世界节假日博览 第10期:相反日

 　　Opposite Day is on January 24th each year. It is a strange but fun day. Whatever you say on this day must be the opposite of what you mean. If you say ‘yes’, you mean ‘no’ and vice¹ versa. If someone tells you‘You don’t look so good today,’ you say ‘thank you’. Or perhaps that should be ‘No thank you’. If you have ever tried this for yourself, it can be quite confusing, although it is fun. Children love playingthis as a game and usually end up in non-stop laughter. Some psychologists have said that playing using opposite meanings is a good “philosophy course” for kids – it gets them thinking. It could also be the day when ‘opposites attract,’ which means two people who have totally different characters start a relationship.

　　人们在每年的1月24日来庆祝相反节。这是一个非常古怪，但是很有趣的节日。不管你这天说了什么都与你所要表达的意思相反。如果你说“是”，那么你的意思就是“不”，反之亦然。如果某人告诉你‘你今天看起来不太好’，你应该说‘谢谢’。或许你应该说‘不，谢谢’。如果你还没有尝试过，尽管这很有趣，但是你会感到非常困惑。孩子喜欢将它当成一种游戏，通常的结果是不停的大笑。许多心理学家认为说反话对孩子来说是一门很好的“心里课程”，这让他们进行思考。这天也许会成为‘异性相吸’的一天，意思是两种性格截然不同的人也可能会建立恋爱关系。

　　Opposite Day.jpg

　　Opposite Day can be a very useful day for students. This is a good time to get out vocabulary notebooks and find the antonyms², or opposites, to different words. Students could focus on prefixes³ that are used to give a word an opposite meaning. For example ‘un’ in ‘unhelpful’ and ‘unnecessary’, or ‘il’ in illegal’ and ‘illogical’. There are many more. Actually, Opposite Day reminds me of a little verse⁴ I learntas a child. Here it is: “One bright morning in the middle of the night, two dead boys got up to fight. Back to back, they faced each other. Drew their swords and shot each other. A deaf policeman heard the noise, and came to arrest the two dead boys. If you don't believe this story’s true, ask the blind man - he saw it too!” Confusing? Why not make your own opposite story?

　　相反节对于学生来说可能会非常有用。这一天，学生会翻出词汇书，查找反义词。学生很有可能会关注词语的前缀来获得相反的意思。例如‘un’有‘unhelpful’和‘unnecessary’，‘il’有‘illegal’和‘illogical’。还有许多。事实上，相反节让我想起了我小时候学到过的一篇小诗。诗文是：“夜半时分的早上，两个死人起床打斗。他们面对面。拔出了剑，向对方射杀。一名聋子警官听见了噪音，抓住了两名死者。如果你不相信这个故事是真实的，那就问问这个失明的人吧，他看到了一切。”觉得困惑吗？为什么不写一写你的相反故事呢？

　　1.in the middle of the night 午夜

　　例句：My Hell Week began in the middle of the night.

　　我的魔鬼训练周是在午夜开始的。

　　2.draw sword 拔剑

　　例句：Saul said to his armor-bearer, 'Draw your sword and run me through, or these uncircumcised fellows will come and abuse me.'

　　就吩咐拿他兵器的人说，你拔出刀来，将我刺死，免得那些未受割礼的人来凌辱我。

　　3.start a relationship 开始新恋情

　　例句：I'm flattered⁵ that you asked, but I'm not ready to start a relationship right now.

　　你是一个很好的男人/女人，但我实在太忙了，没有时间投入到长期、稳定的恋爱关系中。

　　4.vice versa 反之亦然

　　例句：A blocking queue in which each insert operation must wait for a corresponding remove operation by another thread, and vice versa.

　　这是一个阻塞队列，其中，每个插入操作必须等待另一个线程的对应移除操作，反之亦然。

1 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

2 antonyms   

反义词( antonym的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• And have listed these antonyms through simple illustration to out. 并把这些反义词通过简单例证列了出来。
• Can you give the antonyms of the following adjectives? 你能给出下列形容词的反义词吗？

3 prefixes   

n.前缀( prefix的名词复数 )；人名前的称谓；前置代号（置于前面的单词或字母、数字）

参考例句：

• The prefixes cis and trans are frequently applied to disubstituted cycloalkanes. 词头顺和反常用于双取代的环烷烃。 来自辞典例句
• Why do you use so many prefixes while talking? 你说起话来，怎么这么多中缀？ 来自互联网

4 verse   

n.诗，韵文，诗行

参考例句：

• He is good at verse.他善于作诗。
• His book was in parts written in verse.他的书有许多地方是用韵文写的。

5 flattered   

过份夸奖的； 高兴的，感到荣幸的

参考例句：

• At the testimonial dinner everyone flattered him shamelessly. 在纪念筵席上大家都厚颜无耻地奉承他。
• They flattered themselves that they would win. 他们自信一定会赢。