新西兰英语 517 Voting in the election

 　　Only 73% of registered voters chose to vote on Saturday. This is the lowest percentage since 1887. 3,053,705 people are registered to vote but only 2.2m people voted. Although it is too early to know all the details, it seems that young people are not so interested in voting. Also fewer Maori voted and fewer people from South Auckland where Labour usually has a lot of support. Labour lost nine seats.

　　Although National was very popular, the party gained only two more seats than in 2008. This is because of MMP where votes for minor¹ parties make a difference. The Green Party has four more seats this time and New Zealand First came back into Parliament with eight seats. However, ACT and the Maori Party lost seats.

　　The referendum voting showed that 54% want to keep MMP. However, there may be some small changes to MMP.

　　Grammar

　　Note “fewer” for countable² nouns; “less” for uncountable nouns.

　　However, in speech many people use “less” for both countable and uncountable. In the future, the word “fewer” may disappear.

　　Questions

　　1.Why do you think are young people not so interested in voting?

　　2.If you live in New Zealand, do you know anyone who did not want to vote?

　　3.In Australia it is compulsory³ to vote. Do you think voting in a general election should be compulsory?

1 minor   

adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修

参考例句：

• The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
• I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。

2 countable   

adj.可数的，可以计算的

参考例句：

• The word "person" is a countable noun.person这个词是个可数名词。
• Countable nouns have singular and plural forms.可数名词有单数和复数之分。

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。