VOA慢速英语2015 愚人节

AS IT IS 2015-04-01 A Day for Fools 愚人节

We have recently received several comments from listeners that we speak too slowly. So starting today, April 1, the VOA Learning¹ English staff will read all articles much more quickly. Like this. We hope you enjoy our new style.

In the news today, the UN International Civil Aviation² Organization (ICAO) reported “significant safety concerns” with Thailand’s air safety practices last week.  The negative report may prevent some flights from coming out of the kingdom and forced Thailand’s government to deal quickly with the results on Monday. 

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Just kidding! April Fools!

Every year on April 1, April Fools’ Day is celebrated³ in many countries around the world. In France, it’s called Poisson d’Avril or “Fish of April.” In Scotland⁴, the holiday is often called “Gowkie Day.”  In Iraq, the holiday is called Kithbet Neesan or “April Lie.”

History experts say people have celebrated April Fools’ Day for a long time. Some believe the tradition comes from the ancient Romans more than two thousand years ago. It was a day of playing games and pretending to be someone else.

Others say the day for fooling began in France in 1564, when King Charles changed the yearly⁵ calendar. He moved New Year’s Day from April 1 to January 1. Many people did not know about the change because of communication problems back then. Some people continued to celebrate New Year’s Day on April 1. Other people called them April Fools and played jokes on them. 

In the United States, April Fools’ Day is just a day of joking and playing tricks on friends. These kinds of jokes are also called pranks⁷. These jokes typically end in the prankster shouting “April Fools’!”

Simple pranks, like telling a friend a funny lie or making prank⁶ phone calls, are still common. But, major companies also get in on April Fools’ Day fun in a much bigger way. A few years ago, on April 1, Starbucks announced it was introducing new coffee cup sizes -- Plenta and Micra. The very large cups, bigger than a human head, remained useful for customers even after finishing all that coffee.  According to Starbucks, the cups could be used as a rain hat, a pot for plants, or a lampshade.

It did not take long for customers to catch on to the prank!

More and more, people use social media or smart phone apps to play pranks on their friends on April Fools’ Day. One very annoying smart phone app, Cat Facts, sends funny facts about cats to your friends’ phones, every day.

And sometimes, simple, more traditional April Fools’ pranks go viral on social media. Last year, a class of college students in the U.S. state of Michigan played a prank on their professor. The professor had a classroom rule that, if a student’s phone rings during class, the student must answer it using the speakerphone. This means the whole class gets to listen to the conversation.

One student decided⁸ to teach the professor that his rule could be dangerous. She planned for a friend to call her, pretending to be someone from the Pregnancy⁹ Resource Center. On speakerphone for the whole class to hear, the friend announced the news that the student’s recent pregnancy test was positive. The professor quickly got embarrassed and told the student she should turn off speakerphone.

The student responded, “That’s okay. I’ve been expecting this. I already know what I’m going to name the baby. The first name will be April, and the middle name will be Fools!”

The professor, of course, quickly caught on to the joke, and was quickly relieved¹⁰!

The social media-savvy students posted a video of the classroom prank on YouTube. One year later, the video has more than 38 million views.  

Do you have any ideas for April Fools’ Day pranks? Have your friends played pranks on you before? Tell us about one in the comments section!

Words in This Story

pretend – v. to act as if something is true when it is not true

prank – n. a trick that is done to someone usually as a joke

prankster – n. a person who likes playing pranks.

get in on – phrasal verb. to become involved in

catch on – phrasal verb. to understand what is meant or how to do something.

viral – adj. relating to or involving an image, video, piece of information, etc., that is spread rapidly and widely from one Internet user¹¹ to another.

1 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。

2 aviation   

n.航空，航空学，飞机制造业

参考例句：

• Ten years ago,they began to develop the aviation. 十年前，他们开始发展航空工业。
• Pilots of large aircraft are masters of aviation.大型飞行器的驾驶员是航空学方面的专家。

3 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。

4 Scotland   

n.苏格兰

参考例句：

• He has been hiking round Scotland for a month.他围着苏格兰徒步旅行了一个月。
• Scotland is to the north of England.苏格兰在英格兰之北。

5 yearly   

adj.每年的，一年一度的；adv.一年一次地

参考例句：

• The flower show is a yearly event in our town.我们镇上的花展一年举行一次。
• The yearly rental of her house is 2400 yuan.她这房子年租金是2400元。

6 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。

7 pranks   

n.玩笑，恶作剧( prank的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Frank's errancy consisted mostly of pranks. 法兰克错在老喜欢恶作剧。 来自辞典例句
• He always leads in pranks and capers. 他老是带头胡闹和开玩笑。 来自辞典例句

8 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。

9 pregnancy   

n.怀孕，怀孕期

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
• Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。

10 relieved   

a.如释重负的

参考例句：

• You'll be relieved to know your jobs are safe. 现在知道你们的工作保住了，可以放心了。
• Your coming relieved me of the bother of writing a long letter. 你来了，省去我写长信的麻烦了。

11 user   

n.用户，使用者

参考例句：

• The company is the biggest user of oil.该公司是最大的石油用户。
• The umbrella keeps the rains off the user.雨伞使撑伞人免受雨淋。