New Year’s Day Parade 伦敦庆元旦大游行

The script¹ of this programme 本节目台词

	Lily with Dan Kirby, Communications Director of the Parade

Lily: Happy New Year and welcome to On the Town from BBC Learning² English. I’m Lily. Have you ever heard about the New Year’s Day Parade in London?

Yang Li: 今天我要为大家献上一份新年特别礼物, 这就是伦敦庆元旦大游行现场报道.

Lily: Well, I am joining big crowds of people in parliament³ square where the 3 hour parade has just started.

Yang Li: 伦敦庆元旦大游行不仅规模宏大, 场面壮观, 而且有越来越多的外国表演队前来助兴.

Lily: So what is unique about the New Year’s Day Parade in London? Dan Kirby is the Communications Director of the New Year’s Day programme.

Insert

Well, it’s a most eclectic collection, most quintessentially British items you will ever see in one event.

Yang Li: 他说，伦敦大游行是一场令人大开眼界的活动，表演多姿多彩，而且最具英国特色。Eclectic 广博的；Quintessential 就是典型；完美的。

Lily: This year the parade celebrates its 21st anniversary⁴ of bringing extraordinary entertainment to thousands of people every year.

Yang Li: 不过，元旦大游行这一传统又是如何开始的呢？ So Dan, how did the tradition of the London parade begin?

Insert

21 years ago London was a very boring, quiet place on New Year’s Day. The man who dreamed up the idea Bob Bone and his wife were in London with their children who had nothing to do, the shops were closed, museums were closed, the cinemas were shut and theatres were closed so they decided⁵ to do something about it. And the next year they had a small event and a few hundred people took part and a few hundred people watched it. 21 years on there are 10,000 performers from all over the world and we have probably 550,000 people on the street of London today. It’s absolutely huge. This event is being broadcast by 500 stations.

Yang Li: 回顾一下, 伦敦元旦游行活动是1987年也就是21年前开始的. 发起人是Bob Bone. He dreamed up the idea of a parade. Dream up 动词短语, 就是构想出来的意思. 想想吧,仅仅21年的时间,从几百人,发展到10万表演者和55万观众的规模, 真令人赞叹! 10,000 performers and 550,000 spectators⁶ on the streets!

Lily: Here are some of the spectators’ comments. 让我们来听听观众的评论吧。

Insert

Woman: I think today’s parade is absolutely fantastic. We are absolutely enjoying it.

Q: Which part do you like best?

Woman: I like the marching bands. Everybody is cheering and waving.

Woman: I enjoy seeing people being happy. The crowds and clowns and the parade is excellent this year.

Lily: They talked about the bands 乐队the crowds 人群and the clowns小丑.

Yang Li: 另外，英国人在形容喜庆活动的时候，经常使用像fantastic, terrific⁷. great and excellent 这些形容词都表示,特别精彩, 盖帽，超级好的意思。

Lily: 听说这次有20多个国家的表演队前来助兴, but all performers from other countries have to travel a long distance and have to pay their own way to come to London, so why don't they celebrate the New Year in their own country instead? Here’s the answer from Dan:

Insert

The fame of the parade has spread to many continents. So they heard about the parade and they wanted to be here. There is no better place than London to celebrate the New Year.

Lily: The fame of the parade has spread to many continents 伦敦大游行名传四海. 许多对英国感兴趣的人就组织起来了. 注意他用了一个非常有用的句型; there is no better place than London to celebrate the New Year. It’s another way of saying London is the best place to celebrate the New Year.

Yang Li: Is it the best place to celebrate the New Year? Well I’ll leave you with some foreign visitors’ comments.

Lily: 他们分别来自希腊Greece，芬兰Finland，拉脱维亚Latvia和德国Germany.

Yang Li: Good luck with the listening 我是杨莉,下次节目再会。

 

1 script   

n.剧本，广播稿；文字体系；笔迹，手迹

参考例句：

• It's easy to identify his script.他的笔迹容易辨认。
• The script is massaged into final form.这篇稿子经过修改已定稿。

2 learning   

n.学问，学识，学习；动词learn的现在分词

参考例句：

• When you are learning to ride a bicycle,you often fall off.初学骑自行车时，常会从车上掉下来。
• Learning languages isn't just a matter of remembering words.学习语言不仅仅是记些单词的事。

3 Parliament   

n.议会，国会

参考例句：

• She won a seat in Parliament at the election.她在选举中赢得了议会中的席位。
• The drug was banned by an act of parliament.议会的法案明令禁止该药品。

4 anniversary   

n.周年(纪念日)

参考例句：

• They celebrate their wedding anniversary annually.他们每年庆祝一番结婚纪念日。
• Today is my parents'30th wedding anniversary.今天是我父母结婚30周年纪念日。

5 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

6 spectators   

n.观众，旁观者( spectator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The spectators were wilting visibly in the hot sun. 看得出观众在炎热的阳光下快支撑不住了。
• The policemen asked the spectators to stand well back. 警察要求旁观者靠后站。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 terrific   

adj.可怕的，极好的，非常的

参考例句：

• The game was terrific.那场比赛棒极了。
• Darren drove at a terrific speed.达伦以惊人的速度驾车。