新西兰英语 628 Stars over Tekapo

 　　Tekapo is a special place. This small town has a big observatory¹ at Mount² John, 1000m above the town. It has six telescopes including New Zealand’s biggest telescope with a diameter of 1.8m, built with Japanese money. The observatory is operated by the University of Canterbury. University astronomers³ work here with astronomers from Nagoya University, Japan.

　　The town of Tekapo is very careful that their street lights don’t shine upwards⁴. Astronomers need a dark sky to watch the stars. Yesterday the astronomers at a conference in Tekapo learnt the news that this area in the Mackenzie country will be called a Dark Sky Reserve. The area includes Mt Cook village, Twizel and Tekapo – 4,300 square km, the biggest Dark Sky Reserve in the world. There are only four of these reserves – one in Exmoor, England, one in Quebec, Canada, one in Namibia, Africa, and now this one in the South island of New Zealand. It is also the only gold-level dark sky reserve which means it is very dark and excellent for viewing stars.

　　Mt John has a road up to the top. There are night tours for tourists who want to look through telescopes at the stars.

　　Vocabulary

　　diameter – 2 x radius⁵; distance across a circle

　　operated – controlled

　　reserve – a protected place, like a park.

　　watch, view, look at stars. They all mean the same

1 observatory   

n.天文台，气象台，瞭望台，观测台

参考例句：

• Guy's house was close to the observatory.盖伊的房子离天文台很近。
• Officials from Greenwich Observatory have the clock checked twice a day.格林威治天文台的职员们每天对大钟检查两次。

2 mount   

n.山峰，乘用马，框，衬纸；vi.增长，骑上（马）；vt.提升，爬上，装备

参考例句：

• Their debts continued to mount up.他们的债务不断增加。
• She is the first woman who steps on the top of Mount Jolmo Lungma.她是第一个登上珠穆朗玛峰的女人。

3 astronomers   

n.天文学者，天文学家( astronomer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Astronomers can accurately foretell the date,time,and length of future eclipses. 天文学家能精确地预告未来日食月食的日期、时刻和时长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Astronomers used to ask why only Saturn has rings. 天文学家们过去一直感到奇怪，为什么只有土星有光环。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 upwards   

adv.向上，在更高处...以上

参考例句：

• The trend of prices is still upwards.物价的趋向是仍在上涨。
• The smoke rose straight upwards.烟一直向上升。

5 radius   

n.半径，半径范围；有效航程，范围，界限

参考例句：

• He has visited every shop within a radius of two miles.周围两英里以内的店铺他都去过。
• We are measuring the radius of the circle.我们正在测量圆的半径。