countries of Northern Europe, there’s a Scandinavian saying: “There’s no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothing” , implying because there’s nothing we can do about our climate, we might as well bow to the inevitable and dress in warm clothes.

原始的，史前的衣服的用途是纯粹的功能性——它们需要保暖和防水，并保护我们的端庄。即使在今天，我们经常不得不做出选择，穿着舒适的低维护的衣服和穿着时尚。在潮湿寒冷的北欧国家，有一句斯堪的纳维亚谚语:“世上没有坏天气，只有穿错的衣服”。这句话的意思是，因为我们对气候无能为力，我们还是屈从于不可避免的事实，穿上暖和的衣服吧。

But today, do we still dress exclusively for comfort? Or do we also dress for fashion? Fashionistas – followers of the latest fashions – choose to wear the season’s fabulous new designs and colors, often at the expense of comfort and practicality. Many of them love the glamour of the fashion shows in Milan, Paris, London and New York. They like to gauge and witness the latest trends as worn by models of uniform build and exquisite beauty, who are quite unlike most ordinary people. Some of the fashionistas end up as fashion victims, whose choice of clothes is dictated by a sense of extravagant style but who are so self-absorbed that they’re unable to realize how inappropriate it is. They accordingly run the risk of inviting an unkind response.

但是今天，我们仍然穿着舒适吗?还是我们也为时尚而着装?时尚达人——最新时尚的追随者——选择穿上本季极好的新设计和颜色，往往是以牺牲舒适度和实用性为代价的。他们中的许多人喜欢米兰、巴黎、伦敦和纽约时装表演的魅力。他们喜欢衡量和见证最新的流行趋势，就像穿着统一的身材和精致美丽的模特，他们与大多数普通人有很大的不同。一些时尚达人最终成为了时尚的受害者，他们的服装选择受到一种奢侈风格的影响，但他们太过自私，以至于他们意识不到这是多么不合适。因此，他们冒着招致不友好回应的风险。

Others choose clothes to make a favorable impression of some kind on the people they meet in particular circumstances, such as a smart suit and a crisp, white shirt for a job interview, or a beautiful gown for their wedding. Even people who dress down in the evenings or at the weekend – loafers, jeans, polo shirts – often choose colors, combinations and brands which suit them. Finally, those people who chain to have no interest in fashion usually choose somber colors as a form of

camouflage, to disguise themselves and to avoid attracting attention to themselves.

另一些人选择衣服是为了在特定的场合给他们遇到的人留下良好的印象，比如一套漂亮的西装和一件干净利落的白衬衫去参加面试，或者一件漂亮的礼服去参加婚礼。即使是在晚上或周末穿便装的人——休闲鞋、牛仔裤、马球衫——通常也会选择适合自己的颜色、组合和品牌。最后，那些对时尚毫无兴趣的人通常选择暗淡的颜色作为伪装的一种形式，来伪装自己，避免引起别人对自己的注意。

But fashion has two other, possibly more important functions. Firstly, it can allow us to express or reflect our emotions through the clothes we wear. Our favorite clothes are those which we choose most often to reveal positive aspects of our personality – fun and funky, or smart and businesslike. Our wardrobes are largely filled with our favorites, because they make us feel good and fit for purpose.

但时尚还有另外两个可能更重要的功能。首先，它可以让我们通过我们穿的衣服来表达或反映我们的情绪。我们最喜欢的衣服是那些我们经常选择来展现我们性格积极方面的衣服——有趣又时髦，或者聪明又有条理。我们的衣柜里大多都是我们最爱的衣服，因为它们让我们感觉良好，适合我们的需要。

Yet surely alongside those favorite outfits are others which have fallen out of favor. Maybe there’s a pair of jeans you can’t get into anymore, or a sweater which has grown a bit too loose, or something in a color or fabric which seemed fashionable at the time, but which isn’t quite right for today. So why don’t we throw these out?

当然，除了这些最受欢迎的服装之外，还有一些已经失宠了。也许有一条你再也穿不进去的牛仔裤，或者一件有点太松的毛衣，或者某种颜色或面料在当时看起来很时髦，但在今天却不太合适的衣服。我们为什么不把这些扔掉呢?

This is the other important function of fashion: a sense of occasion. We bought those clothes when we were adolescents – slimmer or more carefree. We wore them on a specially for a wedding or a

funeral, and keep them ready for similar future events.

这是时尚的另一个重要功能:场合感。当我们还是青少年的时候，我们买了那些衣服——苗条或者无忧无虑。我们特意在婚礼或葬礼上戴上它们，让它们为未来类似的活动做好准备。

Your wedding dress remains protected under wraps even though you’re unlikely ever to wear it again (well, even if you remarry, surely you won’t do so in the same dress!). There’s the suit you wore for the interview for a job you didn’t get. An old school tie reminds you of years of education, with its many emotional highs and lows. Maternity wear reminds mothers of their nervous excitement during their pregnancy, waiting for the baby to arrive. Baby clothes remind us of those few short years when our children were helplessly dependent on us, of how tiny they were, and how they’re grown in every way since then. The old sweater belonging to a dead parent keeps alive the memory of their special scent …

即使你不太可能再穿它，你的婚纱仍然是保密的(好吧，即使你再婚，你肯定不会穿同一件婚纱!)这是你没得到的工作面试穿的西装。一条老旧的学校领带会让你想起多年的教育经历，其中有许多情感上的高潮和低谷。孕妇装让妈妈们想起了她们在怀孕期间的紧张和兴奋，她们期待着孩子的到来。婴儿衣服让我们想起那短短几年，我们的孩子无助地依赖着我们，想起他们是多么的小，从那以后他们是如何成长的。死去父母的旧毛衣让他们对特殊气味的记忆历历在目……

We keep clothes which remind us of the difference between what we wanted to be at one point of our lives, and what we are today. Dubious red trousers, purple tank tops, long necklaces, high leather boots, multi-colored sneakers, a broad-brimmed hat bought after watching a film from the Fifties, shoes with heels so high that the first and only outing wearing them to a club one evening led to a night in A&E with a twisted ankle, the ubiquitous I love NY … Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.

我们保存的衣服会提醒我们，我们在生命中的某个时刻想成为什么样的人，与今天的我们有什么不同。可疑的红色裤子,紫色的背心,长项链、皮靴、彩色运动鞋,一个宽边帽买了从五十

年代看电影后,鞋与高跟鞋很高,第一个也是唯一一个郊游穿他们领导的一个俱乐部一个晚上一个晚上在A&E扭了脚踝,无处不在的我爱纽约…在那里,做了,得到了t恤。

Our clothes are indicative of our lives, the events, the emotions, the sense of nostalgia for yesterday’s innocence and the chastening, humbling reminder of who we are today.

我们的衣着象征着我们的生活、事件、情感、对昨日纯真的怀旧之情，以及对今日自我的惩戒和谦卑。

When my father showed me his battle jacket, I used slip my finger through the hole, and as he told his stories of what he was thinking on that beach in Normandy in 1944, I was thinking of what he said, “Five centimeters to the right … ” and I wouldn’t be here today.

当我父亲给我看了他的夹克,我用我的手指穿过滑孔,当他告诉他的故事,他在想什么,在诺曼底海滩在1944年,我在想他说什么,“向右5厘米…”,我今天就不会在这里。

Unit 3 Active reading (2) / P55 Eco-jewellery: sea glass

Although sea glass is disappearing, jewelery designer Gina Cowen is still on the hunt for the elusive treasure.

尽管海玻璃正在消失，珠宝设计师吉娜·考恩仍然在寻找这一难以捉摸的宝藏。

When jewellery designer Gina Cower scours a beach for sea glass, she says she looks like a human crab. Head down, bent over, sidling up and down in the surf, she loses her sense of time. “I’m always hoping I’ll find a piece better than the last,” she tells me, over lunch in her Oxford studio. “Hours latar, I’ll look up and realize the beach is empty and I’ve burnt my shoulders.”