[00:01.080]--- Lesson 76 April Fools' Day
[00:06.960]--- First listen and then answer the question.
[00:13.160]--- What was the joke?
[00:17.400]'To end our special news bulletin,' said the voice of the television announcer,^“
[00:24.120]'we're going over to the macaroni fields of Calabria.^“
[00:29.160]Macaroni has been grown in this area for over six hundred years.
[00:35.760]Two of the leading growers, Giuseppe Moldova and Riccardo Brabante,tell me that they have been expecting a splendid crop this year and harvesting has begun earlier than usual.
[00:52.240]Here you can see two workers who, between them, have just finished cutting three cartloads of golden brown macaroni stalks.
[01:04.560]The whole village has been working day and night gathering and threshing this year's crop before the September rains.
[01:14.040]On the right, you can see Mrs. Brabante herself. She has been helping her husband for thirty years now.
[01:23.880]Mrs. Brabante is talking to the manager of the local factory where the crop is processed.
[01:32.120]This last scene shows you what will happen at the end of the harvest: the famous Calabrian macaroni-eating competition!
[01:43.120]Signor Fratelli, the present champion, has won it every year since 1991.
[01:51.720]And that ends our special bulletin for today, Thursday, April lst.
[01:58.840]We're now going back to the studio.
[02:03.640]--- end