VOA标准英语2010年-Love May Make the World Go 'Round

But it's highly overrated come Valentine's Day

Ted¹ Landphair | Washington, DC 08 February 2010

On the days leading up to Valentine's Day, and on the day itself, love is in the air. Love is also profitable for greeting-card companies, confectioners and florists² right about now.

 

This coming Sunday is Valentine's Day, the popular, informal holiday on which people reconfirm their affection, often with a lovely card and a small gift, such as a box of candy.

But it might not be the day you'd want to spend with Linda Lindsey. She's a lovely and loving person. You might even call her the love doctor. But she is also the expert who says that a lot of American ideas about love are myths, and that love is in fact a pretty rational undertaking³.

For more than 30 years, Linda Lindsey has studied romance as a professor of sociology at Maryville University in St. Louis, Missouri. She even wrote a book to prove that love is almost preordained by men's and women's roles in society.

Professor Lindsey says Americans think of romance as a bolt of bliss⁴ that strikes the most unlikely couples, overwhelming logic⁵, problems, and cares. In truth, she says, love is quite structured. One can almost predict who is going to marry whom, and which marriages will last, by the friends they have. While people may be briefly⁶ attracted to their polar opposites, she says, the vast majority end up settling for those who are a lot like themselves.

A woman may dream about marrying a good-looking 'hunk' of a man, but most often she ends up with an average-looking fellow who can bring home a good income.

 

Nor, she says, is love by any means blind. Most potential life-mates go into a relationship with their eyes wide open, carefully checking out likely candidates. Men, for instance, almost always marry women who are shorter than they are.

And here's a shocker: Linda Lindsey says, despite the TV shows and advertisements that depict⁷ women as the starry-eyed gender⁸ whose eyes are blinded by the sparkle of an engagement ring, it's men who are the romantics, especially at the beginning and middle parts of a relationship. Women are more cautious, she says. A woman may dream about marrying a good-looking 'hunk' of a man, but most often she ends up with an average-looking fellow who can bring home a good income.

So sing along with the Beatles' lyrics⁹, "All you need is love/Love is all you need", if you like. But don't necessarily believe them.
 

1 ted   

vt.翻晒，撒，撒开

参考例句：

• The invaders gut ted the village.侵略者把村中财物洗劫一空。
• She often teds the corn when it's sunny.天好的时候她就翻晒玉米。

2 florists   

n.花商，花农，花卉研究者( florist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The little dressmaker bought an envelope of nasturtium seeds at the florists. 那个个子矮小的女裁缝在花铺里买了一包金莲花种子。 来自辞典例句
• I have more important things to do than petulant florists. 我有比教训坏脾气的花匠更重要的事情要做。 来自互联网

3 undertaking   

n.保证，许诺，事业

参考例句：

• He gave her an undertaking that he would pay the money back with in a year.他向她做了一年内还钱的保证。
• He is too timid to venture upon an undertaking.他太胆小，不敢从事任何事业。

4 bliss   

n.狂喜，福佑，天赐的福

参考例句：

• It's sheer bliss to be able to spend the day in bed.整天都可以躺在床上真是幸福。
• He's in bliss that he's won the Nobel Prize.他非常高兴，因为获得了诺贝尔奖金。

5 logic   

n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性

参考例句：

• What sort of logic is that?这是什么逻辑？
• I don't follow the logic of your argument.我不明白你的论点逻辑性何在。

6 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

7 depict   

vt.描画，描绘；描写，描述

参考例句：

• I don't care to see plays or films that depict murders or violence.我不喜欢看描写谋杀或暴力的戏剧或电影。
• Children's books often depict farmyard animals as gentle,lovable creatures.儿童图书常常把农场的动物描写得温和而可爱。

8 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

9 lyrics   

n.歌词

参考例句：

• music and lyrics by Rodgers and Hart 由罗杰斯和哈特作词作曲
• The book contains lyrics and guitar tablatures for over 100 songs. 这本书有100多首歌的歌词和吉他奏法谱。