英语听力—环球英语 1320 The History of the Calendar

 　　Voice 1

 

　　Welcome to Spotlight¹! I’m Liz Waid.

 

　　Voice 2

 

　　And I’m Joshua Leo.  Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting.  It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.

 

　　Voice 1

 

　　The year was 1752.  On Wednesday, September 2, the people of Britain went to sleep.

 

　　When they woke up in the morning the date was Thursday, September 14. That sounds like a mistake.  The date should have been Thursday, September 3, not Thursday, September 14! But this story is true. The people of Britain went to sleep on September 2. When they woke up, the date was September 14!

 

　　This strange date change was the result of a British Act of Parliament². This act was called the “British Calendar Act of 1751”.

 

　　Voice 2

 

　　Why did the British Parliament do this?  In 1752 the official calendar of Britain was behind the official calendar of Europe by 11 days.  So, in the United³ Kingdom, the date was September 2. But in Europe, it was September 13.

 

　　Voice 1

 

　　A calendar is very important for measuring days and months, keeping religious⁴ holidays, and observing the seasons.  Britain had been following an old version⁵ of the calendar.  In 1752 they finally began to use the calendar accepted by the rest of the world. This helped them trade with other countries and celebrate religious holidays at the same time as the rest of Europe.

 

　　Voice 2

 

　　Calendars are very complex⁶. They depend on careful measuring. And they affect many parts of the world. Today’s Spotlight is on the history of the most used calendar in the world: the Gregorian calendar.

 

　　Voice 1

 

　　Calendars are very important to people all around the world. Calendars help us remember religious events.  They help to set times for farming⁷ and hunting. They help mark events from history. They mark events happening in the sky. They mark the passing of time from century to century.

 

　　Voice 2

 

　　Some experts believe that the ancient Roman and Egyptian people were some of the first to use calendars. They created calendars almost 3,000 years ago. The Romans based their calendar on phases⁸ of the moon - that is, how the moon appeared.  The moon goes through a cycle every 29 and 1/2 days. It begins as a full moon. It slowly gets smaller and smaller.  Then it begins to get larger and larger until it is again a full moon.  For the Romans, a full moon was the beginning of a new month.

 

　　Voice 1

 

　　But the Egyptians based their calendar on the sun. The sun follows a set path in the sky as the earth travels around it. There are no clear months. Instead, measuring time depends on the seasons, and where the sun is located⁹ in the sky. A year counted using this method is called a solar year.

 

　　Voice 2

 

　　Since the Roman kingdom was so large, the Roman calendar was the most popular. But until about 46 B.C., or about 2,000 years ago, the calendar was not well organized! At first, there were only ten months on the calendar. Each month was named after a number. The year always began in March and ended in December. The Romans did not even count the months that we now call January and February. They were not considered a part of the year.  But, after time, one of the emperors did divide this uncounted time. He named it and began to count it on the calendar. So then, the months named after numbers were not correct anymore!

 

　　Voice 1

 

　　Calendar officials did not always follow the calendar rules carefully. Officials of the Roman government sometimes changed dates and lengths of months to stay in office longer!  After some time, the official Roman calendar was in trouble. It did not even follow the seasons.

 

　　Voice 2

 

　　Then the Roman emperor Julius Caesar took control.  He designed an improved calendar. He changed and improved the calendar in three main ways.

 

　　Voice 1

 

　　First, Julius based his calendar on the solar year like the Egyptians.  This was important because it established the official Roman year as 365 days.

 

　　Voice 2

 

　　Second, Julius changed the date of the official beginning of the year from March to January 1.

 

　　Voice 1

 

　　Third, Julius changed the lengths of the months to how we know them today.

 

　　Voice 2

 

　　Most countries of the time began using this new calendar.  It was called the Julian calendar.

 

　　Voice 1

 

　　There was one other very important change in the Julian calendar.  A solar year is 365 and 1/4 days. Julius had to think of a way to count this part, or 1/4 of a day.

 

　　Voice 2

 

　　Julius added¹⁰ an extra day into the calendar year.  He declared the extra day should be added only once every four years.  This is something that we still do today.  A year with an extra day is called a “leap¹¹ year”.  Today we add this extra day to the end of the month of February.

 

　　Voice 1

 

　　The Julian calendar was a big improvement¹² on earlier calendars.  But calendars are very difficult to design.  And the Julian calendar still had a few mistakes.  The length of the Julian calendar year was 11 and 1/2 minutes short.  This sounds like only a small counting mistake.  But after many years, this small counting mistake began to add up!

 

　　Voice 2

 

　　Every 400 years these 11 and 1/2 minutes add up to just over three days.  Around the year 1582, this began to cause a problem.

 

　　Voice 1

 

　　In 1582 the official calendar was not correctly lined up with the seasons. It was about ten days behind. Religious holidays like Easter did not happen during the right season. The Catholic¹³ religious leader, Pope¹⁴ Gregory the 13th, decided¹⁵ to fix the mistake in the Julian calendar.

 

　　Voice 2

 

　　Pope Gregory kept many parts of the Julian calendar.  But he established new, more complex rules for the leap year.  His new calendar was called the Gregorian calendar. It took a long time for people all over the world to accept the Gregorian calendar.  But now it is the most common in almost every country.  Some cultural and religious groups do use other calendars for special cultural or religious holidays.  But for official records, most countries use the Gregorian calendar.

 

　　Voice 1

 

　　But even this calendar is not perfect.  The Gregorian calendar is 26 seconds short of a solar year.  This means¹⁶ that every 3,300 years the official calendar will be different from the solar calendar by one day.  When this happens, the world will have to fix the calendar again!

 

　　Voice 2

 

　　The writer and producer of this program was Liz Waid. The voices you heard were from United States and United Kingdom. You can find our programs on the internet at http://www.radioenglish.net This .program is called “The History of the Calendar”.

 

　　Voice 1

 

　　You can also leave your comments on our website. And you can find us on Facebook - just search for Spotlight radio. We hope you can join us again for the next Spotlight program. Goodbye.

1 spotlight   

n.公众注意的中心，聚光灯，探照灯，视听，注意，醒目

参考例句：

• This week the spotlight is on the world of fashion.本周引人瞩目的是时装界。
• The spotlight followed her round the stage.聚光灯的光圈随着她在舞台上转。

2 Parliament   

n.议会，国会

参考例句：

• She won a seat in Parliament at the election.她在选举中赢得了议会中的席位。
• The drug was banned by an act of parliament.议会的法案明令禁止该药品。

3 united   

adj.和谐的；团结的；联合的，统一的

参考例句：

• The whole nation is closely united.全国人民紧密团结。
• The two men were united by community of interests.共同的利益使两个人结合在一起。

4 religious   

adj.宗教性的，虔诚的，宗教上的；n.修道士，出家人

参考例句：

• She is very religious person who goes to church every Sunday.她十分虔诚，每个星期天都上教堂。
• It is hard for me to reject religious beliefs.要我抛弃自己的宗教信仰是困难的。

5 version   

n.版本；型号；叙述，说法

参考例句：

• His version of the events is pure supposition.他对这件事的说法纯属猜测。
• What is your version of this matter?你对这件事情的看法 怎么样？

6 complex   

adj.复杂的，合成的，综合的；n.联合体

参考例句：

• What he said was too complex for me to understand.他说的太复杂了，我无法了解。
• Justice is part of the complex machinery of the law.正义是复杂的法律机器的一部分。

7 farming   

n.农事；耕作

参考例句：

• He lives by farming.他靠务农过活。
• He is farming in Africa.他在非洲经营农场。

8 phases   

n.[化学]相( phase的名词复数 )；阶段；[物理学]相位；（月亮、行星的）位相

参考例句：

• The phases of the moon include the new and the full moon. 月相包括新月和满月。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Carbon steels exist in three stable crystalline phases. 碳素钢含有3种稳定的结晶状态。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 located   

adj.处于，位于

参考例句：

• The mechanic located the fault immediately. 机修工立即找到了出故障的地方。
• a small town located 30 miles south of Chicago 位于芝加哥以南30英里的一个小镇

10 added   

adj.更多的，附加的，额外的

参考例句：

• They have added a new scene at the beginning.在开头他们又增加了一场戏。
• The pop music added to our enjoyment of the film.片中的流行音乐使我们对这部电影更加喜爱。

11 leap   

n.跳跃，飞跃，跃进；vi.跳跃，跳过；猛然行动，迅速行动；vt.跃过，使跃过

参考例句：

• In the last few years,this art has made a big leap.近几年来，这一艺术有了新的跃进。
• Her marriage to John was a leap in the dark.她与约翰结婚是贸然行动。

12 improvement   

n.改进，增进；改进之处，改善的地方

参考例句：

• The doctor noticed a gradual improvement in his patient.医生注意到病人在逐渐恢复健康。
• I can detect signs of improvement in your thinking.我可以察觉出你思考问题方面的进步。

13 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。

14 pope   

n.（罗马天主教的）教皇

参考例句：

• The Pope is the spiritual leader of many Christians.教皇是众多基督徒的宗教领袖。
• The Pope is the supreme leader of the Roman Catholic Church.教皇是罗马天主教的最高领袖。

15 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

16 means   

n.方法，手段，折中点，物质财富

参考例句：

• That man used artful means to find out secrets.那人使用狡猾的手段获取机密。
• We must get it done by some means or other.我们总得想办法把它干完。