Thanksgiving Day is on the fourth Thursday of November. It is a time to give thanks for the harvest and of the preceding year.
Today, Thanksgiving means spending time with family and friends over a large feast. Thanksgiving Day has been celebrated in the United States since 1863. President John F. Kennedy pardoned a turkey on November 19, 1963, stating "Let's Keep him going."
The official "pardoning" of White House turkeys is an interesting White House tradition that has captured the imagination of the public in recent years. It is often stated that President Lincoln's 1863 clemency to a turkey recorded in an 1865 dispatch by White House reporter was the origin for the pardoning ceremony.
文中的White House turkey就是“白宫火鸡”的意思，其中turkey用作名词，除了表示基本的“火鸡”之意，还可表示“笨蛋；失败之作”，将首字母大写，表示“土耳其”。如：People often drink white wine with turkey.（人们经常边吃火鸡肉边喝白葡萄酒。）
第一段中的preceding用作形容词，意为“在前的；在先的”，如：This point has been dealt with in the preceding paragraph.（这一点在前面一段里已经交代过了。）
