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
 

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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.

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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.
在墨西哥，則有El Buen Fin的活動，可以粗略翻譯為「美好週末」。這個活動是和墨西哥1910年革命後的國慶日綁在一起，而這段期間有時剛好和美國的感恩節同一天。這個活動就如其名，會持續一整個週末。
Beyond North America, as online shopping has grown, retailers like Amazon have looked to Cyber Monday, first heard of in 2005, to promote deals for shoppers across the globe. While in China, the recently launched 'Singles Day' prompted sales of two million bras in one hour, making a pile that would be three times higher than Mount Everest.
出了北美境外，由於線上購物逐漸成長，像是亞馬遜等零售商也依賴自2005年起出現的「網路星期一」活動來促銷商品給全世界的購物者們。在中國，則是有最近舉辦過的「光棍節」活動，在一小時內就促銷售出了兩百萬件女用內衣，其堆疊起來的高度，可是比聖母峰的三倍還要高。
10. Black Friday is becoming extinct.
「黑色星期五」正在通往絕跡消失的路上。
Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, broke the Black Friday tradition in 2011, when it opened its store on Thanksgiving evening. Ever since, retailers have been in a race to catch up and now, 33 million Americans said they planned to shop immediately after turkey.
沃瑪百貨，世界上最大的零售商，在2011年時於感恩節當晚開門營業，而打破了黑色星期五的傳統。自那時起，零售商就爭先恐後地要趕上腳步，所以到了今天，有三千三百萬名美國民眾表示他們打算要在享用完火雞之後就立刻前往採購。
But don't worry - this time, retailers have come up with a name themselves: "Grey Thursday".
不過別擔心─這一次，零售商已經自己想好這個購物日的名稱了：「灰色星期四」。

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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.
事實上，節日銷售能補足一年中消費者採購的很大部分。
Last year, shoppers on Black Friday spent an estimated $59.1 billion, according to the National Retail Federation. But how much of that is profit isn't clear - given how retailers vie with each other to offer bigger incentives and discounts.
根據國家零售聯合會的估計，去年的黑色星期五，採購者們花費了591億美金選購商品。有鑑於相互競爭的零售商們在活動中提供較大量的獎勵與折扣，在這數百億的鉅額中到底有多少算是利潤卻是不得而知。
8. Black Friday became the biggest shopping day of the year in 2001.
黑色星期五在2001年時成為一年當中最盛大的一個採購日。
Although it's often touted as the biggest shopping day of the year, the day didn't earn the designation consistently until the 2000s.
儘管黑色星期五常被吹捧為是一年當中最大的一個採購日，它卻是到西元兩千年後才能一貫地名符其實。
That's because, for many years, the rule wasn't that Americans loved deals, it was that they loved procrastinating. So up until that point, it was the Saturday before Christmas that typically saw the most wallets being emptied.
那是因為在很多年來，美國民眾喜愛的規則並不是划算的交易，而是喜愛一拖再拖。所以直到西元兩千年左右時，傳統上還是會在聖誕節前的最後一個週六會讓最多人掏空腰包來採購。

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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.
不意外地，零售商們對採購活動被拿來和交通狀況與廢氣排放做連結一事感到不滿意。
So they tried to rebrand the day "Big Friday", according to a 1961 local Philadelphia paper.
依據一份1961年費城當地的報紙所述，零售商們試著把這一天重新訂定為「盛大的星期五」。
Needless to say, the term didn't stick.
不消說，這個術語並沒有延續下去。
6. "Black Friday" didn't become a national term until the 1990s.
「黑色星期五」到90年代才成為一個全國性的用語。
The phrase 'Black Friday' remained a Philadelphia quirk for a surprisingly long time.
「黑色星期五」這個說法在費城維持了讓人吃驚的很長一段時間。
"You see it spreading a little bit to Trenton, New Jersey, which is close by, but it doesn't really start getting mentioned outside of Philadelphia until the 1980s," says Mr. Zimmer.
Zimmer先生表示：「你會看到黑色星期五一詞傳播到鄰近的紐澤西州特靈頓，但是它卻是到了80年代才開始在費城以外的區域被人提及的。」
"It didn't become widespread until the mid-90s."
「黑色星期五在90年代中期才變得廣為流傳。」

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'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.
在1951年時這份印刷品的內容吸引了許多人注意到黑色星期五那天可疑的高程度生病狀況。
"'Friday-after-Thanksgiving-itis' is a disease second only to the bubonic plague in its effects. At least that's the feeling of those who have to get production out, when Black Friday comes along. The shop may be half empty, but every absentee was sick - and can prove it," reads the circular.
該刊物上提及，「『感恩節後星期五症狀』在影響層面上是僅次於腺鼠疫(黑死病)的。至少那是一種會讓必須在黑色星期五來臨時得將產品傾巢而出的人們有如此感受的狀況。商店可能會有一半是空蕩蕩的，但每位缺勤的人請的都是真正的病假。」

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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.
不過在1939年時發生了一件有趣的事情─最後一個星期四剛好是十一月的最後一天。零售商們擔心這樣會縮短了節日購物季的時程，就像當時的美國總統小羅斯福來請願，讓他宣布提早一週來宣布感恩節，而他照做了。
For the next three years, Thanksgiving was known derisively as "Franksgiving" and celebrated on different days in different parts of the country.
在其後的三年，感恩節就被諷刺地認為是「羅斯福牌感恩節」，並在美國各地的不同日期來慶祝。
Finally, at the end of 1941, a joint resolution from Congress cleared up the matter. From then on, Thanksgiving would be celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November - guaranteeing an extra week of shopping before Christmas.
最後，在1941年底，國會的一份聯合決議將這件事情做出澄清。從那時起，感恩節就是在十一月的第四個星期四來慶祝，這樣就能保障民眾在聖誕節前有額外的一週時間來購物。
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"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.
但是這個活動的靈感其實是來自於美國北方的鄰居。加拿大的Eaton’s百貨公司在1905年12月2日首次舉辦了「聖誕老人大遊行」。當聖誕老人在遊行行列的尾端出現時，就象徵著聖誕與新年假期的到來，也因此，節日購物的活動也應聲開跑。當然了，當時的消費者們是被鼓勵到Eaton’s百貨去買他們的禮品。
US department stores such as Macy's took inspiration from the parade, and started sponsoring similar efforts across the country. In 1924, New York saw the first Macy's parade featuring animals from Central Park Zoo and run by the store's employees.
像梅西百貨這樣的美國百貨商，從上述的遊行中獲得啟發，並開始贊助全國相似的活動。到1924年，紐約首見由百貨員工所舉辦的梅西感恩節大遊行，隊伍中並有中央公園動物園的動物們參加。

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"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.
身兼語言學家及Vocabulary.com網站執行編輯的Benjamin Zimmer表示：「黑色在數百年來都是被用來指稱形形色色的大災禍。」
A chalkboard shows the prices of gold on "Black Friday", which reached a high not surpassed for 100 years
In the US, the first time the term was used was on 24 September 1869, when two speculators, Jay Gould and James Fisk, tried to corner the gold market on the New York Stock Exchange.
在美國，第一次使用「黑色星期五」是在1869年的9月24日，當時有兩位叫做Jay Gould與James Fisk的投機商人，試圖要壟斷紐約股市的黃金市場。
When the government stepped in to correct the distortion by flooding the market with gold, prices plummeted and many investors lost sizable fortunes.
就在美國政府以提供大量黃金流入市場的方式介入並導正這種歪風時，金價應聲暴跌，而許多投資客損失了相當可觀的金額。

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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.

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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？

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【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」。
P. S. 您知道嗎？英文當中和中文拼音相關的單字，可是有高達120字以上呢，而且這個數量還在陸續增加當中。
更多關於本新聞內容，請參閱
https://www.ibtimes.com/oxford-english-dictionary-considers-adding-tuhao-chinese-slang-term-future-edition-1477460
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