美国有线新闻 CNN 2013-03-27

 Hi, I'm Carl Azuz, and this is CNN Student News, we're going to start this new week with some signs of spring. Including two annual religious observances, yesterday was Palm Sunday, it was the first one for Pope Francis since he became the head of the Roman Catholic Church. You can see him here taking part of the Palm Sunday service in Vatican City.

For Christians¹, Palm Sunday is the start of the Holy Week, which concludes next Sunday on Easter. The observance commemorates² Jesus Christ's arrival in Jerusalem, when palm leaves were laid out in front of it. And some churches, the palm that are used on Palm Sunday are saved and burned into ashes for Ash Wednesday. The other religious observance starts tonight, it's the first night of Passover, a Jewish holiday that celebrates when the Israelites escaped from slavery in Egypt.

Passover is also called Pesach, the name comes from the story in the Bible about ten plagues. During one, God killed Egyption's first born sons but passed over the houses of Israelites. According to the story, when the Jews fled from Egypt, they didn't have time for their bread to rise. So during the weeklong Passover holiday, Jewish people only eat unleavened bread called matzah.

One thing you don't expect to see in Spring is this. It doesn't look like the weather is paying much attention to the calendar. Eight states were under a winter storm warning yesterday. The National Weather Service predicted seven to ten inches of snow from Missouri all the way to Ohio, so much for Spring. Storms started out in the Rockies and it's been making its way east. There was a World Cup qualifying match in Colorado on Friday, look at that. You don't see soccer played in that kind of weather very often.

There was something else that happened this weekend. A worldwide event that was just lights out.

Lights out, in Paris, lights out, in London, lights out on landmarks³ all around the globe. Earth hour was this past Saturday, when it hit 8:30 local time, people flipped⁴ the switch to go dark for 60 minutes. Organizers started the idea to raise awareness⁵ about climate change. The estimate millions of people and more than 150 countries got invloved in this.

1 Christians   

n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Christians of all denominations attended the conference. 基督教所有教派的人都出席了这次会议。
• His novel about Jesus caused a furore among Christians. 他关于耶稣的小说激起了基督教徒的公愤。

2 commemorates   

n.纪念，庆祝( commemorate的名词复数 )v.纪念，庆祝( commemorate的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• A tombstone is erected in memory of whoever it commemorates. 墓碑是为纪念它所纪念的人而建的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A tablet commemorates his patriotic activities. 碑文铭记他的爱国行动。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

3 landmarks   

n.陆标( landmark的名词复数 )；目标；（标志重要阶段的）里程碑 ~ (in sth)；有历史意义的建筑物（或遗址）

参考例句：

• The book stands out as one of the notable landmarks in the progress of modern science. 这部著作是现代科学发展史上著名的里程碑之一。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The baby was one of the big landmarks in our relationship. 孩子的出世是我们俩关系中的一个重要转折点。 来自辞典例句

4 flipped   

轻弹( flip的过去式和过去分词 )； 按（开关）； 快速翻转； 急挥

参考例句：

• The plane flipped and crashed. 飞机猛地翻转，撞毁了。
• The carter flipped at the horse with his whip. 赶大车的人扬鞭朝着马轻轻地抽打。

5 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。