郭逸纯  供稿

This year, Alibaba set a new sales record on Singles’ Day again. The annual shopping spree has indicated China’s robust domestic demand and booming market. Singles’ Day, which originated at a university in China in 1990s as a celebration specially for single people, has become a significant shopping holiday since Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba started an online promotion event on November 11, 2009. While Chinese consumers are celebrating this one-day carnival of consumption, people in other countries are also eagerly waiting for another exciting shopping day named Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.

今年“双十一”淘宝销售额再创新高。这一年度购物狂欢展现出中国强劲的内需和蓬勃发展的消费市场。兴起于20世纪90年代的“双十一”本为“光棍节”，是几名中国大学生专为单身人士创造的节日。而在2009年，中国电商巨头阿里巴巴在当年11月11日发起了一场网上促销活动，从那以后，“双十一”便成为了重要的购物节。当中国消费者纷纷沉浸在购物狂欢中时，其他国家的人们也正满怀期待地准备迎接另一个激动人心的购物日——感恩节之后的“黑色星期五”。

The term “Black Friday” was first used to refer to the day following Thanksgiving in 1950s, because many workers called in sick on the day after Thanksgiving, which is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November, in order to have a four-day weekend. Then the term was linked with shopping when it was used by the police in Philadelphia to describe the horrible crowding and traffic congestion accompanying the start of the Christmas shopping season after Thanksgiving. It is also said that this day got its name because it enabled retailers to make huge profits, thus going from being "in the red" to being "in the black".

“黑色星期五”始于20世纪50年代，用以指代感恩节后的周五，当时在感恩节（即每年十一月的第四个周四）之后，很多人会请一天病假，这样一来便可以连休四天。而这一天之所以与购物联系起来，是因为当时美国费城的警察用“黑色星期五”来形容感恩节过后圣诞购物季开启时那人潮涌动、交通拥堵的可怕场面。另外一种说法则是，这一天之所以用“黑色”命名，是因为商家们在这一天可以大赚一笔，从而扭亏为盈，账本由红转黑（商家记账时会用不同颜色的墨水，红色表示赤字即亏损，黑色表示盈利）。

Now Black Friday is one of the busiest shopping days in the United States and some other countries. Many U.S. consumers look to Black Friday to make big purchases, like flat-screen TVs, laptops and household appliances, at a discount. Unlike China’s Singles’ Day which is born as an online shopping festival, Black Friday originally started at brick-and-mortar stores. Almost all retailers across the country offer enticing one-day-only sales and doorbuster deals on this day. Some retailers even extend their opening hours in order to win a competitive edge. These, however, have inevitably caused severe traffic jam and overcrowding in stores. What’s worse, frenzied crowds competing for discounted merchandise have even resulted in violence and injuries.

“黑色星期五”如今已是美国和其他部分国家最为繁忙的购物日之一。许多美国消费者都等着在这一天购买一些打折的大件商品，如平板电视、笔记本电脑、家用电器等。“黑色星期五”与“双十一”的一个不同之处在于，“双十一”从一开始就是一个网上购物节，而“黑色星期五”则诞生于实体店。这一天，全国各地几乎所有商店都会推出诱人的打折促销计划和开门大抢购，而且活动仅此一天。有些商家还会延长营业时间，以赢得更大的竞争优势。但这些往往难以避免地导致交通严重拥堵，各个门店拥挤不堪。更糟糕的是，一些疯狂的消费者为了抢购打折商品，甚至做出暴力举动，出手伤人。

Nowadays, as more and more people tend to prefer online shopping, Black Friday deals are offered both in-store and online. Besides, in order to encourage online spending, a shopping festival in cyberspace named Cyber Monday was created in 2005, allowing people to keep going on a spending spree on the Monday after Black Friday. You may wonder why it is Cyber Monday rather than Cyber Saturday or Sunday. It is said that because of the low Internet connections at home, people at that time preferred to use fast computers and high-speed connections at their offices when they went back to work on Monday.

如今，随着越来越多的消费者更喜欢网上购物，黑色星期五的折扣人们在线上线下都能享受得到。除此之外，为了鼓励网上消费，“网络星期一”这一网上购物节于2005年应运而生。“黑色星期五”过后，人们又可以在下周一继续纵情消费了。也许你会好奇，为何是“网络星期一”而不是接下来的周六或周日呢？据说，这是因为那时候人们家里的网速较慢，大家往往更喜欢在周一回到单位上班后使用办公室里速度更快的电脑和网络。

Besides Singles’ Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, there are other shopping holidays around the world. For example, in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and some other countries, Boxing Day, which is the day after Christmas, is also an important day for shoppers. It is common to see long queues form early in the morning of 26 December, hours before the opening of shops offering the big sales. Many retailers even started their sales before 26 December and keep running the promotions up to New Year's Eve.

除了“双十一”、“黑色星期五”、“网络星期一”之外，世界各地还有各种各样的购物节。例如，在英国、加拿大、澳大利亚等国，圣诞节之后的节礼日也是一个重要的购物日。12月26日这天清晨，经常可以看到在很多打折促销的商店的门口，开门前几个小时就已经早早地排上了长队。不少商家还会在12月26日前就抢先开始打折活动，并一直持续促销到跨年夜。

VOCABULARY

spree n. 狂欢，毫无节制地做某事

call in sick 打电话请病假

flat-screen adj. 平板的

brick-and-mortar stores 实体店

enticing adj. 诱人的（entice v. 诱使）

doorbuster deals 开门大抢购

frenzied adj. 疯狂的，狂乱的