Christmas is coming!
 
Santa shot at in Rio. Electric eels² light up Japanese Christmas tree. Singapore elephants get festive³ gift of boots for jumbo pain.

Around the globe, Christmas invariably offers tales of the wacky, wild and downright weird⁴ -- and the 2007 festivities are certainly no exception.

In a Rio de Janeiro slum, drug traffickers opened fire on a helicopter carrying Santa Claus to a Christmas party, apparently⁵ mistaking it for a police helicopter.

Poor Santa is also under fire for being too fat.

The acting⁶ US surgeon general said a thinner Santa would be a better role model for kids in a land battling obesity⁷.

A British shopping centre ordered its Santas to attend a month-long boot camp with exercises before greeting children.

In the season of mass consumption, going green can win brownie points.

In Hong Kong, environmentalists are not amused, arguing that all the glittering neon Santas and rainbows of flashy lights are devouring⁸ too much electricity.

But, in sharp contrast, a Japanese aquarium⁹ decided¹⁰ on a novel way to save energy -- it used electricity generated by an electric eel¹ to light up its Christmas tree.

A Canadian man said he sold his son's video game, a prized Christmas gift, on eBay after catching¹¹ him smoking marijuana.

In Singapore, vets¹² gave Asian elephants Tun and Jamilah the perfect Christmas gift -- specially¹³ made waterproof¹⁴ boots to relieve chronic¹⁵ foot lesions.

And cheeky Australian thieves stole 16 tonnes of ham and bacon from a Sydney warehouse¹⁶ and then wrote "Thanks. Merry Christmas" on a wall.

But surely the prize for the most bizarre Christmas charity gift must go to the International Rhino¹⁷ Foundation -- an auction¹⁸ of rhino dung which could be presented as Christmas gift！

圣诞老人在里约热内卢遭到枪击。日本用电鳗点亮圣诞树。新加坡的大象收到了圣诞礼物“止痛靴”……

每到圣诞节，世界各地总会上演千奇百怪的圣诞故事，今年的圣诞节当然也不例外。

在（巴西的）里约热内卢的一个贫民窟附近，一架载有“圣诞老人”的直升飞机遭到贩毒分子的枪击。这架直升飞机送“圣诞老人”去参加圣诞晚会，显然被贩毒分子当作警察的直升机了。

不仅如此，可怜的圣诞老人还因体形过胖而遭到“炮轰”。

美国公共卫生署代理署长称，在一个与肥胖进行“艰苦斗争”的国度，圣诞老人如果能变得更苗条一些，也许能成为孩子们更为理想的行动榜样。

英国的一家购物中心要求其“圣诞老人”在圣诞节与小朋友们见面之前，必须参加为期一个月的“身体集训营”。

作为一年中的消费旺季，圣诞期间更应该加强环保意识。

香港的环保主义者们可不会被五光十色的节日霓虹所迷惑，他们称带有霓虹灯的圣诞老人和七彩闪光灯消耗了大量电能。

与此相反，日本一家水族馆则想出了一个新奇的节能办法。它利用电鳗鱼发的电来点亮圣诞树彩灯。

在加拿大，一名男子由于发现儿子吸食大麻，因此他在eBay上卖掉了儿子心爱的圣诞礼物——一款电脑游戏。

在新加坡，兽医为两头名为图恩和雅米拉的亚洲大象带来了最合适的圣诞礼物——特制防水止痛靴。

澳大利亚的一群厚颜无耻的小偷从悉尼的一家肉店仓库偷走了16吨的火腿和熏肉，还在墙上留言说“谢谢。圣诞快乐！”。

而“最奇异的圣诞慈善礼物”大奖应该属于“国际犀牛基金会”。近日，该组织举办了一个“犀牛粪”拍卖会，有兴趣的人可以拿它作圣诞礼物哦！

Vocabulary:

under fire:指遭到抨击

brownie points:指“印象加分”