The Origin of Trick-or-treat

On October 31, hordes of children armed with Jack-o’-lantern-shaped buckets and pillow cases will take to the streets in search of sugar. Trick-or-treating for candy is equivalent to Halloween, but the tradition had to go through a centuries-long     1     to arrive at the place it is today. So how did the holiday become an opportunity for kids to get free sweets? You can blame pagans (异教徒), Catholics, and candy companies.

Historians agree that a Celtic autumn festival called Samhain (萨温节) was the origin of modern Halloween. Samhain was a time to celebrate the last harvest of the year and the approach of the winter season. It was also a festival for     2     the dead. One way Celtics may have appeased the spirits they believed still walked the Earth was by leaving treats on their doorsteps. When Catholics invaded Ireland in the 1st century CE, they rebranded many pagan holidays to     3     their religion. November 1^st became the “feasts of All Saints and All Souls,” and the day before it was dubbed “All-Hallows’-Eve.” The new holidays looked a lot different from the original Celtic festival, but many traditions     4     around, including the practice of offering food to the dead. The food of choice for Christians became “soul cakes,” small pastries usually baked with expensive     5     and spices like currants and saffron.

Instead of leaving them outside for     6     ghosts, soul cakes were distributed to beggars who went door-to-door     7     to pray for souls of the deceased in exchange for something to eat. Sometimes they wore costumes to honour the saints—something pagans originally did to avoid being     8     by evil spirits. The ritual, known as “souling”, is believed to have planted the seeds for modern-day trick-or-treating.

It wasn’t until the 1950s that trick-or-treat gained popularity in the US. Following the Great Depression and World War II, the suburbs were booming, and people were looking for     9     to have fun and get to know their neighbours. The old     10     of souling made a comeback and gave kids a chance to dress up in costumes and roam their neighbourhoods. Common trick-or-treat offerings included nuts, coins, and homemade baked goods (“treats” that most kids would turn their noses up at today).

From baking pumpkin pie to celebrating the moon, here’s how autumn is celebrated across the globe.

Here in the U.K, we’re familiar with Harvest Festival, which celebrates a successful harvest and     1     (date) back to pagan(异教徒) times. The festivities typically involve seasonal decorations, singing, and more, but there are different versions around the world.

The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival, is one of     2     (big) and most widely celebrated harvest festivals in the world. People from many Asian countries including China, Malaysia, and the Philippines, amongst others,     3     (mark) the day with festive celebrations. It is held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese lunar calendar,     4     typically lands in September. The festival is celebrated as a public holiday, with schools and offices     5     (close) their doors so that families can gather and give thanks for the harvest and full moon. In China, food is used as another means     6     (celebrate) the moon. Mooncakes, Chinese pastries traditionally     7     (fill) with seed paste and egg yolk, are a key part of China’s Mid-Autumn Festival.

Oktoberfest(慕尼黑啤酒节)，    8     (originate) in Germany, is another major autumn celebration. It begins in September and runs for about two weeks, featuring traditional Bavarian food, music, clothing, and most importantly, lots of beer!

There are also several cultural and religious events that occur throughout October and November.     9     (experience) multicultural autumn, try celebrating Dia de Los Muertos(亡灵节) on November 1 and 2—a Mexican celebration that honors the lives of    10     who have passed away with the food, drinks and activities that those loved ones enjoyed when they were alive.

In the workplace, there many different cultures that     1    —including the company culture, the local culture of the business and the national or regional cultures of employees.

The culture of the workplace starts with the company’s mission and core     2     and helps the leadership team manage the employees. It affects all major operations, including recruiting employees, providing employees with compensation (赔偿金) and benefits and     3     employees for good behavior. It also informs the way an organization trains and develops its staff, how it promotes employees and any workplace traditions it follows.

The work environment is     4     affected by the culture of the organization. For example, if one of the main elements of the workplace culture is teamwork, employees will know how important it is to help one another. They will be less competitive with each other, and will instead focus on succeeding together. Such a cultural feature can enable teams to be highly productive and motivated.

Local culture affects the way people behave in the workplace. For example, if it is a     5     in local culture to spend a lot of time enjoying the natural landscape, then many employees will place importance on that activity as well.

Employees can use elements of local culture to connect with and motivate their employees. Using this example of cultural behavior, the workplace can offer outdoor activities as prizes for     6     business targets. In addition, having company functions outside at the beach or at a local park can further make the employees engaged and     7    .

In today’s global economy, it’s common for workplaces to be made up of people from different national and     8     cultures. Being culturally sensitive and aware helps employees to communicate effectively with their teammates and work toward     9     goals. It’s important for employers to take cultural diversity into account when establishing their workplace policies. Teach employees how to be     10     sensitive to their colleagues and customers who have different cultural backgrounds.

For more than three centuries, the American colonies and later, the United States have been a place for many "have-nots" to make the "American Dream" come true for themselves and to become "haves." And the optimism that people have, knowing that this    1    will always happen, has grown out of some key elements in the history of the nation, a nation that has differed profoundly from every other country in the world. The economic    2    of the nation will also be very much tied to these success stories. Three characteristics have contributed to such attainments.

First, the United States had natural resources undreamed of in other parts of the world. For farmers and ranchers there was land, often to be had cheaply or even for free. There were endless forests to supply lumber and rich    3    of coal, oil, silver, copper and gold. Besides, critical to the development of these resources was a population of both native-born Americans and immigrant who were connected by their common work ethic. This ethic held that industry and thrift should be

    4    with - as Benjamin Franklin says -- "a State of Affluence and some Degree of Reputation in the World," These Americans believed in self improvement as well as in the nobility of all kinds of work. They also, if somewhat    5    , often linked material success with spiritual movement. Next, by and large, America was characterized by a(n)     6    class structure. In contrast to England and other European countries with their history of aristocrats（贵族）, this country was filled by numerous communities in which family connections or    7    money counted for little.

However, the pursuit of American Dream sometimes also proved to be a source of tension and strain. At the beginning of the 20th century, writers like Jack London and F. Scott Fitzgerald depicted a lot of "have-not" characters whose fate is not a matter of free will. They are    8    by forces beyond their control. Often, in their works, children or young people are victimized by poverty that prevents them from    9    themselves. Convinced that a person's destiny is the result of his or her heredity interacting with the environment, they employ many    10     details to explore the oppressive world in which their characters are trapped. Analyzing characters' assumptions and values continued to illuminate the American experience.

In the British Museum on a Sunday afternoon, ancient faces look back at children and adults alike. Inside their glass cases, pharaohs (法老) and priests are     1     by the crowds. And crowds there always are, for these are painted coffins and carved masks of ancient Egyptians, relics (文物) of a culture that has     2     the world for thousands of years.

Ancient civilization is part of the world's heritage, and in recent times it seemed nothing could seriously threaten that     3    .Tourists visited such sites as Giza in Egypt and Olympia in Greece safe in the     4     knowledge that we were seeing wonders that would always be available to admire.

Yet the     5     of the world in 2012 is a threat to the apparently peaceful monuments of antiquity (古董) . In Greece, anxiety and alienation (疏远) as the weakest economy on the euro-zone faces terrible pressure to transform its way of life and a troubling reflection at Olympia last week, where a museum of the ancient Greek games was attacked by thieves. Perhaps this was     6    , but it is the second recent museum robbery in Greece.

Meanwhile in Egypt, tourism levels have decreased since the revolution, and hotels are half-empty.

This is where the word “tourism” becomes in itself harmful. People who visit Egypt to see ancient art are certainly tourists, in the country that was at the heart of the very idea of modern tourism. But this word has unfairly come to imply a selfish, shallow form of consumer spending,     7     valuable to poor countries but irrelevant to the higher concerns of national self-determination and democratic change.

To reduce the problems of the Egyptian tourists industry to these cold terms is wrong. Many people visit Egypt with a passionate     8     to gaze on the eyes of Tutankhamun and stand at the foot of the Great Pyramid. More     9    , the money from tourism helps keep Egyptian sites and museums going. To say these places are only of interest to “tourism” would be tragic and miserable.

Both Greece and Egypt are     10     of sites and objects of the highest importance to the entire world, if we shrug and write off (注销、报废) antiquity as the stuff of tourism and scholarship, “irrelevant” to these extraordinary times, we are already well on the way to barbarism (野蛮).