新西兰英语 727 new Year’s Day

 　　New Zealand is one of the first countries to experience New Year’s Day. Our time zone is UTC +13 at the moment with daylight saving¹ time. So already it is New Year’s Day here. Samoa is now first in the world because they moved the date line a year ago.

　　Listen to December 29th 2011 to hear more about this.

　　It is quite common for people to make New Year’s resolutions today. They resolve² to be better in some way; for example, to quit smoking or to lose weight. 18% of adults are smokers³. One in 3 adults in New Zealand is overweight and one in 4 is obese⁴.

　　The price of cigarettes has gone up today. It is now $20 for a pack of 25 cigarettes. The cost might help smokers to give up.

　　It is also common for people to fail in New Year’s resolutions. It is not easy to make changes to your life style. Some will try for a few weeks before giving up because it is too hard.

　　However, today is the first day of a new year and a time to be positive about the future.

　　Vocabulary

　　?UTC – Co-ordinated Universal Time (It used to be called GMT – Greenwich Mean Time)

　　?resolution (n), resolve (v) – a strong promise to yourself to do something

　　?common – many people do this (do not say ‘popular’)

　　?quit, give up – stop doing something you were doing before

　　?obese – extremely fat, unhealthy because of being overweight

　　?price goes up – increases

　　Questions

　　Have you ever make a New Year’s Resolution? Did you keep your resolution or did you give up after a short time?

　　Grammar

　　?one of the first countries. It is important to say ‘countries’ not ‘country’ because you are thinking of many countries. New Zealand is just one of them.

　　?one in three is (singular verb) because you are talking about ‘one’

1 saving   

n.节省，节约；[pl.]储蓄金，存款

参考例句：

• Energy saving is term strategic policy of our country.节约能源是我国长期的战略国策。
• Old-fashioned housewives were usually very saving.旧时的家庭主妇通常都很节俭。

2 resolve   

vt.解决，解除；决定，决心

参考例句：

• It's up to him to resolve this problem.这个问题应由他来解决。
• This did not shake his resolve.这事并未动摇他的决心。

3 smokers   

吸烟者( smoker的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Many smokers who are chemically addicted to nicotine cannot cut down easily. 许多有尼古丁瘾的抽烟人不容易把烟戒掉。
• Chain smokers don't care about the dangers of smoking. 烟鬼似乎不在乎吸烟带来的种种危害。

4 obese   

adj.过度肥胖的，肥大的

参考例句：

• The old man is really obese,it can't be healthy.那位老人确实过于肥胖了，不能算是健康。
• Being obese and lazy is dangerous to health.又胖又懒危害健康。