week 14 12/15

A Christmas carol (also called a noël, from the French word meaning "Christmas") is a carol (song or hymn) whose lyrics are on the theme of Christmas, and which is traditionally sung on Christmas itself or during the surrounding holiday season. Christmas carols may be regarded as a subset of the broader category of Christmas music.

marshmallows for toasting

mistletoe is the common name for most obligate hemiparasitic plants in the order Santalales. Mistletoes attach to and penetrate the branches of a tree or shrub by a structure called the haustorium, through which they absorb water and nutrients from the host plant.

                       swell - swelled - swelled/swollen  (adj.) 臃腫的

                     

              well (n.) 水井 (v.) 湧出,湧上         

              mimesis → imitation, representation 擬態;模仿

              ambivalent → (adj.) having mixed feelings about                         someone or something  矛盾的

The Argonauts  were a band of heroes in Greek mythology, who in the years before the Trojan War, around 1300 BC,accompanied Jason to Colchis in his quest to find the Golden Fleece.

              ambiguous → (adj.) open to or having several possible                 meanings or interpretations  模稜兩可的

In Greek tradition, sphinx has the head of a human, the haunches of a lion, and sometimes the wings of a bird. It is mythicised as treacherous and merciless. Those who cannot answer its riddle suffer a fate typical in such mythological stories, as they are killed and eaten by this ravenous monster.