托福阅读练习

1、While pop ular in the U.S., the Ap ril Fools Day traditi on is eve n more p revale nt inEuropean coun tries, such as France and Great Brita in. Although the roots of the traditi onal trick ings are un clear, the French and the British both have claims on theorigi n of the celebrati on.One theory hol

2、ds that the first April Fools Day was on April 1 of the year when Kingof France in stituted the new cale ndar. This new system p laced the day that had formerly bee n the first day of a new year on April 1. Many people were relucta nt toadjust to the new cale ndar and continued to celebrate New Year

3、s Day on what hadbecome the first day of Ap ril. Thus, they become the first April fools. Others bega n to give gag gifts on the day to mock the foolish ness of those who continued to celebrate the new year on April 1.An En glish story about the day, however, holds that it bega n sometime duri ng th

4、e 1200s. At the time, King Joh n of En gla nd was in the habit of making a road out of n early every p ath he walked regularly. The citize ns of one p articular farm village were aware of this. To avoid hav ing their gree n meadows and p astures disturbedwith one of the kings roads, they built a fen

5、ce that preven ted the king from walk ing through their coun tryside. The king sent a group of messe ngers to inform the villagers that they must remove the barrier. Upon heari ng that the king was planning to do this, however, the villagers deve loped a plan of their own. Whe n com mun ity of lun a

6、tics, with people behavi ng in a bizarre manner, throw ing things and running around wildly. The messe ngers, alarmed at what they had found, reported to King Joh n that these people were so mad as to be bey ond puni shme nt.So, the villagers saved their farmla nd by trick ing the King. In Great Bri

7、tai n, traditi on only allows Apri l Fool s tricks from midnight to noon on April 1. Those who try to p lay tricks in the afternoon become the fools themselves.s DayThe Origin of Ap ril Fool【今日头条】愚人节的由来愚人节的习俗在美国是很流行的，在欧洲国家如法国和英国就更是如此了.虽然这种愚弄人习俗的起源不甚清楚，但法国人和英国人却都声称这种庆祝活动是由他们开始的.有一种说法是，第一个愚人节始 于法国新历法实

8、行那年的 4月1日,在这一天法国 国王宣布 实行新历法.这种新历法将过去的新的一年第一天定在4月1日.很多人却不愿意按新的历法行事,还继续在 根据新的历法已经是 4月的第一天庆祝新年，于是他们就成了第一批愚人 另一些人开始在这一天送恶作剧的礼物来取笑那些继续在4月1日庆祝新年的人.关于这一天，英国的一个故事则 说它是始于13世纪的某一天.那时,英格兰的 约翰国王习 惯于将他经常走的几乎每一条小道都修成一条路.有一个乡村的居民知道了这个情况.为了保护他们绿色的草地和牧场免受国王修路所造成的破坏，他们修了一道篱笆来阻挡国王在他们的乡间穿行.国王派了一队使者去通报村民们必须拆除障碍.在听到国王打算这

9、么做时 村民们也想出了自己的办法.当使者到达时，他们 看到这儿的人像一群疯子似的，样子怪诞，乱扔东西，四下疯跑.使者们惊讶于他们看到的情景，向约翰国王报告说，这些人疯得厉害根本没法处罚.村民们就这样骗过了国王，保护了自己的农田.在英国，按习俗在4月1日只允许 从半夜到中午的这段时间可以搞愚人的恶作剧，到下午还这么做的人就成了愚人了.-one that can bringMeet the scie ntist who wants to build the ultimate submersible us face-to-face with the stra nge creatures that l

10、ive at the dee pest dep ths.We know so little about the dep ths of our ocea ns that they might as well exist on ano ther plan et. The majority of the sea floor has n ever bee n visited by huma ns. As to what lives and breeds dow n there in the icy dep ths, it rema ins best left to our imag in ati on

11、.A, an Explorer in Reside nee at Natio nal Geogra phic, has bee n exploring the sea since she was a tee nager, and she has bee n div ing since the 1950s. In those early days, as she explored the shallow seas in scuba gear, she was frustrated at notbeing able t o see what was going on in dee per wate

12、rs.From the earliest time I hadfrustrati on, to go out to the edge of a drop-off, as dee p as I could go, and look over,and the fish did n t stop, the ocea n did n t stop. I wan ted to go over the edge and see what was in the dee p water bey ond.“Tech no logy was the key for me to be able to see the

13、 ocea n with new eyes.A foun ded the company Deep Ocea n ExpIo rati on and Research in order to in vestigate this world, in visible from the ocea n surface. One of the submersiblesthe company is curre ntly desig ning is what Acalls her “ dream machine ” ; afloor, 11,000 metres (33,000ft) un derneath

14、 the oceansubmari ne that can take scie ntists all the way to the bottom of the dee pest ocea n s surface.Watch and read more from our series The Genius Beh ind: the most amaz ing and sometimes little-k nown tech no logical and scie ntific breakthroughs of moder n times, and the inno vative minds beh ind them.Exploring the ocea ns hidde n dep ths探索大洋深处这次与我们会晤的是希望构建最潜水器能让人真正见识到生活在大洋深处的各种奇怪生物, 新潜水器的科学家。我们对大洋深处知之甚少，其他行星上可能也会存在一些这样的生物。大部分海底人类未曾到达大部分海底。至于冰冷的海底有哪些生物物种，只能交由人们的想象力。国家地理协会驻校探险家席薇亚厄尔十几岁时就开始探索海洋，自20世纪50年代以来,一直潜水探索。早些时候，她采用水中呼吸装置在浅水区潜水，但是看不到深水区究竟在发生什么，这让她很沮丧。“最开始的时候我很沮丧，我出来