交友软件
Dating apps
Hello. And welcome to 6 Minute English. I’m Neil.
大家好，欢迎来到六分钟英语。我是尼尔。
And I’m Dan.
我是丹。
Now then, Dan. What do you think of dating apps - you know, apps on your phone that help you find a romantic partner?
那么丹，你怎么看待交友软件呢？就是手机上用来找对象的APP。
I can’t say I’ve ever used them myself. How about you?
我从来没用过。你呢？
Neither have I, but I’ve got friends who have, very successfully. Lots of weddings.
我也没用过。但我有朋友用过这种软件，成功找到伴侣并结婚。
Great!
这么棒！
Now, research shows that fewer than 5% of people who have used dating apps, actually go out on a date with someone they met through them.
现在，有研究显示，交友软件的用户中只有少于5%的人在现实中见面了。
We’ll find out the reasons for this shortly, but first, a question.
稍后我们来详说原因。首先来看一个问题。
Even though dating apps are not used as much as we might think, they are still big business, but do you know how big?
尽管交友软件的使用者不如我们想象中的多，但市场却很大。
Around the world last year how much was spent on them?
到底有多大呢？去年，全世界用户在这方面的消费大约是:
Was it: a) less than half a billion dollars, b) between half a billion and a billion dollars, or c) over a billion dollars?
A：不超过5亿美元，B：5亿美元和10亿美元之间，还是C：超过10亿美元？
Any ideas, Dan?
有什么想法吗丹？
Well, this is purely a guess, but let’s say over a billion dollars.
嗯，这个只能靠猜了。我觉得是超过10亿美元。
Well, we’ll have the answer at the end of the programme. Elizabeth Tinnemans is a researcher who studied the use of a particular dating app.
好的，节目最后我们将揭晓答案。Elizabeth Tinnemans是一位研究一个特定交友软件的研究员。
She spoke on the BBC’s You and Yours radio programme on Radio 4.
她参加了BBC第4电台的“You and your radio”节目。
Her study confirmed that comparatively few people who used the app used it to arrange to meet up with someone.
她的研究表明，这个交友软件的用户中很少有人会使用这款app安排一场真正的约会。
She talked about people’s motives for using the app. Motives is a word which means "reasons" - so what were those motives?
她还谈到了人们使用这款app的动机。motive这个单词的意思是“原因”——那么他们的动机是什么呢？
We found from all the people that we surveyed that only slightly more than half of them actually met up with someone.
从我们调查的人群中可以发现，只有半数多一点的人会在现实中碰面。
So it doesn’t look like a lot of people are using it to meet up but it makes sense because we also looked at why they were using a dating app,
所以并不是许多人都使用交友软件见面约会的。但是这也在情理之中，因为我们还要看到人们使用交友软件的原因，
and the most popular and most common motives were using it out of curiosity and using it to pass time or entertainment.
最普遍的动机是出于好奇，用来消磨时间，或者娱乐。
So they’re not actively using these dating apps to meet people like swiping with friends is something that happens fairly often, especially among millennials.
所以往往他们不经常使用这些交友软件找现实中的约会对象，尤其是千禧一代。
Tinnemans said that people use the app to pass the time and simply for entertainment. What other motives did she mention, Dan?
Tinnemans说人们使用交友软件是为了消磨时间，或者仅仅用来娱乐自己。她还提到其他的动机了吗？丹？
Well, she said that people used it out of curiosity. If you do something out of curiosity you’re just interested in seeing what it is and what it does.
呃，她说人们用这款app是出于好奇。如果你做某件事是out of curiosity，就是说你有兴趣看看它是什么，它是做什么的。
Maybe you’ve heard about something and although you don’t want to actually try it, you do want to see what it’s all about.
也许你听说过，尽管你不想真的尝试，你还是想看看它到底是怎么一回事。
For example, when I was travelling once, out of curiosity, I went to see people bungee jumping, but it was never something I was going to do myself.
举个例子，有一次我去旅行，出于好奇我去看了别人蹦极，但我自己永远不回去蹦极。
Was the lack of actual dating through the dating app a surprise?
通过交友软件真正去约会的人数量甚少，这很令人惊讶吗？
No, she said that because they looked at the motives, the result makes sense.
不是的，Tinnemans说，这是因为他们考察的是动机，结果在情理之中。
When something makes sense, it’s understandable, it’s not surprising.
说某件事make sense，就是说它易于理解，并不令人惊讶。
There is another view as to why people are not using dating apps for actual dating.
关于人们为何不用交友软件进行真正的约会，还有其他原因。
This is Zoe Strimpel who is a dating historian.
Zoe Strimpel，是一位曾经使用过交友软件的用户。
She argues that because there is so much choice and so many opportunities to find a partner through an app,
她说通过app寻找伴侣会有太多选择和机会，
it can make the dating process unpleasant and people get tired of it.
这可能令约会过程不太愉快，人们也会变得疲惫。
People are being horribly disillusioned. I think people have also started to feel jaded.
现代人变得越来越清醒，我想他们也开始感到厌倦。
People are feeling that they’re aware that these relationships are often very callous and that’s to do with the sort of incredible sense of choice.
人们意识到这种关系通常比较冷漠，同时又希望寻求一种不可思议的选择。
She says that people feel disillusioned and jaded. What does she mean?
她用disillusioned和jaded形容人们，是想表达什么意思呢？
When you are disillusioned it means that you are unhappy with and disappointed by something because it isn’t as good as it used to be or it’s not as good as you thought it was going to be.
如果你是disillusioned，意思是你因为某件事感到不开心或者失望，因为这件事不像过去那样好，或者说没有你想象中的好。
If you have many experiences like that you become jaded which means you become bored and lose interest in something.
这种感觉多了，你就会变得jaded，意思是你对某件事感到厌烦，失去兴趣。
She also commented that the dating experience can be callous.
她还提到约会经历可能会变得callous。
This means that emotionally it can be very tough and you have to be ready to accept rejection or to reject people yourself and this is not always done in the kindest way.
callous意思就是感情上比较冷酷，你必须准备好接受拒绝，或者拒绝别人，这些拒绝通常情况下都不会很温和。
Here’s Zoe Strimpel again.
我们再来听一遍Zoe Strimpel的话。
People are being horribly disillusioned. I think people have also started to feel jaded.
现代人变得越来越清醒，我想他们也开始感到厌倦。
People are feeling that they’re aware that these relationships are often very callous and that’s to do with the sort of incredible sense of choice.
人们觉得他们意识到这种关系通常比较冷漠，希望寻求一种不可思议的选择。
OK. Time to review today’s vocabulary, but first, let’s have the answer to the quiz question.
好了，来复习下今天的单词。在那之前，我们先来看一下节目开始时提到的那个问题。
I asked how much was spent on dating apps last year.
我问你，去年人们在交友软件上的花销是多少？
Was it: a) less than half a billion dollars, b) between half a billion and a billion dollars, or c) over a billion dollars? Dan, you said?
A：不超过5亿美元，B：5亿美元和10亿美元之间，还是C：超过10亿美元？你的答案是?
I said c) over a billion dollars.
我选的事C 超过10亿美元
Well, the total was just under $600m so the correct answer was b) between half a billion and a billion dollars.
好的，总数其实低于6亿美元，所以正确答案应该是B，5亿和10亿之间。
Good guess if you got that one right! Right, now it’s time to recap today’s vocabulary.
如果你选B就猜对了。好了，又到了复述今日单词的时间。
Our first word today was motives. A motive is your reason for doing something.
今天学的第一个单词是motive动机，也就是你做某事的原因。
If something makes sense it is not a surprise and you can understand it.
如果说某件事make sense，就是说这件事并不令人惊奇，你可以理解。
The next phrase was out of curiosity.
下一个短语是out of curiosity。
This is when you do something for no particular reason other than you are interested in seeing it or trying it.
是指你做某件事没有特定的原因，只是因为有兴趣看看或者尝试一下。
Then we had disillusioned. This is a feeling you get when something isn’t as good as it used to be or as good as you expected it to be and you become disappointed by it.
接下来是disillusioned，描述的是一种感觉，当某件事不如过去那样好，或者没有达到你的预期，你对其产生的一种失望的感觉。
And that can lead to your being jaded, which isa feeling of dissatisfaction and boredom with something that has been going on for a while.
这种感觉会让你变得jaded，jaded描述的是因做某事时间长而导致的一种不满意，厌烦的情绪。
And finally there was callous - an adjective which means uncaring and cold-hearted.
最后一个单词是callous，形容词，意思是不在乎的，冷漠的。
Well, I hope you aren’t disillusioned with 6 Minute English and will join us again next time. Bye for now.
好了，我希望你们不要对六分钟英语感到幻灭，下次节目请继续收听，拜拜。
Bye bye!
拜拜！