EP 0191Global View
Daylight Savings Time
Did you set your clock forward for daylight savings time?
What? Why do we have to do that?
Well, at the start of the spring we usually have more daylight in the mornings and less in the afternoon. This is basically due to our position on the planet and the rotation of the earth. In any case, to take better advantage of the daylight available, we compensate by moving our clocks forward one hour.
I see. That’s convenient! I never understood things like this, such as GMT. I never know what time zone we are in or when to change my clock!
That just stands for Greenwich Mean Time. Here in California, we are in Pacific Standard Time, that is eight time zones west of Greenwich. Remember when we were in Beijing? Well, then we were in China Standard Time, and that’s eight time zones east of Greenwich!
That’s why it was so weird traveling from Beijing to LA! Because of the huge time difference, even though we left Beijing at noon and flew for more than eight hours, we still arrived in LA the same day at noon! It’s like we went back in time!
核心词汇
rotationcommon noun, singular
circular motion of turning around as on an axis
daylight savings timephrase
system that provides more daylight during the day
compensateprinciple verb, present simple
provide or be an equivalent; make up; make amends
time zonephrase
a region where the same standard time is used
go back in timephrase
to travel to a time that has already passed
拓展词汇
Spring forward, fall back DST European Summer Timephrase
set clocks ahead 1 hour in the spring and back 1 hour in the fall daylight savings time the name for ”daylight savings time” in Europe
clock shiftcommon noun, singular
the amount of time by which to set a clock forward or backward
equinoxcommon noun, singular
the twice yearly times when the lengths of day and night are almost equal