The Festival that Burns|燃烧吧！沙漠

by Marcus Maurice

One week per year, 60,000-plus free spirits flock to the middle of a desert to build a city and then burn it down.

　　In 1986, a few friends gathered on a beach and burnt down an effigy of a nine-foot tall man in what they called a spontaneous act of radical self expression. Last year, 61,000 people attended Burning Man, a weeklong festival in the Nevada desert that takes place during the last week of August, where the _(1)_ was burning a 40-foot tall man on top of a spaceship to the ground. A lot of history happened during those 27 years between when it began and last year's event.

　　Burning Man has gone through _(2)_ radical changes, and the biggest one has been the number of people attending. As the festival has gotten bigger, so have the growing pains. Still, the basic _(3)_ of Burning Man continue today. Some of these ideals are including everyone, gifting, not paying for anything with money, self-reliance, self-expression, and leaving no trace of what happened during that week.

　　Burners, as the attendees are called, spend months before Burning Man _(4)_ elaborate art sculptures that do anything as wild as shooting fire or as normal as providing shade. Everyone gets dressed _(5)_ in outfits they normally would not wear and nudity is no big deal. The weeklong event has something _(6)_ 24 hours a day so there is always entertainment. On Saturday night, the whole festival comes together to watch the Burning Man go up in flames. It is quite a sight to _(7)_ when 60,000-plus people who have just built a community start to dance and sing and enjoy the send-off before everyone returns to their normal lives the next day.

1. (A) enrollment (B) legislation (C) precaution (D) highlight

2. (A) destructive (B) reflective (C) numerous (D) optional

3. (A) principles (B) pamphlets (C) descendants (D) opponents

4. (A) boycotting (B) diminishing (C) constructing (D) excluding

5. (A) over (B) up (C) upon (D) at

6. (A) to happen (B) happened (C) happening (D) happens

7. (A) behold (B) exploit (C) disgrace (D) clarify

燃烧吧！沙漠

每年有一个星期，六万多个无拘无束的人蜂拥而至沙漠中央，建造一座城市然后将它烧个精光。

　　1986 年，一群朋友在他们所谓自发的激进自我表达行动中聚集在海滩上，并烧掉一座九英尺高的男人肖像。去年，有六万一千人参加了燃烧人节庆，那是内华达沙漠在八月最后一个星期所举办为期一周的庆典，整场活动的高潮就是将宇宙飞船顶端四十英尺高的男子肖像烧掉夷为平地。这项活动从一开始至去年为止二十七年中发生了许多事。

　　燃烧人节庆经历了无数次的巨变，其中最重大的改变莫过于参与的人数。随着这场庆典的规模逐渐扩大，痛楚也随之增加。然而，燃烧人节庆的基本原则一直延续至今。这些理想中有些包括了每个人的参与、给予、不花钱买任何东西、自给自足和自我表达，且一点也不留下那个星期所发生事情的蛛丝马迹。

　　参与这项活动的人被称作燃烧者，他们在燃烧人庆典之前会花上数个月搭建精巧的艺术雕刻，其造型象是喷火这样狂野的事或是正常地提供遮阳。每个人都会穿上他们平常不会穿的服装，而且就算裸体也没什么大不了。这场为期一周的活动每天二十四小时都有活动发生，所以总是娱乐不断。星期六晚上，整场庆典的人们会齐聚一堂来观赏燃烧人起火燃烧。在每个人隔天回到他们正常的生活之前，六万多个才刚聚在一起的人们便开始跳舞、唱歌并享受一场送行活动，那可真是一项奇观。

 

答案： 1. D 2. C 3. A 4. C 5. B

6. C 7. A