Time for a Change|乾坤大挪移，萨摩亚将时间调快 1 天

Time for a Change

by Matthew Brown

Samoa hopes that setting its clocks forward by one whole day will pay off in the future.

The tiny island country of Samoa is planning to change its time zone by 24 hours. That means it will be losing one whole day, _(1)_ will probably be December 30. The change will have some interesting results. The country will be a day ahead of American Samoa, a part of the region that is a territory of the US. In theory, a person could go to church on Sunday in Samoa before traveling _(2)_ 65 kilometers east and going to Sunday mass again in American Samoa. It also means that people with birthdays on the missing day of December 30 will have to _(3)_ on another day this year.

The reason why Samoa wants to make this change is mainly economic. Samoa does most of its business with Australia and New Zealand, but _(4)_ the time difference, Samoa loses out on two days of business. When it's Friday in Samoa, it's Saturday in New Zealand, and while Samoans are enjoying a day of rest on Sunday, people are already back _(5)_ work in Australia. There seems to be no good reason not to make the change.

Samoa's current time zone is a result of luck. The South Pacific island lies just 32 kilometers east of the international dateline, an _(6)_ line that connects the North and South Poles. When it's Tuesday on Samoa's side of the line, it will already be Wednesday on the other side. The dateline and the world's standard time zones were _(7)_ in 1884. Nearly 130 years later, Samoa thinks it's time for a change.

1.  (A) when    (B) which   (C) that    (D) what

2.  (A) likely  (B) generally   (C) roughly (D) commonly

3.  (A) celebrate   (B) attend  (C) notice  (D) obey

4.  (A) on behalf of    (B) in case of  (C) prior to    (D) because of

5.  (A) in  (B) with    (C) at  (D) over

6.  (A) imaginative (B) imaginable  (C) imagining   (D) imaginary

7.  (A) opened  (B) established (C) intended    (D) entered

乾坤大挪移，萨摩亚将时间调快 1 天

萨摩亚希望把时间往前移 1 天，未来可以创造更多经济效益。

　　萨摩亚这个小小岛国计划将自己的时区调快 1 天。这表示她也许会略过 12 月 30 日这一天。这个改变会产生一些有趣的结果。该国将来会比美属萨摩亚（编按：与萨摩亚一同构成萨摩亚群岛，属于美国领土）快上 1天。理论上，某人可以在萨摩亚的星期日上教堂，之后往东约 65 公里，去美属萨摩亚再参加 1 次星期日的望弥撒。这也表示因为 12 月 30日会被略过，当天生日的人就得在今年的其他日子庆生。

　　萨摩亚想作此改变的原因主要为经济上的考虑。她大多和澳洲、纽西兰进行贸易，但因为时差的关系，萨摩亚少了 2 个工作天。当萨摩亚还是星期五的时候，纽西兰却是星期六；当萨摩亚的人星期天正在休息的时候，澳洲人却已经回到工作岗位。看来这真的是换时区的好理由。

　　萨摩亚现行的时区全因地利之便。这个南太平洋上的小岛位于国际日期变更线（由北极画到南极的虚拟线）东边仅 32 公里处。当国际日期变更线这边的萨摩亚是星期二，另一边已经是星期三了。国际日期变更线以及时区于 1884年制订。将近 130 年后，萨摩亚认为改变的时候到了。

答案：1. (B)2. (C)3. (A)4. (D)5. (C)
6. (D)7. (B)

国际日期变更线通过太平洋中央，大致沿经度 180 度线，由于没有任何国际组织强制画线，太平洋国家可依各国喜好把换日线画成锯齿状。

约 200 年前，萨摩亚为了与美国加州做生意，把换日线画在该国的西方，是全球每天最晚结束的国家之一。但如今萨摩亚主要贸易伙伴已从欧美换成纽澳、中国大陆和环太平洋国家。更改换日线后，萨摩亚日期将和纽澳相同，虽然还是比威灵顿快 1 小时、比雪梨快 3 小时，但比起过去整整差 1天，还是方便多了。

原本的萨摩亚以享有地球最晚的夕阳吸引观光客，但更换时区后这个卖点就没了，他们的总理早已想好新卖点：由于紧邻的美属萨摩亚时区仍与加州在同一边，比萨摩亚晚 1 天，因此观光客到萨摩亚庆祝特别的日子，可以在同一天庆祝 2 次。（数据源：联合新闻网）