英语美文

Will the US Become a Bilingual Country?

美国会成为一个双语国家吗？

In the U.S., speaking more than one language fluently is not very common – except in Los Angeles, California.

在美国，除了洛杉矶和加利福尼亚，能够流利地说一门以上语言的人并不常见。

The city has one of the largest populations in the U.S. of young people between the ages of 18 and 34.

洛杉矶是美国年轻人（18岁到34岁）数量最多的城市之一。

This generation is often called millennials.

人们通常称这一代人为千禧一代。

More than half of millennials in Los Angeles are bilingual, which means they speak more than one language.

在洛杉矶，这些千禧一代中大多数人都通两种语言，也就是说，他们会讲不只一门语言。

Maria Elena Burgos is cooking a Mexican breakfast. She says making Mexican food is just one of the many traditions in her home. Another is speaking Spanish to her children.

玛利亚?艾琳娜?布尔格斯在做墨西哥式早餐。她说，制作墨式早餐只是她们家的传统之一。另一个传统是用西班牙语与孩子们交流。

We want them to be bilingual. We want to keep the Spanish somewhere in their learning too, not only at home.

“我们想要他们通两种语言。想要他们不只在家学习西班牙语，在其他地方也能学到。”

When Ms. Burgos first came to the United States from Mexico, she learned English.

She knew her children would learn English quickly.

她知道她的孩子学英语会学得很快。

当布尔格斯太太第一次从墨西哥来到美国时，她学习了英语。

So she wanted them to speak Spanish at home and study the language at school.

所以她想要孩子们在家说西班牙语，在学校也能学习西班牙语。

She says being bilingual will give them more opportunities in the future.

她说双语可以为他们在未来创造更多的机会。

Knowing Spanish also means the children can talk with their relatives in Mexico and El Salvador.

学会西班牙语也意味着孩子们可以和墨西哥及萨尔瓦多的亲戚交流。

When we had our children, one of the decisions we as parents decided was to name them with a name that was easily pronounced in English and Spanish.

“我们有孩子时，我们决定给他们起一个用英语和西班牙语都比较好读的名字。”

Her children include daughters Elizabeth and Monica. They like speaking both English and Spanish.

布尔格斯有两个女儿——伊丽莎白和莫妮卡。他们喜欢用英语和西班牙语两种语言交流。

Elizabeth wants to know her family's culture.

伊丽莎白想知道她们家族的文化。

The culture -- to go back to our roots because that's part of who we are,

“文化——就是要回根溯源，因为那是我们生命的一部分。

Monica wants to pass on the culture to her children.

莫妮卡想要将文化传递给她的孩子。

t's nice to know our culture and then to be able to pass it onto our children and grandchildren and everyone to let them know where we come from.

“了解我们自己的文化，将它一代代传给儿孙，让后代每一个人都知道我们来自哪里，这种感觉很棒。”

And, Monica says she does not speak only English and Spanish. She has even learned some Korean in school.

莫妮卡表示她不仅仅会说英语和西班牙语。她在学校还学习过韩语。

The U.S. Census Bureau says more than half the adults in the Los Angeles area between 18 and 34 years old speak a language other than English at home.

美国人口调查局称洛杉矶18岁到34岁的年轻人中，超过一半的人在家说的是除英语外的语言。

For the whole country, the number of bilingual adults is only 25 percent.

但对于整个国家来说，通两种语言的年轻人只占25%。

The number of bilingual speakers has gone up since the 1990s. At the same time, the number of foreign-born millennials has gone down.

加利福尼亚大学洛杉矶分校的教授劳尔?伊诺霍萨说，自二十世纪九十年代以来，通两种语言的人数不断增加。同时，在国外出生的千禧一代的人数下降。

In other words, more people in the U.S. are learning a second language at home or in school.

换句话说，美国越来越多的人在家或学校学习第二语言。

Many immigrant parents are passing their native languages to their American-born children, says University of California Los Angeles professor Raul Hinojosa.

许多移民而来的父母将他们的本土语言教给他们在美国出生的孩子。

But now the opposite is true. In the last ten years, more immigrant parents say they want their children to keep speaking their native language.

但是现在正好相反。在过去十年中，越来越多的移民父母表示他们希望孩子们学会用母语交流。

Mr. Hinojosa calls their choice the "path of pride."

伊诺霍萨教授称这些父母的选择为“荣耀之路”。

Mandarin is going to be encouraged. Japanese is going to be encouraged. Vietnamese is going to be encouraged.

“我们鼓励大家说汉语、说日语、说越南语。”

Raul Hinojosa says the decision to keep a native language is clear in Los Angeles now.

伊诺霍萨教授称，在洛杉矶，大多移民者都明确地保留了本土语言。

And, as the number of minorities in the U.S. continues to grow, he thinks bilingualism will spread to the rest of the country.

而且随着美国少数民族数量的不断增加，双语制未来会在美国的其他地区普及。

The Language of Love: How Not to Write a Love Letter

爱的语言：情书中的那些禁忌

Saint Valentine's Day falls on February 14.

2月14号是情人节。

Traditionally, Valentine's Day is the day when lovers show their feelings for each other.

一般来说，情人们在情人节时会互相表达爱慕之心，

They do that with presents like flowers and chocolate. They go out to dinner and maybe go dancing.

互赠礼物，如鲜花和巧克力，并共同进餐或者跳舞。

Sometimes, you fall in love so hard that you must, simply must, tell the person in a love letter.

有时，爱情之路非常艰难，你必须，也只能通过情书向他/她表白。

But love is hard to explain. Love is even harder to write about.

但爱是难以言表的，要想将爱意流露笔尖，更是难上加难。

The idea of sharing your feelings of love in a letter may fill you with fear.

想到用情书表达你的爱慕之心，可能会让你惊恐万分。

Well, fear not. Take a pen and chose your best paper.

但是呢，不要害怕。拿出笔以及你最精美的信笺。

In this day of electronic communication, a handwritten letter may win you big points in the game of love.

在电子通讯发达的今天，手写信可能为你在爱情游戏中增加不少亮点。

But if you chose to write a love letter in English, here are a few suggestions on what not to do.

但是如果你打算用英语写情书，请注意以下几点禁忌。

Do not make mistakes.

不要犯错误。

Try your best to not make any spelling or grammar mistakes. Nothing kills romantic feelings more than a lover correcting your letter with red ink.

尽力避免任何拼写和语法错误，不要让红色的改动笔迹将浪漫的感觉抹杀掉。

Do not have a friend write your love letter.

不要让好友为你代笔。

The person receiving the letter may fall in love with the real letter writer and forget all about you.

收信人会爱上真正的写信人，并将你全然忘记。

And do not use commonly heard expressions or poems, such as "Roses are red, Violets are blue; sugar is sweet and so are you." Just be yourself.

此外，不要采用那些耳熟能详的话或诗歌，如“娇艳的紫罗兰，鲜红的玫瑰，甜蜜的糖，就像你一样的美。”做你自己。

Do not use general words.

不要用例行文句。

Use specific details about the person you are in love with.

描写与所爱之人相关的具体细节：

Write about the time you saw the sun light up her beautiful face as she laughed with a friend.

描写阳光下她与朋友交谈时的美丽容颜；

Write about the sparkle in his eyes as he fixed your bicycle.

为你修好自行车时他眼中的那泓清泉。

If she loves a certain song, include the song's name in the letter. If he is good at a sport, mention that.

如果她有特别喜欢的歌曲，那么信中也要提到歌曲的名字；如果他是运动健将，你在信中也要提到。

Writing about these details proves that you are paying attention. And that is very attractive.

这些细节表明你注意了他们的一举一动，这也能增加你的魅力。

Do not write a love letter as if it was for your English class.

不要把情书当做英语课上的作业来完成。

A love letter is not homework. Also, writing a love letter is not the time to use a new idiom you just learned.

情书不是作业，你不必将新学的习语用到情书中。

It is better to write simple words that are your own than to write new-to-you idioms.

情书中最好采用简单的语言而非新学的习语。

Do not steal song lyrics. Nothing kills a budding romance more than getting caught copying someone else's words.

不要借用歌词。扼杀刚刚萌生的浪漫之感的最佳利器就是被发现是抄用了他人的话。

Here is a true story.

以下是一则真实的故事。

When I was in high school I had a crush on a boy. He liked me, too, and wrote me a long poem.

我高中时曾喜欢上他一个男孩，他也喜欢我并为我写过一首长诗。

When he gave it to me in history class, I was sure he could hear my heart beating. I was so nervous.

历史课上，他将长诗交给我时，我觉得他肯定能听到我的心跳，我非常紧张。

The poem was written on simple notebook paper. It was folded, not once but twice, and had pencil eraser marks all over it.

信纸是普通的笔记本纸，折叠着，到处都是用橡皮擦除的痕迹。

I thought to myself, he must have worked hard on this letter.

我想，他肯定下了很大功夫才写成了这封信。

Later, I read the letter out loud to my best friend. We swooned reading his intense words of love.

随后，我向我最好的朋友朗读了这封信。我们为他挚爱的语言着迷。

If the sun refused to shine, I would still be loving you.When mountains crumble to the sea, there will still be you and me.

“即使太阳不再闪耀，我依然会爱着你，即使山峰汇入沧海，我依然与你同在。”

Then we both paused.

然后，我们都停止了。

Wait a minute. This sounds familiar, my friend said. "Aren't those the lyrics to that song 'Thank You' by the rock group Led Zeppelin?'''

“等下，听起来非常熟悉。”我朋友说，“这不是摇滚乐队齐柏林飞艇《感谢你》的歌词吗？”

No, of course not, I said. "At least...I don't think so."

“当然不是。”我说，“至少，我觉得不是。”

One look at the song lyrics proved that this guy had, in fact, copied the lyrics. That was the end of that relationship.

有位朋友查看了单词，证实这个男孩实际上是抄袭了这篇歌词，这段关系也随之终止于此。

That is not to say that you cannot get motivation from a famous song or love letter.

但这并不是说你不能从一首经典的歌词或者情书中有所触动。

The British insurance company Beagle Street recently asked 1,000 people to vote on the most romantic letter.

英国保险公司贝格尔号街曾让1000人投票选出最浪漫的情书。

A letter by musician Johnny Cash to his wife June Carter Cash won first place.

音乐家约翰尼·卡什写给妻子琼·凯特·卡什的情书最终脱颖而出。

Some say it is not the most romantic letter ever written. But Johnny and June's long life together was evidence of their strong relationship.

有人说，这并不是最浪漫的情书，但是约翰尼和琼共度一生证明了他们之间的牢固关系。

They married in 1968 and stayed married until June Carter Cash died in 2003. Johnny Cash died four months later.

他们于1968年结婚，婚姻持续到2003年琼·凯特·卡什离世。4个月之后，约翰尼也与世长辞。

Here is his love letter to June:"We get old and get use to each other.We think alike. We read each other's minds. We know what the other wants without asking.

以下是他写给琼的情书：“我们渐渐变老，也习惯了彼此。我们想法相似、心智相通。我们无需张口询问就能知道对方想要什么。

Sometimes we irritate each other a little bit. Maybe sometimes take each other for granted.

偶尔也会惹恼对方，也许有时候我们把对方当做理所当然缺少珍惜。

But once in awhile, like today, I meditate on it and realize how lucky I am to share my life with the greatest woman I ever met." -- Johnny Cash

但是某些时候，比如今天，我沉思后发现能与我遇到的最棒的女人共度这一生，我是何等幸运。”——约翰尼·卡什

His letter is simple and heartfelt. That is the best advice when writing a letter to the one you love – write from the heart and keep it real.

他的信简单明了，情真意切，这是最好的建议。当你给所爱的人写情书时，用心来写，情真意切。

specific – adj. relating to a particular person, situation, etc.

adj. 特殊的，特定的；明确的

swoon – v. to become very excited about someone or something

vi. 昏晕；惊讶；着迷

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