India has many festivals, with some celebrations that last for weeks. However, none of them come even close to Holi, India’s most colorful and fun festival. Celebrated on the day following the full moon, this year’s festival happens to be on March 19th.
As with most Indian festivals, this one also has many different folk stories. Most of them center around the success of good over evil. The most popular one is about a king, who hates his son Prahlada for loving the creator of the Universe—Lord Vishnu. When every attempt to stop him fails, his sister, Holika believed to be immune(免疫的) to fire, joins in the effort by inviting the young boy to sit with her inside a huge fire. Helped by the power of Lord Vishnu, Prahlada escapes safely, while the evil Holika is burned to death. To remember this event, huge outdoor fires are lit in the night before Holi in order to clean the air of evil spirits and to celebrate the death of the evil.
So what’s so great about this day? While there are some fun parades(游行) and folk songs and dance performances, the most fun of all is walking to the streets and splashing(泼洒) people with water guns and dry colors and even covering them with entire buckets of colored water. On this day, everybody is
fair game, no matter how old or how young.
At about midday, the splashing comes to an end and people living close to oceans or rivers usually take a bath in the water to clean themselves before going home to a delicious home-made big dinner and a well-deserved short sleep, following this full day of fun and activities.
小题1:Why does the king dislike his son Prahlada?
| A．Because Prahlada doesn’t love him. |
| B．Because Prahlada is rude to Holika. |
| C．Because Prahlada loves Lord Vishnu. |
| D．Because Prahlada concentrates on his own success. |
小题2:Prahlada gets out of danger __________.
| A．with the help of Lord Vishnu |
| B．because of his good luck |
| C．by beating his aunt Holika |
| D．using his amazing talent |
小题3:The underlined phrase “fair game” in Paragraph 3 refers to a person who __________.
| A．fights against others fairly |
| B．enjoys splashing people |
| C．plays a trick on others |
| D．is the aim of splashing water |
小题4:After the fun activities, people living close to oceans or rivers often take a bath because __________.
| A．they have got dirty with dry colors and colored water |
| B．going home with colored water means bad luck |
| C．they believe clean water will bring good luck |
| D．taking a bath shows their true love for Lord Vishnu |