【英语时差8,16】日本观光客的祈福之旅

 

Approximately 79,000 Japanese tourists visited Taiwan this past April, a three percent drop over April of a year ago. News was recently released that the Taipei

 

City Government has invested some NT$10 million (US$300,000) in new tour promotional packages again aimed at the Japanese market. The new promotional

 

packages tout¹ a list of Taipei temples, and urge people in Japan to jump on a plane and fly to Taiwan for temple hopping² that will supposedly lead to good luck

 

in life. The promoters are waving a litany of blessings⁴ in the air that several temples are claiming to offer to their adherents⁵. I have heard of entertainment

 

tourism. I have heard of eco-tourism, medical tourism, and educational tourism. Why not make room now for blessing³ tourism? The promotional blurbs⁶ urge

 

Japanese travelers in need of high grades for examinations to bow heads and light incense⁷ at Taipei's Confucius Temple. The Great Teacher is waiting for an

 

opportunity to shower rewards on scholars under stress. Our would-be Japanese guests surely know the difference between puffery and truth. There is no

 

need to get too worked up about this imaginative, if somewhat comically designed sales strategy. The question that remains⁸, however, is what such sales

 

pitches do to the image of a country I dearly love.

1 tout   

v.推销，招徕；兜售；吹捧，劝诱

参考例句：

• They say it will let them tout progress in the war.他们称这将有助于鼓吹他们在战争中的成果。
• If your case studies just tout results,don't bother requiring registration to view them.如果你的案例研究只是吹捧结果，就别烦扰别人来注册访问了。

2 hopping   

n. 跳跃 动词hop的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• The clubs in town are really hopping. 城里的俱乐部真够热闹的。
• I'm hopping over to Paris for the weekend. 我要去巴黎度周末。

3 blessing   

n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿

参考例句：

• The blessing was said in Hebrew.祷告用了希伯来语。
• A double blessing has descended upon the house.双喜临门。

4 blessings   

n.（上帝的）祝福( blessing的名词复数 )；好事；福分；因祸得福

参考例句：

• Afflictions are sometimes blessings in disguise. 塞翁失马，焉知非福。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• We don't rely on blessings from Heaven. 我们不靠老天保佑。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

5 adherents   

n.支持者，拥护者( adherent的名词复数 )；党羽；徒子徒孙

参考例句：

• He is a leader with many adherents. 他是个有众多追随者的领袖。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The proposal is gaining more and more adherents. 该建议得到越来越多的支持者。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 blurbs   

n.（尤指印在书籍等护封上的）简介，推荐广告( blurb的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The author got all his friends to write blurbs for his book. 这位作者让他所有的朋友给他的新书写了广告式的短评。 来自互联网
• Blurbs, Admonitions and table cells (see Tables) may now contain paragraphs. 短评、警告和表格单元（见表格）现在可以包含段落。 来自互联网

7 incense   

v.激怒；n.香，焚香时的烟，香气

参考例句：

• This proposal will incense conservation campaigners.这项提议会激怒环保人士。
• In summer,they usually burn some coil incense to keep away the mosquitoes.夏天他们通常点香驱蚊。

8 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。