April Fools' Day

When did April Fool this custom start? According to a well-researched story of the origin of the day, it was started in 1545 by a rather unfortunate accident.A Norwegian scientist, Loof Lirpa, was staying in London, where he was trying to find the secret of how to fly.

The scientist was eccentric[1], but there was no doubt that he was clever. It seems that his experiments were successful:King Henry VIII received a letter from Mr. Lirpa, in which he announced that he had finally solved the secret of flight. He asked the king to be present at a demonstration flight at Westminster[2] on April 1.
So the king and the leading politicians of the day stood ouside the Palace of Westminster on April 1, and waited for Mr. Lirpa to come flying past.But nothing happened-- and it became the tradition afterwards to play tricks on people in the same way on this day.

However, evidence proved later that Loof Lirpa was not playing a trick: he was in fact telling the truth.He had learnt how to fly-- the reason that he didn't appear at Westminster was that his flying-machine had crashed into a tree, and he had been killed.

It was a tragedy for science. The scientist, unfortu-nately, was very secretive[3]. When he died, the secret died with him.
Although most people in Britain haven't heard of Loof Lirpa, he is very famous in Norway. April 1 is a national holiday, and people remember his flying trip by having ski-jump[4] competitions.
Actually, "Loof Lirpa" wasn't his real name: if you say the two words backwards, you'll find out what his name really was - April Fool.

注释:

1． eccentric：古怪的、与众不同的。注意eccentric这个形容词没有比较级和最高级。例如：The old man has some eccentric habits.那个老人有些古怪的习惯.

2． Westminster：威斯敏斯特（区）。位于伦敦西区，是英国国会（Houses of Parliament）、白金汉宫（Buckingham Palace）和西敏寺（Westminster Abbey）等政府机构所在地.

3． secretive：秘密的、守口如瓶。secretive多指人或性情等属于保密型；它不像secret一样即可指人也可指某事很秘密。

4． ski-jump：飞跃滑雪比赛。滑雪者从飞跃跳台上跃下，落地后在雪地上接着向前滑行的一种滑雪活动。嘻嘻.

四月愚人节

节的风俗源于何时呢？据一个多方考证的故事说，此风俗起源于1545年，是由一起不幸的事故引起的。挪威一位叫卢夫·勒尔帕的科学家当时住在英国伦敦，他想在那里找到飞行的秘密.

这位科学家性格很古怪，但他无疑是很聪明的。他的飞行试验似乎是成功的，因为亨利八世国王收到了勒尔帕先生的信，信中说，他已找到了飞行的秘密，请国王于4月1日在威斯敏斯特宫看他的飞行表演。

所以，到了4月1日那一天，国王和当时的主要政客都站在威斯敏斯特宫外，等待勒尔帕先生飞过。但是，勒尔帕没从宫外飞过--据此，演化出了这一天设骗局的传统。

然而，后来才证实，卢夫·勒尔帕并没设骗局，实际上他说的是实话。他确已学会飞行，他没有出现在威斯敏斯特宫上空，是因为他的飞行器撞到了一棵树上，他本人也丧生了。

这是科学史上的一个悲剧。遗憾的是，这位科学家保密太严了。他死的时候，他保守的秘密同他一块儿死去了.

虽然大多数英国人没听说过卢夫·勒尔帕，但他在挪威却很有名。4月1日在挪威是个全国性的节日。人们用飞行滑雪比赛来纪念勒尔帕的那次飞行。

实际上，"Loof Lirpa"（卢夫·勒尔帕）并非他的真姓名。如果你倒着念一下他的姓名，就会发现他的真名字是April Fool(四月的傻瓜)

[编辑：梁婷婷]