内容简介

“天圆地方” 是古人对整个世界朴素的认识和理解。随着人类对地球了解的不断深入，如今我们不但掌握了我们所居住星球的地理环境，还可以用 “longitude（经度）” 和 “latitude（纬度）” 等单位来准确地描述地球上的一个具体位置。听节目，跟主持人步理和 Phil 学习和描述地理位置有关的表达。

文字稿

（关于台词的备注: 请注意这不是广播节目的逐字稿件。本文稿可能没有体现录制、编辑过程中对节目做出的改变。）

Buli
大家好，欢迎收听 BBC 英语教学的 “你问我答” 节目。This is Question and Answer of the Week, where we answer your questions about English language, culture and life. I'm Buli, and I'm joined by Phil today.

Phil
Hi, great to see you again. What question do we have today?

Buli
Great to see you too, Phil. 本期节目中我们将要回答的问题来自一位听众的留言。问题的内容是这样的：

Question
我想问一个关于地理经纬度位置询问和表达的问题。查阅辞典之后我知道经度是 “longitude”，纬度是 “latitude”，但是辞典上没有给出我想知道的表达的例句。如何用英语询问某地的经纬度？如何表达 “爱丁堡位于北纬 55 度，西经 3 度”、“北京被东经 120 度经线穿过” 等类似的内容，以及你们能够想到的相关必要的补充表达。谢谢！

Phil
This is an interesting question. To be honest, it can be difficult to find examples of this because we don't often talk about these in everyday speech. But there are some times when we need to talk about longitude and latitude.

Buli
Yes, it's common in more scientific language, or language about scientific topics, especially when you are trying to describe a specific position on a globe. 在本期节目中，我们就来学习一下这两个单词的用法，以及其它在描述地理位置时常用的表达。

Phil
Hey Buli, I've just been reading this science magazine. It's fascinating! Look at this story about whales.

Buli
Oh, I love whales! What does it say?

Phil
It says that humpback whales give birth much further south than scientists used to think. Whale calves have been seen near Tasmania and New Zealand at around 43 degrees south. So it could be that there need to be protected areas of sea further south.

Buli
Funny that you should mention New Zealand. I've just read that because it lies between 34 and 47 degrees south, it should be a lot warmer than the UK – but in fact it isn't. Great Britain lies between 49 and 59 degrees north, so it should be a lot colder than New Zealand, but there are warm ocean currents that make the UK warmer than other countries at that latitude.

Phil
I do wish it was even warmer, though. I used to live in Paraguay, which is crossed by the Tropic of Capricorn. The country is between the 19th and 28th parallels south and that part of the world can get very hot!

Buli
Wow, that's as close to the equator as the Sahara Desert!

你正在收听的是 BBC 英语教学制作的 “你问我答” 节目。在本期节目中，我们正在学习 “longitude（经度）” 和 “latitude（纬度）” 等和地理位置有关的表达。在刚才的对话中，我和 Phil 用多种方式描述了地球上的某些具体位置。

You just heard us talking about climate and geography related topics. These are topics where talking about longitude and latitude can be really important.

Phil
The easiest way to use longitude and latitude is to say that somewhere is 'at' or is 'located at' a specific longitude and latitude. Notice that we use a compass point – north or south for latitude and east or west for longitude.

Buli
在用 “longitude” 和 “latitude” 描述某个地方的具体位置时，我们通常会用 “be at” 或者 “be located at” 来衔接具体的经度或纬度，并且需要明确地用 “东西南北”四个方位来指出我们说的具体是 “东经”、“西经” 还是 “南纬”、“北纬” 等等。

除了 “be at” 和 “be located at”，我们还可以用动词 “lie” 搭配具体的经纬或者经纬的范围来表示某个东西 “位于” 哪个位置。比如，“lies at 50 degrees north（在北纬 50 度）” 或者 “lies between 75 degrees and 110 degrees west（位于西经 75 度和 110 度之间）”。

Phil
And we can say that something is 'crossed' by a longitude and a latitude – and that's when the imaginary lines of longitude and latitude go through a location.

Buli
是的。如果我们想说某个地方被经线和纬线 “穿过”，是两条线的 “交叉点”，我们还可以说 “it's crossed by a longitude and a latitude”。

刚才 Phil 还提到了一组概念，“the Tropic of Capricorn” 和 “the Tropic of Cancer”，它们分别指的是 “南回归线” 和 “北回归线”，也就是南半球和北半球在夏天时分别能受到太阳直射的最高的纬度。要注意，和 “equator（赤道）”、“hemisphere（半球）” 等单词不同，这两个表达在英语中通常需要大写。

Phil
Lastly, we should mention that longitudes and latitudes are lines also known as 'parallels' and 'meridians'.

Buli
是的，纬线和经线有时也会被称为 “parallels” 和 “meridians”。比如，穿过伦敦格林尼治天文台的经线就被命名为 “prime meridian（本初子午线）”，因为它是划分东西半球的经线。

Phil
Yes. I travel from the world's eastern hemisphere to its western hemisphere on my way to work every day.

Buli
You make it sound so cool! Hopefully that's shown you a bit more about how we talk about longitude and latitude in English.

Phil
Remember, if you have a question that you'd like us to answer, you can email us too at: questions.chinaelt@bbc.co.uk

Buli
你还可以通过微博向我们提问。我们的微博账号是 “BBC英语教学”。Bye!

Phil
Bye!