新西兰英语 126 Earth Hour

　　Last night – at 8.30pm on 28th March – 80 countries took part in Earth Hour by turning off lights and other things which use electricity. The idea began in Sydney in 2007. Last year, Christchurch was the only New Zealand city to observe Earth Hour but this year 44 districts in New Zealand took part. The Beehive in Wellington where our MPs have their offices, and Sky City in Auckland¹ turned off their lights for one hour. Both Wellington and Christchurch had a concert or other activities in the city for people to attend.
Not much electricity was saved. However, the idea was to make people think about the future of the Earth. It was the idea of the WWF, the World Wide Fund².
New Zealand was the first country in the world to turn off the lights because we are so close to the international dateline so 28th March 8.30pm was first in New Zealand.

1 Auckland   

n.奥克兰(新西兰港市)

参考例句：

• Auckland is the largest city in New Zealand.奥克兰是新西兰最大的城市。
• Return to auckland by bus in afternoon.下午乘车返回奥克兰。

2 fund   

n.基金，资金，存款，财源，贮藏；vt.提供资金，积累

参考例句：

• They decided to set up a fund for this purpose.他们决定为此专立一项基金。
• This fund may not be drawn on without permission.这笔钱非经批准不得动用。