VOA常速英语2015--新款女童服装设计突破守旧刻板

新款女童服装设计突破守旧刻板

Six-year-old Bella loves to build houses and cars with Lego blocks.

6岁的贝拉喜欢用乐高积木搭建房子和汽车。

“I like Barbie and also dinosaurs²."

“我喜欢芭比娃娃，也喜爱恐龙。”

So her dress has dinosaurs on it.

因此她穿的裙子上印有恐龙的图案。

“I need a train to put on the train track."Her friend Penny, who also likes Lego.

我需要在火车道上放一列火车。她的好朋友潘妮也喜欢乐高。

“I like to make trucks."

“我喜欢造大卡车。”

The four-year old also likes pink and purple, and the dress she is wearing.

这名4岁的小女孩也喜欢粉色和紫色，还有她穿的这条裙子。

“She really enjoys wearing it. It's bright, comfortable, and unique."

“她特别喜欢这件裙子。颜色鲜亮，穿起来舒服，而且很特别。”

Unique because it has a pattern of the mathematical symbol pi.

之所以说它特别是因为上面有圆周率π的数学符号。

Penny'mother Tramontana says the design opens the door to a conversation about math.

潘妮的母亲特拉蒙塔娜表示这种设计为数学打开了大门。

“We haven't found this type of dress in a store."

“我们还没有在商店里看到过这样的裙子。”

The pi and dinosaur¹ dresses are from a new girl's clothing line called Princess Awesome³.

这些π和恐龙款式的裙子都是出自一家名为“公主好棒”的新款女童服装生产线。

Company co-founder Rebecca Melsky says their dresses feature some designs more typically found on boys' clothes.

公司联合创始人瑞贝卡·梅尔斯克表示她们的裙子设计用到了一般会在男童服装上出现的图案。

"I think that a girl wearing a dress with science on it. She is telling the world that is something she is interested in. She can love girly things and also love science. It tells that science is just as much for girls as it is for boys."

“我想如果一个女孩穿的裙子上有科学图案。那就是传达出一种喜欢科学的信息。她可以有一般女孩的爱好，同时也可以热爱科学。这表明科学对于女孩和男孩都是一样。”

It all started two years ago when Melsky was shopping for her 2-year-old, who refused to wear anything but a dress. She bought pajamas⁴ mostly from the boys'section because her daughter also liked robots, trucks and spaceships.

这一切都从2年前梅尔斯克给2岁的女儿买衣服时开始，那时她女儿只喜欢穿裙子。而她的睡衣大多是从男童部购买，因为这位小姑娘也喜欢机器人、卡车和宇宙飞船。

“One day I walked out past the girls' section of the store, I thought to myself we should make one of those cute dresses that also have a robot on it or a dinosaur because she will wear that. She will love that. Someone should do that. Maybe I should do that."

“有一天在经过商店女童服装部的时候，我就想到我们应该制作一款上面有机器人或是恐龙图案的可爱裙子，我女儿肯定会穿。她肯定会特别喜欢。这个事情该有人做。或许应该由我来做。”

Her friend Eva St.Clair agreed she should, and their business was born. Melsky, a school teacher with two children, and St.Clair, a part-time Web developer with four children, got together on Saturdays.

她的朋友伊娃斯特·克莱尔也表示赞同。于是有2个孩子的学校老师梅尔斯克，抚养4个孩子的兼职网络设计师克莱尔就这样周六聚在一起开始了她们的创业之旅。

They used fabrics⁵ featuring trucks, planes, pirates and atoms. They also created art dresses based on works by Van Gogh and Monet.

她们使用有卡车、飞机、海盗和原子图案的布料。她们也设计印有梵高和莫纳作品的艺术性的裙子。

“Usually Rebecca and I would be down in my basement. Rebecca would cut and I would stitch. And we got to where we could do about four in an hour."

“瑞贝卡和我一般在我家地下室工作。瑞贝卡进行剪裁，我则负责缝纫。现在我们大概一个小时能做4条裙子。”

The first batch⁶ of 70 dresses sold out at St.Clair's church bazaar⁷. So the founders⁸ took their business online. The dresses sold very well there, too.

而第一批的70条裙子在克莱尔的教堂集市上被售卖一空。于是，这两位创始人开始在网上销售。生意也是非常火爆。

"They sold out so fast that we could not make them fast enough. We decided⁹ it is time to figure out how to go into a factory."

“卖的脱销了，我们制作的速度已经赶不上。我们决定现在是时候去工厂进行批量生产了。”

So they turned to a Kickstarter crowd-funding campaign.They met their goal of 35,000 within days and raised more than 215,000 total in pledges.

她们借助Kickstarter这家筹款网站来进行集资。短短几天内就达到了35000美元的筹款要求，而出资总额达到215000美元。

“Our biggest challenge is going to be how we expand as rapidly as people seem to want us to."

“我们面临的最大问题就是怎样跟上人们的需求扩大我们的生产线。”

 

The founders hope Princess Awesome will expand into products for girls of all ages and all interests.

2位创始人希望能够为全年龄及不同兴趣的小女孩提供各式各样的产品。

1 dinosaur   

n.恐龙

参考例句：

• Are you trying to tell me that David was attacked by a dinosaur?你是想要告诉我大卫被一支恐龙所攻击？
• He stared at the faithful miniature of the dinosaur.他凝视著精确的恐龙缩小模型。

2 dinosaurs   

n.恐龙( dinosaur的名词复数 )；守旧落伍的人，过时落后的东西

参考例句：

• The brontosaurus was one of the largest of all dinosaurs. 雷龙是所有恐龙中最大的一种。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years. 恐龙绝种已有几百万年了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 awesome   

adj.令人惊叹的，难得吓人的，很好的

参考例句：

• The church in Ireland has always exercised an awesome power.爱尔兰的教堂一直掌握着令人敬畏的权力。
• That new white convertible is totally awesome.那辆新的白色折篷汽车简直棒极了.

4 pajamas   

n.睡衣裤

参考例句：

• At bedtime,I take off my clothes and put on my pajamas.睡觉时，我脱去衣服，换上睡衣。
• He was wearing striped pajamas.他穿着带条纹的睡衣裤。

5 fabrics   

织物( fabric的名词复数 )； 布； 构造； （建筑物的）结构（如墙、地面、屋顶）：质地

参考例句：

• cotton fabrics and synthetics 棉织物与合成织物
• The fabrics are merchandised through a network of dealers. 通过经销网点销售纺织品。

6 batch   

n.一批(组，群)；一批生产量

参考例句：

• The first batch of cakes was burnt.第一炉蛋糕烤焦了。
• I have a batch of letters to answer.我有一批信要回复。

7 bazaar   

n.集市，商店集中区

参考例句：

• Chickens,goats and rabbits were offered for barter at the bazaar.在集市上，鸡、山羊和兔子被摆出来作物物交换之用。
• We bargained for a beautiful rug in the bazaar.我们在集市通过讨价还价买到了一条很漂亮的地毯。

8 founders   

n.创始人( founder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was one of the founders of the university's medical faculty. 他是该大学医学院的创建人之一。 来自辞典例句
• The founders of our religion made this a cornerstone of morality. 我们宗教的创始人把这看作是道德的基石。 来自辞典例句

9 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。