美語情景對話 第181期:節禮日 Boxing Day

Todd: Nicola, you're from England.

託德：尼科拉，你是來自英國吧。

Nicola: Yes, I am.

尼科拉：對啊，是的。

Todd: OK. Now in England you have something called "Boxing day".

託德：好的。現在英國有稱爲“節禮日”的節日。

Nicola: Yes, we do.

尼科拉：對，是有。

Todd: So, we don't have that in America. What is Boxing day?

託德：我們美國並沒有這樣一個節日。什麼是節禮日？

Nicola: Well, boxing day is always on the 26th of December, the day after Christmas day, and it was originally called boxing day because it was the day in England when the very rich people in Victorian times gave presents to their servants, the day after Christmas, and usually it would be something like money, or food but they would give it to them in a small box, and so on December the 26th, servants would receive their boxes,the Christmas boxes, and that's why it was called Boxing day.

尼科拉：嗯，節禮日是在每年的12月26日，聖誕節之後的那天，稱之爲節禮是是因爲在維多利亞時代，英國的富人通常在聖誕節之後的這一天送僕人禮物，禮物一般是錢、食物之類的東西，他們會把禮物放在一個小盒子裏，僕人們會在12月26日收到他們的盒子，聖誕節盒子，這就是稱之爲節禮日的原因。

Todd: OK

託德：好的。

Nicola: Today, people don't really receive money or food so much, sometimes you give extra tips at Christmas, but Boxing day has stuck. So that's the name.

尼科拉：今天，人們通常不會收到金錢或是食物這樣的禮物，有時你會在聖誕節給額外的小費，而節禮日一定要給。所以名字就這麼得來了。

Todd: What do people do on Boxing day?

託德：人們在節禮日都做什麼？

Nicola: Nothing really. Uh, eat the leftover turkey, turkey sandwiches, watch TV, and in my family we usually go and watch dog racing, grey hound racing. Yeah, and Lose some money...

尼科拉：沒什麼。嗯，吃剩下的火雞，火雞三明治，看電視，我們家通常會去看賽狗比賽，灰狗比賽。

Todd: Lose money!

託德：輸錢！

Nicola: Yeah always. At least I do.

尼科拉：的確總是輸錢。至少我是這樣的。

Todd: Wow, cool. Dog track. Is there a dog track near your house?

託德：哇，很酷啊。賽狗比賽。你家附近有賽狗場地嗎？

Nicola: Yeah, there is, where I live, yeah.

尼科拉：是啊，有，就在我住的地方。

重點講解：
1. nothing really
其實也沒什麼；沒什麼；
eg. "Nothing,"he said automatically."Nothing really."
"沒什麼,"他不由自主地說。"真的沒什麼。"
eg. When I complimented her, she coloured up a bit and said it was nothing really.
我誇獎她時,她有點臉紅,說那實際上不值得一提。
2. at least
至少，不少於；起碼，不管怎樣；
eg. Aim to have at least half a pint of milk each day.
目標是每天至少喝半品脫的牛奶。
eg. It's not difficult to get money for research or at least it's not always difficult.
爭取到研究資金並不難，起碼不總是那麼難。
eg. If something awful happens to you at least you can write about it.
如果你遭遇了不幸，至少你有東西可寫。