父親節英語聽力文摘

關於父親節，我們瞭解的也許只是父親節在六月的第三個星期天。更多的'就不知道了。下面，為大家送上一篇父親節的英語聽力，供大家練習。

Father's Day is a fairly new celebration in the British calendar compared with Mother's Day, which has been a very popular and well celebrated festival in the UK for a very long time.

The origins of the celebration are American and it was inspired by the actions of a man named William Smart. He was a veteran of the US Civil War and his wife died giving birth to their sixth child. He raised six children alone without remarrying, which was undoubtedly unusual back in those days.

His daughter, Sonora Dodd, realised when she was an adult what her father had sacrificed for his children. It was in the early 1900s and she was actually at church one day, listening to a sermon on Mother's Day. She thought there should also be a Father's Day celebration.

And so the tradition was born, on the third Sunday every June, close to the anniversary of Sonora's father's death. Britain took the idea of Father's Day from the American celebration and it has been celebrated officially since the 1970s.

Father's Day is never quite such the big commercial event that Mother's Day is, probably because it hasn't been in existence for so long. But what do British people do for Father's Day?

Well, most people would buy their fathers a card. The card would probably have a nice message in it saying what a great Dad their father is. Some people do buy presents as well.

Popular gifts for Dads are probably ties, chocolates or socks because these are things that Dads can always use even if they don't want them. In the run-up to Father's Day, or indeed Mother's Day, there will be adverts on the TV giving us ideas of CDs or gadgets we can buy. Card shops will be full of mugs or pens and similar merchandise with 'World's Greatest Dad' written on them.

Some families might do things together to celebrate Father's Day like going for a meal. As a special treat, British people might give their Dad a bit of a rest – make him a cup of tea, or even wash his car and mow the lawn to make him feel really appreciated.

　　重點詞彙

celebration

慶祝

inspired by

受啟發

Civil War

內戰

remarrying

再婚

sacrificed

犧牲

officially

正式地

in existence

存在

adverts

廣告

mugs

杯子

treat

款待

origins

起源

veteran

退役軍人

raised

養育了

undoubtedly

毫無疑問的

sermon

傳教

commercial

商業性的

the run-up

…即將到來之際

gadgets

小器具， 小玩意

merchandise

商品

mow the lawn

除草