ThanksgivingDay.doc

Thanksgiving Day
11月的第四个星期四是感恩节。在美国人心目中，感恩节是比圣诞节还要重要的节日，因为它是美国人民独创的一个古老节日，也是美国人合家欢聚的节日，因此美国人提起感恩节总是倍感亲切。
Almost every culture in the world has held celebrations of thanks for a plentiful harvest. The American Thanksgiving holiday began as a feast of thanksgiving in the early days of the American colonies almost four hundred years ago.
The first American Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621, to remember the harvest reaped （收割） by the Plymouth Colony after a harsh winter. In that year Governor William Bradford proclaimed (宣布) a day of thanksgiving. The colonists celebrated it as a traditional English harvest feast, to which they invited the local Wampanoag Indians.
Days of thanksgiving were celebrated throughout the colonies after fall harvests. After the United States became an independent country, Congress recommended one yearly day of thanksgiving for the whole nation to celebrate. George Washington suggested the date November 26 as Thanksgiving Day. By the mid-1800s, many states observed a Thanksgiving holiday. Meanwhile, the poet and editor Sarah J. Hale had begun lobbying （游说）for a national Thanksgiving holiday. Then in 1863, at the end of a long and bloody civil war, Abraham Lincoln asked all Americans to set aside the last Thursday in November as a day of thanksgiving.
In 1939, 1940, and 1941 Franklin D. Roosevelt, seeking to lengthen the Christmas shopping season, proclaimed Thanksgiving the third Thursday in November. Argument followed, and Congress passed a joint resolution in 1941 decreeing that Thanksgiving should fall on the fourth Thursday of November, where it remains.
So Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday of November, a different date every year. The President must proclaim that date as the official celebration. Thanksgiving is a time for tradition and sharing. Even if they live far away, family members gather for a reunion at the house of an older relative. All give thanks together for the good things that they have.
Answer the following questions:
1. How long has Thanksgiving Day been celebrated in the USA?
2. Who first declared the date of Thanksgiving Day?
3. Why did Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaim Thanksgiving the third Thursday in November?
Key:
1. Almost four hundred years.
2. Governor William Bradford.
3. Because he wanted to lengthen the Christmas shopping season.