Valentine’s Day is a popular festival of love and romance. There are
legends associated with the festival along with the belief that birds began to mate from this day. Historians trace (追踪)its
to an ancient Roman festival. It is said that in ancient Rome, people
a holiday on February 14th to honor Juno—the Queen of Roman Gods and Goddesses. On the following day, February 15th，the festival of Lupercalia was celebrated to honor the Roman God of Agriculture.
An interesting
was followed on the festival of Lupercalia to bring together young boys and girls who otherwise were strictly
. On the eve of the festival, names of young Roman girls were written on a slip of paper and placed into jars. Each young man
a girl's name from the jar and was paired with the girl during the festival. Sometimes the
lasted for a year until next year's celebration. Quite often，the couple would fall in love with each other and
marry. The custom lasted for a long time until people felt that it was un-Christian and that mates should be chosen by sight, not
.
The pairing of young boys and girls set the mood of the Valentine's Day Festival as we know today. But it was
due to the efforts and daring of a priest St Valentine that the festival got its
and clearer meaning. The story goes that Emperor Claudius II of Rome found it
to get soldiers and felt the reason why men did not join the
was that they did not wish to leave their wives and families. As a result, Claudius cancelled all marriages and engagements in Rome. St Valentine challenged Claudius's
order and secretly married couples. When his disobedience was
，Valentine was put to death on February 14, around 270 AD. After his death Valentine was named a saint.
| 小题1: | | A．acceptable | B．familiar | C．various | D．unrelated |
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| 小题2: | | A．possibility | B．development | C．event | D．origin |
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| 小题3: | | A．studied | B．observed | C．handled | D．discussed |
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| 小题4: | | A．movement | B．celebration | C．competition | D．custom |
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| 小题5: | | A．respected | B．educated | C．separated | D．organized |
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| 小题6: | | A．spoke out | B．brought out | C．pulled out | D．drew out |
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| 小题7: | | A．pairing | B．dating | C．playing | D．celebrating |
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| 小题8: | | A．fortunately | B．occasionally | C．finally | D．surprisingly |
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| 小题9: | | A．order | B．risk | C．name | D．luck |
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| 小题10: | | A．usually | B．actually | C．really | D．factually |
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| 小题11: | | A．history | B．story | C．fame | D．name |
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| 小题12: | | A．strange | B．slow | C．awful | D．tough |
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| 小题14: | | A．unfinished | B．unjustified | C．unrecognized | D．unconcerned |
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| 小题15: | | A．discovered | B．attacked | C．memorized | D．promised |
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