VOA慢速英语2021--泰国猴子节回归

Monkey Festival Returns to Town in Thailand

A Thai town's popular "monkey festival" returned Sunday after a two-year break caused by the pandemic.

The fun event takes place in Lopburi in central Thailand. There, thousands of monkeys eat large amounts of fruits and vegetables. The animals can be seen climbing on people and colorful fruit formations¹ made of pineapples, bananas and even costly² durians.

"Today's special is durian, which is expensive. Lopburi monkeys like expensive things," said Yongyuth Kitwatananusont. She has organized over 30 monkey festivals.

The huge fresh meal costs over $3,000. It is a yearly³ tradition for locals in Lopburi to thank the monkeys for doing their part in bringing tourists to the area, which is sometimes known as "Monkey Province." The event takes place on the last Sunday in November.

The theme for this year's festival was wheelchair monkeys. Yongyuth, the event organizer, planned to donate 100 wheelchairs to needy⁴ people.

Tourists have been slowly returning to Thailand after the government launched⁵ a quarantine-free travel plan for vaccinated⁶ visitors in November. The country saw more than 100,000 travelers in November. That is as many as the number of arrivals in the first 10 months of 2021 combined.

The festival proved to be a popular event this year. Tourists were seen playing with monkeys with their cameras.

"I'm really happy to get to see this and now I'm thinking about going to the next festival," said Ayoub Boukhari, a visitor from Morocco. "It's quite unexpected⁷ and the monkeys are quite silly."

The return of the tradition also pleased locals.

"It's the first time in two years that monkeys get to eat all kinds of fruits and vegetables," said Lopburi local Thanida Phudjeeb. "I'm happy for them."

Words in This Story

festival –n. a special time or event when people gather to celebrate something

expensive –adj. costing a lot of money

tourist –n. a person who travels to a place for pleasure

theme –n. the subject or idea on which the style of something is based

wheelchair –n. a chair with wheels that is used by people who cannot walk because they are disabled, sick, or injured

silly –adj. playful and funny

1 formations   

n.形成( formation的名词复数 )；构成；形成物；编队

参考例句：

• Clouds are formations of condensed water vapour. 云是由凝聚的水蒸气构成的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• New word formations have not regularity. 新词的构成没有规律。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

3 yearly   

adj.每年的，一年一度的；adv.一年一次地

参考例句：

• The flower show is a yearly event in our town.我们镇上的花展一年举行一次。
• The yearly rental of her house is 2400 yuan.她这房子年租金是2400元。

4 needy   

adj.贫穷的，贫困的，生活艰苦的

参考例句：

• Although he was poor,he was quite generous to his needy friends.他虽穷，但对贫苦的朋友很慷慨。
• They awarded scholarships to needy students.他们给贫苦学生颁发奖学金。

5 launched   

v.发射( launch的过去式和过去分词 )；[计算机]开始（应用程序）；发动；开展（活动、计划等）

参考例句：

• He launched a bitter diatribe against the younger generation. 他对年轻一代发起了猛烈的抨击。
• The product was launched amid much fanfare worldwide. 这个产品在世界各地隆重推出。

6 vaccinated   

[医]已接种的，种痘的，接种过疫菌的

参考例句：

• I was vaccinated against tetanus. 我接种了破伤风疫苗。
• Were you vaccinated against smallpox as a child? 你小时候打过天花疫苗吗？

7 unexpected   

adj.想不到的，意外的

参考例句：

• I always keep some good wine in for unexpected guests.我总保存些好酒，用来招待不速之客。
• His promotion was unexpected.他的升迁出人意料。