英美文化节日：汤姆索亚日的来历故事

What do Tom Sawyer and jumping frogs have in common? Stories about both of them were created by one man: Mark Twain. Born Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain was his pen name, Twain was 4 when his family moved to Hannibal, Missouri,located on the west bank of the Mississippi.Twain grew up there and was ifascinated with life along the river一the steamboats, the giant lumber rafts, and the people who worked on them.

汤姆·索亚和跳蛙有什么共通点吗?这两个故事是由同一个人创作出来的—马克·吐温。马克·吐温，原名朗赫恩·塞缪尔·克莱门斯，马克·吐温是他的笔名。吐温在四岁时，跟随家人一起搬到了密苏里州，位于密西西比河西岸的汉尼拔。在这里，吐温渐渐长大成人，他对河边的生活深感着迷—蒸汽船、巨大的木伐，以及在其上工作的所有的人。

"The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" is one of Twain’s best-loved short stories, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is one of his most famous novels. Both these works are celebrated by events held during National Tom Sawyer Days. The boy in the photo entered his frog in the jumping contest.

《卡拉韦拉斯县驰名的跳蛙》是吐温最为喜爱的短篇故事之一，而《汤姆·索亚历险记》则是他的小说代表作之一。全国汤姆·索亚日上所举办的各种不同的活动，都来源于此。照片中的小男孩，为他的青蛙报名参加跳跃竞赛。

There's also a fence-painting contest to see who can paint the fastest. The idea for this contest comes from a scene in Tom Sawyer, in which Tom has been told to paint the fence in front of the house he lives in. It's a beautiful day, and he would rather be doing anything else. As his friends walk by, he convinces them it’s fun to paint, and they join in the "fun." By the end of the day, the fence has three coats of paint!

现场也会举办漆栅栏比赛，看看谁能在最短的时间内完成刷漆工作。这项竞赛的想法是来自于《汤姆·索亚历险记》书中的一幕:书中的汤姆被告知要将屋前的栅栏全部漆一遍，但那天天气非常棒，汤姆情愿将时间浪费在别的事情上。因此当他的朋友路过他家的时候，汤姆说服他们，使他们相信漆栅栏是一件非常有趣的事，而他们也果真加入到这件“趣事”当中。当这一天结束时，栅栏已经上过三遍漆了!

Although the story of Tom Sawyer is fiction, it’s based on fact. If you go to Hannibal, you’II see the white fence, which still stands at Twain’s boyhood home.

虽然《汤姆·索亚历险记》仅仅是小说，但它的内容却是根据事实而改编的。如果你有机会来到汉尼拔，别忘了去看看那片白色的栅栏，它们至今仍伫立在吐温孩童时期的家外。