『Black Cat －黑貓』

Black Cat
It is probably because of its slyness and shrewdness, the cat is  often supposed to be connected with witch,witches and the devil.This fear may stem from the Middle Ages.
In Europe,the time between the Middle Ages and the 18th century is known as the witch-hunting era. In most of the cases, the "witches" were typically older women whose crimes were eccentricity,solitude and,especially,the inability to withstand the ordeals.
Frequently,the evidence the witch-hunters gave was that the  old woman owned a demon in the shape of an animal,most commonly a toad and a cat. Such belief of toads has died out today,but the  prejudice against the black cat survives.
Interstingly,although black cats are widely held in awe,that awe is not always one of fear.In England black cats are considered  lucky and this prejudice for the animal is believed to have existed  from time immemorial.
NOTES:
slyness 狡詐
shrewdness 精明
stem from 起源於，來自於
the Middle Age （歐洲歷史上的）中世紀（約公元1100－1500年期間）
witch-hunting era 「獵巫」時代（主要指中世紀歐洲異端審判所對巫士極
為嚴厲和殘酷的捉拿和鎮壓，它造成了對中世紀各種民
俗信仰的壓制和扼殺。在對巫士的描述中，一般把婦女
說成是巫士的主要信奉者。）
eccentricity 行為怪僻
solitude 離群索居
ordeal 神裁法（古時決定某人是否有罪的方法，令被告受身體考驗。）
demon 惡魔，魔鬼
toad 蟾蜍，瘌蛤蟆
die out 逐漸消亡
rejudice 偏見，成見
hold...in awe 對...敬畏
from time immemorial 自遠古以來

Friday the 13th
The standard nineteenth-century explanation for the  supposed unluckiness of the number 13 was that there were thirteen at Jesus's Last Supper --Judas was generally  thought of as the thirteenth. This widely repeated  interpretation led to the fear of the number 13 in general,  and people would avoid having 13 at table or in a party.  The supposed misfortune of Friday also originated from  Christian beliefs, for the Crucifixion took place on that  day.
But both fears have their earlier roots than  Christianity was ever created. The fear of Fridays may have been connected with the Norse goddess Freya;beginning journeys on her day was considered rude to Freya and would  offend her. The number 13 has been considered ill since  ancient times. Romans linked the number to death,  destruction and misfortune. And people traditionally thought that the witch meeting had thirteen members. Someone tried to give a more reasonable explanation  for such number speculations. He noted that twelve is the  result of the two favorable numbers, three and four; but that thirteen cannot be so easily divided. Like eleven, then,  thirteen may be suspected of its supernatural quality.
NOTES:
Christian 基督教的
Crucifixion 耶穌被釘死在十字架上
Christianity 基督教
Norse 古斯堪的納維亞的
Freya 古斯堪的納維亞音樂女神
（Friday來自於Freya的名字）
Witch 女巫
speculation 推測

Opening an Umbrella Indoors
There is no doubt that the umberella is employed both as a shield  against bad weateher and as a shade against the sun. Therefore,it is  understandable that opening an umbrella indoors would be considered unnecessary or foolish. But why would this action be seen as dangerous?
Some people believe that an umbrella unnecessarily openned during fine weather may bring down the rain. A more subtle rationale suggests that indoor umbrella usage violates the right order of  things,and may thus be seen as a challenge of the supernatural powers. Specifically,such behavior might be seen as insulting to God- who intended the umbrella to be employed outdoors-to the spirit of the umbrella itself,or to the spirit of the household,who might be annoyed at the implication that their protection must be supplmented by an overhead shield. Of course, another simple pratical rationale may also enter in:the custom may come out of a long-forgotten accident in which someone opened an umbrella in his house and knocked over a burning candle or the china.
NOTES:
shield 遮蔽物
rationale 原理、理論
violate 違反、褻瀆
challenge 挑戰
insult 侮辱，藐視
annoy 使．．．惱怒
supplement 補充

Walking under a Ladder
Avoiding ladders used to be linked to the story of the Crucifixion: one kept away from the instrument that had taken Jesus down from the cross,or else one would suffer bad luck. This is highly suspect reasoning,since no ladder is mentioned in the Bible. The superstition has also been linked to the fear of entering the Holy Trinity's emblematic triangle,formed by ladder,wall and ground. Maybe the simplest reasoning for not walking under a ladder is that in going around it you are less likely to be rained on paint or  hammers.
Notes:
Crucifixion 耶酥被釘在十字架上
suspect 可疑的
the Holy Trinity （聖父、聖子、聖靈）三位一體
emblematic 象徵的
triangle 三角形
hammer 鎚子

Broken Mirrors
Mirrors have been used in divination, or fortune-telling since ancient times. Because of their presumed value in seeing the future, superstition grants them magical and potentially dangerous significance. On the simplest level, breaking a mirror is the destruction of a means of knowing the will of the gods, or a signal from the gods that they didn't want you to poke into their affairs. Either way, the indication of unseeable hazards was obvious. The Romans  believed that the mirror reflected the health of the viewers. Thus to break a mirror presaged ill health, or seven year's bad luck, since the Romans also believed that a person's health changed every seven years. However, if one unfortunately broke a mirror, the way to avoid bad luck is secretly reversing a coin in one's pocket on a  full moon night.
In addition to reflecting the future, however, mirrors also were believed to reflect the person's soul. Many primitive peoples, in fact, believed that the person's soul actually existed in the mirror. Breaking the glass would prevent the soul from reuniting with the body, and misfortune would inevitably result. This belief in the close connection between an individual and his mirror image lies behind the superficially different beliefs-that a crocodile can kill a man by attacking his reflection in water, and that a vampire (popularized by Hollywood), being soulless, can not see itself in the mirror.  
NOTES:
divination　 算命　
presume　　假設，假定，推測
grant　　　給予，認為．．．具有
magical　　　有魔力的
potentially　　潛在地
poke into　　插手，干預
presage　　預示，預兆
reverse　　　翻轉
primitive　　原始的
reunite　　　（使）再結合
lie behind 是．．．的根據，支持
vampire （傳說中的）吸血鬼

Spilling Salt
We do not know when man first began to use salt, but we do  know that it has been used in many different ways throughout history. Historical evidence shows,for example, that people who lived over 3,000 years ago ate salted fish. Thousands of years ago in Egypt, salt was used to preserve the dead. Because of its value as a preservative, and flavoring, salt was considered, Romans and Hebrews it was a common  sacrificial offering. Throughout the Middle East, moreover, it was a token of friendship and trust. Spilling such an honored substance was seen as an intentional offense to the celestial powers; the  association of spilled salt with bad luck can therefore trace back to very ancient times. In Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper, where Judas has knocked over the saltcellar, the painter was mirroring an old tradition.
One many counteract the effect of spilled salt, or bad luck, by throwing a little over the left shoulder. The thrown salt may serve as an informal sacrifice to conciliate the gods; or it may be an attack on the evil spirits, since it is believed that the Devil cannot abide salt. It's the left shoulder probably because the right is associated  with what is "right", but the left represents evil.
NOTES:
preservative　　防腐劑
antiseptic　　清潔劑
flavoring　　調味品，調味料
sacrificial　　用於祭祀的
token 　　標誌，象徵
celestial　　天上的
trace back　　回溯，追溯
saltcellar　　（餐桌上的）鹽瓶，鹽碟
counteract　　消除，中和
conciliate 與．．．和解，平息．．．的怒氣
abide 忍受，容忍

Horseshoes
Since at least the days of the Romans, horseshoes have been considered lucky, both for their healing powers (it is said that they can cure hiccups), and for their protective influence (specifically, against witches). Nowadays, the horseshoe is usually placed above doorways for good luck. There may be a lot of reasons for its popularity, but among them at least two are worth considering.
The more convincing explanation is that the horseshoe is in a horn shape and resembles the new moon. It is said that the hornshaped sign is a protection against the evil eye and similar-shaped charms have been in use among egyptians. On the other hand, the awe in which primitive people must have held the moon, which periodically "dies" and is "reborn", certainly influenced their fascination with this shape.
The second explanation may come from the long-standard belief in the magical power of iron, and the metal itself may have contributed to the horseshoe's use as a charm. Ancient blacksmiths, performing a kind of crude alchemy, were often identified as sorcerers. This fact, along with the supposed efficacy of fire as a demon killer, helps to support the "magical iron" explanation.
NOTE:
hiccup 打嗝兒
horn 角，角狀物
resemble 像，和．．．相似
the evil eye （按照迷信說法）能以一瞥害人的毒眼
charm 護身符，避邪物
periodically 周期性地
fascination 迷惑，著迷
long-standing 長期存在的
blacksmith 鐵匠
alchemy 鍊金術，煉丹術
sorcerer 魔法師，男巫
efficacy 功效

Knocking on Wood
The English touch wood for luck; Americans prefer the more sounding knock. These actions reflect the early Christian worship for the cross. Making contact with wood is a way of connecting symbolically with this holy article of Christianity. Others see the custom as a survivor of the medieval tradition of sanctuary. In the days when any fugitive could find protection behind the doors of a church, touching the wood of these doors would be a signal that he was safe.
These Christian explanations of wood touching, however, may be additions of an older rationale. Tree worship was common in prechristian Europe. Oak trees, especially, were widely venerated ant tree at the center of the world, served much the same symbolic served for Christians. It was seen as the bridge between heaven and earth. Knocking wood for luck, therefore, was the equivalent, long before the Christian era, of knocking on heaven's door.
NOTES:
sounding 有聲響的，發出聲響的
worship 崇拜
holy article 聖物
sanctuary （教堂等的）庇護權（按昔時教會法， 逃亡者至教堂內可獲安全。）
fugitive 逃亡者
oak tree 橡樹
venerate 尊敬，崇拜
Yggdrasill （北歐神話）一株盤踞在天界、地界和下界的巨樹，是新世界的擎天柱
pagan 異教的，非基督教的
equivalent 等同物

Burning Ears  
When someone is speaking ill of another out of that person's hearing, it is said that the person's ears are burning or tingling; then superstition supposes that when a person' s ears burn, it is a sign of some distant malevolence. This belief can be explained by the assumption that there exists a kind of universal fluid that could carry the curse and "touch" ears at a distance, even though it was out of range of hearing. The more common-sense explanation seems a better one. When someone yells at or insults you in your presence, in the metaphoric sense, it is to say that he "burned" your ears. Or when we are rebuked, we frequently blush with embarrassment. Reasoning backwards, then, we can assume that ear burning always has the same cause and that words spoken about us behind our back can embarrass us just as much as those spoken to our faces.
Note:
speak ill of sb 說某人的壞話
tingle 皮膚有刺痛的感覺
malevolence 惡意，敵意
assumption 假設
universal fluid 萬能的流體
common-sense 常識的，有生活經驗得來的
yell 呼喊，叫喊
in the metaphoric sense 在比喻的意義上
rebuke blush 訓斥，斥責
embarrassment 尷尬
reason 推理，論斷

Farewells
The story of English farewells is the process of becoming less religious. In the Middle Ages, people parted by saying "God be with you," a characteristically religious comment. At Shakespeare's time came you "God bye," a form which lost its blatant godliness. And "Good-bye",which is commonly used today, is a distortion of that in the early nineteenth century. That century also gave us the alternative "So long," which suggests "it is so long until we see each place in California, where late-1960s young people, too hip to believe in God and too now-oriented to even consider tomorrow, came up with "Have a nice day." That this prayer became widely accepted later may reflect the hedonism and anomie of the 1970s. Perhaps one is anxiously awaiting the compression of this parting into "Handy"to fit into the abbreviation-crazy society.
Shakespeare (William,1564-1616)莎士比亞
blatant 太明顯的
alternative 可供選擇的另一種（表達）
distortion 變形，扭曲
reunion 重聚，團聚
degeneration 退化，衰退
hip 頹廢派，嬉皮士的（嬉皮士指本世紀60世紀年代末美國出現的一批頹廢派年輕人，他們對現實不漫步願順從一般社會常規，鼓吹愛與和平，反對越南戰爭。）
now-oriented 只重現實的，及時行樂的
hedonism 享樂主義
anomie 頹廢
abbreviation-crazy 熱衷於使用縮略語的

Tipping One's Hat
Few Americans tip their hats today, partly because etiquette has loosened and partly because they don't wear hats. Until the 1950s, however, men commonly tipped their hats to women, and removed them entirely indoors and in elevators. (In 1949, the first known guidelines for elevator etiquette were issued: men were told to leave their hats on because too many women were complaining of knocks on their heads when men saluted in crowds.) But in the 18th century it was not considered bad manners to wear their hats indoors. A man would take it off to greet a lady, but then he would put it right back on his head. The reason for doing so is perfectly plain. In the first place, the hat served as a badge of rank through most of the history, a visible mark of status. This tradition may have its roots in Roman times. In ancient Rome, a head covering was an symbol of social or political superiority. In the second place, one could not draw a sword easily if he was holding the hat in his hand.
Just as covering the head symbolized dominance, so uncovering it symbolized submission. Ever since the early Middle Ages, to remove one's hat-whether it was made of cloth or metal-has signified obedience. The original sense of the custom is mirrored in the expressions "with hat in hand"(which means "showing excessive respect, and too eager to obey and serve",) and "I take my hat off to him"(which means "I express my admiration for him.")
etiquette 社交禮儀
issue 頒布，發行
salute 行禮，致意，問候
badge 標記，徽章
status 地位，重要身份
dominance 優越，支配
submission 順從，服從
excessive 過度地，極端地

Laddies First
The forms of respecting the "weaker sex" that social custom keeps as treasures might be called the "repecting ploy". The apparent function of the ploy is to proclaim the moral superiority of women by giving them benefits once reserved for royalty: giving up one's seat, opening doors, pulling out chairs, and rising when a woman enters the room. The poly's hiden intention, however, is quite different. Over the centuries such pleasant things have tendered women, kept them in their "higher" place, and maintained the convenient (for men) social fiction that females cannot perform real labor, and so need not be paid adequately for the labor they do perform. If the "little woman" cannot open a door for herself, it's certainly not necessary to make her salary more than 60percent of a man's.
The effect of the respecting ploy was not, of course, always obvious. In the days when the ploy was used most widely, the females to whom these social courtesies were extended did not, in fact, know how to work: as the daughters of wealth, their function was to manage the fortunes their husbands earned. Women who worked were by definition members of the "lower" ranks, moral as well as social. It is not an accident that the expression "working girl", which today means a professional prostitute, recently meant any women with a job.
ploy （挫敵的）策略，手段，為佔優勢而採取的方法
apparent 表面的
proclaim 宣告，宣布，聲明
reserved for royalty 專用於皇族的
intention 意圖，目的
tender 使嬌弱
fiction 假設，不符合實際的東西
courtesy 禮貌，殷勤
moral 道德的，品德的
prostitute 妓女

The Military Salute 軍禮
In spite of the minor differences, military salutes of many countries have the similar gesture: raising the right hand to the same side of the head. A fanciful idea of the origin of the military salute is that it dates from medieval tournaments, when knights addressed the queen in this manner to shield their eyes from her blinding beauty. A more credible explanation is that in the age of visored and armored horsemen, raising the visor was a signal between two knights that they meant each other no harm: the gesture provided recognition and with it the promise of amity.
Note:
fanciful 想象出來的，別出心裁的
tournament （中古時期的）馬上比武大會，比賽
knight （歐洲中世紀）騎士，武士
address 向。。。打招呼
blinding beauty 令人眩目的美麗
credible 可信的，可靠的
visor （古時盔的）面甲，臉盔；（用臉盔等）遮護
armor 為。。。穿盔甲
amity 友好，和睦

Bowing
The bow, like the curtsy, is out of fashion today since so few of us ever meet royalty. Most of us witness true bowing --rather than the slight head nod, its democratic descendant--only in theaters and nightclubs. The bow that one gave a prince in former days and the bow that a performer gives today are at root the same gesture. Both reflect the ancient movement of lowering the head before a superior to signify respect, service, or obedience. The message of the bow is "You are greater than I am; please treat me well." Since rock stars, from "King" Elvis to today' s Prince, make real princes look impoverished, it may seem inappropriate for performers to bend at the waist to viewers. But the custom developed in times when a performer had considerably less social standing. And tradition has sustained the performer's bow even though that standing has risen dramatically . Strictly from the point of view of status, though, Michael Jackson probably should be receiving, not giving, the bows.
NOTES:
curtsy 屈膝禮
witness 目擊，目睹
democratic 民主的
descendant 後裔，後代
obedience 順從，服從
impoverished 貧窮的
standing 地位
sustain 繼續，保持
King" Elvis Presley(1935-1977) 即「貓王」，美國流行音樂歌手，搖滾樂之王，電影演

員。其演唱風格、表演技巧和舞台作風奠定了現代搖滾樂的基礎。
Prince 美國現代流行音樂歌手

學習一下

Don't spill salt on somebody's wound.

Halloween is coming. My daughter and my son asked me to buy them costume; before my daughter asked for one cat costume. recently she changed her mind; She asked for a witch costume. I am very confused. In our eyes, witch is very bad. How could my daughter want to be a witch?I asked her and she didn't tell me anything. Do we have any sayings about a witch in Canada?

Now maybe you are right. A cat is kind of connected with a witch.

As we know children always change their minds as a book skipping, perhaps to your daughter, she might think the cat are mystery and powerful as a witch, thus she could also receive the relevent information from media abt batman etc...