花旗美語Whats Englis

遭擄台籍旅客張安薇於菲平安獲釋

Abducted Taiwanese Tourist Rescued in the Philippines

(WSJ, Dec. 20, 2013) —Philippine security forces have rescued a Taiwanese tourist kidnapped by alleged militants last month from a scenic island in eastern Malaysia, Malaysian police said Friday.

馬來西亞警方於週五指稱，菲律賓安全部隊已解救了一名上月在馬來西亞東部一座觀光島上被據稱是武裝分子的人員綁架的臺灣遊客。

On November 15 the female victim went missing from Pom Pom Island, a popular tourist spot off the eastern state of Sabah. Her male companion was found shot to death in the resort where they were staying.

車神舒馬赫於滑雪時遭逢意外性命垂危

Schumacher 'critical' after ski accident

(Al Jazeera [半島電視台], Dec. 30, 2013) —Former Formula One racing world champion Michael Schumacher is in critical condition after undergoing brain surgery following a skiing accident in the French Alps, officials have said.

官員指稱，前世界一級方程式賽車冠軍麥可‧舒馬赫在法國阿爾卑斯山脈滑雪遭遇意外，並在進行腦部手術後仍處於性命堪慮的險境。

Authorities said that the seven-time world champion had been flown to hospital after he fell and hit his head on a rock at about 11:00 on Sunday.

9. Black Friday has become an international affair.
「黑色星期五」已然成為一個國際級的活動。

Canadian retailers have long winced as their customers went south on Black Friday in search of better shopping deals. So now they've begun offering their own sales - despite the fact that Canadian Thanksgiving is a full month earlier.
過去，由於他們的顧客在黑色星期五時都南下到美國去搶便宜，加拿大零售商長期以來都是畏縮逃避以對。所以現在他們也開始提供他們的特賣活動─雖然說事實上加拿大的感恩節比美國的還要早了整整一個月。
In Mexico, there is El Buen Fin, which roughly translates as "the good weekend". It's pegged to the anniversary of Mexico's 1910 revolution, which sometimes falls on the same day American Thanksgiving. It lasts, as the name suggests, the entire weekend.

7. Some say Black Friday refers to "going into the black".
有些人說黑色星期五指的是「營收黑字」。

Retailers tried to put a positive spin on the "black" bit of the term by saying it was when retailers became profitable, or as the saying goes "went into the black". However, there is no evidence to back this claim up.
零售商試圖對黑色星期五這個術語中的「黑色」做樂觀的陳述，表示這個活動讓他們收入滿滿，或是如一般所說的「有盈餘」。然而，目前尚未有證據來支持上述的說法。
It is true that holiday sales make up the bulk of consumer spending for the year.

5. Big Friday?
盛大的星期五？

The city that first popularised the term was Philadelphia. Police officers, frustrated by the congestion caused by shoppers on the day, started referring to it derisively as "Black Friday".
第一個將黑色星期五這個用語給普及化的城市是費城。那時候，當地的警官們由於對購物民眾在當天所造成的交通打結狀況很懊惱，開始用嘲弄的方式把這天說成是「黑色星期五」。
Unsurprisingly, retailers weren't happy to be associated with traffic and smog.

'Friday-after-Thanksgiving-itis'
「感恩節後星期五症狀」

According to Bonnie Taylor-Blake, a researcher at the University of North Carolina, Factory Management and Maintenance - a labour market newsletter - lays claim to the first use of the term as it relates to the holiday.
依照Bonnie Taylor-Blake，一位北卡羅萊納州大學研究者的說法，有一份叫做「工廠管理與維護」的勞工市場通訊刊物，宣稱是其首次使用了和節日相關的「感恩節後星期五症狀」一詞。
In 1951 the circular drew attention to the suspiciously high level of sickness that day.

The date of Thanksgiving was, indirectly, determined by holiday shoppers.
感恩節的日期是間接地由節日採購者們所決定而來的。

From the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth century, in a custom started by US President Abraham Lincoln, the president would declare a "day of thanks giving" on the last Thursday in November. This could either fall on the fourth or fifth Thursday in the month.
自十九世紀中至二十世紀初，美國前總統林肯發起了一項習俗，就是會在十一月的最後一個星期四宣布當天為感恩節。而這一天就可能會是在當月的第四或第五個星期四。
But in 1939, a funny thing happened - the last Thursday happened to be the last day in November. Retailers, worried about the shortened holiday shopping season, petitioned then-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to declare the holiday a week earlier - which he did.

"Santa Claus parades" were Black Friday's predecessor.
「聖誕老人大遊行」是黑色星期五的前身。

For many Americans, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade has become part of the holiday ritual.
對許多美國人來說，梅西感恩節大遊行已成了感恩節儀式中的一部分。
But the event actually was inspired from the US's neighbours in the north. Canadian department store Eaton's held the first "Santa Claus parade" on 2 December 1905. Once Santa appeared at the end of the parade, the signal was that the holiday season - and thus, holiday shopping, had begun. Of course, consumers were encouraged to buy their presents at Eaton's.

"Black Friday" used to refer to stock market crashes in the 1800s.
「黑色星期五」原本是指美國在十九世紀股市大跌時的說法。

Although it is now known as the biggest shopping day in the US, the term "Black Friday" originally referred to very different events.
雖然「黑色星期五」這一詞現在為人熟知的是描述美國最大的購物日，不過它原來指的是相當不一樣的事情。
"Black for centuries has been used for various calamities," says linguist Benjamin Zimmer, executive editor of Vocabulary.com.

十件您所不知的「黑色星期五」小知識
Ten things you didn't know about Black Friday

(BBC, Nov. 29, 2013) —Black Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year in the biggest economy in the world.

黑色星期五是世界上最大經濟體(美國)一年當中最盛大的一個採購日。

Full from their Thanksgiving feasts, millions of US shoppers descend on stores across the country on the Friday after the holiday, hoping to save on their Christmas shopping.

時事新聞標題：China Airlines, Tiger Airways Set up Taiwan's Low-Cost Carrier

您是喜愛出國旅遊的人嗎？您平常都會搭乘哪一家航空公司的班機呢？

根據最新消息指出，新加坡的老虎航空公司(Tiger Airways)已經與台灣的中華航空公司(China Airlines)攜手合資，要成立「台灣虎航」這家廉價航空公司，搶入廉航市場。

在標題中我們看到有set up一詞，它跟establish的意思都是指「成立」，而後面的low-cost carrier則是指「低成本的運輸公司」，所以下次您如果想要到國外旅遊、當背包客、或打工度假時，可以多留意廉價航空的訊息，就能為您自己省下不少經費呢。

P. S. 廉價航空在英文中有很多說法，除了low-cost carrier外，也可說low-cost airline, no-frills airline, discount airline, budget airline…等等，而老師最喜歡的說法，則是cheap flight，從字面上直接就可看出叫做「便宜的飛行」。

【英文學習專區】

趣味英語新聞：Oxford English Dictionary Considers Adding 'Tuhao', A Chinese Slang Term In Future Edition
各位朋友，如果問您，英文中要怎麼稱呼中文的「光棍」？您知道答案是什麼嗎？如果老外告訴您，叫做guanggun，您聽到看到之後會不會覺得很傻眼呢？
事實上guanggun一詞就是從「光棍」的拼音轉過來的呢！因為近年來中國在世界上的影響力逐漸擴大，也因此著名的英國牛津辭典，也表示了考慮日後會將一些中國人慣用的俗語俚語選錄進日後的字典版本當中。
當然了，我們還是得學一下英文的用法，像是在標題中的consider這個字，意思是「考慮；認為」等意思，不過要是我們要用consider來表達對某事的考慮時，可是要在其後加上「名詞」或是「動詞 + ing」的結構，才是正確的喔！本篇新聞標題的意思，就是「牛津英語字典考慮將『土豪』這個中文俚語加入在新的版本中」。