美语情景对话 第181期:节礼日 Boxing Day

Todd: Nicola, you're from England.

托德：尼科拉，你是来自英国吧。

Nicola: Yes, I am.

尼科拉：对啊，是的。

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

托德：好的。现在英国有称为“节礼日”的节日。

Nicola: Yes, we do.

尼科拉：对，是有。

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

托德：我们美国并没有这样一个节日。什么是节礼日？

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，节礼日是在每年的12月26日，圣诞节之后的那天，称之为节礼是是因为在维多利亚时代，英国的富人通常在圣诞节之后的这一天送仆人礼物，礼物一般是钱、食物之类的东西，他们会把礼物放在一个小盒子里，仆人们会在12月26日收到他们的盒子，圣诞节盒子，这就是称之为节礼日的原因。

Todd: OK

托德：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，人们通常不会收到金钱或是食物这样的礼物，有时你会在圣诞节给额外的小费，而节礼日一定要给。所以名字就这么得来了。

Todd: What do people do on Boxing day?

托德：人们在节礼日都做什么？

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：没什么。嗯，吃剩下的火鸡，火鸡三明治，看电视，我们家通常会去看赛狗比赛，灰狗比赛。

Todd: Lose money!

托德：输钱！

Nicola: Yeah always. At least I do.

尼科拉：的确总是输钱。至少我是这样的。

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

托德：哇，很酷啊。赛狗比赛。你家附近有赛狗场地吗？

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

尼科拉：是啊，有，就在我住的地方。

重点讲解：
1. nothing really
其实也没什么；没什么；
eg. "Nothing,"he said automatically."Nothing really."
"没什么,"他不由自主地说。"真的没什么。"
eg. When I complimented her, she coloured up a bit and said it was nothing really.
我夸奖她时,她有点脸红,说那实际上不值得一提。
2. at least
至少，不少于；起码，不管怎样；
eg. Aim to have at least half a pint of milk each day.
目标是每天至少喝半品脱的牛奶。
eg. It's not difficult to get money for research or at least it's not always difficult.
争取到研究资金并不难，起码不总是那么难。
eg. If something awful happens to you at least you can write about it.
如果你遭遇了不幸，至少你有东西可写。