英语听力精选进阶版 6082

Though many people think it is an American festival, Halloween is a festival which began in Ireland thousands of years ago called Samhain. It was a celebration of the end of the harvest season, when livestock¹ was killed to store for winter.

People believed that on 31st October, the dead would come back to life and cause sickness or other problems. So they made bonfires with bones of animals, and made masks to mimic² or to placate³ the evil spirits. Halloween or Samhain has remained a popular festival in Ireland to this day, and children have a week's holiday from school for the occasion.

The festival was linked in England with the celebrations for All Souls Day on 2nd November – a day for remembering loved ones who had died. 1st November is All Saints Day or All Hallows Day, so Halloween is really All Hallows Eve – the day before All Hallows. On this day, children would go to their neighbours' houses and sing songs for cakes or money.

Halloween was not celebrated⁴ in the United States until the 19th century, but has now become one of the biggest festivals of the year there. Irish immigrants had brought with them the traditions of Halloween, such as carving⁵ lanterns from turnips⁶. In the USA pumpkins⁷ were used instead and now this is popular everywhere.

Other traditions include dressing⁸ up in fancy dress and trick or treating – going around knocking on people's doors hoping to receive sweets and threatening a trick or prank⁹ if not. These traditions have spread around the world, including back to the UK and Ireland.

In many parts of the world, celebrations are less frivolous¹⁰, and more closely related to the tradition of remembering the dead. In Mexico, and several other countries, The Day of the Dead is celebrated and involves visiting cemeteries¹¹ and placing food or flowers on the graves. Lighting¹² candles, singing, dancing and telling stories about the deceased are all part of the celebrations.

So, do you believe the dead will wake on Halloween?

GLOSSARY 词汇表

harvest 丰收

come back to life 复活

to mimic 模仿

spirits 精神

saints 圣人

lanterns 灯笼

pumpkins 南瓜

threatening 威胁 

frivolous 不严肃的

graves 坟墓

livestock 家畜

bonfires 大火堆，篝火 

to placate 安慰，抚慰

souls 灵魂

immigrants 移民

turnips 芜菁（大头菜）

fancy dress 聚会时所穿的奇装异服

prank 恶作剧

cemeteries 墓地

the deceased 已死的人

1 livestock   

n.家畜，牲畜

参考例句：

• Both men and livestock are flourishing.人畜两旺。
• The heavy rains and flooding killed scores of livestock.暴雨和大水淹死了许多牲口。

2 mimic   

v.模仿，戏弄；n.模仿他人言行的人

参考例句：

• A parrot can mimic a person's voice.鹦鹉能学人的声音。
• He used to mimic speech peculiarities of another.他过去总是模仿别人讲话的特点。

3 placate   

v.抚慰，平息(愤怒)

参考例句：

• He never attempts to placate his enemy.他从不企图与敌人和解。
• Even a written apology failed to placate the indignant hostess.甚至一纸书面道歉都没能安抚这个怒气冲冲的女主人。

4 celebrated   

adj.有名的，声誉卓著的

参考例句：

• He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
• The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。

5 carving   

n.雕刻品，雕花

参考例句：

• All the furniture in the room had much carving.房间里所有的家具上都有许多雕刻。
• He acquired the craft of wood carving in his native town.他在老家学会了木雕手艺。

6 turnips   

芜青( turnip的名词复数 )； 芜菁块根； 芜菁甘蓝块根； 怀表

参考例句：

• Well, I like turnips, tomatoes, eggplants, cauliflowers, onions and carrots. 噢，我喜欢大萝卜、西红柿、茄子、菜花、洋葱和胡萝卜。 来自魔法英语-口语突破（高中）
• This is turnip soup, made from real turnips. 这是大头菜汤，用真正的大头菜做的。

7 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）

8 dressing   

n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料

参考例句：

• Don't spend such a lot of time in dressing yourself.别花那么多时间来打扮自己。
• The children enjoy dressing up in mother's old clothes.孩子们喜欢穿上妈妈旧时的衣服玩。

9 prank   

n.开玩笑，恶作剧；v.装饰；打扮；炫耀自己

参考例句：

• It was thought that the fire alarm had been set off as a prank.人们认为火警报警器响是个恶作剧。
• The dean was ranking the boys for pulling the prank.系主任正在惩罚那些恶作剧的男学生。

10 frivolous   

adj.轻薄的；轻率的

参考例句：

• This is a frivolous way of attacking the problem.这是一种轻率敷衍的处理问题的方式。
• He spent a lot of his money on frivolous things.他在一些无聊的事上花了好多钱。

11 cemeteries   

n.（非教堂的）墓地，公墓( cemetery的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• It's morbid to dwell on cemeteries and such like. 不厌其烦地谈论墓地以及诸如此类的事是一种病态。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• In other districts the proximity of cemeteries seemed to aggravate the disease. 在其它地区里，邻近墓地的地方，时疫大概都要严重些。 来自辞典例句

12 lighting   

n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光

参考例句：

• The gas lamp gradually lost ground to electric lighting.煤气灯逐渐为电灯所代替。
• The lighting in that restaurant is soft and romantic.那个餐馆照明柔和而且浪漫。