【百天聆听】第30天 原典英语训练教材
初级 西方节日
Chapter One: Columbus Day
The second Monday of October is Columbus Day!
This festivity is celebrated only in the United States of America.
Why?
During Christopher Columbus' time people thought the world was flat.
Columbus was born in Genoa, a beautiful Italian city on the north-west coast.
For many years he watched ships leave the port of Genoa.
He noticed that these ships seemed to go under the horizon.
He was convinced that the world was round, but no one believed him.
He wanted to reach the East by sailing to the West.
Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain believed Columbus' theory.
They gave him three ships, the Santa Maria, the Nina and the Pinta to travel and test this theory.
Columbus was an expert navigator.
After a long and difficult voyage, he and his men reached the North American continent on 12 October, 1492!
The famous Italian explorer discovered the New World!
After his great discovery a new era of exploration began and America was born.
Today most Americans celebrate Columbus Day with colourful parades and they elect a Columbus Day Queen.
The parade is usually long with big floats dedicated to Columbus and there are other multi-cultural floats too. After the parade there is usually a dinner and dance.
In San Francisco, California, there is also a re-enactment of Columbus discovery.
A man dresses up as and several other men dress up as his sailors.
They get into a boat and row to the beach.
When they get out of their boat they kneel on the beach and thank God.
Americans enjoy remembering the great navigator.
Chapter Two: Halloween
Halloween is celebrated on 31 October.
It is an exciting event in the United States and in Great Britain.
Every American calendar has Halloween marked on it.
Halloween has ancient Celtic origins.
On the Celtic calendar Samhain was the last day of summer and the last day of the year, 31 October.
The Celtic priests, called Druids, practised religious rituals and magic on Samhain.
They also predicted the future.
On this day the Celts made big fires and dressed in scary costumes.
They wanted to frighten the evil spirits. They dressed as ghosts, skeletons and witches.
They believed that ghosts came out of their tombs on the night of 31 October.
Samhain also became a harvest festival after the Roman invasion of Britain in 43 AD.
Christian practices replaced pagan practices. The Christians called 1 November All Hallows' Day, the day of All Saints.
The evening of 31 October was called All Hallows' Eve.
This became Halloween.
At Halloween American children in elementary schools take their costumes and masks to school.
Typical Halloween costumes are the witch, ghost, skeleton, monster, vampire or alien.
Young people have fun making their own costumes, but some prefer to buy them.
In the afternoon the children put on their costumes and have a Halloween party at school.
Schools are decorated with pumpkins, ghosts, witches and bats.
It is a popular tradition to make jack o'lanterns out of pumpkins.
People put them in front of the windows of their homes.
The jack o' lantern is of Celtic origin too.
There are funny Halloween games such as bobbing for apples.
Favourite Halloween foods are candied apples, nuts, liquorice,popcorn and pumpkin pie.
American teenagers have a Halloween party in the evening.
The party is usually in the school gymnasium and everyone wears a costume and mask .
The best costume usually wins a prize.
In the 19th century Irish immigrants took their Halloween customs to the United States.
They introduced the custom of "trick-or-treating".
American and British children and teenagers go "trick-or-treating" on Halloween evening.
They go from house to house in their costumes and ring doorbells.
When the door opens they shout, "Trick or treat?"
People usually give them sweets or money.
If not, the children playa trick.
They write on windows with soap or spray shaving cream on cars and people!
中级 王尔德的故事
Part Four: Three Pieces of Gold
For three years the Star-Child walked around the world but he didn't find his mother.
One day he arrived at the gates of a city near a river with a big wall around it.
The soldiers there stopped him. "What are you doing here?" they asked.
"I'm looking for my mother," he said.
"Please let me pass. Perhaps she is in this city."
"Who is your mother and why are you looking for her?" asked another soldier.
"She is a poor beggar like me and I was very cruel to her.
Now I want her pardon."
But the soldiers laughed.
"You are very ugly. No mother loves an ugly child. She will not be happy to see you.
Come with us. We will sell you to be a slave."
They sold the Star-Child to an old man for the price of a cup of sweet wine.
This old man was a magician from Libya.
The Magician took the boy to a dark prison and gave him a piece of old bread and some dirty water.
The next day he said, "Now you must go into the forest.
In the forest there are three pieces of gold: one is of white gold, one is of yellow gold and the other is of red gold.
You are my slave and if you do not bring me the piece of white gold I will beat you one hundred times."
So the Star-Child went to the forest to look for the white gold but he found only many thorns and dangerous plants.
He could not find the white gold anywhere.
When the sun started to disappear the boy started to cry.
He knew that the Magician wanted to beat him.
Suddenly he heard a cry of pain and saw a little hare in a trap.
He forgot his problems. He felt pity for the hare and opened the trap.
"Thank you, you are very kind," said the hare.
"Thanks to you I have my freedom. What can I give you?"
"I must find a piece of white gold for the Magician.
If I don't take it to him he will beat me."
"I will help you," said the hare.
"I know where to find the white gold."
He took the Star-Child to a tree and in the tree he found the gold.
The Star-Child was very happy and thanked the hare.
He returned to the city.
But at the city gate he saw an old man.
This old man was very ill and very poor.
"Give me some money. If you don't give me some money I will die of hunger!" shouted the old man.
The Star-Child felt pity for the old man but he only had the piece of white gold for the Magician.
"The old man needs the money more than me," thought the Star-Child and gave him the gold.
The Magician was very angry when he saw that the Star-Child didn't have the gold and he beat the boy.
He put him in prison with no food and no water.
The next day the Magician said, "Today you must return to the forest and find the piece of yellow gold.
If you do not do this I will beat you three hundred times."
The boy went into the forest and looked for the gold.
He looked all day long but he could not find it.
Finally he sat under a tree and started to cry.
The hare heard him and asked, "Why are you crying?"
"I must find the piece of yellow gold.
If I don't find it the Magician will beat me."
"Follow me.
I will show you the yellow gold," said the hare and he took the Star-Child to a pool of water.
At the bottom of this pool he found the piece of yellow gold.
The Star-Child returned to the city but at the city gate he saw the old man again.
"Give me some money. If you don't give me money I will die of hunger!" he shouted.
The Star-Child felt pity for the old man and gave him the gold.
The Magician was very angry.
"What!? No gold?
No gold, no food and no water!" He beat the Star-Child and put chains on him and put him in prison
again.
The next day the Magician said, "Today you must return to the forest and find the piece of red gold.
If you find it, you will be free.
If you do not find it,I will kill you."
The boy went into the forest and all day long he looked for the gold but he could not find it.
In the evening he sat under a tree and started to cry.
The hare heard him and asked, "Why are you crying?"
The Star-Child explained everything and again the hare helped him.
This time he found the gold in a cave near the tree.
"Thank you, thank you," said the boy and he ran back to the city.
At the city gate he saw the old man.
"Give me some money. If you don't give me money, I will die!" he shouted.
The Star-Child felt pity for the old man and gave him the gold.
"You need it more than me," he said, but he was very sad and his heart was very heavy. "
The Magician will kill me," he thought.
But when he passed the guards at the city gates they bowed to him and said, "Look at our beautiful Lord!"
The Star-Child walked through the city and more and more people followed him.
They all said, "He is the most beautiful boy in the world."
But the Star-Child was very sad,
"They are laughing at me," he thought.
He walked for a long time and finally arrived in a big square where there was a king's palace.
The people said, "You are our Lord, the son of our king!"
"I am not a king's son.
I am the son of a poor beggar woman.
Why do you say that I am beautiful?
I know I am very ugly."
"Why do you say that you are ugly? Look!" said a soldier.
The Star-Child looked into the soldier's shield.
The shield was silver like a mirror.
There he saw his face and saw that his face was beautiful like before.
"There is a prophecy," said the people, "that on this day our king will come.
You are our king.
Take this crown and this scepter.
Govern us with justice and with mercy."
"No, I am a bad boy," he replied.
"I must find my mother, I cannot accept the crown and the scepter."
He turned towards the city gate.
In the crowd he saw his mother, the beggar woman.
Then next to her he saw the old man from the city gate.
He ran to the woman, knelt in front of her and kissed her feet.
"Mother I am so sorry. Please forgive me. Once I gave you my hatred Please give me your love now."
But the woman didn't speak.
The Star-Child spoke to the old man.
"Please,I helped you three times. Please tell my mother to speak to me."
But the old man didn't speak. The Star-Child started to cry.
"Please forgive me, Mother. Please forgive me."
The woman put her hand on the boy's head and said, "Stand up."
The old man put his hand on the boy's head too.
When the Star-Child stood up he saw that the beggar woman was a queen and the old man was a king.
The queen said to him, "This is your father. You helped him three times."
And the king said to him. "This is your mother. You washed her feet with your tears."
The boy hugged them and kissed them both.
They took him to the palace and they put a crown on his head and a scepter in his hand.
He was a very good king and showed justice and mercy to everyone.
He sent gifts to the woodcutter and his family. He helped poor people,
he was kind to the animals and birds and there was peace in all the land.
Unfortunately he died after three years because he suffered a lot in his life
and the next king was a cruel king.
