英语博客-北美风情 229 Party time

 　　Parties can be thrown at any time of the year in North America, but they are especially common over the holidays. At this time of the year, there are all kinds of gatherings¹ with family, friends, and colleagues. In this episode², Harp³ and Maura talk about the different kinds of parties you might be invited to. Harp also talks about planning parties and about all the details you may need to consider. The girls also talk about a bunch of expressions with the word party in them. People love to party, so there are many expression about it!

　　Maura:My family always gets together around Christmas and most of my family gets together for other holidays too, like Thanksgiving and Easter.

　　Harp:Yeah. Same thing for my family We have a lot of parties during the holidays.

　　Maura:Oh, really. Usually, my mom and my dad’s families, they just have one big party with everyone who’s invited.

　　Harp:Yeah. I see a lot of people doing that.

　　Maura:Yeah. It makes sense because everyone is together. Everyone gets to see each other at the same time.

　　Harp:The holiday season, it’s a nice time. It’s a nice excuse to see each other when you’re so busy the rest of the year with your own lives and work and all of that.

　　Maura:A lot of the time, I actually don’t see much of my extended⁴ family except for the holidays.

1 gatherings   

聚集( gathering的名词复数 )； 收集； 采集； 搜集

参考例句：

• His conduct at social gatherings created a lot of comment. 他在社交聚会上的表现引起许多闲话。
• During one of these gatherings a pupil caught stealing. 有一次，其中一名弟子偷窃被抓住。

2 episode   

n.（作品的一段）情节，插曲，系列事件中之一

参考例句：

• The episode was a huge embarrassment for all concerned.这段小插曲令所有有关人员都感到非常尴尬。
• This episode remains sharply engraved on my mind.这段经历至今仍深深地铭刻在我的心中。

3 harp   

n.竖琴；天琴座

参考例句：

• She swept her fingers over the strings of the harp.她用手指划过竖琴的琴弦。
• He played an Irish melody on the harp.他用竖琴演奏了一首爱尔兰曲调。

4 extended   

adj.延伸的；伸展的；延长的；扩大的v.延伸(extend的过去式和过去分词)；伸展；延长

参考例句：

• an extended lunch hour 延长了的午餐时间
• France has greatly extended its influence in world affairs. 在世界事务中，法国的影响已大大地扩大了。 来自《简明英汉词典》