Module 4　Carnival

　　【美文阅读】　

　　西方Carnival，东方嘉年华。空气中弥漫着浓厚的节日气氛，万人空巷。场面宏大的游行，华丽的服饰，精美的食物，盛大的宴会，各色的面具，浪漫的"奇遇"......，人们尽情地欢笑，尽情地舞蹈，尽情地享受节日的快乐，尽情地放松自己，为自己的心灵寻找一个小憩的、温暖的"家"，你想进一步了解这一切吗？让我们一起走进狂欢节，共同领略这异域的节日风情吧！

　　Carnival is an annual celebration of life found in many countries of the world.And in fact, by learning more about carnival we can learn more about accepting and understanding other cultures.

　　Many years ago, the followers of the Catholic(基督教的) religion in Italy started the tradition of holding a wild costume festival right before the first day of Lent.Because Catholics are not supposed to eat meat during Lent, they called their festival, carnival-which means"to put away the meat"．As time passed, carnival in Italy became quite famous and in fact it spread to France, Spain, and all the Catholic countries in Europe.Then as the French, Spanish, and Portuguese began to take control of the Americas and other parts of the world, they brought with them their tradition of celebrating carnival.

　　In order to put a carnival band together, it takes many weeks of preparing and lots of creativity, energy，and patience.The first step is to come up with a theme

　　or overall concept for the band and to develop costume illustrations for each dancer.Costumes are then sewn, decorated, and fitted to each individual dancer.

　　The larger costumes are usually more difficult to design and build.Huge frames are created by bending wire into shapes, and then covering with paper and other materials.Physics plays an important role, as the costume must be able to move and dance across stages and streets, and not fall apart!

　　Carnival offers many people a tool for self­expression and exploration, a tool to seek out roots, a tool to develop new forms of looking at the world and its cultures, and finally, a tool to unite the world, to discover what people all over the world have in common, and to celebrate what makes people different.The power and creativity that are hidden in these art forms can transform lives.Join hands and together we will dance to the song of life!

　　【诱思导学】

　　1．What can we learn by learning more about carnival?

　　【答案】　We can learn more about accepting and understanding other cultures.

　　2．Which countries played an important rale in spreading carnival?

　　【答案】　Frence，Spain, and Portugal

　　3．What does carnival offer people?

　　【答案】　Carnival offers many people a tool to develop new forms of looking at the world and its cultures.