Dana: Achoo!
Jim: God bless you!
Dana: What? Why did you say that?
Jim: Oh, here in America we say "God bless you" when someone sneezes.
Dana: Really? How interesting. Why is that?
Jim: It comes from a very old tradition. People in the Middle Ages thought that when you sneezed, your soul would leave your body, and you needed to be blessed to keep it from flying away.
Dana: How strange. Where I am from what we say when someone sneezes just means "good health".
Jim: That makes sense to me! Sometimes people get so used to saying something that it loses all of its original meaning.
Dana: That is definitely true. But, anyway, thank you for your blessing and I hope to have good health from now on too!
黛娜:啊嚏!
吉姆:願上帝保佑你!
黛娜:什麼?你為什麼那麼說?
吉姆:哦,在美國,當有人打噴嚏時,我們會說「願上帝保佑你」。
黛娜:真的嗎?真有意思。為什麼這樣說?
吉姆:這源於一個很古老的傳統。中世紀時期,人們認為當你打噴嚏時,靈魂會離開身體,所以你需要被祝福,來確保靈魂不會飛走。
黛娜:好奇怪。在我的家鄉,有人打噴嚏時,我們對其說的話僅僅表示「身體健康」。
吉姆:言之有理!有時人們只是習慣於某種說法,而這種說法已完全失去了最初的含義。
黛娜:確實如此。但是,不管怎樣,謝謝你的祝福,我也希望從現在開始擁有一個好身體。
sneeze[sni:z] v.打噴嚏
tradition[trə'diʃn] n.傳統
original[ə'ridʒənl] adj.原始的,最初的
fly away 飛走
make sense 有道理
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