VOA慢速英語:Words and Their Stories: Santa Claus

[00:00.00]Now, the Special English program WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. [00:17.76]Santa Claus is someone who will remain in the hearts of children forever. [00:24.59]He is the make-believe person who brings toys and other gifts to children at Christmas. [00:31.92]To grown-ups, he is a special symbol of goodwill and selfless giving. [00:38.23]Santa Claus also has some other names: Saint Nicholas, St. Nick, Kris Kringle, Pelznickel. [00:47.53]Two of his names -- Santa Claus and Saint Nicholas -- [00:52.99]both come from the Dutch who settled in New York long ago. [00:58.76]The Dutch believed Saint Nikolas gave gifts to children. [01:04.88]They honored this kindly saint with a yearly festival on December sixth. [01:11.51]The English-speaking people who lived nearby greatly enjoyed Dutch festivals. [01:18.27]And they brought the saint and the custom of giving gifts [01:22.84]into their own celebration at Christmas time. [01:26.20]The Dutch spoke the name "Saint Nikolaas" very fast. [01:32.83]It sounded like "sinterklaas." And so, [01:37.96]when the English said this word, it sounded like Santa Claus. [01:43.57]West of New York, in Pennsylvania, [01:47.98]many German farmers had also heard of Saint Nikolas. [01:53.89]But they called him Pelznickel. This word came from "pelz," meaning fur, [02:02.01]and "nickel" for Nicholas. And so, to the Germans of Pennsylvania, [02:08.37]Saint Nicholas or Pelznickel was a man dressed in fur [02:14.64]who came once a year with gifts for good children. [02:20.20]Soon, people began to feel that the love and kindness Pelznickel brought [02:28.15]should be part of a celebration honoring the Christkindl, [02:33.62]as the Germans called the Christ child. After a time, this became Kris Kringle. [02:42.95]Later, Kris Kringle became another name for Santa Claus himself. [02:50.45]Whatever he is called, he is still the same short, fat, [02:57.15]jolly old man with a long beard, wearing a red suit with white fur. [03:03.66]The picture of Santa Claus as we see him came from Thomas Nast. [03:09.92]He was an American painter born in Bavaria. [03:14.78]He painted pictures for Christmas poems. [03:18.05]Someone asked him to paint a picture of Santa Claus. [03:22.76]Nast remembered when he was a little boy in southern Germany. [03:28.52]Every Christmas, a fat old man gave toys and cakes to the children. [03:36.30]So, when Nast painted the picture, [03:40.76]his Santa Claus looked like the kindly old man of his childhood. [03:46.48]And through the years, [03:48.83]Nast's painting has remained as the most popular picture of Santa Claus. [03:55.15]Santa can be seen almost everywhere in large American cities during the Christmas season. [04:03.42]Some stand on street corners asking for money to buy food and gifts for the needy. [04:11.20]Others are found in stores and shopping centers. [04:16.15]It is easy to find them by the long lines of children [04:22.30]waiting to tell Santa what they want for Christmas.

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