外刊閱讀 | 你對春節知多少

一年中最重要的傳統節日——春節剛剛過去,回家的人們又要踏上旅程,變化的是年復一年的成長與蒼老模樣,不變的是傳統與底蘊,以及春晚。下面小葡萄帶領大家看一看外媒是怎樣評價今年的春節。

CBS新聞中有一段對春節的介紹:

Chinese New Year, often called Spring Festival in modern culture, is a 15-day celebration that marks one of several slightly differing Lunar New Years in Asia. The holiday follows the moon cycle rather than the standard calendar and always begins on the new moon, when the moon is not visible to an unaided eye.

中國的新年,在現代文化中又稱爲春節,要慶祝十五天,這和亞洲其他國家的新年有些許不同。它根據月亮的陰晴圓缺決定,而非標準的日曆,假期從月亮出現時開始,這時肉眼還不可見。

①Chinese New Year, often called Spring Festival in modern culture, is a 15-day celebration that marks one of several slightly differing Lunar New Years in Asia.

在上篇閱讀中提到過春節的一種表達:Lunar New Year,本句中又運用了另外兩種表達:Chinese New Year、Spring Festival。在日常中Spring Festival運用地更加頻繁,大家可以記住另外兩種表達,令人耳目一新。

②The holiday follows the moon cycle rather than the standard calendar and always begins on the new moon, when the moon is not visible to an unaided eye.

衆所周知,地球與月球都處於不停地旋轉中,因此呈現出半月一輪迴的月景,“moon cycle”便是月球的旋轉,天文術語中公轉還可表達爲:revolution,地球的自轉則是:rotation

rather than經常出現在文章中,有兩種含義:

A.與其…倒不如…;例:The effect is soft and pretty rather than drop-dead sexy.

B.而不是;《犯罪心理》第三季中有句臺詞:Rather than whisper in her ear.

SCMP 則對中國春節的保留曲目——春晚進行了專門的介紹,連小葡萄都學到了關於春晚的新知識。

The glitzy variety programme, which has social media buzzing in anticipation before each annual broadcast, attracted a whopping one billion viewers in 2018. Chunwan, CCTV’s annual gala that is aired on the eve of Lunar New Year, has been the mainstay of Chinese families around the globe ever since it was first broadcast on the network in 1983. The show has been equated to turkey at Thanksgiving: it may not be for everyone, but without it, the festive atmosphere would be missing something crucial.

2018年春晚各種精彩絕倫的節目吸引了一億的觀衆,在播放之前就受到社交媒體熱烈的期待。自從1983年春晚第一次播放起,這個每年除夕夜在CCTV頻道播放的節目,一直是全球中國家庭的精神支撐。它相當於感恩節的火雞,可能不是每個人都看,但是如果沒有它,節日的氛圍就會少了一些關鍵的東西。

①The glitzy variety programme, which has social media buzzing in anticipation before each annual broadcast, attracted a whopping one billion viewers in 2018.

英語是一門很生動的語言,從”buzz”一詞就可以看出來,其原意是“嗡嗡聲”,社交媒體會在什麼情形下發出嗡嗡聲呢?自然是對春晚十分期待,談論不休了。Billboard周榜上有句關於buzz的句子:Word around town, she got the buzz.她挑起了嗡嗡聲,也即她引起了很多的流言蜚語。

“has social media buzzing”是have的使動用法,結構爲:have+sb\sth+do,使…做…;若用現在分詞doing則表示“讓某人/某物處於做某事的狀態”

例:I can‘t have you catching cold. Run and change your wet clothing.

②Chunwan, CCTV’s annual gala that is aired on the eve of Lunar New Year, has been the mainstay of Chinese families around the globe ever since it was first broadcast on the network in 1983.

本句中出現了一個在新聞中十分常見的小詞air,但卻不是通常的意思。以往我們只瞭解air作爲天空、氣氛的意思,其實還有很多的意思,作名詞有:天空、 氣氛、 空運、曲調等;作動詞有:晾曬、烘乾、播送、廣播、通風等,文中運用的是“播放”,以後可以用它來代替broadcast,十分地道。

(看了這句話,小葡萄才知道春晚起於1983年)

③The show has been equated to turkey at Thanksgiving: it may not be for everyone, but without it, the festive atmosphere would be missing something crucial.

Thanksgiving是感恩節。小葡萄粗略的總結了一下西方的節日:

New Year 新年
Christmas 聖誕節
Easter 復活節
April Fool's Day 愚人節
Saint Valentine's Day 情人節
Halloween 萬聖節

本文首發於公衆號 英語不打烊(ID: last38days)。
關注公衆號後,後臺回覆“經濟學人”,可獲取最新電子書以及mp3資源。

這就是這期的英語閱讀了,
我知道,
下一篇閱讀,你還是會陪我看的。

發表評論
所有評論
還沒有人評論,想成為第一個評論的人麼? 請在上方評論欄輸入並且點擊發布.
相關文章