新西兰英语 704 Boxing Day Sales

 　　The day after Christmas Day is called Boxing Day. It is not clear where this name came from but maybe it came from people putting left-over food into boxes to give to the poor. Nowadays, it is the day when shops have sales and offer good bargains.

　　This year, people spent more than last year and the year before. Paymark processes three-quarters of all electronic sales. These are sales using a credit¹ card or cash card. Paymark said sales were up by 13.4 per cent – or $14.2 million – compared with Boxing Day last year. People spent $120m, compared with $106m on the same day last year. They bought more than two million items. The population of NZ is only 4.4 million.

　　The most popular items were electronic goods, jewellery and clothing.

　　Vocabulary

　　left-over – extra food, food not eaten on Christmas day

　　cash card – In NZ this is called EFTPOS – Electronic Funds² Transfer³ at Point Of Sale; point of sale is the place you buy something e.g. at the shop; the money (funds) is taken (transfer) directly out of your bank account. It is not a credit card

　　items – different things

1 credit   

n.信用，荣誉，贷款，学分；v.归功于，赞颂，信任

参考例句：

• I credit him with a certain amount of sense.我认为他有一定的见识。
• He got the credit,and we did the dirty work.他得荣誉，我们做不讨好的工作。

2 funds   

n.pl.资金

参考例句：

• He absconded with the company funds. 他卷走公司的资金潜逃了。
• They held a harambee meeting to raise funds for a new classroom. 他们为筹款建新教室而办了个募捐会。

3 transfer   

n. 迁移, 移动, 换车; v. 转移, 调转, 调任

参考例句：

• He has been kicking against this transfer for weeks. 几周以来他一直反对这次调动。
• I intend to transfer the property to my son. 我想把这笔财产转给我儿子。