时间:2018-12-02 作者:英语课 分类:空中美语初级


英语课

来自中国的雇员Sue 1跟男同事Pete和女同事Julie一起去吃饭。


Pete: Hey Sue! Don't walk under that ladder...it's bad luck!


Sue: Julie, Is he serious?


Julie: Kind of. There is an old tradition in the West that says it's bad luck.


S: You mean a superstition 2?


J: Yes, I guess it is a superstition.


S: But, Julie...you're from the UK and Pete is American! I thought Western people weren't superstitious 3!


Pete: Actually, many of us are. In America we have a whole bunch of superstitions 4.


Pete警告Sue不要从梯子下面走,It's bad luck. 会带来坏运气。 Superstition迷信。Julie是英国人,Pete是美国人,原来,西方人也迷信。


S: Wow...I always thought Westerners considered superstitions old-fashioned. My family is Chinese; almost all of us are very superstitious.


Julie: Well, I think the superstitions might be different, but pretty much every country in the world has them.


S: Is the number "four" unlucky in the West?


J: No...I don't think so.


P: Um...wait. Why is the number "four" bad?


S: In Chinese the pronunciation of the "four" sounds a lot like the word for "death."


P: Oh, I can see why that would be bad.


Sue原以为,西方人觉得迷信是old-fashioned, 守旧过时的,只有中国人迷信,没想到,其实西方人也迷信,但是东西方迷信的内容不同。


J: We might be OK with the number "four" but some Western people think "thirteen" is an unlucky number.


P: That's true. Some buildings will skip the thirteenth floor or call it "12A" or something.


S: Ha! That's funny! In many Chinese places they do exactly the same thing with the fourth floor! But why is thirteen unlucky?


J: Well, it's not too clear how that happened...but it probably has something to do with twelve being a lucky number.


西方人不忌讳“四”,但是忌讳“十三”,很多大楼因此没有十三层,用12A来代替。Sue说,中国也有类似做法。不过,在西方文化里,“十三”为什么不吉利呢?Julie说,大概是因为“十三”前面的“十二”是一个lucky number,特别吉利的数字。


J: Twelve is a number featured in many stories and legends and so it's kind of considered to be a good number.


S: But thirteen is not?


P: Yeah...and the most unlucky day of all is if a Friday falls on the 13th of a month. That's considered to be a super unlucky day.


S: Yeah. I saw a horror movie called "Friday the 13" once!


J: Yeah! That's a great horror movie!


在西方,很多传说和故事里,十二都是吉祥数字,可十三却代表着厄运,如果哪个月的十三号正好又是星期五的话,一定要小心。


 



1 sue
vt.控告,起诉;vi.请求,追求,起诉
  • If you don't pay me the money,I'll sue you.如果你不付给我钱,我就告你。
  • The war criminals sue for peace.战犯求和。
2 superstition
n.迷信,迷信行为
  • It's a common superstition that black cats are unlucky.认为黑猫不吉祥是一种很普遍的迷信。
  • Superstition results from ignorance.迷信产生于无知。
3 superstitious
adj.迷信的
  • They aim to deliver the people who are in bondage to superstitious belief.他们的目的在于解脱那些受迷信束缚的人。
  • These superstitious practices should be abolished as soon as possible.这些迷信做法应尽早取消。
4 superstitions
迷信,迷信行为( superstition的名词复数 )
  • Old superstitions seem incredible to educated people. 旧的迷信对于受过教育的人来说是不可思议的。
  • Do away with all fetishes and superstitions. 破除一切盲目崇拜和迷信。
学英语单词
1-phenoxyhexadecane
Accident And Health Benefits
allmans
aluminum sulfite
amicetin B
blowwave
bold-face type
bour-geoises
Brignogan-Plage
burns rubber
Butter's cancer
Carter Peak
caterinas
cathode peak current
Cerastium takasagomontanum
chinese oil
cock blocked
construction experience
consultative service system
cook sb.'s goose
corpus striatum
Cotylosauria
crest (va) meter
crystal-meth
cue-balls
cukc
d'enfance
de-icer
de-limited
decationizing
dehydrobiotin
delayed drowning
digitate ray
DMZ host
Druif
edfs
electrolytic plating
electromagnetic oscillation refrigerator
electronic display visibility
empty vehicle
erosion by water
ethercuff
exegetical
exoergicity
expandingness
extend fraternal gretings to sb
fixed pillow-block
fns
forecast economic development
forty-rod lightning
Gang-tide
gaumeril
gaywads
hard-swearing
history of attack
hypochylin
inadeptness
interactive application generator
interface of double tube
intraparietal
language transfer
laryngocarcinoma
lepra borealis
letterbound
lithographically
luanshya
mass communication
methyl-transferase
nocal
paleotropical
pallbearer
Paretian
pasting of the boundaries
Pentanura khasianum
Platystemma
polar crane in reactor building
Puerto de la Estaca
pulse fall time
radio distance radist
right offer
San Clemente Basin
scaring off
scientific method of amortization
sensitive material
shaped
Singleton incision
southern limit of eclipse
story play
subspan
summer pipe
swing-bolster
title-graphic
Torlaks
Tylophora kerrii
ubiquitousnesses
unperturbed random coil
unqulified
verification document
Vimbodi
wahhaj
water-wave analogue
waterproof stratum