新西兰英语 01 Commonwealth Heads of Government meet

　　The Prime Minister, Helen Clark is attending the Commonwealth¹ Heads of Government conference in Uganda. The Queen is Head of the Commonwealth and opened the 3-day conference. She talked about the importance of democracy and education. Prince Charles is also in Uganda to attend the conference.
New Zealand belongs to the Commonwealth, along with another 52 countries. Most of these countries were British colonies a long time ago. The Queen is the head of state for 16 of these countries, including New Zealand. Many of the people in the Commonwealth play British games like cricket² and bowls. Every four years, athletes compete in the Commonwealth Games which is a small Olympic Games. Last year, this was held in Melbourne and in 2010, it will be held in New Delhi, India.
Commonwealth members believe in democracy, human rights, good government, fair laws, free trade and world peace. There is a feeling of friendship between countries in the Commonwealth. Some of these countries give trade and immigration benefits to other Commonwealth countries.
Pakistan has just been suspended from the Commonwealth. Early in November, Commonwealth members gave President Musharif 10 days to give up being head of the army and stop emergency rule but he has not done this. Pakistan was suspended once before in 1999, but returned to the Commonwealth in 2004 because it had made progress towards democracy. The government in Pakistan is angry that the country is no longer a member of the Commonwealth.

1 commonwealth   

n.共和国，联邦，共同体

参考例句：

• He is the chairman of the commonwealth of artists.他是艺术家协会的主席。
• Most of the members of the Commonwealth are nonwhite.英联邦的许多成员国不是白人国家。

2 cricket   

n.蟋蟀，板球运动；adj.公平的

参考例句：

• The England cricket team scored quite a useful total.英格兰板球队得分总数令人满意。
• We could hear the shrill of the midsummer cricket.我们可以听到仲夏时节蟋蟀的尖叫声。
• Your behaviour isn't cricket.你的行为不光彩。