英语博客：Friendly or scary?

　　As I drive around town, I find myself saying the occasional "oooo!", "ahhh!", or "oh?!" Do you know why? There are Halloween decorations all over the place, and they make a real impression. There seem to be two approaches to decorating for Halloween: friendly or scary. Personally, I prefer friendly. The time of year leads me to decorate with themes of pumpkins¹, Autumn leaves, and the harvest. Okay, I throw in the odd friendly ghost here and there, a black cat, or some fake bats. But you can find a pleasant version of those things. Other people, however, choose to really scare. Perhaps they don't get frightened easily. Some of the houses near us are quite shocking. There is one with a huge skull² picture in the window that is pulling an awful face, and then outside, on the front lawn are fake tombstones everywhere. I suppose it's all a bit of fun; it just depends on your taste. My oldest son seemed to enjoy the dark side of things a few years ago. One Halloween night, when all of my children dressed up and we took them out to trick or treat, he chose to go as the Grim Reaper³, you know, Death. He wore a long black hooded⁴ cape⁵, and had a mask on like 'the scream' by Edvard Munch⁶. The rest of us were friendly looking creatures, and so he stood out in contrast. We stopped by a local church that had free hotdogs and lots of candies for Halloween night, and as we went from booth to booth, people would look at my son twice, the first time in shock, the second time in horror. On another occasion, he was dressed like Darth Vader from Star Wars, which wasn't bad at all I thought. However, he had a battery run voice pack that had some pre-recorded sayings by Darth Vader. I didn't pay much attention to it at all, until we got to the church parking lot, and the kids were filling up their candy buckets at the booths. Hudson turned on his voice pack, and you could hear, " You don't know the power of the dark side!" I'm sure some people found it distasteful or inappropriate; I actually thought it was hilarious⁷. And Hudson, like the rest of the kids, was only concerned about getting as much candy as possible.
Grammar notes.
Related vocabulary: to make an impression, the odd....here and there, version, hooded.
1. He made a real impression on me; he was polite and very helpful.
2. You can see the odd farmhouse⁸ here and there in the valley.
3. The new version of 'Thriller⁹' is not at all as good as the original.
4. My sweater is hooded, so I can keep my head warm when I go out in the snow.

1 pumpkins   

n.南瓜( pumpkin的名词复数 )；南瓜的果肉，南瓜囊

参考例句：

• I like white gourds, but not pumpkins. 我喜欢吃冬瓜，但不喜欢吃南瓜。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Then they cut faces in the pumpkins and put lights inside. 然后在南瓜上刻出一张脸，并把瓜挖空。 来自英语晨读30分（高三）

2 skull   

n.头骨；颅骨

参考例句：

• The skull bones fuse between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.头骨在15至25岁之间长合。
• He fell out of the window and cracked his skull.他从窗子摔了出去，跌裂了颅骨。

3 reaper   

n.收割者，收割机

参考例句：

• The painting is organized about a young reaper enjoying his noonday rest.这幅画的画面设计成一个年轻的割禾人在午间休息。
• A rabbit got caught in the blades of the reaper.一只兔子被卷到收割机的刀刃中去了。

4 hooded   

adj.戴头巾的；有罩盖的；颈部因肋骨运动而膨胀的

参考例句：

• A hooded figure waited in the doorway. 一个戴兜帽的人在门口等候。
• Black-eyed gipsy girls, hooded in showy handkerchiefs, sallied forth to tell fortunes. 黑眼睛的吉卜赛姑娘，用华丽的手巾包着头，突然地闯了进来替人算命。 来自辞典例句

5 cape   

n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风

参考例句：

• I long for a trip to the Cape of Good Hope.我渴望到好望角去旅行。
• She was wearing a cape over her dress.她在外套上披着一件披肩。

6 munch   

v.用力嚼，大声咀嚼

参考例句：

• We watched her munch through two packets of peanuts.我们看她津津有味地嚼了两包花生米。
• Getting them to munch on vegetable dishes was more difficult.使他们吃素菜就比较困难了。

7 hilarious   

adj.充满笑声的，欢闹的；[反]depressed

参考例句：

• The party got quite hilarious after they brought more wine.在他们又拿来更多的酒之后，派对变得更加热闹起来。
• We stop laughing because the show was so hilarious.我们笑个不停，因为那个节目太搞笑了。

8 farmhouse   

n.农场住宅（尤指主要住房）

参考例句：

• We fell for the farmhouse as soon as we saw it.我们对那所农舍一见倾心。
• We put up for the night at a farmhouse.我们在一间农舍投宿了一夜。

9 thriller   

n.惊险片，恐怖片

参考例句：

• He began by writing a thriller.That book sold a million copies.他是写惊险小说起家的。那本书卖了一百万册。
• I always take a thriller to read on the train.我乘火车时，总带一本惊险小说看。