[by:www.21voa.com]
[00:00.00]更多听力请访问21VOA.COM
[00:00.04]Hello! And welcome to the VOA Learning English program
[00:10.08]Words and Their Stories.
[00:12.87]It is the holiday season in many parts of the world.
[00:17.40]Christmas is one of the most celebrated of those holidays.
[00:22.56]But even for those who do not celebrate Christmas,
[00:26.68]Christmas movies have become an American tradition.
[00:31.44]Many fun expressions come from these movies.
[00:35.12]When Americans hear these expressions,
[00:38.12]they know exactly what they mean and the movies they come from.
[00:43.40]On today's show, we will explore two words
[00:47.12]that come from one of the most popular Christmas stories
[00:51.48]made into a movie: "A Christmas Carol."
[00:55.44]Writer Charles Dickens wrote "A Christmas Carol" in 1843.
[01:00.88]Ebenezer Scrooge is the main character of the story.
[01:05.44]Scrooge is one of the most famous characters in English literature.
[01:10.80]And, the English language gained two words from "A Christmas Carol."
[01:16.00]The first is simply the character's name: Scrooge.
[01:20.68]Ebenezer Scrooge is mean.
[01:23.36]He is unwilling to share his money and good fortune.
[01:27.28]He hates people. And he hates Christmas.
[01:31.48]In the English language, a scrooge – with a lowercase "s" –
[01:36.24]is a person who is unwilling to give to others.
[01:40.68]Others words with the same meaning are miserly and stingy.
[01:46.04]Scrooges are selfish,
[01:48.68]and not just at Christmas time or the holidays.
[01:52.64]Here is an example sentence:
[01:55.48]"Her father is such a scrooge.
[01:58.64]He will not pay for her college tuition
[02:01.60]even though he has tons of money!"
[02:05.16]That father is a first-rate scrooge!
[02:09.56]Now back to "A Christmas Carol."
[02:11.92]At the beginning of the story,
[02:14.12]Scrooge is a cold-hearted miser who hates Christmas.
[02:19.12]Dickens describes Scrooge in this way:
[02:23.00]"The cold within him froze his old features,
[02:27.48]nipped his pointed nose, made his eyes red, his thin lips blue,
[02:33.92]and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice ..."
[02:38.08]How much does Scrooge hate Christmas?
[02:41.48]This passage from the book describes how much.
[02:45.16]"If I could work my will,"
[02:47.68]said Scrooge indignantly,
[02:50.04]"every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips,
[02:55.16]should be boiled with his own pudding,
[02:58.28]and buried with a stake of holly through his heart."
[03:02.32]This quote makes perfectly clear
[03:05.32]that Scrooge hates Christmas and all that it represents --
[03:09.96]namely goodwill to fellow humans.
[03:13.64]Scrooges' catchphrase in the book
[03:16.30]and in the movies is "bah humbug!"
[03:19.72]As soon as you say "bah humbug"
[03:22.52]people know which story and
[03:25.36]which character you are talking about.
[03:27.80]"Bah humbug" is usually used as a response
[03:32.08]to someone else's Christmas cheer.
[03:34.96]For example, if someone asks you, "
[03:38.18]So, are you ready for Christmas?" and you say,
[03:41.56]"Christmas ... bah humbug!"
[03:43.79]that means you are not in the Christmas spirit
[03:47.20]and are probably not going to celebrate.
[03:50.48]Anyone who says "bah humbug"
[03:53.08]is rejecting or showing disgust for Christmas.
[03:57.88]Sometimes it is said in fun. Sometimes it is not.
[04:03.72]The story of "A Christmas Carol" is one of personal change,
[04:08.44]of turning over a new leaf, to use an idiom.
[04:13.16]As the story goes,
[04:15.28]the hateful Scrooge is visited one night
[04:18.48]by three Ghosts of Christmas: Ghost of Christmas Past,
[04:23.68]Ghost of Christmas Present and Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.
[04:29.20]The ghosts educate Scrooge and the last lesson is terrifying.
[04:36.56]But it works. Scrooge greets the new morning as a generous, kind person.
[04:43.64]However, word history does not remember him that way.
[04:48.08]His name will live on to mean the exact opposite.
[04:52.56]That's language. And that's another Words and Their Stories.
[04:57.00]I'm Anna Matteo.
END OF TRACK. "END OF TRACK." The two men bowed. "Whoever was that person you were talking to?" she enquired, as soon as they stood together. The took of triumph faded from her eyes, she had grown worn and weary. The roses were wilting on the walls, the lights were mostly down now. Hetty, looking in to see if anything was wanted, found herself driven away almost fiercely. I only saw Master Jervie once when he called at tea time, The year 1747 was opened by measures of restriction. The House of Lords, offended at the publication of the proceedings of the trial of Lord Lovat, summoned the parties to their bar, committed them to prison, and refused to liberate them till they had pledged themselves not to repeat the offence, and had paid very heavy fees. The consequence of this was that the transactions of the Peers were almost entirely suppressed for nearly thirty years from this time, and we draw our knowledge of them chiefly from notes taken by Horace Walpole and Lord Chancellor Hardwicke. What is still more remarkable, the reports of the House of Commons, being taken by stealth, and on the merest sufferance, are of the most meagre kind, sometimes altogether wanting, and the speeches are given uniformly under fictitious names; for to have attributed to Pitt or Pelham their[112] speeches by name would have brought down on the printers the summary vengeance of the House. Many of the members complained bitterly of this breach of the privileges of Parliament, and of "being put into print by low fellows"; but Pelham had the sense to tolerate them, saying, "Let them alone; they make better speeches for us than we can make for ourselves." Altogether, the House of Commons exhibited the most deplorable aspect that can be conceived. The Ministry had pursued Walpole's system of buying up opponents by place, or pension, or secret service money, till there was no life left in the House. Ministers passed their measures without troubling themselves to say much in their behalf; and the opposition dwindled to Sir John Hinde Cotton, now dismissed from office, and a feeble remnant of Jacobites raised but miserable resistance. In vain the Prince of Wales and the secret instigations of Bolingbroke and Doddington stimulated the spirit of discontent; both Houses had degenerated into most silent and insignificant arenas of very commonplace business. "It certainly will be. Miss Widgeon," answered Maria, with strictly "company manners." "One who has never had a brother exposed to the constant dangers of army life can hardly understand how glad we all feel to have Si snatched from the very jaws of death and brung back to us." "Just plug at 'em as you would at a crow, and then go on your way whistlin'?" persisted Harry. "Hurroo!" echoed Hennessey; "that's the ticket." "Come forward, keeper," continued the baron, "and state how these arrows came into your hands!" "Yes." HoMEJULIA京香2018下载
ENTER NUMBET 0015www.cwtsh.com.cn
www.yskjmall.com.cn
haizi8.com.cn
www.jndfjr.com.cn
angolive.net.cn
qxzo8.com.cn
buhlergroup.net.cn
www.ethbank.com.cn
www.shmljs.com.cn
pcauro.com.cn