Monologue 1:

Listen to a talk on the Chinese moon Festival

1. The festivals dates back to the Tang Dynasty 618 A.D. and celebrates the biggest and brightest full moon of the year, the harvest moon.

这个庆祝每年最大最圆丰收月亮的节日可以追溯到公元618年。

date back to 追溯到

2.  Hou Yih built a beautiful jade palaces for the Goddess of the Western Heaven or sometimes called the Royal Mother.

后羿为西天的女神（她经常被我们称作“王母”）建造了一座翡翠宫殿。

1）jade palace 翡翠宫殿

2）Royal Mother 王母

3.The Goddess was so happy that she gave Hou Yih a special pill that contained the magic elixic of immortality.

王母非常高兴，她给了后羿一颗可以长生不老的特殊丹药。

the magic elixic of immortality 长生不老的灵药

4.The Moon Festival is a big holiday with family reunions, moon gazing activities, and feasting on “moon cakes” which are round pastries filled with red bean paste, fruit or jam.

中秋节是家庭聚会、赏月、吃月饼的节日。月饼是一种里面装有红豆沙、水果或者果酱的圆饼。

Dialogue 1:

A man is making a complaint to the travel agency about his holiday in Portugal last week.

1. First of all the coach taking us to the hotel broke down and we had to wait for over two hours in the sweltering heat before a replacement arrived.

首先班车把我们带到了间空调发生故障旅馆，我们在炎热的温度下等了两个多小时才调换了房间。

2. We were told all the chambermaids were off duty.

我们被告知所有的收拾房间的服务员都不值班。

1）on duty 值班

2) off duty 不值班

3. I’d like to offer you a 20% discount on the price of one of our autumn breaks as a gesture of goodwill.

为了表示友好我向你提供我们秋季假期价格百分之二十的折扣。

as a gesture of goodwill 为了表示友好

4. A 20% discount, you must be joking.

百分之二十的折扣，你肯定在说笑话吧。

be joking 开玩笑

Dialogue 2:

Wang Ling is asking Tim about how to spend the winter vocation, and they are mentioning the Chinese New Year.

1. I guess people in the countryside must still follow some traditional ways to celebrate Spring Festival that urban people no longer do.

我猜想乡村的人们仍然按照传统的方式来庆祝春节，而城市的人们已经不这样做了。

2. It’s said, if you do any sweeping during this time, you risk sweeping away your good luck.

据说如果你这个时候扫地，你就有可能把好运给扫掉了。

risk doing sth 冒险做某事

risk getting caught in a storm

3. Another one is offering sacrifice to the Kitchen God.

另外一种是给灶王爷提供贡品。

4. The custom is to offer a ceremonial sacrifice to the Kitchen God, to make sure that he gives a good report on the family’s behavior when he returns to heaven.

风俗是给灶王爷提供贡品，确保他回到天上的时候会上报一些我们家庭的好处。

Monologue 2:

Listening to a talk about the Harvest Home festival in the West.

Background knowledge:

In the United States, the ancient harvest festivals of Europe helped give rise to contemporary Thanksgiving Day celebration. In parts of Germany, people march to harvest festivals carrying a harvest crown similar to the corn dolly. In France, some communities celebrate the end of the grape-picking season by holding harvest feasts.

Language Points:

1.Ancient people offered the year’s first ripe grains to the gods in thanks for the crops that would sustain their communities for the coming year.

古代的人们把一年中最先熟的葡萄奉献给上帝，感谢他给人们带来能支持人们来年生存的食物。

2.Customarily, participants in the feast would make a corn dolly, a symbolic or decorative figure made of straw.

按照传统，参加宴会的人们用谷物将做个娃娃，它是用稻草做成的一种象征性装饰性的物品。

Passage:
Background knowledge:

States commemorate important events:

1)  In Vermont, the Battle of Bennington is commemorated annually on August 16

2)  In Louisiana, the Battle of New Orleans of the War of 1812 is commemorated on January 8

3)  Patriot’s Day, commemorating the first battle of the American Revolution, is celebrated on or about April 19 in Massachusetts and Maine

4)  Several southern states celebrate a confederate Memorial Day on different days in the spring.

Language points:

1. Holiday refers to the day set apart for religious observance or for the commemoration of some extraordinary event or distinguished person.

假日指的是划出用作庆祝宗教或者纪念一些著名人物特殊的日子。

2.Holidays are characterized by a partial or totally stoppage of work and normal business activities and are generally accompanied by public and private ceremonies, including feasting, parades and carnivals, or displays of flags and speechmaking.

节日特色一般都是部分或完全的停止工作停止正常的活动，经常伴随着公共或私人的庆祝，包括宴会、游行和狂欢，或者是悬挂旗帜和演讲。

be accompanied by 由某人陪伴/由某事伴随

He was accompanied by his wife.

Strong winds accompanied by heavy rain.

3. Subsequently, secular holidays commemorating historical occasions or distinguished persons outnumbered holy days, although many ancient religious rituals and customs have been carried over into modern times and incorporated into both secular and religious observations.

后来，虽然很多古老的宗教节日和风俗已经被带到了现代社会，并且以宗教的和非宗教的方式庆祝，庆祝历史时刻或者著名人物的非宗教节日的数目还是超过了宗教节日的数目。

1) outnumber 总数上超过

The demonstrators were outnumbered by the police.

2) incorporate 将某事物包含进去，包含

Many of your suggestions have been incorporated in the new plans.

A company incorporated in the USA 在美国新组建的公司