英语听力教程第三版(张民伦主编)Unit 8 The Sound(16)

英语听力教程第三版(张民伦主编)Unit 8 The Sound of Music听力原文

Our question this week asks about the song Yankee Doodle. To explain, we must go back more than 200 years. The American colonies had not yet won independence from England. The British used the word "Yankee" to describe colonists in the northeast part of America. That area was known as New England. After the War for Independence, the British used the word to mean all Americans. And during both World Wars American soldiers were known as Yankees or just Yanks.

That was the song Yankee Doodle. History experts do not know exactly when it was written. Some research shows the date may have been during the 1750s. Many stories say a British army doctor wrote the song when England was fighting the French and the Indians in North America. There is little confirmation of these stories. We do know, however, that Yankee Doodle was sung by the British to make the colonial people of North America look foolish. And we know the song became popular among the colonists themselves. Many knew at least some of the words. The British continued to use the song to make Yankees look foolish until the early days of the War for Independence in the 1770s. Stories say, British soldiers marching out of the city of Boston

stepped in time to the music of Yankee Doodle. Those same soldiers