Will You Be My Valentine?

By Betty Liu

情人節(jié)可不只是商業(yè)營銷宣傳造勢下的狂歡盛宴，本文作者為我們展開一段段真摯溫馨的回憶：讀小學的時候，情人節(jié)無關(guān)于情人，而是對友誼表達真摯的謝意，與朋友們一起分享糖果，交換祝福卡片；而從中學開始，情人節(jié)不知怎的就變成了情侶間秀恩愛的專屬節(jié)日；而現(xiàn)在，她很高興情人節(jié)又回到友誼的主調(diào)上。

Like many Americans, I will say that I have a love/hate relationship with Valentine’s Day. On one hand, it can be pretty awful to be slammed with images of “l(fā)ove” all day, and see couples fawning over each other, oblivious to the world.1. 一方面，一整天放眼望去是各種情情愛愛的場面，到處是情侶們?nèi)徊活櫵闹芡榈厍淝湮椅?，相當討厭。slam: 砰地關(guān)上（門或窗），猛烈抨擊，使勁一推；fawn: 奉承，討好；oblivious: 不注意的，忘卻的。But on the other hand, it’s a day where you receive free candy and spend time with friends. Now, who doesn’t like that?

I remember in elementary school, teachers would use any holiday as an excuse to have a classroom celebration. From holidays ranging from Columbus Day2. Columbus Day: 哥倫布節(jié)，即哥倫布發(fā)現(xiàn)美洲紀念日——10月12日。to Christmas, we would always get at least half a day off to enjoy the holidays.Valentine’s Day was no exception, and usually the day was dedicated to enjoying sweets and exchanging Valentine’s Day cards with friends.3.情人節(jié)也不例外，在這一天我們與朋友一起分享糖果，相互交換情人節(jié)卡片。It seemed that every year from kindergarten all the way to at least 4th grade, our teachers would always lead us in decorating a box to hold Valentine’s Day cards. Then,on Valentine’s Day we would go around and put a card into everyone’s box. I still have fond memories4. fond memory: 美好的回憶，溫馨的回憶。of this. I remember the foil cards with different cartoon characters on it and boxes of colorful candy hearts that I always received—I also remembered that they tasted awful, but it was the thought that counted.5. 我還記得那些畫有卡通人物的錫箔紙卡片，還有我總會收到的那些裝滿五顏六色心形糖果的盒子——我還記得那些糖果并不好吃，但重要的是心意。foil: 錫箔；count:有重要性，有影響。And, every year there would also be a little bit of drama6. drama: 戲劇，戲劇效果，戲劇性的事件。that accompanied this holiday. Someone might get an anonymous card, and the girls will all shriek and giggle as they go around trying to find the culprit.7.有些人會收到匿名卡片，女孩子們會大聲尖叫，咯咯笑著到處找尋送出卡片的人。anonymous: 匿名的，沒有署名的；shriek: 大聲尖叫；giggle: 咯咯地笑，傻笑；culprit: 當事人，引起情況的事物或人。I remember one year I found an unsigned, homemade card in my box, and I was absolutely delighted. I put it in my pocket and snuck furtive glances at it for the rest of the day.8.我把它放到口袋里，在接下來一天的時間里時不時就會偷偷瞄上一眼。sneak:（過去式和過去分詞為snuck）偷偷溜走，偷偷進式；furtive: 秘密的，偷偷摸摸的；glance: 一瞥，掃視。

As we grew older, Valentine’s Day seemed to move further away from celebrating the innocent friendship of childhood.Starting in middle school, suddenly we had to worry about dating, and relationships, and a whole bunch of other things that I never really wanted to think about.9. a bunch of: 一群，一堆。Instead of friends exchanging cards and candy, it became couples acting sickeningly romantic.10. 不再是朋友間交換卡片和糖果，而變成情侶們之間表演令人反感的浪漫。sickeningly:令人作嘔地，令人反感地。Couples found any excuse to express their affection, you couldn’t walk anywhere without seeing heart-shaped everything, and just by walking in the halls you were likely to be accidentally smacked with an oversized bouquet or stuffed animal.11. 情侶們找各種理由表達愛意，到處都可以看到心形的東西，走在大廳里你都非常有可能突然撞上巨型花束或毛絨動物。smack: 猛擊，重撞；bouquet: 花束；stuffed animal: 填充動物玩具。For this reason, no one really liked Valentine’s Day in middle school, except those who found themselves in a “relationship” (I use this term lightly, because I have a hard time taking middle school relationships seriously.)12. 正因為如此，中學里幾乎沒有人真的喜歡情人節(jié)，除了那些處于“戀愛”中的人（在這里用“戀愛”這個詞比較草率，因為我很難把中學生的感情看作真正的戀愛）。Middle school was when the cynical13. cynical: 憤世嫉俗的，譏諷的。attitude towards Valentine’s Day appeared. My classmates liked to denounce it as a “Hallmark Holiday,”saying that the only purpose of its existence was to turn a profit for the corporations of our world.14. 我的同學指責情人節(jié)就是“商標節(jié)”，并說這個節(jié)日存在的唯一目標就是為全世界的商業(yè)企業(yè)帶來利潤。denounce:公開指責，正式指控，通告廢除；hallmark:（任何商品上的）純正優(yōu)質(zhì)證明標志，這里指代商品。

After getting over the awkward phase in middle school, Valentine’s Day started to shift back to what it used to be: a celebration of friendship, not just “romantic love”.15. 過了中學這個令人尷尬的階段，情人節(jié)開始恢復它原本的樣子：慶祝友誼，而不僅僅是愛情。awkward: 尷尬的。Friends started exchanging gifts again without romantic undertones16. undertone: 潛在的感情，暗示的含義。, people started celebrating with friends, and at least for me, it became much more enjoyable. I like to think that this shift in attitudes came about because we matured17. mature: v. 成熟起來，成長。a bit. We were able to see that some things,such as relationships, really weren’t that big of a deal. Personally18. personally: 就個人而言。, I find Valentine’s Day to be a fun holiday. Last year we did a chocolate exchange, and it was nice to go back to the old days of enjoying sweets with friends.

我的名字叫Betty，我生活在美國一個叫做希爾瓦(Sylva)的小鎮(zhèn)。我喜歡讀書（《哈利·波特》系列是我的最愛）、寫作和演奏樂器。 我是學校樂隊的成員，負責演奏木琴和鼓，偶爾還彈鍵盤鋼琴。我還熱愛科學，尤其喜歡學習生物學。我的博客地址是http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/2671967925。歡迎大家和我一起交流和學習。