VOA慢速英语--哥斯达黎加神父在疫情期间演唱公共卫生信息

A Catholic priest is winning new fans in Costa Rica with a COVID-19 song set to the music of salsa.

Sergio Valverde is best known for his aid to the poor in the Central American country. For the last few Sundays, Valverde has performed his song with a dance in front of Cristo Rey church in San Jose. His aim is to get people to wear protective face coverings, or masks, and continue being careful during the pandemic.

"Without the mask, there's COVID for you, COVID for me," he sang. The words are set to the music of the song Sopa de Caracol, or Snail¹ Soup in English. The song performed by Honduran group Banda Blanca was very popular in 1991.

Valverde said he had not even written down the lyrics², or words, of his version of the song. He said he was putting the words together as he sang. He was surprised to see how popular it became on social media.

The Catholic priest said, "the issue of COVID is affecting the entire world, there's pain, there's suffering." He continued, "I, as a priest, see so many people suffering, sick, in pain, people without work and who are dying of hunger and I wanted to help a little."

Valverde could not have timed it any better. Costa Rica had a record of more than 2,700 new infections in one day recently. The intensive care area of its public hospitals are 95 percent full. The country has recorded more than 3,200 COVID-19 deaths in total.

Valverde is known for his work with children left on the streets and giving food to the poor. He said he is seeing more in need than ever before during the economic crisis which was worsened by the pandemic.

Valverde admitted that he has enjoyed the experience. He said, "the whole world is so crazy that they looked for another nut."

Words in This Story

church – n. a building for public and especially Christian³ worship

priest– n. clergy⁴ or a person who has the authority to lead or perform ceremonies in some religions and especially in some Christian religions

salsa – n. a type of popular Latin-American music

snail– n. a small animal that lives in a shell that it carries on its back, that moves very slowly, and that can live in water or on land

nut– n. a crazy or strange person

1 snail   

n.蜗牛

参考例句：

• Snail is a small plant-eating creature with a soft body.蜗牛是一种软体草食动物。
• Time moved at a snail's pace before the holidays.放假前的时间过得很慢。

2 lyrics   

n.歌词

参考例句：

• music and lyrics by Rodgers and Hart 由罗杰斯和哈特作词作曲
• The book contains lyrics and guitar tablatures for over 100 songs. 这本书有100多首歌的歌词和吉他奏法谱。

3 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

4 clergy   

n.[总称]牧师，神职人员

参考例句：

• I could heartily wish that more of our country clergy would follow this example.我衷心希望，我国有更多的牧师效法这个榜样。
• All the local clergy attended the ceremony.当地所有的牧师出席了仪式。