新西兰英语 615 Super Moon

 　　Tonight the moon looks bigger and brighter than usual. It is a Super Moon. Actually it is a full moon but also a perigree moon when it is the closest to the Earth during its orbit. These two events are happening together tonight. It last happened March 19th 2011.

　　The moon’s orbit is not a circle. It is an ellipse which is like an oval¹. When the moon is closest to the earth it is 50,000km nearer than when it is furthest away. Tonight it is 356,955km distant from the Earth. It looks big and bright – if you can see it through the clouds. It appears 14% bigger and 30% brighter than the usual full moon.

　　High tide will be a few cm higher than usual.

　　The opposite of a perigree moon is an apogee² moon which will occur November 27th in New Zealand. The moon will be the furthest distance from the Earth. However, it will not be a full moon at that time.

　　Vocabulary

　　actually – to be more accurate

　　moon’s orbit – path around the Earth

　　ellipse (n) – flat circle; elliptical (adj).

　　high tide – the sea comes up higher on the beach

　　Grammar

　　close, closer, closest; near, nearer, nearest (‘close’ and ‘near’ are regular adjectives)

　　far, further, furthest (‘far’ is an irregular adjective)

1 oval   

n. 椭圆，椭圆形跑道；adj. 卵形的，椭圆形的

参考例句：

• She has a lovely oval face.她长着一张可爱的椭圆脸。
• The shape of the earth is an oval.地球的形状是个椭圆形。

2 apogee   

n.远地点；极点；顶点

参考例句：

• The orbit of the artificial satellite has an apogee of 200 miles from the earth.这个人造卫星的轨道，其最远点在离地球200英里的地方。
• Apogean tides occur when the moon is at the apogee of its orbit.远月潮在月球位于其轨道的最远点时发生。