Minute EnglishApril Fool's Day
Kate: Hello, I’m Kate Colin and this is 6 minute English. Today I'm joined again byJackie Dalton. Hi Jackie.
Jackie: Hi KateKate: As you may know, yesterday, April 1st was April Fool's Day!
Jackie: Well, to be honest, I completely forgot …..until I was caught out that is…Kate: Oh no – what happened?
Jackie: Well, my flatmate changed my clock so I ended up getting up a whole hourearlier than I needed to. I only realised just before I was about to leave the house and I heard the time on the radio. I felt quite silly!
Kate: Oh dear, but at least you were nice and early for work. I bet you'd havepreferred an extra hour in bed though. Well April Fool's Day is the one day ofthe year when we are all allowed to have some fun and play a few jokes on ourfriends and colleagues. Newspapers, radio stations and even large companieshave their share of fun as well. But before we go any further, here' s myquestion for this week:
In the UK on April Fool's Day, we are traditionally allowed to play jokes onpeople until what time. Is it:
a) midnightb) middayc) 4 o'clock
Jackie: answerKate: OK, we'll see if you answered correctly at the end of the programme. Nextwe're going to hear from our colleague Carrie as she tells us what usuallyhappens on April Fool's Day. See if you can hear how she describes the jokesthat are played on people?
CarrieIt's usually people playing practical jokes on other people. So if somebody makes somebodyelse look rather silly, by telling them something that isn't true, by playing a practical jokeon them.
Jackie: She called the jokes 'practical jokes' and these are when you play a trick onsomeone or do something to make them look silly. So the joke my flatmate playedon me was an excellent example of a 'practical joke'. I'll get her back next yearthough!
Kate: Another expression which has a similar meaning to 'practical joke' is 'hoax'. Ahoax is when people are deceived into thinking something false and it's usually ona larger scale than a practical joke, involving many people. A 'media hoax' iswhen the people in charge of the media (TV, radio or newspapers and online) playa trick on their audience. Listen to what Carrie says about 'hoaxes'. What doesshe think is the problem with 'media hoaxes'?
CarrieThe media have a lot of hoaxes, so you can pick up a newspaper on April Fool's Day andthere'll be a story in it that you know is a media hoax and it's clearly not true. Or not as thecase may be! I think the trouble is now that you pick up a newspaper on 1st April and you lookthrough and try and find the spoof story and quite often you'll pick something that maybeisn't a spoof story at all, it really is a genuine story.
6 Minute English ? bbclearningenglish.com 2009Page 3 of 4Jackie: Carrie says that the trouble with 'media hoaxes' is that now we all expect that'sthere's going to be one and often we'll see a story and we think it's a hoax whenactually it's true.
Kate: We also heard the expression 'spoof story'. What does this mean?
Jackie: A 'spoof story' is a kind of practical joke or hoax and it's a story that's not true,presented in a style that makes it looks like as though it's really true. So anexample of a spoof story would be a newspaper article saying that Elvis Presley has been seen walking down the streets of London, when in fact he's been dead formany years.
Kate: Yes, and it can be easy to be 'taken in' by these kind of stories. 'Taken in by' ina phrasal verb we use when we believe something that isn't true. Another way ofdescribing someone who is easily taken in by things is to say they are 'gullible'. A'gullible' person will believe most things you tell them, no matter how unlikelythey are to be true. There have been plenty of other media hoaxes and spoofstories and many gullible people have been taken in over the years. Back toCarrie:
CarrieI think the most famous media hoax is actually a BBC hoax which I think happened inthe1950s when a very well respected news programme called Panorama ran a story aboutspaghetti trees and how, I think it was the Swiss were harvesting a bumper crop of spaghettiand they had film clips of people picking spaghetti off trees. It's still probably the mostfamous, certainly in the UK, the most famous hoax.
Kate: So many people were taken in by that practical joke that a large number ofpeople contacted the BBC wanting to know how to cultivate their own spaghettitrees! Unsurprisingly, as Carrie said, even after 50 years it remains one of themost successful TV hoaxes of all time.
Jackie: And the BBC have been quite naughty （顽皮）pranskters in the past. A prankster issomeone who plays tricks or pranks on someone else. And in 1965, the BBC toldthe public that they were broadcasting smells through the airwaves so that if theysniffed their radios they would be able to get smells sent over from the BBC.
Many people actually contacted the BBC saying that they could indeed smellthings coming through their radio.
Kate: I bet they felt very silly after they realised it was just an April Fool. It's amazingwhat some people will believe…..Let's have a quick look over the vocabulary wecame across today: We had:
practical joke - which a type of joke which is played at someone else's expensehoax - to trick people into believing something that's not true, usually on a largerscalespoof story - a story that's not true presented as though it were truetaken in by - to believe something that isn't truegullible - describes someone who believes things easily, even if it's obvious thatthey're not trueprank - is a type of practical joke.
Kate: Now lastly to the question I asked you earlier, in the UK on April Fool's Day, weare allowed play jokes on people until what time?
Jackie: I said middayKate And you were correct…traditionally in England, the jokes only last until noonmidday. Elsewhere, such as in Ireland, France, and the USA, the jokes can last allday. Unlucky for them! That's all we have time for today. Until next week.
Both: Goodbye!（本文由在线英语听力室整理编辑） |