时间:2018-12-30 作者:英语课 分类:国家地理2007年


英语课
In South Korea, a land where Buddhism 1 and Christianity reign 2, many still turn to the old folk beliefs of Shamanism, believe in a world inhabited by spirits. But to become a Korean Shaman, a believer must pass an initiation 3, called the naerim kut, a rite 4 so extreme that few would attempt it.

While some are born to their role as Shamans, others, like Jiyang, receive their calling through a mystic illness called shinbyeong. She may look healthy, but Jiyang has been tormented 5 by spirits since childhood.

"Sometimes, I've been in so much pain that it left me almost completely paralyzed".

One day, she had a dream. She dreamed of a shaman, but didn't know who she was.

I saw a shaman all dressed up and participating in some activity. I felt I needed to find her.

The shaman in Jiyang's dream turned out to be real, her name was Kim kuwa, the acknowledged leader of northern style ecstatic shamanism. Kim kuwa agreed to take Jiyang into her home to prepare her for the initiation ceremony. If Jiyang fails this test, the spirit will not possess her and she will not be cured.

It's morning on the day chosen for Jiyang's naerim kut initiation. With the beating of the drum and the banging of the gongs, the naerim kut begins.

Jiyang puts on her first costume and prepares to summon the god. She enters into what's called an ecstatic trance. These shamans believe that in this trance, her mind becomes possessed 6 and she speaks in the spirits' voices. Jiyang and the other shamans dance for hours, changing customs after every spirit possession. The time has come for Kim kuwa to call upon the Knife-Riding General, her guarding spirit. As an indication of the General's spirit within her, she licks the blades and presses them against her thighs 7. She climbs up onto the double-edged shark-tooth knives and dances. No blood is shed while she addresses the audience in the spirit's voice, announcing his presence.

Finally, it is Jiyang's turn. Jiyang steps onto the knives and she begins to dance. Fortunately her feet do not bleed; Jiyang's passed the final test.

"I feel like I have the whole world in my hands."

But this is only the beginning, she will have to undergo years of training under the guidance of Kim kuwa. Hopefully, she will find greater peace and happiness, fulfilling her destiny as a shaman.


n.佛教(教义)
  • Buddhism was introduced into China about 67 AD.佛教是在公元67年左右传入中国的。
  • Many people willingly converted to Buddhism.很多人情愿皈依佛教。
n.统治时期,统治,支配,盛行;v.占优势
  • The reign of Queen Elizabeth lapped over into the seventeenth century.伊丽莎白王朝延至17世纪。
  • The reign of Zhu Yuanzhang lasted about 31 years.朱元璋统治了大约三十一年。
n.开始
  • her initiation into the world of marketing 她的初次涉足营销界
  • It was my initiation into the world of high fashion. 这是我初次涉足高级时装界。
n.典礼,惯例,习俗
  • This festival descends from a religious rite.这个节日起源于宗教仪式。
  • Most traditional societies have transition rites at puberty.大多数传统社会都为青春期的孩子举行成人礼。
饱受折磨的
  • The knowledge of his guilt tormented him. 知道了自己的罪责使他非常痛苦。
  • He had lain awake all night, tormented by jealousy. 他彻夜未眠,深受嫉妒的折磨。
adj.疯狂的;拥有的,占有的
  • He flew out of the room like a man possessed.他像着了魔似地猛然冲出房门。
  • He behaved like someone possessed.他行为举止像是魔怔了。
n.股,大腿( thigh的名词复数 );食用的鸡(等的)腿
  • He's gone to London for skin grafts on his thighs. 他去伦敦做大腿植皮手术了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The water came up to the fisherman's thighs. 水没到了渔夫的大腿。 来自《简明英汉词典》
学英语单词
affidavit maker
Alexo
antex
banded steel pipe
birdsey
bishopstones
blending lighting
broadleaf, Broadleaf
bus-oriented backplane
calcicosis
caries carnosa
channelizing island
Colman
contrafactum
cyclohexanecarbothionyl
dipnoid
dixie-land
Drakesboro
Dwight Lyman Moody
Electronic Transactions Ordinance
erionites
exfoliative lupus
extracellular electrode
feel grateful
fishtar
flattenedregion
forward cargo hold
fraction distance point
garden heliotrope
gravity gradiometer
Gärdslösa
Haeckel's gastrea theory
have an itchy trigger finger
Holothuroidea
impaludism
incandescent screen
inherently stable
insufflates
iris pallidas
Lagrange Seamount
Lediamox
libtardation
limited company unquoted on stock exchange
lithophysa structure
malm
merge node
microvacations
miscase
Muhamedism
Network Control Protocol
nonradioactive probe
notation variable
notional ship
Novoalekseyevka
old man of the mountains
page base search
parrotheads
phosphate coating device
photo-electric transmittence meter
polynomial-bounded
Portulaca L.
reed instrumentalist
reincense
remuneration package
right serial ring
right to buildingtimber
right-angle connector
ring cushion
roadbase
Rockwell hardometer
rowses
Royal Naval War College
Salenijdae
SCC (stress corrosion cracking)
self-indexing starter
shophouses
short safety
Sikkim dendrocalamus
single capstan mode
sore kval?y (kvaloya)
stake out a claim
steady-state viscosity
stone-fruit
structural theory of algebra
super saver
surface drainage ditch
switch interlock socket
ta shan hsiao
tank spacing
tape loop
theoretical air requirement
tinodes triangulata
Tosca, Pta.
transverse stiffness
trichotomolaesurate
true radiant
unclutches
universal matrix retainer
user friendly
vagina tendinis musculi poplitei
zero intermediate frequency
ziment water