新西兰英语 565 New Zealander of the Year

 　　Last night at an awards ceremony in Auckland, the winner of the New Zealander of the Year was announced. He is Sir Richard Taylor of Weta Workshops. He was made Sir Richard for his successful film work in 2010. Listen to Queen’s Birthday Honours to hear more about this. He has also won Oscars at the Academy Awards along with Sir Peter Jackson.

　　The Young New Zealander of the Year is Sam Johnson. His award is for the work he did organising the Student Volunteer Army after the earthquake in Christchurch. He used Facebook to contact other students and was amazed at the number of volunteers who turned up to help. After the first earthquake, about 2,500 students helped to remove 65,000 tonnes of silt¹. After the second earthquake, on February 22nd 2011, about 13,000 students helped each week and removed 360,000 tonnes of silt from liquefaction. Listen to March 1st 2011 to hear more about this. Students also checked on people in damaged houses and brought them hot food.

　　After the Christchurch earthquake, Sam went to Japan to help students there organise² a volunteer army to help clean up after the earthquake and tsunami³.

　　He says that often people think university students are drunk and a problem to neighbours. He wanted to show a positive view of students, to show they care for the community and want to help people.

　　For a photo of Sam Johnson click here.

　　Vocabulary

　　award – a prize

　　ceremony – a special occasion like a wedding or a party

　　announced – told the people at the ceremony

　　amazed – very surprised

　　silt – sand, mud – a product of liquefaction

　　turned up – came

　　checked on –checked that people were OK, asked them if they needed help,

　　clean up – make everything clean, remove the liquefaction

　　Questions

　　Do you think it is a good idea to have a New Zealander of the Year award? Do you have similar awards for people in your country?

　　What qualities should a New Zealander of the year have?

1 silt   

n.淤泥，淤沙，粉砂层，泥沙层；vt.使淤塞；vi.被淤塞

参考例句：

• The lake was almost solid with silt and vegetation.湖里几乎快被淤泥和植物填满了。
• During the annual floods the river deposits its silt on the fields.每年河水泛滥时都会在田野上沉积一层淤泥。

2 organise   

vt.组织，安排，筹办

参考例句：

• He has the ability to organise.他很有组织才能。
• It's my job to organise all the ceremonial events.由我来组织所有的仪式。

3 tsunami   

n.海啸

参考例句：

• Powerful quake sparks tsunami warning in Japan.大地震触发了日本的海啸预警。
• Coastlines all around the Indian Ocean inundated by a huge tsunami.大海啸把印度洋沿岸地区都淹没了。