美語情景對話 第1250期:Giving Gifts 送禮物

Todd: Do you feel pressure to get certain gifts for your kids?

託德：你在給孩子買禮物時會感到壓力嗎？

Aimee: I ... sometimes. Sometimes. Thankfully they ... it's not ... there's not too much pressure where we live right now, so I don't feel too much pressure and I also work hard to fight against it. Yeah. Every year I tell myself, "OK, they're so young. We have so much stuff already. We don't need to go crazy with gifts. Just get one or two" and we do that and then last minute is like "Oh, no! We don't have many gifts" and then we end up buying a few more, so... We're not as bad as we could be. There's not as much pressure as there could be.

艾米：有時。有時會有壓力。幸運的是，他們……我們現在生活的地方沒有太大壓力，所以我沒有感受到太大壓力，我也在努力對抗壓力。每年我都跟自己說，“好，他們還小。我們已經有很多東西了。我們不必執着於禮物。只要買一兩個就好了”，我們會這樣去做，可是下一秒我們又會想，“哦不！我們沒有太多禮物”，最後我們會再買幾個禮物。我們沒有使情況變得很糟糕。我們沒有太大的壓力。

Todd: Yeah. I'm lucky in that I live in Japan. You know, we both teach in Japan. So my family's in America, so Christmas usually always falls like the day after we finish school, so I can't actually make it home in time for Christmas, which is awesome because then I don't have to buy gifts for everybody. And I don't mind ... its not the money. I don't mind spending the money, but I really don't like shopping, and I hate having ... I have a huge family. Huge!

託德：嗯。我很幸運我生活在日本。我們兩個人都在日本教書。我的家人在美國，聖誕節通常在學期結束後的那天，所以我不能趕回家過聖誕節，這其實很不錯，因爲我不用給所有人買禮物。我不是介意錢的問題，錢倒是無所謂。我不介意花錢，不過我很不喜歡購物，而且我有個龐大的家庭。非常大！

Aimee: Right.

艾米：好。

Todd: So the thought of having to buy 20 different gifts!

託德：所以我要買20個不同的禮物！

Aimee: It's a lot of gifts.

艾米：那真是很多禮物了。

Todd: Oh, really it's not the cost either, it's just I'm too lazy to think of "Oh, what sweater can I buy this person or ..." it's not my thing. And I don't want gifts and I don't want to give gifts.

託德：哦，真的和花錢無關，我只是太懶了，不想去考慮“哦，我能給這個人買哪件毛衣或是其他的”，那不是我擅長的事情。我不想要禮物，也不想送禮物。

Aimee: Well, you know that's fair.

艾米：嗯，那很公平。

Todd: How about you? Are gifts still something special for you?

託德：你呢？你擅長挑禮物嗎？

Aimee: I'm not ... I'm not very good at it. I'm trying to improve cause I know a well-thought-out gift can mean the world to someone, so I'm trying to improve. Yeah, but I'm not the best. I don't mind, I'm not like. I won't fall out with someone if they don't get me a present. I'm not like that.

艾米：我也不太擅長。我在努力改進，因爲我知道精心考慮的禮物對某人來說可能有非凡的意義，所以我在努力提高挑選禮物的能力。不過我還沒有做到最好。我不太介意那種事情，如果有人沒送我禮物，我不會和他們吵架。我不會那樣做。

Todd: Well, like, I like getting people birthday gifts, I have to admit that. Birthday gifts I like. It's just having to buy twenty, thirty gifts within a one-month period to me just seems obscene.

託德：我得承認，我喜歡送生日禮物。我喜歡生日禮物。可是在一個月的時間內要買好20或30件禮物，我認爲那太可怕了。

Aimee: I know, and that's the pressure people are under cause that's the way it is, isn't it? And it's always ... it's always the mothers of the family that have to do it as well right? They're the ones that have to make sure they buy all the gifts for everyone, so they feel they have so much to do. That mental list of everything, and everyone they have to buy for, of course they have to organize it, so they maybe start earlier, right, and taking advantage of things like Black Friday and Cyber Monday are manageable ways to deal with that load.

艾米：我明白，那就是人們面臨的壓力，就是那麼回事，不是嗎？而且準備禮物通常是媽媽要負責的事情，對吧？媽媽要確保買好了所有人的禮物，所以她們感到有很多事情要做。要在頭腦裏列出每件事情，給每個人買禮物，要安排一切，所以她們會提前準備，利用“黑色星期五”或“網購星期一”來解決那種負擔是易管理的方法。

Todd: You've changed my mind. I was very anti- both but now that you put it that way, maybe you're right.

託德：你改變了我的想法。我本來是反對“黑色星期五”和“網購星期一”的，不過既然你這樣說了，那也許你是對的。

Aimee: I don't know.

艾米：我也不知道。

Todd: Let's go!

託德：我們走吧！

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重點講解：
1. end up 最終；結果；到頭來；
例句：If you hang around with colleagues all the time you just end up talking shop.
如果整天和同事泡在一起的話，你最終就會變得開口閉口都是工作。
2. in time for 及時；不遲；
例句：I arrived just in time for my flight to London.
我及時趕上了飛往倫敦的航班。
3. fall out with (與…)爭吵，失和；
例句：Don't get angry! I don't want to fall out with you.
別發火！我不想跟你吵架。
4. take advantage of 利用；
例句：You may wish to take advantage of our instructional session.
你應該充分利用我們的教學課程。
5. change one's mind （使）改變主意；（使）改變決定；
例句：I've tried and tried, but I can't persuade him to change his mind.
我試了又試，但沒法說服他改變主意。