Watch the video and answer the questions.

1. What festivals are mentioned in the video?

The festivals mentioned in the video are “hanami”, the Rose Festival, the Mid-Autumn Day, the Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival, and the New Year.

 

2. Why do people celebrate these festivals?

Because people want to celebrate the changing seasons and express their appreciation of nature.

 

***Understanding Ideas (Page 14)***

SH2_U2_UI2_P14.mp3音频：00:00/03:02

THE REAL FATHER CHRISTMAS

真正的圣诞老人

1 Many people still remember the magic of Father Christmas from when they were children. As parents, they try to keep that magic alive for their children for as long as they can.

 

许多人(长大以后)还依然记得来自童年时代的圣诞老人的魔力。为人父母之后，他们也想让自己的孩子尽可能长久地相信这份魔力的存在。

 

2 That is why Letters from Father Christmas could be the perfect book for those who regard Christmas as a special time of year. The man who wrote these letters is one of the most famous names in English literature—J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings. The letters were Tolkien’s way of keeping Father Christmas alive for his four children, over a period of more than twenty years.

 

有些人把圣诞节视为每年的特别时光，对于他们，《圣诞老人的来信》可能是一本再合适不过的书了。写这些信的人是英国文坛的一位巨匠——《指环王(魔戒)》的作者J. R. R. 托尔金。二十多年来，托尔金以写信的方式让他的四个孩子相信圣诞老人真的存在。

 

3 Every Christmas, an envelope with a North Pole stamp arrived. It was addressed to Tolkien’s children. Who could it be from? The children must have been very excited as they opened it. Inside, they would find a handwritten letter from Father Christmas. The letters were also beautifully illustrated—each must have taken its true author, Tolkien, a long time to complete.

 

每年圣诞节，托尔金的家里都会收到一封贴有北极邮票的信，收件人是托尔金的孩子们。会是谁寄过来的呢？孩子们打开时一定很兴奋。他们会发现里面有一封圣诞老人的亲笔信。信里还配有精美的插图——它们真正的作者托尔金一定花了很长时间去完成每一幅画作。

 

4 The letters told wonderful stories about Father Christmas’s life and adventures at the North Pole. A regular character in the letters was Polar Bear, who once climbed the North Pole (an actual pole in this case) and fell through the roof of Father Christmas’s house. In another letter, Father Christmas complained about how he could not stop his helpers playing games with the toys instead of wrapping them up. Interestingly, the letters did not contain the usual warnings to children that they might not receive their presents if they were not good. The letters did, however, change as Tolkien’s children got older: ... but if you find that not many of the things you asked for have come, and not perhaps quite as many as sometimes, remember that this Christmas all over the world there are a terrible number of poor and starving people.

 

这些信里讲述了关于圣诞老人在北极生活和探险的精彩故事。信中经常出现的一个角色是北极熊，它曾经爬上北极（在信中，北极是一根真的杆子），结果摔下来砸穿了圣诞老人家的屋顶。在另一封信中，圣诞老人抱怨说，他那些助手们非但没有把玩具包装起来，反而拿起玩具玩起了游戏，他怎么也没法让他们停下来。有趣的是，信中并没有那些常见的对孩子们的警告，比如表现不好就可能收不到礼物之类的话。不过，随着托尔金的孩子们逐渐长大，信的内容确实发生了一些变化：“……但是，如果你发现自己并没有得到很多你想要的东西，有时甚至所获无几，请记住，在这个圣诞节，世界各地还有很多的贫穷而饥饿的人。

 

5 Letters from Father Christmas tells us that as well as enjoying the adventures of Father Christmas, Polar Bear and other characters at the North Pole, we can all share the true spirit of giving at Christmas time. By expressing love for his children in such a special way, Tolkien may indeed have been the real Father Christmas.

 

《圣诞老人的来信》告诉我们，在圣诞节，除了欣赏圣诞老人、北极熊和其他一些生活在北极的人物的冒险故事之外，我们还可以共同体会真正的奉献精神。托尔金以如此特殊的方式表达了对孩子们的爱，他可以算得上是真正的圣诞老人。

 

***Listening and Speaking (page 19)***

SH2_U2_UL6_P19.mp3音频：00:00/02:00

 

SH2_U2_UL7_P19.mp3音频：00:00/01:59

Activity 6

参考答案

1 b 2 c 3 f

Activity 7

参考答案

1 Thanksgiving 2 Thursday

3 November 4 apartment

5 big turkey 6 apple pie

7 candies 8 anything you like

听力文本

 

***Developing Ideas (Page 20)***

SH2_U2_DI2_P20.mp3音频：00:00/03:28

Time for a Change?

传统该不该改？

Social Insights

社会见解

A family dinner is an important tradition to celebrate Spring Festival. Nowadays, some people choose to have the dinner in a restaurant, but not everyone is keen on this idea. What do our readers think?

 

年夜饭是春节的一项重要传统。如今，有些人选择在饭店吃年夜饭，不过，不是每个人都支持这一想法。读者朋友们，你们怎么看呢？

 

---

Dear Editor,

尊敬的编辑，

1 We have eaten out for the Spring Festival family dinner for the last three years, and we have enjoyed it no less than eating at home. I don’t understand why some people refuse to embrace the change.

最近三年，我家都是在外面吃年夜饭的，和在家吃比起来，在外面吃一样开心。我不理解为什么有些人拒绝接受改变。

 

2 Can’t they admit that the preparations for the dinner are hard work? I really don’t think it’s worth the effort of spending so much time preparing for a single meal, and then another hour cleaning up the mess after it’s over. We work all year, so why can’t one day be about spending time with family and relaxing?

 

难道他们不觉得准备年夜饭很辛苦吗？花这么长的时间准备一顿饭，然后饭后再花一个小时来收拾，我真心觉得不值。辛苦一年了，为什么不能用这一天的时间陪陪家人，放松一下呢？

 

3 Eating out is a good choice and it has nothing to do with loss of traditions. We still have the dinner with the same people, just in a different place. The occasion is more enjoyable without all that tiring cooking, and the dishes taste better!

 

在外面吃年夜饭是个不错的选择，而且这也谈不上丢弃传统。我们还是和同样的人一起吃饭，只是换了地方而已。不用辛苦地做饭，用餐会更加令人愉悦，而且(饭店的)饭菜味道也更好！

 

4 In my opinion, what or where we eat on Spring Festival Eve really doesn’t matter. Eating out may change the form of this tradition, but the love between the family members sitting around the table together remains the same.

 

在我看来，除夕夜我们吃什么、在哪里吃并不重要。在外面的饭店吃年夜饭可能会改变这个传统的表现形式，但是围坐在餐桌前的家人之间的亲情并没有改变。

 

Wang Peng, software engineer

王鹏，软件工程师

 

---

Dear Editor,

尊敬的编辑，

 

1 For this year’s Spring Festival family dinner, my son has booked a table at the best restaurant in town, but I’m a bit unhappy about it. For me, it just won’t feel like Spring Festival having the diner out.

 

今年我儿子在城里最好的饭店订了桌年夜饭，可我不怎么高兴。对我来说，在外面吃年夜饭感觉不像过年。

 

2 When I was a little boy, the dinner on the eve of Spring Festival was what I looked forward to most. It was not only for the delicious food that we seldom got to eat, but for the opportunity to have our whole family gathered together. I would run around the house, listening to the adults chatting about their year. I’d get under my mother’s feet in the kitchen, watching her make dumplings. She’d put tokens in some dumplings: candies for a sweet life and peanuts for a long and healthy one. In the evening, all of us would sit around the table, enjoying the food and being together again. We toasted each other, we laughed, and the simple, homemade dishes tasted more delicious than anything cooked by a top chef.

 

小时候，我最期待的就是除夕的年夜饭。不仅可以吃到平时难以吃到的美食，而且全家人能有机会团聚在一起。那时我会在家里跑来跑去，听大人们闲聊他们这一年的情况。我还会缠着在厨房做饭的妈妈，看着她包饺子。她会在有些饺子里放一点儿“彩头”：糖果寓意生活甜美，花生寓意健康长寿。到了晚上，我们都围坐在餐桌前，享受美食和团聚的乐趣。大家互相敬酒，谈笑风生，简简单单的家常菜吃起来比顶级厨师做的饭菜都要美味。

 

3 I hope my children and their children will still value our memories of preparing the dinner together. To me, the process is even more important than the dinner itself.

 

我希望我的子孙后代依旧珍视全家人一起准备年夜饭的回忆。对我来说，准备的过程比年夜饭本身更重要。

Liu Yonghui, retired teacher

刘永辉，退休教师

 

 

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连词成句

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03458（蒋老师）