【新朋友】點擊標題下面藍字【可可英語】加關注
【老朋友】點擊手機右上角圖標【轉發分享】內容
【聽音頻，也可猛戳左下角「閱讀原文」】
This is a download from BBC Learning English. To find out more, visit our website 6 Minute English from the BBC Learning English. com.
本文來自BBC Learning English。如需獲得更多內容請訪問我們的網站BBC Learning English. com。
Sophie: Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English. I'm Sophie…
大家好，歡迎收聽英語六分鐘，我是蘇菲。
Neil: And I'm Neil.
我是尼爾。
Sophie: I see you're wearing trainers today, Neil.
尼爾,我看你今天穿的是運動鞋。
Neil: Of course, I don't wear anything else.
當然了，我不穿別的鞋。
Sophie: Well, trainers – or to use the American term, sneakers – are the subject of today's show. They are ubiquitous – that means you can find them everywhere! People wear them across the globe – men, women, kids, teenagers and pensioners. And did you know that 85% of people who buy trainers don't wear them for sport?
美語用sneakers表示運動鞋，運動鞋是今天節目的主題。他們無所不在——到處都能看到運動鞋。全世界的人們都在穿運動鞋——不論男女老少。你知道嗎，85%的人買運動鞋並不是為了穿著它們去做運動。
Neil: That makes sense to me. I wear mine because they're comfortable.
我也是這樣。我穿運動鞋是因為它們很舒適。
Sophie: They're also very tatty – that means old and in bad condition – if you don't mind me saying so.
你的鞋子很破舊，如果你不介意我這麼說的話。
Neil: Hmm. I should probably get a new pair.
也許我應該買一雙新的了。
Sophie: There's a lot of choice out there. Hi-tops, gel, air, classic, retro… the list goes on. But before we go any further, I have a question for you. What's a popular US slang term for trainers? Is it…a) kicks? b) wedges? Or c) flats?
我們可選擇的樣式有很多：高幫的，膠底的，帶氣墊的，經典的，復古的等等。我們繼續談論運動鞋之前，我有一個問題要問你。哪一個流行的美國俚語指的是運動鞋？a) kicks （運動鞋）？b) wedges （坡跟鞋）？還是c) flats （平底鞋）？
Neil: I'll go for kicks.
我選kicks。
Sophie: OK, well we'll find out if you got the answer right later on in the show. Now, it has become socially acceptable to wear athletic apparel or clothing – including trainers – in situations where ten years ago it would not.
好的，在節目的最後，我們再看你的回答是否正確。如今，運動裝（包括運動鞋）已在社會上被廣為接受了，而十年前並非如此。
Neil: Yes, I think my apparel of jeans and tatty trainers is socially acceptable – at our workplace, anyway.
是的，在工作時，我穿著牛仔褲，破舊運動鞋也是可以為社會接受的。
Sophie: Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, is famous for his dressed-down – or informal – look of hoodies and trainers. You can pay anything from a few pounds for unbranded trainers to thousands of pounds for limited edition brands like Nike or Addidas – and limited edition means something produced in very small numbers.
Facebook的創始人馬克·扎克伯格因其非正式的著裝而出名，他經常穿著衛衣和運動鞋。你可以花幾英鎊買不知名的運動鞋，也可以花幾千英鎊買耐克或阿迪達斯的限量版運動鞋。限量版是指某種產品的生產數量很少。
Neil: Why would anybody spend a thousand pounds on trainers? And how many people would actually recognize that you were wearing Nike limited edition ones rather than regular ones?
為什麼有人會花幾千英鎊買運動鞋？有多少人能認出你穿的是耐克限量版而不是其他普通的款？
Sophie: Other sneakerheads, Neil – a sneakerhead is somebody who collects limited edition sneakers. It's an American term. But trainers are not new - in the nineteenth century, people wore sneakers as a mark of their prosperity – or economic success. Let's listen to Elizabeth Semmelhack, curator of the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto in Canada.
一些鞋迷——收集限量版運動鞋的人。這是個美語。但運動鞋也不是最近才出現的。在十九世紀，人們把穿運動鞋視為經濟成功的標誌。我們來聽聽加拿大多倫多巴塔鞋博物館館長伊莉莎白·賽墨海科的觀點。
This new industrial age actually ushered in a new class, the emerging middle class, that was able to, now, have leisure time, because of their new economic success. And so what they did was, they wanted to, sort of, express the fact that they had leisure time by playing. But they also wanted to signify that they were doing these things by their sartorial choices. And so the sneaker, in part, was invented to meet the needs of this new class, so that they could very conspicuously show that they were playing.
新工業時代產生了一個新的階級——新興中產階級。他們因經濟上的成功，而有了很多空餘時間。所以他們想要向外界展示，他們有很多空閒時間去娛樂。但他們還想通過自己的著裝來展示他們很悠閒。所以為了滿足這個新階級的需求，人們就發明了運動鞋。他們穿著運動鞋，讓別人一眼就能看出來他們在娛樂。
Neil: What does it mean to usher in, Sophie?
usher in 是什麼意思呢？
Sophie: It means to mark the beginning of something. In this case, the industrial revolution marked the beginning of a new social class – the middle class – who made a lot of money from industry.
它是指某件事的開始。在這裡，工業革命標誌著一個新社會階級——中產階級的產生，這些人從工業中賺了很多錢。
Neil: And why were they interested in trainers?
他們為什麼對運動鞋感興趣呢？
Sophie: They wanted a way of showing people that they were so rich they didn't need to work all the time. And by wearing trainers they were saying, 'I'm busy playing tennis'. Sartorial, by the way, means 'related to clothes'.
他們想用某種方式展現自己很有錢，而且不用一直工作。他們穿著運動鞋，就好像在說：「我忙著打網球」。Sartorial是指「和服裝相關的」。
Neil: These days wearing trainers doesn't reveal much about social class. For example, Mark Zuckerberg and I look surprisingly similar in our hoodies and trainers. You'd have to guess which one of us was a multibillionaire – and which one was… not!
如今穿運動鞋和社會階級沒有太大關係。例如扎克伯格和我都穿著衛衣和運動鞋，我們看上去沒什麼區別。你還得猜誰是億萬富翁，誰不是。
Sophie: People respond to current trends in popular sport through the trainers they wear. And here's Matt Powell for the US consumer research group, NPD, to tell us more.
人們所穿的運動鞋體現了流行運動的趨勢。我們來聽聽美國消費者研究機構NPD的研究員馬特·鮑威爾的觀點。
When I first got into the retail business in the 70s the sexy sport, if you will, was tennis. And we all wore tennis apparel for casual wear, and we played tennis, and we wore tennis shoes. And we identified with athletes like McEnroe, and Borg, and Connors. Over time though, it has become even a broader range, there was a jogging craze in the 70s– everybody was out jogging, and then that became a full-fledged running business. The basketball business really exploded in the mid late 80s with the emergence of Michael Jordan.
當我在70年代第一次接觸零售生意時，最性感的運動是網球。我們都穿著網球裝，打網球，穿網球鞋。我們認可的運動員是McEnroe， Borg和 Connors。隨著時間流逝，網球愈發大眾，70年代又出現了慢跑熱。所有人都出去慢跑，和跑步相關的生意興起。80年代中後期，隨著麥可·喬丹的出現，籃球相關的生意蓬勃發展。
Sophie: So Matt Powell knows a thing or two about current consumer trends- he says in the 1970s there was a craze – or enthusiasm – for tennis and jogging. And this led to big sales of the apparel associated with these sports.
Matt Powell 了解消費流行趨勢。他說20世紀70年代出現了網球熱和慢跑熱。這造成和這些運動相關的服裝生意空前火熱。
Neil: Are tennis shoes still sexy, Sophie?
現在，網球鞋還那麼性感嗎？
Sophie: Maybe – but basketball hi-tops are sexier. Michael Jordan started that trend back in the 1980s and it's still going strong. Well, we're running out of time. Let's go back to our quiz question. I asked you: What is a slang term for trainers? Is it… a) kicks, b) wedges or c) flats?
也許吧，但籃球鞋更性感。麥可·喬丹在20世紀80年代引領了潮流，如今籃球鞋還是那麼流行。我們節目時間快到了。回到今天的問題。我問你，哪一個俚語是指運動鞋？ a) kicks, b) wedges 還是 c) flats?
Neil: It has to be kicks. I'm right, aren't I?
我選的是kicks。我答對了，是吧？
Sophie: I have to tell you, Neil, you're… right!
我不得不告訴你，你回答正確！
Neil: Yes!
噢耶！
Sophie: Wedges are shoes or boots with a triangular wedge-shaped heel and flats are a woman's shoe with no heel.
Wedges 是指帶有像三角形楔子形狀鞋跟的鞋或靴子。 Flats是指不帶跟的女式鞋。
Neil: I know my onions, you see, Sophie.
我可是很了解鞋子的。
Sophie: Yes, in other words, you know a lot about something you do. Now, let's remember the words we heard today.
換句話說，你確實了解你所做的事。。我們回憶一下今天聽到的單詞。
Neil: ubiquitous
無所不在的
tatty
破舊的
apparel
服裝
dressed down
著樸素的服裝
limited edition
限量版
sneakerhead
鞋迷
prosperity
成功
usher in
引進
sartorial
裁縫的
craze
熱潮，狂熱
know your onions
了解你做的事
Sophie: That's the end of today's 6 Minute English. Don't forget to join us again soon!
今天的六分鐘英語就到這裡。我們下期再見。
Both: Bye!
再見！
6 Minute English from the BBC.