英語學習論壇的“聽力練習區(qū)”正式與大家見面啦。歡迎大家來這里練習聽力,交流經(jīng)驗,共同進步。
本練習區(qū)的音頻文件選自英語點津的“聽中國日報”、“VOA常速”、“流行金曲”及“名人演講”等欄目,題材豐富,難度各異,適合不同階段的英語學習者。
英語點津會定期發(fā)布音頻材料,大家可以在跟帖中貼出自己聽寫出的音頻文字稿。每個音頻材料的標準文字稿會在帖子發(fā)布兩天后公布。
She loves the taste of blood, hates the sun, and, if you ask, will tell you she died in a train accident back in 1892: Meet Seregon O'Dalley, a would-be vampire living in New York.
She's far from alone. Vampires are in fashion across the United States, encouraged by the hit TV series True Blood, now in its third season, the Twilight movies and Vampire Diaries. Stories about feeding on blood are greedily consumed and eagerly published.
For a pastime with dark, anti-religious overtones vampire fashion is itself becoming oddly like an organized religion. There are rules, priests, private gatherings and large-scale celebrations.
Hundreds of "vampires" attend balls every few months, with the next vampire ball taking place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Saturday.
Believers in this sect-like lifestyle range from teenage devotees of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight to adults who got hooked on Ann Rice's Vampire Diaries in the 1970s.
Rice is the author credited with turning the European model of vampire - exemplified by Dracula, the horrific character at the center of Bram Stoker's 19th century novel set in Transylvania - into a more user-friendly American version.
In the very un-Transylvanian setting of New Jersey, O'Dalley keeps her apartment well-curtained from the sun and decorates with bat motifs. O'Dalley actually enjoys garlic, the traditional weapon against vampires.
Sociology professor Robert Thomson, who teaches at University of Syracuse in upstate New York, said, "the vampire culture has been around for a long time, long before Twilight and True Blood."
(中國日報網(wǎng)英語點津 Helen 編輯)
About the broadcaster:
Nelly Min is an editor at China Daily with more than 10 years of experience as a newspaper editor and photographer. She has worked at major newspapers in the U.S., including the Los Angeles Times and the Detroit Free Press. She is fluent in Korean and has a 2-year-old son.