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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
Ted1 Landphair | Washington, DC 24 November 2009
On Thursday, we Americans will mark our annual Thanksgiving holiday. It often revolves2 around a lavish3 dinner for family and friends that begins with a prayer of thanks for our blessings4. The Thanksgiving tradition is modeled after harvest-home feasts - especially what's been called the First Thanksgiving in colonial Massachusetts.
What a pleasant First Thanksgiving in this painting by Jean Louis Ferris. But it's fantasy. For one thing, it was fall in the Northeast, and everyone would have been warmly dressed
It's the pleasant story of a cold, late-fall day in 1621, when about 50 pious5 English settlers called Pilgrims, who had barely survived their first winter in the New World, shared a feast with neighboring Wampanoag Indians.
But according to curators at Plimoth Plantation6 – a living-history museum in the same settlement where the Pilgrims and Indians marked that harvest almost 400 years ago – the Thanksgiving story is more fable7 than fact.
We can be pretty certain that the Pilgrim and Indians' turkey, if indeed its meat was on the table, was a lean, tough wild variety - not a fine, fat gobbler like this
For one thing, the event likely took place in October, closer to the corn harvest. For another, while the skimpy records from 1621 mention fowl8, these were likely geese and ducks. They were certainly not the plump, domesticated9 turkeys that American families stuff and roast today.
And you can forget the First Thanksgiving illustrations of long tables piled high with breads and pumpkin10 pies. The Pilgrims had neither the sugar nor the wheat flour and ovens needed to make those baked goods.
The Pilgrims and Indians had pumpkins11 and other gourds12, but no real way to make pies out of them. Even mashed13, boiled pumpkin innards would not have tasted very good without sugar
Nor did the Wampanoags wear big, beautiful feathered headdresses like those of Plains Indians. Wampanoag attire14 was spare and practical.
And ignore the myth that this was the first of many happy Thanksgivings celebrated15 with native people who willingly accepted colonization16. The alliance between Pilgrims and Wampanoags lasted just 50 years before broken treaties led to fighting and bloodshed.
Discount, too, those images of men in Pilgrim costumes - fine coats, shiny shoes, and tall hats with big buckles17 above their wide brims. The struggling Pilgrims wore beaver18 hats and deerskin coats. After the rough year they had had, they were likely thankful to have ANY clothes, and to have lived to wear them.
Read more of Ted's personal reflections and stories from the road on his blog, Ted Landphair's America.
1 ted | |
vt.翻晒,撒,撒开 | |
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2 revolves | |
v.(使)旋转( revolve的第三人称单数 );细想 | |
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3 lavish | |
adj.无节制的;浪费的;vt.慷慨地给予,挥霍 | |
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4 blessings | |
n.(上帝的)祝福( blessing的名词复数 );好事;福分;因祸得福 | |
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5 pious | |
adj.虔诚的;道貌岸然的 | |
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6 plantation | |
n.种植园,大农场 | |
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7 fable | |
n.寓言;童话;神话 | |
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8 fowl | |
n.家禽,鸡,禽肉 | |
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9 domesticated | |
adj.喜欢家庭生活的;(指动物)被驯养了的v.驯化( domesticate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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10 pumpkin | |
n.南瓜 | |
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11 pumpkins | |
n.南瓜( pumpkin的名词复数 );南瓜的果肉,南瓜囊 | |
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12 gourds | |
n.葫芦( gourd的名词复数 ) | |
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13 mashed | |
a.捣烂的 | |
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14 attire | |
v.穿衣,装扮[同]array;n.衣着;盛装 | |
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15 celebrated | |
adj.有名的,声誉卓著的 | |
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16 colonization | |
殖民地的开拓,殖民,殖民地化; 移殖 | |
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17 buckles | |
搭扣,扣环( buckle的名词复数 ) | |
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18 beaver | |
n.海狸,河狸 | |
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