Unit9HolidaysandSpecialDays新编大学英语第二版第一册课文翻译.doc

Unit?9?Holidays?and?Special?Days A Merry Christmas More Stuffing? by Patrick Brendan [1] Merry, as you may know, has two meanings: happy and drunk. If youre like a large number of British people, then your Christmas will be an alcoholic, rather than a religious, occasion. Throughout the whole Christmas season which stretches from early December to the end of the first week of January, you will spend hours drinking with friends, relatives and colleagues. Whether you are surrounded by the noisy friendliness of a pub or whether you are seated in the peaceful comfort of someones home, you will be sipping away on a drink. [2] If you walk down Piccadilly or Oxford Street just before Christmas, you will see an incredible amount of money being spent on electronic games, bottles of spirits, expensive clothes, CDs, cassettes, cameras, and a large number of luxury items. If you walk down the main street of several towns in the East end of London just before Christmas, you wont see a large amount of money being spent on presents. If you have the money or if you are prepared to go into debt, you will participate in the conspicuous consumption that Christmas has come to represent. If you are poor, you will feel sad and disappointed because you cannot give the gifts you would like to give to your loved ones. [3] Christmas is supposed to be a time to express our love and goodwill towards others. It is supposed to be a time when we perform acts of kindness for people less fortunate than ourselves. But do we think of other people when we sit down to our Christmas dinner? Of course not—were too busy eating those delicious foods associated with Christmas. We are too busy wondering whether the presents we gave were as nice or better than the ones we received. We forget to think of the sick and the homeless. The whole idea of Christmas now is largely unchristian—Im sure that Christ would be distressed if he could see what sort of celebrations are being carried out in his name. [4]