2014年職稱英語(綜合類)教材閱讀理解文章及譯文45

　　Women Staying in Mini-Skirts for Longer

　　British women are happy nowadays to wear mini-skirts up until the age of 40, according to research by Debenhams.

　　Just 20 years ago, few women would dare to wear a mini-skirt after the age of 33, the store said. “It shows that women now have an increasing confidence in their bodies and are happy to dress accordingly,” it added in a statement. “If this trend continues, there’s no doubt that, within the next decade, women in their mid 40s and early 50s will rightly regard a mini-skirt as an essential pan of their everyday wardrobe.”

　　The figures emerged when the store examined the latest age profile of women buying short, 36-cm skirts over the past six months. Their results show that it has jumped from an average age of 36-years-old at the start of millennium to 40 today. Figures from 1980 showed that on average women stopped buying minis when they reached 33 years old -- a figure unchanged from the mid-1960s.

　　The store noted that experts believe that the popularity of intensive gym culture, providing women with well toned bodies for longer may be the reason The increasing number of British women living on their own may also be a factor.

　　The Debenhams’ study showed that a modern woman’s love affair with a mini-skin begins at the age of 14 but that she doesn’t buy her first one until the age of 16 Instead, she flouts school roles by rolling up the waistband of the school uniform to give the impression of wearing a mini skirt.

　　Skirts get shorter between the ages of 16 and 19, reducing in size from 46 to 36 cm before reaching their shortest, a mere 32 cm, at the age of 23. Skirt .length increases slightly between the ages of 23 and 27, rising to 37 cm, possibly due to girls being in their first stable relationship, with no desire to attract attention, the store said.

　　However, it found short skirt suddenly zoom in popularity between the ages of 27 and 34, as those early relationships break down, and new relationships are formed. The move into longer skins begins irreversibly at 40 years old, when 46-cm skins, still slightly above the knee are the norm. From then on, skirt length increases dramatically, falling below the knee for the very first time since school days at the age of 42.

　　詞匯：

　　millennium 千禧年 gym .健身房

　　注釋：

　　1.這里指公元2000年。

　　2.gym culture：指英國現(xiàn)在流行的去健身房健身的趨勢(shì)。

　　3.well toned bodies：指結(jié)實(shí)而線條良好的體形。

　　練習(xí)：

　　1.Debenhams could most possibly be

　　A a fashion magazine

　　B a lifestyle association

　　C an expert on trends

　　D a department store

　　2.According to the passage, British women are happy to wear mini-skirts up until an older age because of the following reasons EXCEPT ：

　　A Women are more and more confident in their bodies.

　　B Women nowadays pay much more attention to body building, and this provides them with well toned bodies to wear mini-skirts.

　　C The Climate of Great Britain are getting warmer in recent years, thus women can wear minis for a longer time.

　　D More and more women are now living on their own.

　　3.We can infer from the second and third paragraph that in 1970s

　　A a lot of women dared to wear mini-skirts at the age of 40

　　B most women between 33 and 36 were still happy to wear mini-skirts

　　C even women in their early 50s rightly regarded a mini-skirt as an essential part of their everyday wardrobe

　　D most women no longer wore mini-skirts when they reach the age of 33

　　4.Which of the following statements about the length of the mini-skirts is true?

　　A At the age of 14,girls often wear mini-skirts which are about 46cm in size.

　　B Girls at the age of 19 wear the shortest mini-skirts.

　　C At the age of 23，most girls wear mini-skirts which are 37cm long.

　　D From the age of 23,skirt length increases because girls are in their first stable relationship.

　　5.The word “zoom” in the first sentence of the last paragraph can be best replaced by ?

　　A soar

　　B decrease

　　C hold steady

　　D drop

　　答案與題解：

　　1.D從第二段的第一句話可知Debenhams是一個(gè)百貨公司的名稱。

　　2.C英國女性愿意穿超短裙人群的年齡有上升的趨勢(shì)，主要是因?yàn)槿藗冊(cè)絹碓阶孕?，注意健身保持體形，以及女性生活更加獨(dú)立。氣候變暖不是文中所說的原因之一。

　　3.D第三段說從20世紀(jì)60年代開始一直到80年代，調(diào)?都顯示女性到33歲之后普遍不再 購買超短裙。

　　4.D從倒數(shù)第二段可知,從23歲開始，女性所穿著的超短裙長(zhǎng)度從32 cm漸增至37 cm,主要 是因?yàn)檫@個(gè)階段她們普遍有了穩(wěn)定的戀愛關(guān)系。

　　5.A “zoom”意為迅速增長(zhǎng)，故A是最佳答案。

　　譯文：女性穿超短裙時(shí)間更長(zhǎng)

　　根據(jù)Debenhams公司的調(diào)查，英國女性在40歲之前鐘情于穿超短裙。

　　可就在20年前，只有很少數(shù)的女性在33歲以后還敢穿超短裙。Debenhams公司透露，這些表明現(xiàn)代女性對(duì)自己身材的信心與日俱增，并在一份聲明中補(bǔ)充到現(xiàn)代女性也很喜歡穿衣打扮，如果這個(gè)趨勢(shì)繼續(xù)下去的話，那么在下個(gè)十年的時(shí)間里40歲到50歲的英國女性的衣櫥無疑將被超短裙占據(jù)。

　　百貨公司調(diào)查顯示，在過去6個(gè)月購買36厘米長(zhǎng)的超短裙的女性的最新年齡分布出現(xiàn)了新的數(shù)字。他們的研究結(jié)果表明，在新千年開始之際，平均年齡已由36歲上升到40歲。 從1980年的數(shù)字顯示，平均起來，當(dāng)達(dá)到33歲時(shí)婦女就停止購買迷你裙了――這一數(shù)字從60年代中期一直沒有改變。

　　百貨公司注意到，老師相信高密度的健身文化的流行，給女性更加長(zhǎng)時(shí)間的保持身體健康提供了依據(jù)。英國生活獨(dú)立的婦女越來越多也是其中一個(gè)因素。

　　16歲到19歲之間裙子變得越來越短，從46厘米減少到36厘米，23歲時(shí)達(dá)到32厘米，達(dá)到最短。23歲到27歲迷你裙長(zhǎng)度又逐漸增長(zhǎng)，增加到37厘米，可能是由于女孩感情第一次穩(wěn)定下來，沒有再去吸引人的必要。商店報(bào)道說。

　　然而，由于女孩的第一次感情的破裂，新的關(guān)系正在形成，從27歲到34歲迷你裙又突然流行起來。40歲時(shí)迷你裙又開始變長(zhǎng)，46厘米，稍稍在膝蓋上面是標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的流行模式。從那時(shí)起，迷你裙的長(zhǎng)度急劇增長(zhǎng)，在42歲時(shí)又達(dá)到膝蓋以下，這是自從離開校門后首次達(dá)到膝蓋以下。