Yang Li:  大家好，我是杨莉。今天我邀请的嘉宾是William Kremer. Hi William.
 
William:  Hi Li, I love doing this programme, it’s informative and fun and we’ve been
getting some really good questions.
 
Yang Li:  没错，很多听友都喜欢你问我答节目，因为所有问题都是网友通过邮件发给我们的，有
名有姓甚至有录音。比如傅园祎同学就把她的问题录成mp3发给了我们。
 
William:  So let’s hear what her question is.
 
Insert
 
I have a question about some confusing words. They are celebration, ceremony and
anniversary. Can you tell me what are the different situations to use each of them
appropriately? Thank you. 
 
William:  Celebration, ceremony and anniversary. So they’re all nouns in English, but
Li, are they confusing words in Chinese?
 
Yang Li:  Not really. Celebration 是庆祝，ceremony是仪式，anniversary是周年纪念。
这三个词都是名词。
 
William:  They’re all related to some kind of event, big or small. 
 
Yang Li:  这三个词都和某种活动相关。Can you, William, think of a situation where you
can use all three words?
 
William:  Yes. You can have a ceremony to celebrate something like an anniversary.
So let’s listen to the following clip from Colin who works for the BBC’s
international charity.
 
Insert
 
I work for the BBC’s international charity and last week we had a celebration for the
tenth anniversary of the charity. We were registered with the British government exactly
ten years ago last week. So we had a little ceremony, when the Director General of the
BBC, Mark Thompson, came into our office and he cut a cake and then gave actually a
very good speech. It was a very important event and very good to bring us all together
to celebrate it together.

Yang Li:  Colin 说， 他为BBC 国际慈善机构工作，这个机构成立整整十年了。所以他们举行
了十周年纪念的庆祝仪式。
 
William:  That’s a good example of how we can use all three words together
naturally. In the first sentence that Colin said he used the words
celebration and anniversary.
 
Insert
 
Last week we had a celebration for the tenth anniversary of the charity. We were
registered with the British government exactly ten years ago last week. 
 
 
Yang Li:  A celebration for the tenth anniversary of the charity 庆祝这一慈善机构成立十
周年。Registered 就是注册登记。
 
William:  Then he described the event – “a little ceremony”.
 
Insert
 
So we had a little ceremony, when the Director General of the BBC, Mark Thompson,
came into our office and he cut a cake and then gave actually a very good speech. 
 
Yang Li:  They had a little ceremony 举行了一个小规模的仪式。仪式上BBC总裁切蛋糕并
发表了讲话。
 
William:  Finally he used the word to celebrate which is the verb for celebration. 
 
Insert
 
It was a very important event and very good to bring us all together to celebrate it
together.
 
 
William:  You are listening to BBC Learning English with me William Kremer and
Yang Li.
 
Yang Li:  欢迎大家继续收听你问我答，今天我们解释三个名词的用法，庆祝，仪式和周年纪念。
William would you say that of the three words, celebration is the most
commonly used?
 
William:  Well maybe, yeah. We can use that word to refer to a lot of celebratory
events such as birthdays, maybe a festival like Christmas or Chinese New
Year. But a ceremony is generally a more formal occasion. We normally
reserve that sort of word for a special occasion where there might be a
particular order in which you have to do things. 
 
Yang Li:  Ceremony 是仪式。这个词专门用于一些特殊的活动a special occasion 而且仪式
都遵循比较固定的程序a particular order in which you have to do things.  
 William:  Occasions like wedding ceremonies, christenings and graduation
ceremonies to name just a few. Sometimes, a ceremony must be
performed by a person with a certain authority.
 
Yang Li:  Wedding 婚礼 graduation ceremony 毕业典礼还有christening基督教的洗礼都
属于比较郑重的仪式ceremonies. 仪式通常是由相关的权威人士来主持的 a person
with a certain authority.
 
William:  The word anniversary refers to a day that commemorates or celebrates an
event that occurred on the same day in the past.
 
Yang Li:  周年纪念日是anniversary. 既可以是对喜事也可以是对悲伤事的周年纪念或缅怀to
commemorate.
 
William:  Yes, for both sad and happy things in the past. In the following clip a
colleague of ours, Catherine, tells us about her grandparents’ 60th
 wedding
anniversary.
 
Insert 
 
I went to one which was actually a long time ago but it was my grandparents’ 
60th wedding anniversary and they were obviously very old at the time, they 
were both in their 80s. We had a small anniversary party. We celebrated their 
anniversary with a cake. We seem to celebrate most things with cake in 
the UK. And we gave them a present, we had photographs, some guests came, 
and we celebrated their anniversary like that. 
 
William:  She said that they celebrated her grandparents’ wedding anniversary with
cake. Again we hear the words anniversary and celebration together.   
 
Yang Li:  是的，在描述一件纪念活动的时候经常会用到庆祝这个词。也就是说anniversary 和
celebration 经常连用。仪式ceremony 则表示那些比较郑重的，有固定程序的活
动。说到这里，我想问问傅园祎同学，你觉得有收获吗？
 
William:       I do hope that we have answered your question today. Remember if you’re
listening and you have a question, you can reach us at
questions.chinaelt@bbc.co.uk 
 
Yang Li:  Thanks for listening and see you next time.
 
William:  Bye.