背诵为王 第 三 册 第 28 课

Lesson28 Religion
A hundred years ago, life in Europe and the USA was very different. Then,nearly everyone went to a church or synagogue once a week. Now, many peoplenever go at all. Religion is still important though, especially to theAmericans.
In the States, over 60% of the population goes to a church or synagogue.
There are over 70 million Protestants, nearly 50 million Roman Catholics,and over 6 million Jews. Religion is an important part of American life.
Americans like their President to be a religious man. They spend a lot ofmoney on beautiful new churches, and many of them enjoy modern services withplenty of music and drama.
British people are less interested in religion than Americans.
About 16% go to church. Of these, 2.5 million are Protestants, and 1.5million are Roman Catholics. There are also about one million Muslims and400,000 Jews in Britain. Religion still plays a part in British life. Thereare beautiful old cathedrals and churches in every town and village, manypeople prefer to get married in a church and lots of people go to church atChristmas and Easter, the two main Christian² festivals. For a long time,fewer and fewer British people have gone to church, but now things seem tobe changing. The churches are very slowly growing again.

synagogue 犹太教会堂
Protestant 新教徒
Catholic¹ 天主教徒
Jew 犹太教徒
Muslim 穆斯林
Cathedral 大教堂

宗教
一百年前，欧洲人和美国人的生活有很大不同。那时几乎人人每周去一次教堂或犹太教会堂，而现在有许多人从不去教堂。但是宗教仍然很重要，尤其对美国人来说。
超过百分之六十的美国人去教堂或犹太教会堂。美国有约七千多万清教徒，近五千万罗马天主教徒，六百多万犹太教徒。宗教在美国人生活中占有重要地位。美国人希望他们的总统是一个信奉宗教的人。他们花很多钱兴建崭新漂亮的教堂，许多人喜欢有大量音乐和戏剧的现代宗教仪式。
英国人没有美国人那样对宗教感兴趣。信奉宗教的人大约占总人口的百分之十六，其中两百五十万是新教徒，一百五十万是罗马天主教徒。英国还有大约一百万穆斯林和四十万犹太教徒。宗教在英国人的生活中依然占有一席之地。每个城镇村庄都有漂亮的古老大教堂和普通教堂。人们大多选择在教堂结婚，在圣诞节和复活节这两个基督教的重要节日，很多人会到教堂做礼拜。很长一段时间以来，去教堂的英国人越来越少了。但情况现在看来有所改观，到教堂做礼拜的人在逐渐增多。

1 catholic   

adj.天主教的；n.天主教徒

参考例句：

• The Pope is the supreme leader of the Roman Catholic Church.教皇是罗马天主教的最高领袖。
• She was a devoutly Catholic.她是一个虔诚地天主教徒。

2 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。