美国英语听力80篇1 Lesson01

[00:03.27]Part 1 American Mosaic¹
[00:08.20]Text 1 Leap Year
[00:29.78]February has an extra day this year because the year 2,000 is a "leap year".
[00:36.57]That means that one day is added to the calendar.
[00:40.86]That day is February twenty-ninth, also known as "Leap Day".
[00:47.44]Leap days were added to some years to make the calendar year
[00:52.43]nearly the same as the time it takes the Earth to travel around the sun.
[00:57.99]That is exactly 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and a little over 45 seconds.
[01:08.88]So our calendar year is either 365 days in non-leap years or 366 days in leap years.
[01:08.94]The leap year was first used in the Julian Calendar 2,046 years ago.
[01:16.64]It was developed by the Roman Emperor Julius Caesar.
[01:21.16]In the Julian calendar, each year contained twelve months
[01:26.28]and had an average of 365 and one-fourth days in a year.
[01:33.07]This was done by having three years of 365 days and one year of 366 days: a leap day every four years.
[01:47.13]However, after Julius Caesar died,
[01:50.63]it was discovered that the priests² who wrote the yearly³ calendars had been adding leap days every three years instead of every four.
[02:00.71]As a result, no more leap days were added for many years.
[02:06.54]By 1582, Pope⁴ Gregory the Thirteenth recognized that the calendar had too many leap days.
[02:16.10]If this continued, the seasons would start on different days each year.
[02:22.71]Over time,for example, this would cause the holiday of Easter to move closer and closer to Christmas.
[02:32.16]So Pope Gregory changed the calendar.
[02:35.69]It became known as the Gregorian Calendar. It is the one that is used most today.
[02:43.60]Pope Gregory's calendar continued to have leap days every four years, with an exception⁵.
[02:51.21]Years ending in zerozero were leap years only if they could be divided by 400.
[02:59.83]So this year is a leap year, but 1900 was not.
[03:05.76]February 29, 2000 will be the first leap day in a century year since the year 1600.

1 mosaic   

n./adj.镶嵌细工的，镶嵌工艺品的，嵌花式的

参考例句：

• The sky this morning is a mosaic of blue and white.今天早上的天空是幅蓝白相间的画面。
• The image mosaic is a troublesome work.图象镶嵌是个麻烦的工作。

2 priests   

n.（基督教和罗马天主教的）神父( priest的名词复数 )；牧师；（非基督教会的）教士；祭司

参考例句：

• the ordination of women priests 女司祭的授职礼
• The clergy remain divided on the issue of women priests. 在女性教士的问题上，牧师们意见不一。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 yearly   

adj.每年的，一年一度的；adv.一年一次地

参考例句：

• The flower show is a yearly event in our town.我们镇上的花展一年举行一次。
• The yearly rental of her house is 2400 yuan.她这房子年租金是2400元。

4 pope   

n.（罗马天主教的）教皇

参考例句：

• The Pope is the spiritual leader of many Christians.教皇是众多基督徒的宗教领袖。
• The Pope is the supreme leader of the Roman Catholic Church.教皇是罗马天主教的最高领袖。

5 exception   

n.例外,除外

参考例句：

• Everyone should keep discipline and you are no exception. 每个人都应该遵守纪律,你也毫无例外。
• There's an exception to every rule. 每项规则均有例外。