2013高考英语短文阅读：An Interesting Festival

　　An Interesting Festival

　　有趣的节日

　　The Agricultural Feast takes place after the Independence Day. It is not a worldwide celebration. Only Christians in Mexico look forward to its arrival for its religious origin:

　　Long ago, humans’ ancestors were bad. They fooled and played tricks on each other and never kept their word. So God turned up and drowned all their crops. Humans starved day and night, weeping. In order to gain God’s forgiveness, a woman poet set off to see God. She admired God and kept apologizing. God was moved. With his permission, humans finally had good harvests again. So, to wipe sadness and remind themselves of the belief in God, people began the festival.

　　On the festival, people gather in open air, such as playgrounds or parking lots, and energetically have fun with each other all night long, as though they were never tired. When a beauty dressed up in lovely clothing reads poems in memory of the poet, everyone holds their breath. Then, it is the custom that the bone of a rooster head is given to her as an award.

　　Obviously, the story is not true, but the festival is interesting.

　　农业盛会在独立日后举行。它不是一个世界性的庆典，由于它的宗教起源，只有墨西哥的基督徒才盼着节日的到来：

　　很久以前，人类的祖先很坏，他们互相欺骗，耍诡计，从不遵守诺言。于是，上帝出现了，淹死了他们所有的作物。人们日夜挨饿，哭泣着。为了获得上帝的原谅，一位女诗人出发去见上帝。她对上帝的赞美和怀有的歉意感动了上帝，有了他的允许，人类终于又获得了丰收。因此，为了抹去忧伤并提醒自己对上帝的信仰，人们开始举办这个节日。

　　在节日那天，人们聚集在露天场所，例如操场或停车场，通宵达旦地玩得非常开心，精力充沛的人们似乎不知疲倦。当一位用可爱的衣服盛装打扮的美女朗读诗歌以纪念那位诗人时，在场的每个人都屏住了呼吸，然后，按照风俗，将奖励给她一只公鸡的头骨。

　　很明显，这个故事不是真的，但是节日却很有趣。