01.12｜經濟學人閱讀｜聖誕專欄 Season’s greetings!
經濟學人The Economist是一份英國的英文新聞周報，分八個版本於每周五向全球發行，編輯部位於倫敦，創辦於1843年9月。
經濟學人是一本綜合性新聞評論刊物，有商業、國家和地區、經濟和金融、科學和技術五大類。其中文章文風緊湊且嚴謹，對語言精準運用，展現出一種克制的風趣幽默，常運用雙關語調侃。
經濟學人對於英語考試的重要性不言而喻，其文章常常出現在雅思託福、SAT、GRE、GMAT、考研英語、四六級、MTI和CATTI的閱讀理解真題中。
今天羚羊君（公眾：aa-acad）給大家分享的是經濟學人2020年12月19日期刊中聖誕專欄的第一篇：Season’s greetings!
這篇文章講述了從二十世紀中葉到現在聖誕簡報的發展歷史和變遷。
想要閱讀往期內容，可以在公眾號右下角點擊"更多資訊-長文閱讀"進入專欄。
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Season’s greetings!
聖誕季的問候！
On christmas day in 1948, Marie Harris published the mid-century equivalent of a status update. In June that year, 「lying on the beach watching the waves of the Pacic roll in」, she and her husband Bob had decided they needed more space for their young family. Through an ad in the local paper they found just the place: a rambling old farmhouse with green shutters in rural Shedd, Oregon. They swapped their crowded city digs for a retreat worthy of Instagram: ve acres of land, thick with boysenberries, apple, pear and walnut trees. But apart from the 17 chickens, three geese, two cats, a cow, a duck and a collie called Mac, Shedd was not a sociable sort of place. So Marie’s three-page bulletin ended with something akin to a friend request: 「We have lots of animals,」 typed the 28-year-old, 「but would like company of a more human sort—and mail.」
1948年聖誕節那天，瑪麗·哈裡斯（Marie Harris）發布了一篇公告，這個公告類似於她的"世紀中的新動態"。一切源於同年6月，「躺在海灘上，看著太平洋滾滾的浪潮」，她和丈夫鮑勃決定為他們的新家庭提供更大的生活空間。通過當地報紙上的一則廣告，他們發現了這個地方：俄勒岡州謝德農村的一間雜亂無章的老農舍，這間農舍帶有綠色的百葉窗。他們用擁擠的城市蝸居換來了值得在Instagram上瘋狂po圖的居所：五英畝的土地，上面有草莓，蘋果，梨和核桃樹。但是，除了17隻雞，三隻鵝，兩隻貓，一頭牛，一隻鴨子和一隻叫Mac的牧羊犬之外，謝德並不是一個社交場所。因此，瑪麗（Marie）的三頁公告結尾是一個類似於交友的請求：「我們有很多動物，」，這位28歲的女孩在公告中打著「但希望有人的陪伴或者朋友的來信。」
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So concluded the rst edition of the Harris Herald, a newsletter which Marie would publish every Christmas for the rest of her life. Usually typed on a side or two of letter paper and sometimes embellished with stick-man drawings, maps and photos, the Herald provided friends and family with news of high-school wrestling triumphs, tonsillectomies, hunting hauls and river voyages on a home-made cruiser, Noah’s Place (later renamed PITA, short for Pain In The Ass, after it overheated and broke down halfway up the Columbia river). Over 54 editions Marie chronicled the surprise birth of twins, the premature death of Bob, her return to college, remarriage (at which point the Harris Herald became the Bussard-Harris Christmas Annual), promotion to college professor and the arrivals of 18 grandchildren, as well as more great-grandchildren than most readers could keep track of.
因此，第一版《哈裡斯先驅報》（Harris Herald）就這麼寫完了。這份"報紙"更多的是一封簡訊，瑪麗將在餘生中的每個聖誕節期間出版。《先驅報》通常在信紙的一兩面打字，有時還點綴著火柴人的圖畫、地圖和照片，向親朋好友提供了有關高中摔跤勝利、扁桃體切除術、狩獵和河道航行的新聞。河道航行由一艘家庭製造的巡洋艦完成的，這艘巡洋艦的名字叫做"諾亞之地"（Noah's Place）（後更名為PITA，是Pain In The Ass的縮寫。取這個名字是在它在哥倫比亞河航行時，因為過熱而拋錨之後）。瑪麗用超過54版記錄了雙胞胎的意外出生、鮑勃的過早去世、她重返大學、再婚（此時哈裡斯先驅報成為《巴薩德·哈裡斯聖誕節年鑑》）、晉升為大學教授以及她的18個孫子的到來和更多的重孫到來，這是大多數讀者無法追蹤的。
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The Herald is the oldest archived example of a Christmas newsletter, a medium that, long before the internet, allowed the sharing (and over-sharing) of carefully curated news and photos to a wide network of friends and family. Most Christmas letters linger for a few weeks above the replace before being thrown away in the New Year clear-out. But historians are increasingly interested in the few that are kept. Like modern social media, the bulletins oer a window into everyday domestic life—or at least the version of it that the authors presented to the world.
《先驅報》是聖誕節簡訊的最古老的存檔示例，該媒介早在網際網路出現之前就做到了將精心挑選的新聞和照片廣泛分享（和共享）給朋友和家人。大多數聖誕信件僅僅只在家中的火爐旁被放置了幾周，就要在新年大掃除中被扔掉。但是，歷史學家對保留的少數文獻越來越感興趣。與現代社交媒體一樣，這些公告為人們提供了通向家庭生活的一扇窗戶，或者至少是作者向全世界展示的家庭生活的版本。
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Marie Harris was among the pioneers of a medium that emerged on both sides of the Atlantic after the second world war. People had exchanged Christmas cards with loved ones since Victorian times, when a wellchosen card was considered a present in itself. As incomes rose in the second half of the 20th century, people sent more cards; by the 1970s it was common to buy them by the box. The more cards people posted, the more of a pain it became to hand-write long messages.
瑪麗·哈裡斯（Marie Harris）是第二次世界大戰後在大西洋兩岸興起的一種媒介的開拓者之一。自維多利亞時代以來，人們就已經與親人交換聖誕賀卡，當時精心挑選的賀卡本身就被視為禮物。隨著20世紀下半葉收入的增長，人們寄出了更多的賀卡。到二十世紀七十年代時，人們通常是通過盒子購買它們。人們張貼的卡越多，手寫長信息就會變得越痛苦。
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So when technology allowed an insert to be copied, people did so. Marie’s rst Heralds were printed by mimeograph, a contraption that used a rotating drum to force blueish ink through a stencil made of waxed paper. Few people had access to such a thing (Marie used one at Oregon State College, where Bob worked as a lecturer). From the 1960s, photocopiers began popping up in oces. The smart new look of the BussardHarris Christmas Annual in1961was courtesy of the Xerox machine in the oce of David Bussard, Marie’s second husband. In the1980s home computers and printers made it easier still to make newsletters; Marie’s 1988 bulletin describes a 「rash」 of such missives.
因此，當技術使得人們能複製插入的內容時，人們就這樣做了。瑪麗的第一本《先驅先驅》是用油印機印刷的。這種油印機使用旋轉的滾筒將藍色墨水壓過蠟紙製成的模版。很少有人接觸到這種東西（瑪麗在鮑勃擔任講師的俄勒岡州立大學使用過這種東西）。從二十世紀六十年代起，複印機開始出現在辦公室中。1961年，BussardHarris聖誕節周年紀念冊出現了新的時尚的外觀，這得益於Marie的第二任丈夫David Bussard的施樂牌複印機。在20世紀80年代，家用計算機和印表機使製作新聞簡報變得更加容易。瑪麗（Marie）在1988年的公告中描述了這類文件（即簡報）的大量湧現。
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As these letters became more common, people found ways to make them stand out. Photos began to appear (we rst see the Harris-Bussards in1975: Marie, in ares, reclining in an armchair as David perches by the replace). The 1990s brought an outbreak of Christmassy clip-art, with cheerful Santas sometimes incongruously placed next to reports of deceased pets. Around the same time, stationers began to sell Christmas-themed paper aimed at newsletter scribes.
隨著這些簡報變得越來越普遍，人們找到了使它們脫穎而出的方法。照片開始出現（我們在1975年首次見到了哈裡斯布薩德夫婦的照片：瑪麗在火光中斜坐在一個扶手椅上，而她的丈夫大衛正在壁爐旁）。1990年代流行起了聖誕節風格的剪貼畫，歡快的聖誕老人畫像有時會被很不協調地拍版在寵物故去的報導旁。大約在同一時間，文具商開始銷售針對新聞通訊員的聖誕節主題畫。
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Some authors expressed themselves in verse. A collection of newsletters held by Ann Burnett of North Dakota State University includes one written in 14 just-about-rhyming stanzas:
We travelled to Normandy，
Where the Allies did land，
And then on to London，
Where we stayed at the Strand
一些作者用詩歌表達自己。北達科他州立大學的安·伯內特（Ann Burnett）的通訊集中包括押韻的14行詩：
我們去了諾曼第
盟軍降落的地方
然後去倫敦
我們住在斯特蘭德家
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Others extracted contributions from their children. When the novelty of that wore o some wrote imaginary missives from their pets. A letter in Ms Burnett’s collection reads normally enough—one son is o to Yale, a grandchild is on the way, and so on—except that the notional authors are the family’s cat and dog, both long dead and stued. A haunting photograph of the glass-eyed pair rounds o the bulletin.
其他人則從孩子那裡獲取靈感。當這種形式的聖誕簡訊不再新穎時，有些人以他們的寵物之名寫了一些虛構的東西。伯內特女士收藏中的一封信讀起來通常很正常：一個兒子在耶魯大學讀書，一個孫子即將降世，諸如此類。只是名義上的作者是這一家人早已死去的貓和狗。公告欄上常常會出現一張四處搜索的戴著眼鏡的雙眼的照片。
經濟學人一般目錄大綱：
The world this week：簡單梳理本周的時事Leaders：社論，對本周熱點事件進行評論Briefing：簡報，對一個特定熱點話題深度討論Letter：讀者來信，對往期文章的評論Sections：各大洲及中美英三國的本周熱點事件報導Business：商業新聞Finances and economics：財經新聞Science and technology：科技新聞Books and arts：文化書籍，書評和文化現象討論Economic and financial indicators：商業及財經指數
Buttonwood：金融專欄Schumpeter：商業專欄Bartleby：職場專欄Bagehot：英國專欄Charlemagne：歐洲專欄Lexington：美國專欄Banyan：亞洲專欄