許多動物以前都在馬戲團中表演。)
2. concrete adj. 水泥的 (shui3 ni2 de5)
例: Sam walked along the concrete wall.
(山姆順著水泥牆邊走。)
3. retired adj. 退休的 (tui4 xiu1 de5)
例: Terrence is a retired schoolteacher.
(泰倫絲是一位退休教師。)
4. donate v.t./v.i. 捐贈 (juan1 zeng4)
例: Sam donated NT$200 to the orphanage.
(山姆捐贈了兩百元給那間孤兒院。)
