Passage 59
学霸导读 在英语中，“春天”一词有着怎样的前世今生呢？
It’s f inally getting warm outside. We’re already a few weeks into spring, and it’s exciting. Part of that excitement is because there are so many interesting spring words.
Spring itself wasn’t always called “spring”. In fact， the earliest people of Britain didn’t recognize this s 1 . Early Germanic （ 日耳曼族的 ） people in Europe divided the year into two halves： winter， when it was cold and dark， and summer， when it was not.
The Romans i 2 the idea of spring （ ver， in the language Latin ） and autumn （ autumnus ） when they conquered Britain. Eventually， this new season before s 3 had an English name： lententide， or lenten （ 大斋戒 ）. The word “Lenten” was then applied to the Christian church’s season of 40 days of Lent （ 四旬斋 ）. Between the 10th and 14th centuries， the religious observance （ 宗教仪式 ） and the season were linked.
In the later Middle Ages, the word Lent became an exclusively religious term. So, the season needed a new name. V 4 candidates were tried out in the 1400s, but there was no generally applied term. The writer Geoffrey Chaucer sometimes used vere ( from the Latin word ). Other writers p 5 prime tide, or prime, because spring was the f irst—the prime—season.
In the Renaissance period, from A.D. 1300 to 1600, the “prime” of a person’s life was considered y 6 adulthood. Today, we consider the “prime” of life to be quite a bit later.
Springing time was another contender （ 竞争者 ） for a name for the “prime” of a person’s life— the p 7 when buds and f lowers “spring” forth. Perhaps because the sense of growth and rebirth captures what people tend to love about the season， this last name won out. Since the time of Shakespeare we’ve been able to say， “Spring has sprung”.
Ver hasn’t d 8 entirely. Our go-to （ 首选的 ） adjective for spring is “vernal”. For example， a vernal pool is one that only appears in spring. March 20 is known as the vernal equinox （ 春分 ）. Some plants， such as artichokes （ 洋蓟 ）， need to be exposed to a period of cold temperatures n 9 for them to f lower. Vernant is a little-used word that means blooming or growing.
Leaves in spring; f lowers in summer: in l 10 if not always in life.
1.__________2.__________3.__________4.__________5.__________
6.__________7.__________8.__________9.__________10.__________
高频词汇
conquer /'kɒŋkə（r）/ v. 占领；攻克
exclusively /ɪk'skluː sɪvli/ adv. 独占地；专有地
prime /praɪm/ adj. 优质的；首要的
spring forth 涌现