VOA慢速英语--寻找复活节隐藏彩蛋

AS IT IS 2016-03-29 Parents Crack Up Connecticut Easter Egg Hunt 寻找复活节隐藏彩蛋

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In America, one big Easter tradition sends children hunting for hidden Easter eggs.

Children carry baskets and collect eggs made of chocolate or candy. They search in the house, their yards or a park.  

But one egg hunt on Saturday went wrong in the northeastern state of Connecticut.

A candy company hosted an egg hunt for children. The company is called PEZ, and it hid more than 9,000 eggs on its property in Connecticut.

But way more people showed up than the candy maker¹ expected.

The egg hunt was set up on three separate fields, and children would be assigned² to hunt for eggs based on their ages.

But Monday morning, stories reported parents going out of control at the hunt and made PEZ one of the top trending topics on Facebook.

It turns out the parents rushed on to the fields where the eggs were hidden. They said they were trying to get eggs for their children.

But instead, they left behind a lot of hurt feelings.

One 4-year-old boy told a local television station someone pushed him over and took his eggs. The boy’s bucket for collecting eggs also broke.

One employee said the display of parents rushing onto the fields reminded him of locusts³.

“We did our best,” he said. “Unfortunately, it fell a little short.”

Two PEZ pages on Facebook had comments from people saying the event was not organized well, while others said the parents overwhelmed⁴ an event designed for kids.

These were adults!! How are our children supposed to follow the rules when and be safe when we as grown adults/parents themselves can't act right. I am fortunate that I identified the chaos⁵ and exited before anything happened to my children. It was heartbreaking to explain to a 6 &4 that it was unsafe. Fortunately the understood that it was unsafe and were relieved⁶ that we made compromise⁷ to do our own personal hunt.

The company tried to make up for the chaos by giving people more candy as they were leaving the event, and passing out coupons⁸ for future purchases.

But in Washington, D.C., at the White House, the picture was very different. On Monday afternoon, President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama hosted their Easter egg roll. It was the last before Obama leaves office after eight years.  

The event featured thousands of people outside the White House who came to see the President and first lady read books to children, enjoy the grounds, play games and also roll eggs with long spoons. It is a tradition going back to the late 1800s.

Words in This Story

locusts –n. a type of grasshopper⁹ that travels in very large groups and that can cause great destruction¹⁰ by eating crops

chaos –n. confusion and disorder

1 maker   

n.制造者，制造商

参考例句：

• He is a trouble maker，You must be distant with him.他是个捣蛋鬼，你不要跟他在一起。
• A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。

2 assigned   

adj.选定的；被布置的

参考例句：

• But read-only values are different,in that they are assigned at runtime.但是只读的值是不同的，因为它们是在运行时被赋值的。

3 locusts   

n.蝗虫( locust的名词复数 )；贪吃的人；破坏者；槐树

参考例句：

• a swarm of locusts 一大群蝗虫
• In no time the locusts came down and started eating everything. 很快蝗虫就飞落下来开始吃东西，什么都吃。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 overwhelmed   

[ overwhelm ]的过去式

参考例句：

• She was overwhelmed by feelings of guilt. 她感到愧疚难当。
• If (one was) overwhelmed by passion, it could lead to serious blunders. 当感情完全淹没理智时，就可能铸成大错。

5 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

6 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。

7 compromise   

n.妥协；妥协方案；vt.损害；vi.妥协，让步

参考例句：

• The spokesman made it clear that no compromise was yet in sight.发言人表明，目前还不会妥协。
• The probable outcome of the talks is a compromise.会谈的结果很可能是妥协。

8 coupons   

n.礼券( coupon的名词复数 )；优惠券；订货单；参赛表

参考例句：

• The company gives away free coupons for drinks or other items. 公司为饮料或其它项目发放免费赠券。 来自辞典例句
• Do you have any coupons? 你们有优惠卡吗？ 来自英汉 - 翻译样例 - 口语

9 grasshopper   

n.蚱蜢，蝗虫，蚂蚱

参考例句：

• He thought he had made an end of the little grasshopper.他以为把那个小蚱蜢干掉了。
• The grasshopper could not find anything to eat.蚱蜢找不到任何吃的东西。

10 destruction   

n.破坏，毁灭，消灭

参考例句：

• The enemy bombs caused widespread destruction.敌人的炸弹造成大面积的破坏。
• Overconfidence was his destruction.自负是他垮台的原因。