1. 這么有趣的節(jié)日有什么來源呢？

Could you tell us about the origin of April Fool's Day?

There are a couple different stories, but it sounds like April Fools Day began in the mid-1500s in France. Before 1858, New Years actually began on Easter. So people celebrated New Years for 8 days at the end of March. But in 1564, Charles the IX of France changed the New Year to begin on January 1st (which is why we now have the Gregorian calendar). But because news traveled so slowly back then, some people did not get the news about the new dates to celebrate the New Year, so those “backward folk” were called “fools” for continuing to celebrate the New Year in April.

關于愚人節(jié)比較普遍的說法是起源于15世紀中期的法國。1858年之前，新年都是在復活節(jié)以后，人們通常是在3月底慶祝新年。但是1564年，法國國王查爾斯六世把新年的日子調整到了1月1日（即目前通用的公歷）。由于當時消息傳播的很慢，許多人不知道新年提前了，于是那些仍然在4月份慶祝新年的人就被稱作“愚人”，這就是愚人節(jié)的由來啦。

2. 西方的愚人節(jié)有哪些虎虎不知道的傳統(tǒng)咩？

What will people do on that day? Are there any special customs or fixed traditions?

On April Fools Day, it’s customary for news stations to play pranks on their listeners, readers and viewers. My favorite example was when the BBC played a prank on its TV news viewers in 1957 by running a newscast about the farmers in Switzerland. The news story reported that a farming pest known as the “spaghetti weevil” had been wiped out (which was true), and because of this, farmers were now able to grow spaghetti trees from which they could harvest pasta, ready to eat. British viewers actually wrote in to the station, asking how they could grow their own spaghetti trees. So the BBC issued an official reply, telling them to "place a sprig of spaghetti into a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best."

在愚人節(jié)，電視臺通常都會捉弄一番聽眾和觀眾。我們Alison老師最喜歡的是1957年BBC玩的“小把戲”。當年，BBC告訴聽眾，瑞士的農民伯伯發(fā)明出了一種方法，消滅了一種名叫“意面象鼻蟲”的害蟲（介個是真的哦），所以，人們就可以在自家田里種意面樹啦，然后啥時想吃就摘點下來。杯具的是當時的英國人民太純真太善良了，竟然都信以為真，紛紛致信BBC，詢問怎么樣能夠種出這種神奇的意面樹涅？結果，BBC還正兒八經的給了個官方回復：“把一小段意大利面條放進番茄醬罐頭里，然后祈禱吧！”虎虎只能說，BBC太有愛啦！

3. 大家最常玩哪些整人游戲？

What are the most popular tricks that are always played?

There are a few classic April Fools tricks, such as:
– setting the clock back so that people wake up several hours too early;
– cooking a weird-looking meal for the family. For example, I cooked a green meal for my brother once by adding green food coloring to all of his food!
– switching the salt and sugar shakers so that whoever uses them next gets a really sweet or salty surprise.
– changing the ‘auto-correct’ function on the computer’s word processing program so that every time a person types in a certain word or name, it is automatically changed to another one. For example, you could get on your brother’s laptop and change the settings so that every time he types in his name, it is changed to “Superman”.

Alison老師偷偷告訴虎虎好幾種西方國家流行的整人方法哦，虎虎聽完決定去找CC貓實踐一下！^^

比如說把鬧鐘往后撥幾個小時啦，或是惡作劇一頓搞怪的晚餐。我們美麗溫柔的Alison老師也會惡作劇哦，她向虎虎交代，有次她就在她哥哥的食物全都放了綠色素，于是她哥哥就享受了一頓“綠色大餐”！

還有就是可以把家里做飯的糖罐頭和鹽罐頭掉個個兒，那頓飯一定有意想不到的驚喜！關于這個整人方法，虎虎覺得受罪的是自己的肚子啦，自己不是也沒有好東東吃了…T_T

另外還可以設置電腦里的“替換”選項，比如可以把哥哥的名字自動替換成“超人”，那他每次敲自己的名字都會顯示為“超人”。（虎虎決定！明天要讓CC貓敲自己名字時全都變成“宇宙無敵超級美少女”…）

4. 被整的人們會生氣嗎？%>_<%

How would people react to these tricks? Will they be angry or seething?

Most people usually find April Fools gags funny. But if the tricks cause them to lose time or are a huge inconvenience, people might not be very patient. Americans don’t really like to lose time.

Alison老師說，人們大多都會覺得這些惡作劇很好玩。不過如果你的惡作劇給別人造成了很大的不便，或是浪費了他們很多時間，那他們可能就會不高興了，因為美國人可是視時間如金錢滴。

5. 關于整人，有哪些底線？

Are there any lines? It’s like if you cross the line, I won't be friends with you any more.

If the trick causes the person to lose precious time or have to change their day because of it, then yeah, I think it’s gone too far. If the trick makes someone cry, it has definitely gone too far.

I remember I played a trick on my brother one time when I was chopping vegetables and I pretended to chop my finger off (I squirted ketchup everywhere to look like blood) and my brother became hysterical, screaming and crying and running to get my mom. I got in big trouble for that one.

惡作劇也要有底線。如果你的惡作劇浪費了人家寶貴的時間、或是打亂了別人一天的計劃，那Alison覺得這樣的惡作劇就有點過分了。如果你的惡作劇還惹哭了別人，那絕對是超出底線了哦。對于這個Alison老師感同身受。她有次想整她哥哥，于是假裝切菜時把手指頭切掉了，還弄了很多番茄醬裝成是流了很多血的樣子，他哥哥信以為真，非常激動，大叫著叫他們媽咪…Alison老師為這個小過分的惡作劇也受到了點小懲罰。

關于愚人節(jié)，Alison老師還為大家準備了幾句有關的句子，虎虎決定學習一下，做一個有知識有內涵的整人者^-^

Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of the world could not succeed. -- Mark Twain

It's better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and leave no doubt. --Mark Twain

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

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