双语时事系列222:换个新活法

2010-02-03 00:00:00来源：网络

上海2010春季口译考试报名操作流程

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2009年11月1日高级口译口试真题及答案(3)

2009年11月1日高级口译口试真题及答案(2)

2009年11月1日高级口译口试真题及答案(1)

双语时事：换个新活法

Last week, Alicia Kan put her old wardrobe up for sale on eBay. 'New Decade closet purge!' she tweeted to her 1,049 Twitter followers.

This sudden sale of Hermes scarves and Donna Karan dresses, at prices starting at $19.95, marks a new phase of Ms. Kan's life. Last fall, she left her job as a high-ranking communications executive, and, like many people in transition, she wants an image to match the new life she's pursuing. Out with St. John dresses and Armani suits. In with Y-3 hoodies and Hugo Boss motorcycle boots. 'I want to dress like Blondie in the 80s,' she says.

Many of us have felt the desire to shed our skin, an urge that can be ignited by a new job, a change in marital status, weight loss, the arrival at midlife or just a new year. Post-divorce Madonna has returned to her vampy roots in Dolce & Gabbana, but her British Dame phase is still warm to the touch. Former Time Warner CEO Gerald Levin has traded in his Wall Street pinstripes for the more yogi-like look of the New Agey spa owner that he is now. Even designers change their skins. Remember the chubby, dorky Marc Jacobs? His cut body and knee-revealing kilts today seem to be another man.

Tabloid stories suggest these celebrity transformations happen overnight. But reinventing oneself is an emotional experience. 'Packing [the clothes] up for shipping is saying good-bye to a former life,' says Ms. Kan.

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For most people, it isn't easy to purge a closet, especially when it's full of items that were once meaningful. Christos Garkinos, co-owner of high-end Los Angeles consignment shop DecadesTwo, says he often has to coach people as they work up the gumption to relinquish items from their former selves to his boutique. And he often gets calls days later, when a client regrets having let go of an item.

One client, he says, sat on her bed and shivered with emotion as he sorted through her wardrobe. 'I actually would have to stop and give her reassuring hugs and have her give 'permission' to let her clothes go,' he says.

People often feel the need to reinvent themselves when they reach midlife or the years before retirement, says Dr. Barbara Becker Holstein, a psychologist in West Allenhurst, N.J. It's common for people like Ms. Kan to feel that they've compromised too much of themselves for their job or their marriage, and to want to rectify that by starting afresh.

I suspect that the pace of change in technology and business also contributes to people's sense that it's time to change skins. Our jobs and industries keep moving, morphing, and disappearing, creating opportunities for image changes-and the fear that we'll need to change, whether we like it or not.

Despite the lure of letting go, Dr. Holstein suggests avoiding hasty decisions to leave a job or home or even to toss out significant portions of your closet. And she warns against purging photos and mementos-items that can never be replaced if your feelings change later. 'The average person has a natural pull to stay connected to who they were,' she says.

Once a transition is in the works, it's important to recognize that more than objects will be ejected. 'You look at your Linked In contacts and think, 'They're not all going to make the journey with me,' ' says Ms. Kan.

Until last fall, Ms. Kan was global head of communications for Synovate, a market-research unit of London's Aegis Group. A corporate road warrior, she shopped her way through the world's luxury zones in Cairo, Prague, London, and Chicago on the endless itinerary of a global executive. She had Hermès scarves and Celine furs.

She says her decision to reinvent herself came last summer, when her boss of a dozen years announced his retirement: 'I thought, 'I want to look on the other side of the fence, too.' '

Since her departure from the company, Ms. Kan, who is 44 and single, has joined the board of an innovative Chicago chamber-music ensemble called Fifth House, and she is looking for work that will feel more meaningful to her. 'I want to create social value, not shareholder value now,' she says.

Ms. Kan sold her first tranche of clothes on eBay in December, having set up lights and a dress form in her apartment to photograph her pants, tops, dresses and accessories. Ms. Kan says there's a deal of sentiment in nearly everything she's selling off. Selling the first Armani jacket she ever owned was an emotional moment. 'I clinched a job when I wore it to an interview, so it was my lucky jacket,' she says. 'I also remember saving up for it; I wanted an Armani so badly. Whenever I wore my Armani, I felt strong and confident and ready to take on the world.'

She learned that her very expensive wardrobe wasn't worth nearly as much on the resale market. That Armani jacket, for example, sold for $36. She jokes that her sale isn't exactly a new form of income; she's made less than $700 selling her clothes. She is focusing on the fact that she is recycling useful items in order to open a new chapter. 'These clothes served me well. I want them to find a good home,' she says.

Indeed, those suits and Prada handbags represent the professional person she once struggled to define. She says she never felt entirely comfortable with corporate mores. 'In college, I was the girl with blue hair who sat sullenly at the back of the classroom and made holes in her jeans with a seam ripper,' she wrote me.

At her first public-relations job in Hong Kong, she says, she wore an Ann Taylor T-shirt and a long skirt; colleagues shifted their seats away from her in the lunch room. 'I realized later that they were all wearing Chanel suits. I had no idea that how you dress was so important,' she says. 'That started my education on Bottega Veneta.'

In a way, I'm coming full circle. I feel like I'm coming home,' she wrote in an email as she sorted boxes in her new, smaller, apartment. 'Why do I have an evening clutch that lights up when you open it?' she asks. 'I have a mink stole that I've never used. Who was this person who bought all these things?'

2010年初，艾丽西亚•坎恩(Alicia Kan)把自己衣橱里的服饰放到eBay上拍卖。“迎接新十年，衣橱大清仓！”她对Twitter上的1,049个好友发送信息说道。

这场以19.95美元起价出售爱马仕(Hermes)围巾和唐娜•凯伦(Donna Karan)女装的突如其来的拍卖标志着坎恩的生活进入一个新阶段。2009年秋，她离开公司公关主管的高层职位；与处于转型阶段的其他人一样，她也想给自己塑造一个新形像，以配合自己追求的新生活。她不再穿St. John的礼服和阿玛尼(Armani)的套装，而是换上Y-3的运动连帽卫衣和Hugo Boss的摩托车靴。“我想穿成八十年代Blondie乐队那个样子。”她说道。

艾丽西亚•坎恩在辞去公关主管的职务后决定卖掉衣橱里的服饰很多人都有摆脱旧面貌的渴望，尤其是当换工作、婚姻状况改变、减肥、人到中年或过新年的时候。麦当娜(Madonna)离婚后，重回尽显诱惑的杜嘉班纳(Dolce & Gabbana)装扮，而她英国贵妇人的气质还未完全蜕去。时代华纳公司(Time Warner)前首席执行长吉拉尔德•莱文(Gerald Levin)自己当老板经营New Agey温泉浴场后，就把华尔街风格的细条纹西装换成一身更像瑜伽服的宽松打扮。甚至连设计师也不能免俗。还记得那个胖墩墩、傻乎乎的马克•雅可布(Marc Jacobs)吗？现在，他匀称的身材配上露膝的苏格兰裙看上去简直换了个人。

娱乐小报上的报导说，这些名人都是在一夜之间发生变化的；但实际上，重新塑造自己是一段令人情绪起伏的过程。“把那些衣服包起来寄给别人，就像在对以前的生活说拜拜。” 坎恩说道。

对大多数人而言，清空自己的衣橱并不容易，尤其是里头装满了那些曾经让自己为之陶醉的东西。洛杉矶一家二手服装委托销售商店DecadesTwo的合伙老板克里斯托斯•加尔奇诺斯(Christos Garkinos)说，他经常得给人鼓劲，让他们把衣橱里的旧衣服拿到自己的店里来卖；而且他往往在几天后接到卖家电话，后悔放手了某样东西。

他说自己有一次上门收东西，在翻看衣橱的时候，那个卖家坐在床上，伤心得浑身发抖。“我不得不停下来，给她一个安慰的拥抱，并让她确认能否放弃自己的衣服。” 加尔奇诺斯说道。

人们在步入中年或临近退休的前几年，往往感到一种想重新塑造自己的冲动，新泽西州West Allenhurst市的心理学家巴巴拉•霍尔斯坦恩博士(Barbara Becker Holstein)说。像坎恩这类人有一种普遍的想法，觉得自己为工作或婚姻妥协了太多的东西，因此希望一切重新开始，换个活法。

我认为在一定程度上，科技领域和商业环境的快节奏变化也促使人们觉得应该改头换面一番。我们的工作和所处的行业在不断发展、演变和消亡，从而给我们改变形像提供了机会，同时给人带来一种恐慌情绪，觉得无论喜欢与否，这种改变是必须的。

虽然告别过去的诱惑很大，但霍尔斯坦恩博士建议大家不要急于下决心辞职、离家、甚至把自己衣橱的大部分东西清理出去，也警告大家不要把照片和一些有纪念意义的东西扔掉，否则，今后如果你的感觉发生变化，这些东西再也找不回来了。“一般来说，人们很难忘怀自己以前的生活，这是很自然的。”她说道。

值得指出的是，一旦一个人正在改变自己，那么被清理出去的不只是有形的东西。“我看着自己在Linked In上的联系人名单，不由地想：‘他们不可能伴随我走上新的道路。’”坎恩说道。

直到2009年秋，坎恩还是伦敦安吉斯媒体集团(Aegis Group)旗下一家市场研究机构Synovate的全球公关主管。作为一名负责全球业务的管理者，坎恩常年出差在外，顺道出入全世界最奢侈的购物地带，如开罗、布拉格、伦敦和芝加哥等。她买了不少爱马仕的围巾和赛琳(Celine)的皮草。

坎恩说，重新塑造自己的决定始于2009年夏天。当时，和她共事十几年的老板宣布退休。“我那时就在想，自己也要考虑一下，换个活法。”

离开公司后，44岁过着单身生活的坎恩在芝加哥一个颇具创新意识的室内乐团Fifth House的董事会任职，但她还在寻找一份让自己觉得更有意义的工作。“现在我想创造社会价值，而不仅仅是股东价值。”坎恩说道。

2009年12月，坎恩在eBay上卖出了第一批衣服。她在自己的房子里布置好灯光和女装人体模特，拍摄自己的裤子、上衣、裙子和各种饰品。坎恩说，她对出售的几乎每一件东西都很有感情，而卖掉她拥有的第一件阿玛尼上装尤其让她难舍难分。“我是穿这件衣服去面试而得到一份工作的，因此它是我的幸运衫。”坎恩说，“我还记得为了买这件上装努力存钱，当时特别想要一件阿玛尼的衣服。每次穿上阿玛尼，我都觉得无比坚强，信心百倍，可以挑战整个世界。”

坎恩知道，这些昂贵的衣服在二手市场上不再那么值钱。比如说，阿玛尼的上装只卖了36美元。她开玩笑说，这称不上是新的收入来源，到现在为止衣服才卖了不到700美元。她注重的是自己让有用的旧东西循环再利用，是为了开始人生的新篇章，“这些衣服给我带来过愉悦，我想给它们找一个好归宿。”坎恩说道。

事实上，那些套装和普拉达(Prada)手袋代表着坎恩一度极力想要塑造的职业形像，但她说自己从未真正融入商界文化。“上大学的时候，我是个绷着脸坐在教室后头的蓝头发女孩，牛仔裤故意弄得脱线，还搞出几个窟窿来。”她这样描述自己。

坎恩说，她在香港从事第一份公关工作的时候，穿Ann Taylor的T恤衫和一条长裙，同事们吃饭时都坐得离她远远的。“后来我才意识到，她们都穿香奈儿(Chanel)的套装，我以前根本不知道穿着居然这么重要。”坎恩说，“从此我开始关注宝缇嘉(Bottega Veneta)这样的名牌服饰。”

“从某种意义上来说，我走了一个圆满的圈，现在感觉是回家了。”坎恩在面积更小的新公寓里整理箱子，顺手在电子邮件中这样写道，“为什么我会有一个打开就能发光的晚装手袋？”她问，“我还有一条从没用过的水貂皮围巾，到底是谁买了这些华而不实的东西？”

本文选自上海新东方学校惠瑾的博客，博客链接地址：http://blog.hjenglish.com/huijin