愚人節就快到了，準備好怎麼捉弄你的朋友了嗎? 你知道愚人節的英文怎麼說嗎? 你知道有歷史上最著名的愚人節把戲嗎? 快來一邊學英文，一邊瞭解這些故事吧!
*April Fools’ Day is celebrated every year on the first day of April as a day when people play*practical jokes and *hoaxes on each other. The jokes and their *victims are known as “April fools”. Hoax stories may be reported by the *press and other media on this day and explained on *subsequent days. Popular since the 19th century, the day is not a *national holiday in any country.
每年的四月一日會慶祝愚人節，在這天人們會互相惡作劇及戲弄對方。那些笑話和那些被騙的人稱為「April fools」，新聞沒提在當天會報導這些騙術，以即在接下來幾天說明。從19世紀起，這個節日就很受歡迎，但這天不是任何一個國家的國定假日。
*April Fools’ Day 愚人節
* practical jokes 惡作劇
*hoaxes 戲弄、騙局
*victims受害者(這裡只愚人節被捉弄的人)
*press 媒體
*subsequent其後的；subsequent events 隨後發生的事情
*national holiday 國定假日
The Eruption of Mount Edgecumbe(埃奇克姆火山的噴發1974.04.01)
The residents of *Sitka, *Alaska woke to a disturbing sight. Clouds of black smoke were rising from the *crater of Mount Edgecumbe, the *long-dormant *volcano neighboring them. People spilled out of their homes onto the streets to *gaze up at the volcano, terrified that it was active again and might soon *erupt. Luckily it turned out that man, not nature, was responsible for the smoke.
A local practical joker named Porky Bickar had flown hundreds of old *tires into the volcano’s crater and then *lit them on fire, all in a attempt to fool the *city dwellers into believing that the volcano was *stirring to life. According to local legend, when Mount St. Helens erupted six years later, a Sitka resident wrote to Bickar to tell him, “This time you’ve gone too far!”
阿拉斯加矽地卡的居民從睡夢中驚醒，發現駭人的景象，濃濃黑煙不斷從埃奇克姆火山口竄出，這是個鄰近他們的且長期處於休眠狀態火山。居民趕緊逃出家門到大街上，深怕火山再度甦醒且噴發。
幸運的是，最後發現這一切都是Porky Bickar在惡作劇，他把輪胎丟進火山口然後點燃，為的是要捉弄市民，讓他們以為火山再度甦醒。六年後聖海倫火山噴發時，矽地卡市民寫信給Bickar說:「這次你也做得太過火了吧!」
*Sitka矽地卡
*Alaska 阿拉斯加
*crater 火山口
*long-dormant 長期休眠的
*volcano 火山
*gaze up at 凝視者
*erupt 噴發
*lit them on fire 點燃…
*city dwellers 市民
*stir 激起
The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest (瑞士的義大利麵大豐收1957.04.01)
The BBC news show *Panorama announced that *thanks to a very mild winter and the *elimination of the dreaded spaghetti *weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a *bumper spaghetti crop. It accompanied this announcement with *footage of Swiss peasants pulling *strands of spaghetti down from trees.
Huge numbers of viewers were taken in. Many called the BBC wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti tree. To this the BBC diplomatically replied, “place a *sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best.” Even the director-general of the BBC later admitted that after seeing the show he checked in an encyclopedia to find out if that was how spaghetti actually grew. The broadcast remains, by far, the most popular and widely acclaimed April Fool’s Day hoax ever, making it an easy pick for number one.
英國廣播公司的節目廣角鏡發布新知，描述因為溫暖的冬天以及成功消除可怕的義大利麵象鼻蟲，瑞士農夫今年義大利麵大豐收，還附上一支從樹上採收義大利麵的影片。很多人就信以為真，紛紛打電話到電視台詢問怎麼栽種義大利麵的樹。
電視公司還正經地回答，只要將義大利麵的枝條放入番茄醬的罐子裡靜待其變就好了。甚至連電視公司的司長都承認在節目播完還去查了百科全書，看看義大利麵是怎麼生長的。這則故事是目前被認為是最好笑的愚人節騙局，穩居寶座。
*Panorama 廣角鏡，BBC電視時事紀錄片節目
*thanks to 由於
*elimination 消除
*weevil 象鼻蟲
*bumper 大豐收
*footage 影片
*strands 纖維
*sprig 小枝條
「更多英文學習：QQ English」
圖片、資料來源:1234
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