打喷嚏的预兆-打喷嚏时英国人会说“bless you”，你知道是为什么吗？

-No.223-

英国不断变化的雨天意味着感冒只是经常发生的事情。当你听到有人在外面打喷嚏时，毫无疑问，会有人说“bless you”。虽然是“belss，祝福”，但这句话跟宗教没有关系，更像是一种约定俗成的礼仪。可说“bless you”的习俗到底是怎么来的呢？

今天爱丽丝就跟大家分享两段关于这个短语起源的历史。

church

1. It was believed that could protect your soul and body.

The other option is based on an idea that your soul was trying to escape when you sneezed. Saying “bless you” was believed to help keep it in you. Alternatively a sneeze was the body’s way of expelling a demon and saying that phrase would shield you from the evil.

（另一种选择是基于这样一种想法：当你打喷嚏时，你的灵魂正试图逃离。说“祝福你”被认为是有助于你守住它。或者，打喷嚏是身体驱逐恶魔的方式，并说这句话可以保护你免受邪恶之害。）

be based on “基于；以...为基础/依据”

The study was based on data from 2,100 women. 这项研究基于从2,100名女性那里收集来的资料。

expel /ɪkˈspel/文中“expel”意为“驱逐；赶走；把…除名；排出（气体等）”，“demon”也就是“恶魔，魔鬼，邪恶的事物”，用“expel”更具有一种强制力，比如，

An American academic was expelled from the country yesterday.

昨天一位美国学者被逐出该国。

Westminster Abbey

2. It was believed that could stop the spreading of the Black Death.

Let us set the scene in about 590AD. The bubonic plague was spreading and killing people daily, so a cough or a sneeze could be a sign of the Black Death. If someone sneezed a quick “God bless you” was thought to stop the disease from killing and spreading. Of course today we know that did not work. And unfortunately the plague went on to kill more than one million people in England alone.

（让我们把场景设置在公元590年左右。黑死病每天都在传播蔓延并杀死人们，所以咳嗽或打喷嚏可能是黑死病的征兆。如果有人打喷嚏，“God bless you”被认为能阻止疾病的死亡和蔓延。当然，今天我们知道这是行不通的。不幸的是，仅在英国就有100多万人死于瘟疫。）

spread在文中意为“蔓延，扩散，传播”

A dark red stain was spreading across his shirt. 一块深红色的污渍在他衬衫上渗开。

spread除了文中的意思还有：

“摊开，铺开” spread sth. out/on/over sth. She spread the map out on the floor. 她在地板上摊开地图。

“伸出，张开” She spread her arms and the child ran towards her. 她张开双臂，孩子向她跑来。

“涂，敷” spread A on/over B : to spread butter on pieces of toast 在烤面包片上抹黄油

spread B with A : pieces of toast spread with butter 抹了黄油的烤面包

sign of sth.“征兆，预兆，迹象” The fact that he didn't say ‘no’ immediately is a good sign . 他没有马上拒绝，这是好征兆。

a sign of the times : 时代特征

不管哪种起源

在现在生活中