本文作者：口语陪练网老师highgear2006

教师简介：http://www.oralpractice.com/read_56892.html

BEIJING (AP) -- Train and bus stations overflowed (1) and airports were packed (2)Saturday as tens of millions of Chinese rushed home to be with their families for the start of the Lunar New Year holiday (3)and the Year of the Tiger.
(1) to have too many people in it
挤满了人; 2. be packed: be full of 挤满（人） 3. 农历新年假期; lunar意为“月亮的”，与之对应的为“solar”(太阳的)，e.g. lunar calendar 阴历，lunar expedition 探月旅行, solar calendar 阳历，solar energy 太阳能。

The annual（4） holiday is the most important of the year in China, with families expected to welcome in the New Year at midnight Saturday with a roar of fireworks（5） that will last for hours.
4.年度的； ann-表示“年”的字根： e.g. anal 编年史；anniversary 周年纪念；annual income 年收入。 5.烟花,烟火的喧闹；“roar”主要有“咆哮，吼叫”等意思；”鞭炮”一般叫做””firecrackers”.

It is the only time in the year when China's massive army of migrant workers（6）, who work on building sites and in factories in major cities, get a chance to return home to see their families.
（6）民工，英语的原意为“迁徙的工人”， “to migrate”意为动物的“迁徙”， e.g. “migrating birds”
候鸟。

China calls the holiday the biggest annual movement of people in the world. The Ministry of Railways(7) has estimated that 210 million passengers - more than Russia's population - will ride the rails (8)during the 40-day New Year travel season, up 10 percent from last year. The holiday officially lasts six days, but many workers take up to a month off.
7.铁道部，ministry是中国政府的“部”，美国一般用“Department”,如“US Department of Energy(DOE)”,美国能源部；（8）乘火车；此处用了一个比喻的说法。

Police around the country tightened security（9） for the holiday period. A notice on the Web site of the Ministry of Public Security said police would increase checks on fireworks displays, lantern shows and temple fairs（10）.
9. 加强了安全措施； “to tighten”:to make something become stricter
使更加严格；加强; 有意思的是，英语中许多表示尺度，颜色等的词汇，只要后面加上-en这个后缀，均可以变成动词。 E.g. black-en, 涂黑，height-en, 升高， broad-en, 扩宽， deep-en, 加深， wide-n, 使变宽， red-den, 使变红 loose-n, 使松开， light-en, 使减轻等。（10）放烟花，灯展和庙会。
Last year, an illegal （11）fireworks display at the headquarters of China's state broadcaster in Beijing caused a massive fire （12）at a newly built 44-story hotel. On Friday, three firefighters（13） died while fighting a building fire triggered by （14）fireworks in central Hunan province, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.
11.非法的，注意：以”l”开头的单词变成否定一般在前面加“il-”,e.g.: literate 识字的，illiterate 文盲的。（12）引起一场大火。 （13）消防员，消防车一般叫做“fire engine”.
(14) 由…引起，触发，引发的；”trigger”的名词为枪的“扳机”。

The holiday period is an annual test of China's overburdened （15） transportation system. Tickets are difficult to buy, and this year authorities are cracking down on scalpers （16）who hoard tickets （17）to resell at higher prices. Passengers will have to show their identification cards （18）when buying tickets for trains out of southern Guangdong province, home to （19）tens of thousands of factories employing migrant labor.
15.负担过重的；凡是带有“over”这个前缀的词汇一般均表示“过多，过度“之意，e.g. overpopulation 人口过多，overestimate 过度估计，overgrow 过度生长等。 16. 打击黄牛党；但看scalper的英语释义： A scalper is someone who sells tickets outside a sports ground or theatre, usually for more than their original value. 正好相当于中文里面的“黄牛党”。
（17）verb 1. to collect and keep large amounts of food, money, etc., especially secretly 贮藏；囤积；（尤指）秘藏。（18）身份证，简称ID; e.g. --Could you show me some kind of ID?
--Will my driver’s license do? –Anything with your photo on will be fine. (19) 为……的所在地, 这个形容词独立结构的用法很简洁,非高手不能为。

China's national meteorological bureau (20) warned Saturday of possible traffic problems caused by rain in the south of China and snow in the north.
20.国家气象台; “meterology”: the scientific study of the earth's atmosphere and its changes, used especially in forecasting the weather (= saying what it will be like)
气象学; “meteorologist” 气象学家。
China has experienced an especially harsh winter（21） this year, with record-breaking blizzards (22) in China's western regions of Xinjiang and Tibet and to the north in Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang province.
1.
（21）严冬；”harsh”愿意为：1. cruel, severe and unkind
残酷的；严酷的；严厉的; 2. of weather or living conditions 天气或生活环境 very difficult and unpleasant to live in 恶劣的；艰苦的 . e.g. All of us must learn to adapt to harsh living conditions in order to survive. (22) 创纪录的大风雪,暴风雪; 此处,”record-breaking”为一个”复合形容词”.

So far, no major problems have been reported, unlike in 2008 when heavy snowfall and cold weather badly hampered travel (23)during the New Year period, stranding (24)millions of people at train stations. The snow that year was the worst in China in five decades(25), and caused billions of dollars in economic losses.
23. 阻碍旅行,”to hamper”: to prevent somebody from easily doing or achieving something
妨碍；阻止；阻碍. 24. to leave somebody in a place from which they have no way of leaving
使滞留, e.g. thousands of passengers have been stranded at the international airport by the heavy snowstorm. 25. 在五十年中,”decade”为一个”十年期”: e.g.: for decades, 数十年来; decades ago, 几十年前.

Families will be enjoying traditional dumplings(26) in northern China, while in the south, where rice is more popular, they will celebrate by eating glutinous rice cakes (27).
26.享受传统的饺子;其实”Jiaozi”已经被正式收录为英语单词,而且英国的所谓””dumpling”与中国的饺子还是有不少区别的.27.年糕;英语中的”糯米”一般用”glutinous/sticky (粘性的)rice”.