District Hospital Boards (DHBs) have been in the news lately. New Zealand has 21 DHBs. The job of the Board is to meet the health needs of the community. The Board is responsible for governing hospitals and health services in their own areas but they

发表于:2018-12-31 / 阅读(42) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

Water levels dropped quickly after the terrible floods last week, leaving thick layers of smelly mud. About 50,000 volunteers are helping to clean up. They bring spades, brooms, buckets and rubbish bags. They scrape mud off the floor with a spade or

发表于:2019-01-16 / 阅读(50) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

During the past two weeks, Parliament has been in urgency. That means they sit every day until late in the evenings and they even had a session last Saturday. Usually Parliament sits Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, although MPs meet for committee

发表于:2019-01-27 / 阅读(46) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

Anyone who arrives in New Zealand by plane knows about Biosecurity NZ. Bio means living and security means safe. Biosecurity NZ is a government department. Their job is to make our country safe from unwanted living pests. These pests are plants, anim

发表于:2019-01-27 / 阅读(57) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

When Sir Edmund Hillary died in January, some New Zealanders were upset because the Royal family did not attend the funeral in Auckland. However, the Queen promised to celebrate Sir Edmunds life with a special service in England. That service was hel

发表于:2019-01-27 / 阅读(44) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

Electricity is in the news at the moment. Its the middle of winter, and some parts of New Zealand are very cold. Do we have enough electricity in this country to keep us warm this winter or in the future? For the past 43 years, the Cook Strait power

发表于:2019-01-27 / 阅读(40) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

Many high places in New Zealand have had heavy snow falls in the last few days. Roads over mountain passes in the South Island and the Desert Road in the North Island have been closed. And there has been more snow on mountains. This should make skier

发表于:2019-01-27 / 阅读(37) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

The Prime Minister, John Key, set off today for a 10-day trip to South Korea, China and Vietnam. He said that New Zealand needs to have strong relationships with Asian countries as we are near neighbours. It is the 60th anniversary of the Korean War.

发表于:2019-02-03 / 阅读(41) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

E-books have been available overseas for a number of years but they are now available in New Zealand too. The introduction of e-books, electronic books, means New Zealanders will are able to download and read a book on their computer, an e-reader or

发表于:2019-02-03 / 阅读(43) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

Sometimes we hear that the economic problems in New Zealand are not so bad. On the other hand, we heard of more job losses this week. The Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) will cut 70 jobs. The TEC is a government business which gives funding and c

发表于:2019-02-03 / 阅读(51) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

Prince William arrived in New Zealand yesterday. He is representing the Queen. This morning he opened the new Supreme Court building which is in Wellington. This is the highest court in New Zealand. The Queen is now in her 80s and a long trip to New

发表于:2019-02-04 / 阅读(35) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

The disabled skier, Adam Hall, won the slalom skiing in the Paralympics in Vancouver today. He fell on his second run but had such a fast time on his first run that he still won the gold medal. Adam Hall has spina bifida which makes it difficult for

发表于:2019-02-06 / 阅读(50) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

We have heard a lot of talk in the last six years about the foreshore and seabed. The foreshore is the beach up to the high tide mark. The seabed is the ocean as far as New Zealands limit, 200 miles out to sea. This is the part of the ocean which New

发表于:2019-02-06 / 阅读(37) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

Universities begin classes this week. There are eight universities in New Zealand: the University of Auckland and the Auckland University of Technology are both in Auckland. Massey University has a campus in Auckland and in Palmerston North. Massey a

发表于:2019-02-06 / 阅读(41) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

The New Zealand Geographic Board is thinking about changing the names of the North Island and the South Island. The Board members think that these two islands should have Maori names instead. Certainly, North Island and South Island are not very inte

发表于:2019-02-08 / 阅读(45) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

This month we saw some early results from a study of small children. The full report is at Growing Up in NZ About 7,000 children, born between April 2009 and March 2010, are in the study. They live in Waikato, or a particular area in Auckland. This i

发表于:2019-02-08 / 阅读(33) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

Yesterday was the famous Coast-to-Coast multi-sport race, from the Tasman Sea on the West Coast, across mountains, down a river, then on the road to the Pacific Ocean on the East Coast. It is called multi-sport because competitors have to be good at

发表于:2019-02-08 / 阅读(56) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

Today, we learnt that one woman is now a Dame and six men are Sir. Many other people will receive medals for community work. The award is not given for their paid job but for the voluntary work they have done. For more about the Honour awards, listen

发表于:2019-02-08 / 阅读(74) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

This government brought back titles Sir and Dame for people who receive the top honours in our country. Listen to March 8 2009. Now our most famous film maker is Sir Peter Jackson. He made the Lord of the Rings movies and King Kong. Three other peopl

发表于:2019-02-08 / 阅读(49) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

There are three and a half days in the year when the law says that shops must not open. Two of these days are at Easter. Good Friday and Easter Sunday are important days in the Christian church. Most shops are closed on these two days. Shops are clos

发表于:2019-02-09 / 阅读(54) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语