新西兰英语 61 Parliament Ends

　　Last week was the final session for Parliament before the elections on November 8th. During the session last week, MPs who were retiring gave their farewell speeches. One well-known National MP, Katherine Rich, decided¹ to retire from Parliament as she has a young family and wants to spend more time with her children.
A number of Labour MPs are leaving, including Margaret Wilson, the Speaker of the House. It is her job to keep control of the MPs in the House of Parliament. It has been a difficult job for her trying to stop some MPs from shouting at each other and calling each other names. She is going back to a job as a professor of law at the University of Waikato.
Another well-known Labour MP is Steve Maharey. He has been in parliament for 18 years and during that time has had many ministerial positions such as Minister of Education. He too is going back to a university position, but this time as Vice-Chancellor of Massey University. The Vice-Chancellor is the number 1 person at a university.
This Labour government is now finished and MPs will spend the next 6 weeks getting ready for the elections. They will hold public meetings, knock on doors to talk to people at home and travel around their electorate² to try to persuade people to vote for them. Both Helen Clark and John Key will travel around the whole country.
If you are 18 or over, if you are a New Zealand citizen or permanent resident and have lived in New Zealand for one year or more, you can vote. Have you registered to vote? This is compulsory³. You can get a form at any PostShop. If you register by October 8th, you will get an EasyVote card in the mail which you take with you when you vote.
Remember, you have two votes, one for the person and one for party. There are two main parties, Labour and National, but also several small parties such as the Greens, the Maori Party, New Zealand First and United Future. Your vote is important. It shows you believe in a democracy. Read about the parties, talk to your candidate, listen to the leaders speaking on TV or at a public meeting.

1 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

2 electorate   

n.全体选民；选区

参考例句：

• The government was responsible to the electorate.政府对全体选民负责。
• He has the backing of almost a quarter of the electorate.他得到了几乎1/4选民的支持。

3 compulsory   

n.强制的，必修的；规定的，义务的

参考例句：

• Is English a compulsory subject?英语是必修课吗？
• Compulsory schooling ends at sixteen.义务教育至16岁为止。