最新15篇文章贯通英语四级词汇MP3 Unit7-Part3（在线收听）

[00:00.00]Christmas carols, or Christmas religious songs, 

[00:05.58]began in the Middle Ages 

[00:07.42]when people danced and 

[00:08.84]sang religious songs on village greens 

[00:10.49](central gathering areas 

[00:13.77]in small towns and villages)

[00:15.85]in Anglo Saxon England. 

[00:18.80]A Christmas carol today 

[00:20.44]is a religious tune without 

[00:22.41]the dance associated with it.

[00:24.71]A strong religious tradition today, 

[00:29.08]as in other times, 

[00:31.16]is to go to church 

[00:33.13]at midnight of Christmas eve 

[00:35.00]or on Christmas morning. 

[00:37.29]A priest may say mass 

[00:39.37](in a Catholic Church) 

[00:41.89]or preach a sermon about 

[00:43.09]the significance of the birth of Christ.

[00:46.80]Another very prominent symbol of Christmas 

[00:50.31]is the Christmas tree. 

[00:52.72]There are several explanations 

[00:55.34]for its origin. One story suggests 

[00:59.50]that Martin Luther was walking through 

[01:02.34]a wood on a clear winter night 

[01:04.53]admiring the beauty of the bright stars 

[01:07.16]glowing though the branches of trees. 

[01:09.34]He decided to cut down 

[01:12.38]a small evergreen tree 

[01:13.91]and take it home. 

[01:15.99]He put candles in it 

[01:18.39]to represent the stars

[01:19.82]he had seen earlier 

[01:21.24]because he wanted to 

[01:22.77]share that beautiful image 

[01:24.30]with his family.

[01:26.16]Another story tells of 

[01:28.35]the bringing of an evergreen tree 

[01:30.43]inside the home during winter solstice

[01:33.39](December 21st) symbolizing the renewal 

[01:37.11]of life in the dead of winter. 

[01:40.17]It became associated with Christmas,

[01:43.67] which occurs only four days later. 

[01:46.41]The Christmas tree was firmly 

[01:49.36]established as a Christmas symbol

[01:51.55]by the Germans who 

[01:53.73]eventually brought it to America. 

[01:55.59]In Victorian England, people hung cakes 

[02:00.51]and candies on it and later, 

[02:02.59]fruit made of paper 

[02:04.23]adorned the branches. 

[02:06.31]Modern commercial tree decorations 

[02:09.60]appeared in the 1880’s 

[02:11.68]at Woolworth’s Department Store 

[02:13.65]in the United States, 

[02:15.73]and electric Christmas tree lights 

[02:19.11]made their debut in 1882.