新西兰英语 649 Red Nose Day

 　　Have you seen cars with a red nose on the front? Have you seen people wearing a red nose? Red Nose Day is August 24th. The purpose of Red Nose Day is to support sick children. People give money for a red nose. The money goes to the Cure Kids organization which funds research into children’s diseases like child cancer, sudden infant death syndrome¹ (SID) and rheumatic fever which can affect the heart.

　　You can get a red nose for yourself or a big one for your car from the businesses that sponsor Red Nose Day. Many celebrities² are also sponsoring Cure Kids. These include the All Blacks, TV personalities³, actors and comedians⁴. At 7.30pm on 24th, TV3 will have a comedy show which will include a new song by the Flight of the Conchords, New Zealand’s famous comedy pair.

　　Cure Kids says that it is a day of fun with a serious purpose.

　　Listen to March 23rd 2012 to hear about the Flight of the Conchords.

　　Vocabulary

　　?purpose – cause, reason

　　?funds – pays for

　　?SID – babies who die in their sleep when they are not sick

　　?celebrities – famous people like pop stars

　　?personalities – people

　　Businesses where you can get your red nose: Paper Plus, Take Note, Harvey Norman, Pumpkin Patch, Avis and Budget Car Rentals, Mico Plumbing and Pipelines

1 syndrome   

n.综合病症；并存特性

参考例句：

• The Institute says that an unidentified virus is to blame for the syndrome. 该研究所表示,引起这种综合症的是一种尚未确认的病毒。
• Results indicated that 11 fetuses had Down syndrome. 结果表明有11个胎儿患有唐氏综合征。

2 celebrities   

n.（尤指娱乐界的）名人( celebrity的名词复数 )；名流；名声；名誉

参考例句：

• He only invited A-list celebrities to his parties. 他只邀请头等名流参加他的聚会。
• a TV chat show full of B-list celebrities 由众多二流人物参加的电视访谈节目

3 personalities   

n. 诽谤，（对某人容貌、性格等所进行的）人身攻击； 人身攻击；人格, 个性, 名人( personality的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There seemed to be a degree of personalities in her remarks.她话里有些人身攻击的成分。
• Personalities are not in good taste in general conversation.在一般的谈话中诽谤他人是不高尚的。

4 comedians   

n.喜剧演员，丑角( comedian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The voice was rich, lordly, Harvardish, like all the boring radio comedians'imitations. 声音浑厚、威严，俨然是哈佛出身的气派，就跟无线电里所有的滑稽演员叫人已经听腻的模仿完全一样。 来自辞典例句
• He distracted them by joking and imitating movie and radio comedians. 他用开玩笑的方法或者模仿电影及广播中的滑稽演员来对付他们。 来自辞典例句