The government of Nepal is planning to re-measure Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain. China and Nepal have been arguing for years about how high the mountain really is.
Mount Everest lies on the border of the two countries. According to China the mountain is 8,844 meters high, Nepal puts its height at 8,848 meters, which is also the official height in most of the world’s geography and reference books. The difference occurs because China measures Mount Everest by its rock height while Nepal adds the height of the snow.
Some geologists however think that both numbers could be wrong. Since India is pushing itself under the Asian continent the Himalayas are becoming taller and taller. In 1999 an American expedition measured the mountain and recorded its height at 8,850 meters.
This will be the first time that the Himalayan country will determine the height of Mount Everest. The peak was first measured in 1856. A measurement conducted by India recorded the mountain at 8,848 meters in 1955. Now Nepal has the technology to measure the peak itself.
The new survey will be conducted through GPS and will take about two years. Three stations will be set up to measure the mountain’s height.
Since Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tensing Norgay became the first to reach the peak of Mount Everest about 3,000 mountaineers have successfully climbed the world’s tallest mountain.
Mount Everest - Luca Galuzzi
Vocabulary
according to = as said by …
add = include
argue = quarrel
border =line between two countries
conduct = carry out
determine = here: to find out the real height
geologist = the study of the rocks that make up the surface of the earth
government = people who rule a country
GPS = Global Positioning System = a system that uses radio signals of satellites to show your correct position on earth
height = how high something is
measure = to calculate how high something is
mountaineer = mountain climber
occur = happen
official = here: the number that is in reference books
peak = the sharply pointed tip of the mountain
re-measure = to calculate the size or height of something again
reach = get to
record = to write down data or information
reference book = a book like a dictionary or encyclopaedia that you look at to find information
successful = to do something that you have planned to do
survey = study, examination
technology = knowledge, machines and tools to do a job