新视野大学英语视听说 Unit 10-15

（单词翻译）

VI. Furthering Listening and Speaking
Task 1: Valentine’s Day
Valentine’s Day started when the Emperor Claudius II ruled Rome. Claudius punished Rome into
so many wars that he had a hard time finding soldiers for his army. He thought the reason was that
Roman men did not want to leave their families and lovers. To solve that problem, he cancelled
marriages and engagements. But a Christian¹ priest named Valentine who believed in love and
marriage secretly married couples When the emperor learned about these marriages, he sent
Valentine to prison. The priest died in prison on February 14,270. Not until a few hundred years
later did Saint Valentine’s Day take its present form. Today we still honor Saint Valentine. The
old ideas of love, marriage and fertility have lasted and taken on modern meanings.
1. wars      finding soldiers
2. families and lovers
3. love and marriage
4. prison      February 14
5. fertility      modern meanings