新综合教程 第一册 教学课件 熊选琴 刘重霄Unit 7 1 U7.pptVIP

Unit 7 Text A: Easter or Eostre? When asked to write an article about Easter, a funny thing happened on my journey of discovery. I knew the Easter Celebration was one of the two major religious festivals associated with the Christian Church, but it occurred to me that I didnt know how the Easter Bunny and chocolate Easter Eggs, let alone the name “Easter”, related to this solemn event. So, to solve this puzzle, we needed to delve into ancient history in order to find the connection. In the course of this research several unusual “facts” were discovered. For instance, Christmas, as the other major Christian Religious festival, celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, who, according to the Bible, is the Son of God, and Christmas always falls on the 25thof December each year. On the other hand, Easter, which celebrates the death of Jesus Christ and, three days later, his resurrection when he ascends into Heaven and returns to the home of His Father, never falls on the same date. The Easter event takes place over four days commencing with “Good” Friday, when Christ was crucified, through to Easter Sunday, when his body was found to have disappeared from a sealed tomb. The Church authorities have decreed that this celebration must take place, sometime, between the 22ndMarch and the 25thof April, each year. Easter Monday, as it turns out, tends to be a Public holiday in many western countries and is not, specifically, a religious event. Why does the date of Easter change?—If the birth of Christ was so well known why wasnt His death equally well known? It seems that, in the early days of Christianity, when it was a new idea to many different societies around the Middle East, the early preachers tended to use the existing festivals to preach their new religion. One of the major festivals was the Spring Equinox, which happened to occur around the same time as Christs death and resurrection. The Spring Equinox occurs as a result of the plan