新西兰英语 229 Molesworth

　　The road through Molesworth high country farm is now open for the summer. It closes again at Easter. Molesworth is in the northern part of the South Island.
Molesworth is the biggest farm in New Zealand. It is 180,787 hectares. It has about 10,000 beef cattle, not dairy¹ cows, on the farm. Some of the mountains on the farm are more than 2,000m high. In the winter, farmers on horses bring the cattle down to the valleys because there is so much snow on the higher land. The farm has about 80 horses and 45 working dogs. Sometimes they use small aeroplanes to find the cattle.
The farm belongs to the New Zealand government. It is managed by the Department of Conservation (DoC). In the 1930s, farmers gave the land to the government because they were bankrupt². They had 90,000 sheep on the land but rabbits ate all the grass and the snow made it difficult to farm. Today, DoC works³ hard to get rid of rabbits and to plant good grass in the valleys for the cattle to eat.
A farm manager and four other farmers, with their families, live in Molesworth all year round and six other workers join them in spring, summer and autumn.
From about 1850 to early twentieth century, farmers in Nelson and Marlborough brought their animals to Christchurch through Molesworth before there was a road. This could take them two or three weeks for the animals to walk all the way. The men travelled on horseback. They could sell their animals for good prices in Christchurch.
Today the road starts 22km south of Blenheim and finishes at Hanmer Springs. It is 207km and takes about six hours. It is a shingle⁴ road so it is quite rough. If you travel on this road, make sure you fill your car with petrol before you start and have a good spare tyre. There is no cell phone coverage⁵. There are two camping places with toilets and water. The road is only open from 7am until 7pm.
To find out more information, go to www.doc.govt.nz and type the word Molesworth in the search space at the top right.

1 dairy   

n.牛奶场，乳品店；adj.乳制品的

参考例句：

• The yogurt sold by this dairy is delicious.这家乳品店出售的酸奶非常好喝。
• He kept a few dairy cows.他养了几头奶牛。

2 bankrupt   

n.破产者；adj.破产的；vt.使...破产

参考例句：

• That factory has gone bankrupt.那家工厂倒了。
• The enemy's scheme went bankrupt.敌人的计谋破产了。

3 works   

n.作品，著作；工厂，活动部件，机件

参考例句：

• We expect writers to produce more and better works.我们期望作家们写出更多更好的作品。
• The novel is regarded as one of the classic works.这篇小说被公认为是最优秀的作品之一。

4 shingle   

n.木瓦板；小招牌(尤指医生或律师挂的营业招牌)；v.用木瓦板盖（屋顶）；把（女子头发）剪短

参考例句：

• He scraped away the dirt,and exposed a pine shingle.他刨去泥土，下面露出一块松木瓦块。
• He hung out his grandfather's shingle.他挂出了祖父的行医招牌。

5 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。