雅思閱讀材料之愚人節(jié)的那些玩笑

April 1st is the day people try to trick their friends, to make them behave like fools. Ranging from the elaborate practical joke to the obvious Your zip's undone the joker gloats April Fool when the unsuspecting victim falls for it. No one is exempt until noon but after that the joking must cease or the prank rebounds on the joker with the rhyme "April Fool is gone and past, You're the bigger fool at last."

4月1日，人們會去和他們的朋友開開玩笑，讓他們做一些傻事。在愚人節(jié)那天，從精心設(shè)計的惡作劇到一些諸如“你拉鏈開了”這樣的玩笑，不知情的人往往不知不覺地成了受害者。沒有人會在愚人節(jié)那天免于被捉弄。但是，中午一到，玩笑必須馬上終止，或是玩笑馬上得轉(zhuǎn)為詼諧的小段子： “愚人節(jié)，過了啊，大笨蛋，是你哦！”

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Origin

起源

In Britain, fooling at this time of year has gone on for centuries, however the origin of the custom still remains obscure. There are several theories to account for it。

在英國，愚人節(jié)的傳統(tǒng)已經(jīng)有好幾個世紀(jì)的歷史了，即便如此，這項的傳統(tǒng)的起源還是一個迷。下面介紹兩個較為人熟知的愚人節(jié)的起源。

One theory is that in Europe, until the sixteenth century, March 25th, the first day of the Vernal Equinox Festival, was New Year's Day. On April 1st, the last day of the festival, people used to give presents to one another. In 1564, Charles IX, the French king, adopting the Gregorian calendar and fixed January 1st as New Year's Day. Those who were against the revision continued to express their complaints by giving presents or paying New Year's visits on April 1st. In the following years, these traditionalists who insisted on celebrating the New Year at its old time were mocked as fools and people would play pranks and tricks on them and called them ` Poisson d'avril ', meaning April Fish. This must have been so much fun that it spread all over the world and people played tricks on everyone, not just the people who didn't accept the new calendar。

第一種說法是，在16世紀(jì)前的歐洲，3月25日是春分節(jié)的第一天，也是新年。而4月1日是春分節(jié)的最后一天，在這天，人們常常會去給別人送禮。在1564年，法國皇帝查爾斯九世正式采用公歷，規(guī)定每年的1月1日為新年。而那些不接受這一規(guī)定的人則仍舊在4月1日送禮或進(jìn)行新年旅行來表示他們的不滿。幾年后，那些依然遵循舊歷慶祝新年的頑固派被當(dāng)成了愚人，其他人會嘲笑和捉弄這些愚人，并戲稱他們?yōu)?ldquo;Poisson d'avril”，就是“愚人”的意思。這種捉弄愚人的風(fēng)俗肯定給人們帶去了很多的歡樂，所以，愚人節(jié)傳遍世界，人們不僅僅捉弄那些不接受新歷的人，還對周圍所有的人都開起了玩笑。

Other people say it's just a continuation of a festival in honour of the Celtic god of Mirth but most popular belief is that it's a reaction to the change in season and the start of spring. Whatever its origin, making fools of people on this day remains one of the most flourishing of all British customs。

另一種說法認(rèn)為，愚人節(jié)只是為了向凱爾特的歡樂之神致敬而流傳下來的一個節(jié)日。不過，大多數(shù)人相信，愚人節(jié)標(biāo)志著季節(jié)的變化和春天的來臨。不管起源如何，愚人節(jié)當(dāng)天的愚人活動已經(jīng)成了一項盛行于英國的風(fēng)俗了。

In Scotland, for example, April Fool's Day is actually celebrated for two days. The second day is devoted to pranks involving the posterior region of the body. It is called Taily Day. The origin of the "kick me" sign can be traced to this observance。

在蘇格蘭，人們會用兩天時間慶祝愚人節(jié)。第二天是專門讓人們?nèi)プ脚獎e人的，你可以在這一天去踢別人的屁股。這天被稱為“續(xù)愚人節(jié)”，而在別人后背上貼上“踢我”的標(biāo)簽就起源于此。

1.The Sun reported that British Police were fitting hawks with speed cameras to catch lawbreaking motorists。

《太陽報》報道稱，英國警方在老鷹上面安裝超速攝像頭，以便捕捉違法駕駛者。

2.The Daily Mail included photographs purporting to be the Queen gambling on horse racing amongst her subjects at a local Bookmaker。

《每日郵報》刊圖指出，英國女王和她的臣民們在當(dāng)?shù)氐囊患也┎实昀镔�馬。

3.BMW printed a full page ad in a number of national UK newspapers (including The Times, The Guardian, The Independent, and the Daily Mail) saying that in 2007 the EU was to ban right-handed cars being driven in mainland Europe (effectively banning every British car)， and that they had invented steering wheel-less technology。

寶馬公司在大部分的英國全國性報紙上(包括《泰晤士報》、《衛(wèi)報》、《獨立報》和《每日郵報》)刊登了巨幅廣告，聲稱在2007年，歐盟將在歐洲大陸境內(nèi)禁止駕駛供右撇子使用的車輛(這樣能有效地禁止所有的英國車)，迫使英國人發(fā)明出無方向盤的技術(shù)。

4.The Today programme on BBC Radio 4 reported that, as a result of an obscure 19th century rule of succession of the House of Saxe-Coburg, Camilla Parker-Bowles's son, Thomas Parker-Bowles, who is older than Prince William, will become second in line to the British throne following the wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla on 8th April 2005.

BBC第四頻道的《今日欄目》報道稱，作為一個不起眼的19世紀(jì)的薩克森-科堡房屋繼承規(guī)則，卡米拉·帕克-鮑爾斯的兒子湯瑪斯·帕克-鮑爾斯，比威廉王子年長，隨著查爾斯王子和卡米拉在2005年4月8日完婚后，湯瑪斯將成為英國君主的第二繼承人。

5.The Sun reported that EU bureaucrats wanted to ban April Fools' Day because of physical and mental injury caused to the victims of jokes。

《太陽報》報道稱，由于被開玩笑受害者受到肉體和精神上的創(chuàng)傷，部分歐盟官員要禁止愚人節(jié)。

6.The Sun: reported that Nicolas Sarkozy was to enter surgery to make him as tall as his wife, Carla Bruni, after being subject to ridicule over his height during his trip to London。

《太陽報》：報道稱，在倫敦之旅受到身高問題的嘲笑后，薩科奇將進(jìn)行手術(shù)，屆時他將和他的夫人卡拉·布魯尼一樣高。

關(guān)鍵詞：愚人節(jié) 雅思閱讀 雅思考試

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