February: The Darkest Month 二月的故事
- 详细资料
- 创建于 2006年2月27日
- 最后更新于 2024年5月25日
- 发布于 2011年10月04日
- 作者：Mike Lee
- 点击数：356
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课文讲解
It often seems there’s nothing fun about February. Historically, it’s the bleakest month of the year, and in some places it gets so bitterly cold people think it’ll never end. Little wonder the Romans associated the month with the dark subject of death. In fact, historians believe that the name February derives from the Roman deity Februus, the god of purification and death.
二月份似乎总是不愉快的；历史上，这是一年当中最晦暗的月份，在某些地方，酷寒使人们觉得冬天似乎永远不会结束。也难怪罗马人将此月份与黑色死亡联想在一起。事实上，历史学家相信February这名称是从代表净化与死亡的罗马神Feruus之名所衍生而来。
The god was certainly kept busy during this month. February was the time of year when prisoners were executed and ordinary Romans atoned for their sins with bloody sacrifices. The days of February could be dark, indeed. So dark, in fact, that Augustus Caesar may have cut the month down to twenty-eight days from the original twenty-nine. (He is said to have added the extra day to his month, August, so that it would have as many days as July, the month of Julius Caesar.)
这位罗马神在这个月份自然也不得闲，因为二月是将犯人处死的月份，且一般罗马民众会在这个月以活体祭祀来为自己赎罪。二月的确很黑暗，事实上它黑暗到连奥古斯都大帝都决定将此月份从原来的二十九天减少一天成为二十八天(他将这天加到象征自己的八月，好让八月跟代表凯萨大帝的七月有同样的天数)。
But there were some lighter moments. February was the time of the Lupercalia festival, which culminated in an exuberant parade on February 15. During the festival, one very popular game involved youths drawing maidens’ names from an urn and making the chosen women their sweethearts for the next year. And if this sounds like a precursor to our modern Valentine’s Day – also in February – you’re probably right.
然而二月也有较轻松的时候。二月时分也是牧神节，该活动在二月十五日一场盛大游行中达到最高潮。节庆期间，有一项很受欢迎的游戏，年轻小伙子们会从瓮中抽出一位单身女孩的名字，被抽中的女孩就成为他未来一年的情人。如果这听起来像我们今天情人节(恰巧也在二月)的前身，八九不离十是对的。
Sweethearts and parades? Maybe February isn’t all gloom and doom after all.
有了爱人与游行活动，或许，二月也不全然是阴暗与毁灭的一个月!
－by Trudy Barnes
Vocabulary
单词发音
purification [͵pjʊrəfəˋkeʃən] n. 洗净，净化
execute [ˋɛksɪ͵kjut] v. 处死; 执行（判决，遗嘱等）
sacrifice [ˋsækrə͵faɪs] n. 牲礼，祭品
gloom [glum] n. 忧郁的心情；沮丧的气氛
doom [dum] n. 厄运，毁灭，死亡
More Information
单词发音
bleak [blik] adj. 凄凉的，阴暗的
deity [ˋdiətɪ] n. 神；女神
atone [əˋton] v. 补偿，弥补；赎罪[（+for）]
light [laɪt] adj. 明亮的; 不费力的；轻松的
exuberant [ɪgˋzjubərənt] adj. 兴高采烈的 ﹐精神焕发的
urn [ɝn] n. 瓮；缸
precursor [priˋkɝsɚ] n. 先驱；前辈；前兆