最新15篇文章贯通英语四级词汇MP3 Unit7-Part3

（单词翻译）

[00:00.00]Christmas carols, or Christmas religious songs,
[00:05.58]began in the Middle Ages
[00:07.42]when people danced and
[00:08.84]sang religious songs on village greens
[00:10.49](central gathering¹ areas
[00:13.77]in small towns and villages)
[00:15.85]in Anglo Saxon England.
[00:18.80]A Christmas carol today
[00:20.44]is a religious tune² without
[00:22.41]the dance associated with it.
[00:24.71]A strong religious tradition today,
[00:29.08]as in other times,
[00:31.16]is to go to church
[00:33.13]at midnight of Christmas eve
[00:35.00]or on Christmas morning.
[00:37.29]A priest may say mass
[00:39.37](in a Catholic Church)
[00:41.89]or preach a sermon about
[00:43.09]the significance of the birth of Christ.
[00:46.80]Another very prominent symbol of Christmas
[00:50.31]is the Christmas tree.
[00:52.72]There are several explanations
[00:55.34]for its origin. One story suggests
[00:59.50]that Martin Luther was walking through
[01:02.34]a wood on a clear winter night
[01:04.53]admiring the beauty of the bright stars
[01:07.16]glowing though the branches of trees.
[01:09.34]He decided³ to cut down
[01:12.38]a small evergreen⁴ tree
[01:13.91]and take it home.
[01:15.99]He put candles in it
[01:18.39]to represent the stars
[01:19.82]he had seen earlier
[01:21.24]because he wanted to
[01:22.77]share that beautiful image
[01:24.30]with his family.
[01:26.16]Another story tells of
[01:28.35]the bringing of an evergreen tree
[01:30.43]inside the home during winter solstice
[01:33.39](December 21st) symbolizing⁵ the renewal⁶
[01:37.11]of life in the dead of winter.
[01:40.17]It became associated with Christmas,
[01:43.67] which occurs only four days later.
[01:46.41]The Christmas tree was firmly
[01:49.36]established as a Christmas symbol
[01:51.55]by the Germans who
[01:53.73]eventually brought it to America.
[01:55.59]In Victorian England, people hung cakes
[02:00.51]and candies on it and later,
[02:02.59]fruit made of paper
[02:04.23]adorned the branches.
[02:06.31]Modern commercial tree decorations
[02:09.60]appeared in the 1880’s
[02:11.68]at Woolworth’s Department Store
[02:13.65]in the United States,
[02:15.73]and electric Christmas tree lights
[02:19.11]made their debut in 1882