新西兰英语 679 The Steamship Earnslaw

 　　The Earnslaw is 100 years old this week and Queenstown is celebrating this vintage ship which they call ‘The Lady of the Lake’.

　　It now takes tourists across Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown. However, 100 years ago it carried passengers, goods and farm animals from Kingston, at the south end of the lake, to Queenstown, and then to Glenorchy at the north end of the lake. There was no road in those days. It was also the time of the gold rush in Central Otago. Many of the passengers were gold miners¹.

　　By the end of the 1960s, there was a road from Kingston to Queenstown, and from Queenstown to Glenorchy. The Earnslaw was no longer needed. It was in a bad condition when a tourism company bought it and repaired it. It is now a popular coal-powered steamship² which takes tourists across the lake from Queenstown to a high country sheep farm.

　　Yesterday, invited guests, dressed in clothes of 1912, travelled on the Earnslaw to celebrate the first trip from Kingston to Queenstown.

　　Vocabulary

　　vintage – very old and admired

　　gold rush – many people (mostly men) rushed to areas where someone had found gold. They became gold miners.

　　(Apologies for sound quality. This is temporary.)

1 miners   

矿工( miner的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The coal miners have come out for about two weeks. 煤矿工人已罢工约两周了。
• The roof of the cave dropped in on the miners, trapping them. 洞穴的顶部坍了下来，砸在矿工身上。

2 steamship   

n.汽船，轮船

参考例句：

• The return may be made on the same steamship.可乘同一艘汽船当天回来。
• It was so foggy that the steamship almost ran down a small boat leaving the port.雾很大，汽艇差点把一只正在离港的小船撞沉。