早安英文 第58期:奥斯卡大礼包

 「英文学习笔记」

其实，关于奥斯卡大礼包还有一度曲折的往事。当时，也就是在2001年的时候，这个礼包是有官方发放的，可惜后面被国税局给“税”了，于是官方版的大礼包在2005年就“crack down"了。

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave them out to Oscars performers and presenters¹ starting in 2001, but stopped after a crack down by the IRS (more on that later).

这2.0版的奥斯卡大礼包虽然不是官方推的，却仍旧不能避免被“税”的命运！

Distinctive² Assets' gift bags are not officially affiliated³ with the Academy, but their contents are similarly taxable.

于是各个明星开始想招应对了：

Celebrities⁴ have a few options to avoid paying taxes on the bags. They can donate all the stuff to charity, turning their gift bag into a tax write-off; they can keep some and sell or donate the rest; or they can simply refuse to accept the gifts altogether.

总而言之，明星处理大礼包的方式由以下三种：

有的“donate it to charity"（捐给慈善机构）

有的“donate some＋sell some＋keep some”（捐一点，卖一点，留一点）

还有的“refuse to accept it"(直接拒收！）

当然，他们中也不乏对于Gift Bag感兴趣的。

曾被提名为最佳女配的演员Queen Latifah就坦白说道，她对于整个颁奖典礼最期待的就是那个大礼包了。

"I'm looking forward to that basket. I can't wait to see what's in it," she was quoted as saying on celebrity⁵ news Web site imdb.com. "I don't care how much money you have, free stuff is always a good thing."

不知道，这位女士对今年的奥斯卡大礼包可还满意？

1 presenters   

n.节目主持人，演播员( presenter的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Each week presenters would put the case for their favourite candidate. 每个星期主持人推出他们最喜欢的候选人。 来自互联网
• Karaoke was set up to allowed presenters to sing on the stage. 宴会设有歌唱舞台，可让出席者大演唱功。 来自互联网

2 distinctive   

adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的

参考例句：

• She has a very distinctive way of walking.她走路的样子与别人很不相同。
• This bird has several distinctive features.这个鸟具有几种突出的特征。

3 affiliated   

adj. 附属的, 有关连的

参考例句：

• The hospital is affiliated with the local university. 这家医院附属于当地大学。
• All affiliated members can vote. 所有隶属成员都有投票权。

4 celebrities   

n.（尤指娱乐界的）名人( celebrity的名词复数 )；名流；名声；名誉

参考例句：

• He only invited A-list celebrities to his parties. 他只邀请头等名流参加他的聚会。
• a TV chat show full of B-list celebrities 由众多二流人物参加的电视访谈节目

5 celebrity   

n.名人，名流；著名，名声，名望

参考例句：

• Tom found himself something of a celebrity. 汤姆意识到自己已小有名气了。
• He haunted famous men, hoping to get celebrity for himself. 他常和名人在一起, 希望借此使自己获得名气。