New Year's Day Parade 倫敦慶元旦大游行
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The script of this programme 本節目臺詞
Yang Li: Happy New Year and welcome to On the Town from BBC Learning English. I'm Lily. Have you ever heard about the New Year’s Day Parade in London?
今天我要為大家獻上一份新年特別禮物，這就是倫敦慶元旦大游行現場報道。
Well, I am joining big crowds of people in Parliament Square where the three-hour parade has just started.
倫敦慶元旦大游行不僅規模宏大，場面壯觀，而且有越來越多的外國表演隊前來助興。
So what is unique about the New Year's Day Parade in London? Dan Kirby is the Communications Director of the New Year's Day programme.
Well, it’s a most eclectic collection, most quintessentially British items you will ever see in one event.
Dan Kirby, Communications Director of the New Year's Day programme
Yang Li: 他說，倫敦大游行是一場令人大開眼界的活動，表演多姿多彩，而且最具英國特色。Eclectic 廣博的；quintessential 就是典型的，完美的。
This year the parade celebrates its 21st anniversary of bringing extraordinary entertainment to thousands of people every year.
不過，元旦大游行這一傳統又是如何開始的呢？ So Dan, how did the tradition of the London parade begin?
21 years ago London was a very boring, quiet place on New Year’s Day. The man who dreamed up the idea, Bob Bone and his wife, were in London with their children who had nothing to do. The shops were shut, museums were closed, the cinemas were shut and theatres were closed so they decided to do something about it. And the next year they had a small event and a few hundred people took part and a few hundred people watched it. 21 years on there are 10,000 performers from all over the world and we have probably 550,000 people on the street of London today. It’s absolutely huge. This event is being shown live on television by 500 stations all over the world.
Dan Kirby, Communications Director of the New Year's Day programme
Yang Li: 回顧一下，倫敦元旦游行活動是 1987 年開始的。發起人是 Bob Bone. He dreamed up the idea of a parade. Dream up 動詞短語，就是構想出來的意思。想想吧，僅僅21年的時間，從幾百人發展到10萬表演者和55萬觀眾的規模，真令人贊嘆! 10,000 performers and 550,000 spectators on the streets!
Here are some of the spectators' comments. 讓我們來聽聽觀眾的評論吧。
Woman: I think today’s parade is absolutely fantastic. We are really enjoying it.
Question: Which part do you like best?
Woman: I like the marching bands. You get the atmosphere when everybody is cheering and waving. It’s been lovely.
Woman: I enjoy seeing people being happy. The crowds and clowns and the parade is excellent this year.
Yang Li: These people talked about the bands 樂隊 the crowds 人群 and the clowns 小丑。
另外，英國人在形容喜慶活動的時候，經常使用像 fantastic, terrific, great and excellent 這些形容詞都表示，特別精彩，蓋帽，超級好的意思。
聽說這次有20多個國家的表演隊前來助興，but all performers from other countries have to travel a long distance and have to pay their own way to come to London, so why don't they celebrate the New Year in their own country instead? Here’s the answer from Dan:
The fame of the parade has spread to many continents. So they heard about the parade and they wanted to be here. There is no better place than London to celebrate the New Year.
Dan Kirby, Communications Director of the New Year's Day programme
Yang Li: 敦大游行名傳四海，許多對英國感興趣的人就組織起來了。注意他用了一個非常有用的句型 there is no better place than London to celebrate the New Year. It’s another way of saying London is the best place to celebrate the New Year.
Is London the best place to celebrate the New Year? Well I’ll leave you with some foreign visitors’ comments.
他們分別來自希臘 Greece, 芬蘭 Finland, 拉脫維亞 Latvia, 和德國 Germany.
Good luck with the listening 我是楊莉，祝大家新年愉快！我們下次節目再會。
