外刊阅读 | 你对春节知多少

一年中最重要的传统节日——春节刚刚过去,回家的人们又要踏上旅程,变化的是年复一年的成长与苍老模样,不变的是传统与底蕴,以及春晚。下面小葡萄带领大家看一看外媒是怎样评价今年的春节。

CBS新闻中有一段对春节的介绍:

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.

中国的新年,在现代文化中又称为春节,要庆祝十五天,这和亚洲其他国家的新年有些许不同。它根据月亮的阴晴圆缺决定,而非标准的日历,假期从月亮出现时开始,这时肉眼还不可见。

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.

在上篇阅读中提到过春节的一种表达:Lunar New Year,本句中又运用了另外两种表达:Chinese New Year、Spring Festival。在日常中Spring Festival运用地更加频繁,大家可以记住另外两种表达,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.

众所周知,地球与月球都处于不停地旋转中,因此呈现出半月一轮回的月景,“moon cycle”便是月球的旋转,天文术语中公转还可表达为:revolution,地球的自转则是:rotation

rather than经常出现在文章中,有两种含义:

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

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

SCMP 则对中国春节的保留曲目——春晚进行了专门的介绍,连小葡萄都学到了关于春晚的新知识。

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年春晚各种精彩绝伦的节目吸引了一亿的观众,在播放之前就受到社交媒体热烈的期待。自从1983年春晚第一次播放起,这个每年除夕夜在CCTV频道播放的节目,一直是全球中国家庭的精神支撑。它相当于感恩节的火鸡,可能不是每个人都看,但是如果没有它,节日的氛围就会少了一些关键的东西。

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

英语是一门很生动的语言,从”buzz”一词就可以看出来,其原意是“嗡嗡声”,社交媒体会在什么情形下发出嗡嗡声呢?自然是对春晚十分期待,谈论不休了。Billboard周榜上有句关于buzz的句子:Word around town, she got the buzz.她挑起了嗡嗡声,也即她引起了很多的流言蜚语。

“has social media buzzing”是have的使动用法,结构为:have+sb\sth+do,使…做…;若用现在分词doing则表示“让某人/某物处于做某事的状态”

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.

本句中出现了一个在新闻中十分常见的小词air,但却不是通常的意思。以往我们只了解air作为天空、气氛的意思,其实还有很多的意思,作名词有:天空、 气氛、 空运、曲调等;作动词有:晾晒、烘干、播送、广播、通风等,文中运用的是“播放”,以后可以用它来代替broadcast,十分地道。

(看了这句话,小葡萄才知道春晚起于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是感恩节。小葡萄粗略的总结了一下西方的节日:

New Year 新年
Christmas 圣诞节
Easter 复活节
April Fool's Day 愚人节
Saint Valentine's Day 情人节
Halloween 万圣节

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这就是这期的英语阅读了,
我知道,
下一篇阅读,你还是会陪我看的。

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