VOA常速英语2018--华盛顿居民健康跑庆万圣

Cartoon characters, movie villains¹, superheroes and angels, hundreds of exotically addressed runners took part in the 5k race through the congressional cemetery² in Washington DC. The race appropriately for Halloween is called the Dead Man’s Run, the many tomb stones, ominous³ music and approaching nightfall served as a backdrop for this event. It’s become a tradition in Washington for runners to combine celebrating Halloween and keeping fit.

卡通人物、电影反派、超级英雄和天使，数百名充满异国情调的赛跑者参加了在华盛顿特区国会墓地举行的5公里赛跑。这场为万圣节而举行的比赛被称为“死人赛跑”，许多墓石、不祥的音乐和临近的黄昏成为了这场比赛的背景。在华盛顿，跑步者把庆祝万圣节和保持健康结合起来已经成为一项传统。

“I think it’s awesome⁴, yeah, I mean cemeteries⁵ are, can give this spooky aura to them, but they’re also like essentially⁶ like a park. I mean in the Victorian era people would actually like go on a picnic in graveyards⁸.”

我觉得这太棒了，是的，我是说墓地可以给人们带来这种恐怖的气氛，但它们本质上也像一个公园。在维多利亚时代，人们会喜欢在墓地里野餐。

“It’s my local cemetery, I supported at every turn as I can. I’m actually dying to get into this race.”

这是我当地的墓地，我尽我所能地支持。我真的很想参加这场比赛。 

And the entry fees for the race help to maintain the historic graveyard⁷.

比赛的报名费有助于维护这片历史悠久的墓地。 

“It’s actually a good annual fundraiser for us, we’ve done it about seven years in a row now. Main goal is to bring new people into the cemetery that have never been here before, so it kind of live-ins up a cemetery, if you will and of course to raise money, it raises about 10000 dollars for us every year. ”

对我们来说，这实际上是一个很好的年度筹款活动，我们已经连续七年这么做了。主要的目标是把以前从未来过的新人带进墓地，是为了长眠于此，当然也是为了筹钱，我们每年可以借此筹款十万美金。

Runners of all ages came from around the city to race through the cemetery.

各个年龄层的跑步者从城市各处赶来参加墓地跑。 

“We are doing out senior prom or eternal senior prom, because we never went to our senior prom, so we thought we’d dress for the occasion and stroll the area.”

“我们要参加毕业舞会，或者永远的毕业舞会，因为我们从来没有参加过毕业舞会，所以我们想穿衣服去参加毕业舞会，然后去附近逛逛。”

“Oh, I like doing it, it’s fun. It’s a nice evening race because I am not a morning person, so it’s very conveniently time and it’s a fun race. It’s a good theme and it’s a fast course and it’s fun to see all the costumes.”

哦，我喜欢这样，很有趣。这是一个不错的晚会，因为我不是一个爱早起的人，所以这个时间点非常方便，这是一个有趣的比赛。这是一个很好的主题，它是一个快速的过程，看到所有的服装很有趣。

“And we’re not trying to win we’re trying to finish that’s our goal.”

我们不是在努力赢得胜利，我们是在努力完成我们的目标。 

“I walk my dogs here just about every morning and so we’re part of the cemetery community. And it’s a great community and these races are a great way to get people to turn out who support what’s going on at cemetery.”

我几乎每天早上都在这里遛狗，所以我们是墓地社区的一员。这是一个很棒的社区，这些比赛是一个很好的方式，让人们知道谁支持在墓地发生的事情。

Prizes were awarded in four categories, man’s, woman’s, kids and Best Costume.

奖项分为四个类别，男士，女士，儿童和最佳服装。

1 villains   

n.恶棍( villain的名词复数 )；罪犯；（小说、戏剧等中的）反面人物；淘气鬼

参考例句：

• The impression of villains was inescapable. 留下恶棍的印象是不可避免的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Some villains robbed the widow of the savings. 有几个歹徒将寡妇的积蓄劫走了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

2 cemetery   

n.坟墓，墓地，坟场

参考例句：

• He was buried in the cemetery.他被葬在公墓。
• His remains were interred in the cemetery.他的遗体葬在墓地。

3 ominous   

adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的

参考例句：

• Those black clouds look ominous for our picnic.那些乌云对我们的野餐来说是个不祥之兆。
• There was an ominous silence at the other end of the phone.电话那头出现了不祥的沉默。

4 awesome   

adj.令人惊叹的，难得吓人的，很好的

参考例句：

• The church in Ireland has always exercised an awesome power.爱尔兰的教堂一直掌握着令人敬畏的权力。
• That new white convertible is totally awesome.那辆新的白色折篷汽车简直棒极了.

5 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

6 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

7 graveyard   

n.坟场

参考例句：

• All the town was drifting toward the graveyard.全镇的人都象流水似地向那坟场涌过去。
• Living next to a graveyard would give me the creeps.居住在墓地旁边会使我毛骨悚然。

8 graveyards   

墓地( graveyard的名词复数 )； 垃圾场； 废物堆积处； 收容所

参考例句：

• He takes a macabre interest in graveyards. 他那么留意墓地，令人毛骨悚然。
• "And northward there lie, in five graveyards, Calm forever under dewy green grass," 五陵北原上，万古青蒙蒙。 来自英汉 - 翻译样例 - 文学