导读：春分后十五天为清明，是郊游的好日子。清明又是扫坟祭祖的日子，民间又称为“鬼节”、“冥节”，与七月十五、十月一日总称“三冥节”，有城隍出巡的仪式。

寒食、清明本来是两个节日，但山东民间大都把两个节日合而为一。一般叫清明，少数地区叫寒食节，但过节却是在清明这天。垦利地方自清明节前三日算起，称“大寒食”、“二寒食”、“三寒食”，第四日为清明，人们于这四天内扫墓、踏青。鄄城以清明前一日为寒食节，又称清明节为“鬼门关节”。

扫墓是清明的一项主要活动。旧时，泰安的扫墓仪式比较隆重。男主人挑着四个小菜和水饺到祖坟，先将祭品供上，然后焚香烧纸，洒酒祭奠。招远、即墨、临朐、临清等地扫墓时还要给坟墓添新土。据说，这是给祖先修屋，以防夏天雨大漏水，实质上是对祖先的怀念。多数地区是在清明这天扫墓，少数地区(如诸城)在寒食这天扫墓，而龙口、博兴等地则在清明前四天扫墓。现在一般都在清明这天扫墓。

介绍完了中国的“鬼节”，让我们把目光转向西方，看看西方是否也有这样的节日，让我们一起看看下面这个关于“鬼节”的小故事。

11月的第一天是西方传统的万圣节，也称“鬼节”，而10月31日之夜就是著名的万圣节前夜了。这一天，孩子们都会兴高采烈地穿上五颜六色的化妆服，甚至还会戴上千奇百怪的面具，将自己打扮得“鬼模鬼样”，为这个节日平添了许多乐趣。本文小作者为大家讲述了最让她难忘的一次“鬼节”经历……

Growing up, I always felt a great animosity[2] towards theholiday Halloween. Why you ask? Long story short, I was soeasily scared, that it wasn’t even funny (okay, looking back onit, maybe it was a little funny). However, even though I was scared, I still had to try and hide itand pretend that I wasn’t scared so that I wouldn’t become a target of Halloween pranks[3]. Yep,that was the complicated life of a pre-adolescent scaredy cat.[4] Out of all the years of this,probably the most memorable was the Halloween of 2006. Here’s the story.

在我成长的这些年里，我一直都对万圣节怀有一种强烈的憎恶感。你会问为什么？长话短说吧，我太容易被吓到了，而且这一点都不好玩（好吧，现在回想起来，还算有点意思）。不过，即便我感到很害怕，也必须努力隐藏这个弱点，装作不害怕，这样我才不会成为万圣节前夕恶作剧的目标。是的，这就是一个青春期之前的胆小鬼的复杂生活。在所有万圣节前夜的经历中，最令人难忘的就是2006年了。故事是这样的。

My day started out normal, or at least as normal as it can get on Halloween morning. I was in 3rdgrade, and I was walking towards my classroom. Since it was Halloween, we were all dressed up incostumes and I was a fairy princess (don’t judge me, I was a girly[5] girl back then).

那一天一如平常，或者说，至少在万圣节前夜的上午还算正常。当时我上三年级，往教室走去。那天是万圣节前夜，我们都穿上了特色服装，我扮成精灵公主的样子（可不要批评我哦，那时我还只是个小姑娘呢）。

As I walked in to my classroom, all the lights were off and the teacher was nowhere to be seen. Assoon as the clock struck 8, the door slammed shut and we heard a horrible cackling[6] voice. “Hello my children!” said the voice. It came from a woman in a black robes and a pointy hat. Herskin was green and she had warts all over her face. It took me a few minutes to realize that thiswas actually my teacher, Mrs. Roberson. Thankfully, after the long speech of how she was not Mrs.Roberson, she turned the lights back on and let us work on crossword puzzles.

当我走进教室时，所有的灯都熄灭了，四处不见老师的身影。钟表一敲响8点，门就砰地关上了，我们听到一个恐怖而急促的声音说道：“你们好啊，我的孩子们！”声音出自一个穿黑袍、戴尖帽的女人，她的皮肤是绿色的，脸上还长满了疣子。我花了几分钟时间才认出她其实就是我的老师——罗伯逊夫人。所幸的是，她在发表了一大段自己不是罗伯逊夫人的讲话后，便重新打开灯，让我们做填字游戏。

Sadly, this didn’t last very long. After about an hour, Mrs. Roberson (or Mrs. Hagatha, as she toldus she was) led us through a dark hallway formerly known as the 5th grade wing[7]. The halllooked nothing like the hall I walked past every day! Cobwebs were everywhere, glowing eyesstared at me from behind doors, and I could have sworn that I heard the howling of awerewolf[8].

可惜，没过多久，大概一小时后，罗伯逊夫人（或是哈加莎夫人，因为她是这样告诉我们的）带着大家穿过一条漆黑的走廊，这里曾是5年级的侧廊。这条走廊看上去跟我每天走过的完全不一样！到处都是蜘蛛网，门后还有发光的眼睛正瞪着我，而且我发誓听见了狼人的嗥叫。

I shuddered. Don’t worry, I told myself. You’ll be okay.¬ After all, what’s the worse that couldhappen during school? She took us to an empty classroom where the other 3rd grade teacherswere (also dressed as witches) and then blindfolded all of us after we sat down on the ground. “Now, I will be passing around various body parts.” she said, “Do not attempt to peek at theorgans, or we will eat you. First is the heart...”

我感到不寒而栗。“别担心，”我告诉自己。“不会有事的。毕竟，在学校里还能发生更糟的事吗？”她把我们带到一间空教室，其他三年级的老师都在场（他们也穿成了巫师的样子）。接着，我们席地而坐，所有人的眼睛都被蒙住了。“现在，我会分发各种各样的身体器官，”她说，“不要企图偷窥这些器官，否则的话，我们会吃掉你哦。首先是心脏……”

I held my breath. Of course they weren’t really body parts, but what was it? The “heart” wasslimy, cold, and it smelled really weird! And... it was moving! I was terrified. Then came theeyeballs, the stomach, and the disembodied hand. What could this be? I wondered. Finally, as the“intestines” came around, I snuck a peak.[9] It was only cold spaghetti[10] noodles! I breathed asigh of relief. It wasn’t something horrid like pickled pig’s feet of cow eyeballs, just noodles.[11]The spleen[12] and the brain didn’t seem so bad after that.

我屏住呼吸。当然了，它们不是真正的器官，那会是什么呢？这个“心脏”黏糊糊的，冷冰冰的，而且闻起来真的很怪异！还有……它在滑动！我吓坏了。接着是眼球、胃和断手。我很纳闷儿，“这是什么做的呢？”终于，当“大肠小肠”传过来时，我偷窥了一眼。原来那只是冷的意大利面条啊！我如释重负地松了口气。它并不像腌猪蹄或牛眼那么令人毛骨悚然，就只是面条而已。在这之后分发的脾脏和大脑似乎也没那么糟糕了。

After that ordeal[13], we went back to our own classrooms. “Betty,” I heard a voice cackle[14], “May I have a word[15]?” Frozen in fear, I walked towards my teacher. She must have seen mepeek! The other students were at recess[16], what would she do? “I just wanted to congratulateyou on your perfect test score. Now begone[17]!” she said pointing towards the playground. Isighed in relief for maybe the umpteenth[18] time that day. I was safe, at least for today. (Ofcourse, I knew she wouldn’t eat me, but still.)

在那场磨难之后，我们回到了自己的教室。“贝蒂，”我听见一个声音咯咯地笑着说道，“我可以和你谈谈吗？”我吓呆了，向老师走去。她一定是看见我偷窥了！其他学生都去课间休息了，她会做什么呢？“我只是想祝贺你测验考了个理想的好成绩。现在走吧！”她边说边指向了操场。我宽慰地松口气，这在那天都不知是第几次了。我安全了，至少今天是这样。（当然，我知道她是不会吃了我的，但我依然很害怕。）

Now do you see why I hate Halloween? Even though my logic told me I was perfectly safe, I wouldstill jump at the slightest thing! Maybe visit me at my blog, and I’ll tell you the (even funnier)story of my horrid trip to a haunted[19] house.

现在，你明白我为何憎恶万圣节前夜了吧？即使我的理智告诉我，我绝对是安全的，但我还是会因为一点小动静就吓得突然跳起来！或许你可以登陆我的博客，我会告诉你我去鬼屋所经历的（甚至更有趣的）恐怖故事哦。

Vocabulary:

1. Halloween: 万圣节前夕（10月31日晚上）。

2. animosity: 憎恶，敌意。

3. prank: 胡闹，恶作剧。

4. yep: 〈美俚〉是，是的（yes的变体）；scaredy cat: 〈口〉= ’fraid cat，胆小鬼，懦夫。

5. girly: = girlie，姑娘，小姑娘（常用作爱称）。

6. cackling: 发急促而轻微声音的。

7. wing: 房屋翼部，侧厅，厢房。

8. werewolf: （神话传说中）变成狼的人，狼人。

9. intestines: 肠（通称）；sneak a peak: 偷窥，悄悄看。

10. spaghetti：意大利面。

11. horrid: 可怕的，极讨厌的； pickle: 腌制。

12. spleen: 脾脏。

13. ordeal: 苦难经历，折磨，煎熬。

14. cackle: 咯咯地笑。

15. word: 谈话。

16. recess: 〈美〉（学校的）课间休息，假期。

17. begone: 出去，走开（仅用于祈使句或不定式）。

18. umpteenth: 〈口〉第无数（个或次）的，许多的。

19. haunted: 闹鬼的，鬼魂出没的。

（来源：普特听力网 信息员：黄晓宁）