国家地理-2008-09-25 西班牙的蕃茄节

 

Thousands of people descended¹ on the Spanish town of Bunol on Wednesday to take part in the Tomatina festival. The annual food fight draws visitors from around the world.

 

They pelt² each other with ripe fruit until they become soaked through with tomato juice and covered in pulp³, using more than 200,000 pounds of tomatoes. Some of those involved in this messy festival got a stinging reminder⁴ that tomatoes are acidic, and could be seen rubbing their eyes after getting a soggy missile to the face. When the tomato supply runs out, the messy throng⁵ jumps into a nearby river en masse.

 

La Tomatina is rumoured⁶ to have started in the 1940s when a group of young friends began throwing their lunch at each other one day, near a vegetable stand on a town square. Before long, it turned into an annual tradition

 

Pelt: to attack someone by throwing a lot of things at them

en masse: (from French) all together, and usually in large numbers

La Tomatina: a food fight festival held on the last Wednesday of August each year in the town of Buñol in the Valencia region in Spain.

1 descended   

a.为...后裔的，出身于...的

参考例句：

• A mood of melancholy descended on us. 一种悲伤的情绪袭上我们的心头。
• The path descended the hill in a series of zigzags. 小路呈连续的之字形顺着山坡蜿蜒而下。

2 pelt   

v.投掷，剥皮，抨击，开火

参考例句：

• The boy gave the bully a pelt on the back with a pebble.那男孩用石子掷击小流氓的背脊。
• Crowds started to pelt police cars with stones.人群开始向警车扔石块。

3 pulp   

n.果肉，纸浆；v.化成纸浆，除去...果肉，制成纸浆

参考例句：

• The pulp of this watermelon is too spongy.这西瓜瓤儿太肉了。
• The company manufactures pulp and paper products.这个公司制造纸浆和纸产品。

4 reminder   

n.提醒物，纪念品；暗示，提示

参考例句：

• I have had another reminder from the library.我又收到图书馆的催还单。
• It always took a final reminder to get her to pay her share of the rent.总是得发给她一份最后催缴通知，她才付应该交的房租。

5 throng   

n.人群，群众；v.拥挤，群集

参考例句：

• A patient throng was waiting in silence.一大群耐心的人在静静地等着。
• The crowds thronged into the mall.人群涌进大厅。

6 rumoured   

adj.谣传的；传说的；风

参考例句：

• It has been so rumoured here. 此间已有传闻。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• It began to be rumoured that the jury would be out a long while. 有人传说陪审团要退场很久。 来自英汉文学 - 双城记