VOA慢速英语:Christmas in 19th Century America - A Special Holiday Edition of The Making of a Nation

1.Washington Irving seemed to express concern about the lack of such unifying Christmas traditions in modern America.

lack of  缺乏;
例句：Another problem was the lack of competition.
另一个问题是缺乏竞争.

2. She describes how Christmas had different meanings for Americans who came from different cultural and religious backgrounds.  Many immigrants brought Christmas traditions from their own countries.

come from 来自某处; 出生于; 由…造成; 源自;
例句：The findings come from a report compiled by 700 experts over five years.
上述发现出自于一份由700位专家历时5年编写的报告。

3. This tradition of setting up a Christmas tree soon spread to many American homes.  So did the practice of giving people presents.

setting up 调定，安装; 刷毛; 汽蒸;
例句：Beckham has begun setting up football schools.
贝克汉姆已开始建立一些足球学校。

4. He did not expect it to be published.  He wrote it as a Christmas present for his young children.

expect to 期许;
例句：Experts expect to throw away some early work.
专家们希望把自己的早期作品置之度外。