Lesson plan
Down Under
Down Under is a colloquialism differently construed to refer to Australia and New Zealand, or the Pacific island countries of Oceania collectively. The term originally referred solely to Australia and gradually expanded in scope. It comes from the fact that Australia is in the Southern Hemisphere, therefore located "down" and "under" almost all other countries on the usual arrangement of a map or globe which places cardinal north at the top. "Down Under" represents Australia's distance and isolation from the rest of the world. During Apollo 11 in 1969, the signal from the moon was received at NASA's Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station near Canberra, so television in Australia broadcast the video slightly before the rest of the world. A television executive boasted that "Just for once we were not at the end of the line, our accustomed place 'down under'". The term has been in use since the late 19th century, and the persistence of the media use of the term has led to its wide acceptance and usage in reference to Australia. According to American film critic Roger Ebert's tongue-in-cheek Glossary of Movie Terms, there exists an informal Down Under Rule:
Article summary
Down Under is a colloquialism differently construed to refer to Australia and New Zealand, or the Pacific island countries of Oceania collectively. The term originally referred solely to Australia and gradually expanded in scope. It comes from the fact that Australia is in the Southern Hemisphere, therefore located "down" and "under" almost all other countries on the usual arrangement of a map or globe which places cardinal north at the top. "Down Under" represents Australia's distance and isolation from the rest of the world. During Apollo 11 in 1969, the signal from the moon was received at NASA's Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station near Canberra, so television in Australia broadcast the video slightly before the rest of the world. A television executive boasted that "Just for once we were not at the end of the line, our accustomed place 'down under'". The term has been in use since the late 19th century, and the persistence of the media use of the term has led to its wide acceptance and usage in reference to Australia. According to American film critic Roger Ebert's tongue-in-cheek Glossary of Movie Terms, there exists an informal Down Under Rule:
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Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
Bibliography
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Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.