听播客学英语 100 结婚

 　　Our podcast today is about weddings. I hope you will learn some new English words. There is a quiz attached to the podcast today so that you can test how much you know.

　　In England, you can get married in a church, or you can have a civil wedding (that is, a non-religious wedding) . Until about 10 years ago, civil weddings always took place at a Registry Office. Nowdays, however, you can get married in all sorts of places – in hotels, in country houses, and in many mosques¹ and Hindu temples, for example.

　　A wedding can be very expensive. One website that I have seen says that the average cost of a wedding in Britain is over ?11,000. Here are some of the things that many couples will want for their wedding:

　　a wedding-dress for the bride, and dresses for her bridesmaids;

　　wedding rings for the bride and the bridegroom;

　　flowers for the church or the place where the wedding is held;

　　a reception (that is, a party or a formal meal) for the wedding guests after the wedding ceremony;

　　a wedding cake;

　　a professional photographer, to take pictures or videos of the wedding;

　　a honeymoon³ (a holiday) for the newly-married couple after the wedding.

　　And there are lots more things to spend money on if you want to. Some couples want to hire a beautiful horse-drawn carriage, or a vintage Rolls Royce car to take them away after the wedding. Some people even fly to holiday resorts⁴ in Mexico or Thailand to get married, and their families and friends fly there too.

　　There is no such thing as a “typical wedding”. Every couple getting married has to decide for themselves what sort of wedding they want – a religious wedding, or a civil wedding; a big wedding with lots of guests; or a small, simple wedding.

　　I went to a wedding last weekend. It was definitely⁵ not a typical wedding, but you might be interested in it. It was a Quaker wedding. There was no priest⁶ or minister to conduct the wedding, and no music or singing. The bride and groom² and the wedding guests all sat silently together. After about 10 minutes, the bride and groom stood up and said that they took each other as man and wife and made their promises to each other. After that, some of their friends and relatives spoke⁷ about love and marriage, or read a poem or a passage from the Bible⁸, or simply wished the couple every happiness together. The wedding lasted for about an hour. At the end, everyone who was there – about 80 of us – signed the wedding certificate⁹ as witnesses to the marriage.

　　And then – because we are British – we all drank cups of tea and chatted to friends and family members whom we had not seen for a long time. We went out into the garden of the Quaker Meeting House to take photos of the bride and groom. In the evening, we were all invited to a ceilidh. “Ceilidh” is a Scottish Gaelic word, which has become part of the English language in recent years. It means an evening of dancing, singing, story telling and poetry. The bride and groom cut their wedding cake, and we danced traditional English and Scottish dances until late in the evening. And then all the wedding guests, and the bride and groom too, did the washing up and helped to put the chairs and tables back in their proper places.

　　We had a wonderful time. Is this the sort of wedding you would like?

1 mosques   

清真寺； 伊斯兰教寺院，清真寺； 清真寺，伊斯兰教寺院( mosque的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Why make us believe that this tunnel runs underneath the mosques? 为什么要让我们相信这条隧洞是在清真寺下？
• The city's three biggest mosques, long fallen into disrepair, have been renovated. 城里最大的三座清真寺，过去年久失修，现在已经修复。

2 groom   

vt.给（马、狗等）梳毛，照料，使...整洁

参考例句：

• His father was a groom.他父亲曾是个马夫。
• George was already being groomed for the top job.为承担这份高级工作，乔治已在接受专门的培训。

3 honeymoon   

n.蜜月（假期）；vi.度蜜月

参考例句：

• While on honeymoon in Bali,she learned to scuba dive.她在巴厘岛度蜜月时学会了带水肺潜水。
• The happy pair are leaving for their honeymoon.这幸福的一对就要去度蜜月了。

4 resorts   

n.求助，凭借，诉诸( resort的名词复数 )；求助[凭借]的对象；采用的办法；度假胜地v.求助于或诉诸某事物，采取某手段或方法应急或作为对策( resort的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Ferry boats ply regularly between all the resorts on the lake. 渡船定时往返于湖的各旅游景点。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Other resorts could benefit from the spillover of tourists. 其他度假胜地可以从游客带来的影响中间受益。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 definitely   

adv.一定地，肯定地；明确地，确切地

参考例句：

• The team will definitely lose if he doesn't play.如果他不参加比赛，这个队肯定会输。
• I shall definitely be home before six o'clock.6点以前，我一定回家。

6 priest   

n.神父，牧师，司铎，司祭，领导者，神甫；vt.使成为神职人员

参考例句：

• He confessed to a priest that he had sinned.他向神父忏悔他犯了罪。
• The priest visited all the old people in the parish.牧师探望了教区里的所有老人。

7 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

8 bible   

n.《圣经》；得到权威支持的典籍

参考例句：

• According to the Bible we are all the seed of Adam.根据《圣经》所说的，我们都是亚当的后裔。
• This dictionary should be your Bible when studying English.学习英语时，这本字典应是你的主要参考书。

9 certificate   

n.证书，证明书；vt.发给证明书，认可，鉴定

参考例句：

• She proudly displayed her degree certificate to her parents.她自豪地向父母展示了学位证书。
• No one had seen her marriage certificate.没人看到过她的结婚证书。