Pension的意思是“养老金”、“退休金”,它是人们在退休后的重要经济保障之一。Wikipedia对Pension提供的英文解释如下:A pension is a fund into which a sum of money is added during an employee’s employment years, and from which payments are drawn to support the person’s retirement from work in the form of periodic payments. (养老金是一类基金,在雇员从业期间,一定金额的钱被存入此账户内。雇员退休后,则定期从此账户中支取金额以供养老。)
养老金通常可以分为两类:Employment-based pensions(基于就业的养老金)、Social and state pensions(社会与国家养老金)。前者是雇主、雇员定期向养老金账户内存入费用以便退休后支取,后者则要求公民或居民在就业期间持续往账户内存入资金(例如美国的Social security,社保)。
如果你经常上Facebook,泡Buzzfeed,看CollegeHumor,有个词一定没少遇到过:Basic girl。这可是个超级火的热词,不少标题中含有basic girl字眼的文章都会招来大量评论,比如:27 Texts Only Basic Girls Will Understand(只有Basic girls才能懂的27条短信),17 Fall Activities All Basic Girls Love(所有basic girls都会喜欢的17种秋季活动)(相关发音及讲解见下面的音频文件)
其实,美国的互联网文化和我们中国的互联网文化一样,在不同的时段,都会不断涌现出一批莫名其妙、却又备受欢迎的流行词汇。Basic girl就是这样的产物,那它究竟是什么意思呢?来看看Urban Dictionary对basic girl的英文定义:She is your run of the mill white girl that has no identity of her own… Whatever is popular, she is into it whether she likes it or not personally. (她属于那种再平凡不过的白人女生,不具备任何属于自己的个性。不论什么,只要流行,她必定跟风,而不管自己是否真的喜欢。)
看完上面的解释,答案已不言而喻,所谓basic girl,就是指那种“没个性的(白人)女孩”,或“俗女”。而这个表达中的basic,已经成为了一种略带贬义的词汇。Quora上的一个答案明确指出:”Basic” is a recently coined insult.(Basic是一个最近创造出来的侮辱性词汇)而Vox.com更是专门为basic这个新含义写了篇新手指南:”Basic”: a beginner’s guide to everyone’s favorite new insult. 该文开篇就让人忍俊不住:Over the past month, people across this great nation found themselves looking in the mirror and asking themselves one thing: am I basic?(过去一个月来,全国人民都发现自己在做一件事:对着镜子问自己:”我俗吗?”)
那我们来看看basic girl都会具有哪些行为特征吧,根据Buzzfeed和Gurl.com,以下都算:posting inspirational quotes on FB(在脸书上发”鸡汤”名言),taking selfies(玩自拍), using obvious filters(自拍时滥用滤镜), wearing Ugg boots(穿Ugg的靴子)…
wearing a winter jacket from The North Face(穿北面的冬季夹克),drinking pumpkin spice lattes while walking through the park.(喝着南瓜拿铁穿过公园)。
另外,basic girl还有一些另外的说法,比如:basic white girl,basic bitch(这种说法比basic girl的offensive意味要更浓一些,尽量避免使用哦。)总之,basic girl这个表达是含有一定的嘲讽、贬损含义的。它常指随大流、追逐时尚,缺乏个性的”潮流”女生群体。我们了解其含义及用法即可,尽量不要轻易把它套用在别人身上哦。
英文中,婚外情的对应说法是:have an affair。这里的affair,有“风流韵事”的意思。此外,在美式英语的口语中,婚外情也可以说:cheat(欺骗)。cheat on someone,就是对某人不忠。比如:She’s been cheating on her husband for over a year by seeing another married guy.(她对丈夫不忠,与已婚男人有染已一年多)