英国新闻听力 清明节雇人扫墓

For those of you outside China who don’t already know it, one of the biggest festivals Qingming or the Day of Tomb Sweeping¹ is about to take place. This is when traditionally family members honor² their ancestorsby sweeping their grave³ sides offering up food and drink and sometimes weeping. Now there is a new take onan ancient custom. Some enterprising businesses are offering those relatives too distant or too busy to get to their ancestors’ tombs the possibility of paying someone else to do it. Tim Franks⁴ has been talking to a Chinese writer based in London.

Actually it is a festival. It’s a quite big festival and also has almost 2,500 years’ history. As a Chinese brought up in China, educated in China, I admire my country culture. So this event actually in Chinesewe call that “Qingming”. So that means you take your whole family to the tomb to have a conversation, you report your daily life to your elder generations.

Eurovision Song Contest is celebrating its sixtieth birthday today in London featuring contestants⁵ old andnew. And while we can’t take you to the event, it’s sold out, we thought we’d bring you a selection⁶ of some of our favorite performances over the years. You are not old enough to have seen every single Eurovision contest there’ve been, but you’ve seen a fair few, haven’t you? Which have been the standing⁷ out memories for you?

You know, when I like Eurovision best is when it gets most nakedly⁸ political. And my favorite moment from Eurovision was last year in Denmark when the audience was wholeheartedly booing the Russian entry because of anger at Russian anti-gay laws and the conflict in Ukraine. It is political. It is political contest. And the political things count. And I have fantastic memories of Ani Lorak from Ukraine singing Shady⁹ Lady in 2008.

Have things changed? Often people have parties, don’t they, around Eurovision Song Contest, but now we’ve got social media and everyone can join in with comments throughout the performance. Has that made it more fun and has it changed the crazy voting patterns at all?

No. The voting patterns are crazy, but of course every country gets an equal vote. And there’ve been always those accusations¹⁰ of neighboring countries voting for each other. These things changed. You know, Ukraine and Russia always used to vote for each other reliably. That pattern was broken last year. You have to be the most popular song. Otherwise, you know, how would Germany have won the thing? How would Finland have won? How would Britain have won?

你们中有些人不在中国生活，或许还不知道，中国即将迎来一年中最大的节日之一——清明节（扫墓的节日）。传统上，家人在这一天去扫墓、上供吃喝，有时还在坟前哭泣，他们以这样的方式祭祖。如今，一些新兴的商业模式为远在外地或太忙而到不了先人坟前的家属提供了雇人扫墓的可能性。蒂姆·弗兰克斯采访了住在伦敦的一位中国作家。

它是一个节日，是一个相当大的节日，有将近2500年的历史。作为一个在中国长大、在中国接受教育的中国人，我仰慕我们祖国的文化。在汉语里，我们称这个节日为“清明”。这一天，你带着全家人到坟地里和故去的亲人对话、向他们汇报你的日常生活。

今天，欧洲歌唱大赛在伦敦庆祝了它60岁的生日，新老选手齐聚一堂。虽然我们不能带你走进现场，因为票已经卖完了，但我们想，还是可以为你带来历年我们最喜欢的一些节目。你的年龄还是不够大，没有见证每一届的欧洲歌唱大赛，但你也看了不少年了，有哪些让你印象最深刻？

你知道吗，我最喜欢欧洲歌唱大赛的时候就是它的政治性最一览无余的时候。我最喜欢的欧洲歌唱大赛时刻是去年在丹麦，观众出于对俄罗斯反对同性恋法律及其与乌克兰的冲突的愤怒，在俄罗斯选手入场时集体起哄。这就是政治。这是一场具有政治性的比赛。政治对比赛至关重要。另外，我对2008年来自乌克兰的安妮·罗拉克印象非常好，她演唱的歌曲是Shady Lady。

情况有变化吗？通常围绕着欧洲歌唱大赛人们是分派别的，但现在我们有了社交媒体，人人都能参与整个过程的评论。这种形式会让大赛变得更有趣吗？它有没有改变以前那种疯狂的投票模式？

没有。投票模式还是疯狂，但当然，每个国家都有平等的表决权。一直有人指责邻国之间互相投票。这种情况有所改变。你也知道，乌克兰和俄罗斯以前总是相互信任、相互投票，但去年这种模式被打破了。最受欢迎的歌曲才胜出。否则，德国怎么会赢？芬兰怎么会赢？英国怎么会赢？

1 sweeping   

adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的

参考例句：

• The citizens voted for sweeping reforms.公民投票支持全面的改革。
• Can you hear the wind sweeping through the branches?你能听到风掠过树枝的声音吗？

2 honor   

n.光荣；敬意；荣幸；vt.给…以荣誉；尊敬

参考例句：

• I take your visit as a great honor.您的来访是我莫大的光荣。
• It is a great honor to receive that prize.能拿到那个奖是无上的光荣。

3 grave   

n.墓穴，坟墓，雕刻工，抑音；adj.庄重的，严肃的，重大的，低沉的；vt.雕刻

参考例句：

• Marriage is the grave of love.婚姻是爱情的坟墓。
• This is a very grave matter indeed.这问题的确非常严重。

4 franks   

n.坦白的，直率的( frank的名词复数 )；（在信件上）盖邮资已付印记，盖免付邮资印记v.（在信件上）盖邮资已付印记，盖免付邮资印记( frank的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The Franks were originally a loose confederation of Germanic tribes. 法兰克人原来是日尔曼部落的一个松散部落。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Some move to less pedestrian-friendly areas because of concerns about crime or schools, Franks said. 一些人搬往不利于步行的区域居住是因为犯罪或者学校原因，Franks说。 来自互联网

5 contestants   

n.竞争者，参赛者( contestant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The competition attracted over 500 contestants representing 8 different countries. 这次比赛吸引了代表8个不同国家的500多名参赛者。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency. 两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 selection   

n.选择，挑选，精选品，可选择的东西

参考例句：

• We left the selection of the team to the captain.我们把挑选队员的工作交给了队长。
• The shop has a fine selection of cheeses.那家商店有各种精美乳酪可供选购。

7 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

8 nakedly   

裸体地，露出地

参考例句：

• The horror of this, so nakedly terrifying, held them all silent. 该事之恐怖，实在令人毛骨悚然，他们都吓得一声不吭。
• They were attacked as they huddled nakedly on the bare hill. 当他们在光秃秃的山上毫无防备地挤做一团的时候，有人对他们发起了进攻。

9 shady   

adj.成荫的，多荫的，可疑的，靠不住的

参考例句：

• This is a shady avenue.这是条林阴大道。
• He's a rather shady person.他是个相当靠不住的人。

10 accusations   

n.指责( accusation的名词复数 )；指控；控告；（被告发、控告的）罪名

参考例句：

• There were accusations of plagiarism. 曾有过关于剽窃的指控。
• He remained unruffled by their accusations. 对于他们的指控他处之泰然。