视听说文本及答案Unit9Book1

Unit 9 Holidays and Special Days

Part One

Linda: (with a moon cake in her mouth) Mm, this is good.

Chris: Yeah... very interesting flavor. So this is a so-called moon cake? Yingying: Yeah, today is a special festival for all Chinese families. It is called

Mid-Autumn Festival or Moon Festival. People will eat moon cakes during the festival with family members in the moonlight. It's just like your American Thanksgiving.

Linda: Oh, I've heard a little about it... the beautiful story of Hou Yi and Chang Er. Chinese Students: You know the story?

Chris: Sure, Linda and I are both very interested in Chinese culture, especially Chinese traditional festivals, like Spring Festival...

Linda: It was an unforgettable experience when we were invited to Xiaoqiang's home for the Chinese New Year.

Xiaoqiang: I noticed that Chris was especially fascinated by the lion and dragon dancing.

Chris: And the fireworks, jiaozi, oh yes, and the red envelopes.

Wenwen: Yeh. We Chinese have a lot of traditional festivals.

Linda: Can you tell me about some of the others?

Wenwen: Yeh. One of my favorite festivals falls on the 15th day of the first lunar month. That's the Lantern Festival. During that event, many kinds of delicate and beautiful lanterns are exhibited and red lanterns can be seen everywhere. And every family eats yuanxiao, a kind of rice ball filled with bean paste, sugar or some other sweet things. That's a symbol of family reunion and happiness.

Yingying: Also there's the Qingming Festival, which some people call "the Tomb Sweeping Day"...

Chris: Tomb Sweeping?

Yingying: Yeah! This day is devoted to honoring relatives who died. Thousands of Chinese visit the tombs of their loved ones. The Chinese have great respect for their ancestors.

Linda: That sounds very nice.

Xiaogang: Well, another important festival in China is the Dragon Boat Festival.

Xiaoqiang: You mean duanwu jie?

Xiaogang: Yes. It falls on the 5th day of the 5th month in the Chinese lunar calendar. People usually race dragon boats and eat zongzi on that day.

Chris: I like zongzi very much. But why do people celebrate the holiday this way?

Xiaogang: The fact is, these activities are traditional customs to honor the patriotic poet, Qu Yuan. He drowned himself on this day in 277 B.C. because his king did not take his advice and his state was conquered. Since then, each year on the 5th day of the 5th month people take boats and throw bamboo leaves filled with cooked rice into the water to feed the fish in order to save his body. Later the custom of racing boats and eating zongzi became part of the celebration.

Linda: That's interesting, and you always have stories about them.

Wenwen: (mysteriously) Any of you know the "Double Seventh Day" and the "Double Ninth Day"?

Chris: Isn't the "Double Ninth Day" a day for old people's hill-climbing?

Xiaogang: Yes. Since the word "Nine" sounds similar to the word "long time" in Chinese, this number represents "long life" in China. Well, as you can see, gradually this became "a day to honor senior citizens". But originally people would climb high mountains and honor their family members on this day.

Linda: Oh, that's interesting! Then how about "Double Seventh Day"? I really have no idea about it.

Wenwen: I guess you could call it our traditional Chinese Valentine's Day.

Linda: Valentine's Day? Really?

Wenwen: Yeah, an ancient Chinese legend tells the story about the cowherd and the weaving maid, who made the gods angry by their secret love and later the two were separated on two widely distant stars. And on that day, the 7th day of the 7th lunar month, each year, sympathetic magpies form a bridge between the stars and this allows the couple to meet again. And the day is celebrated by the exchange of cards, love letters, or flowers.

Chris and Linda: (both) Oh! That's very romantic!