Saying Goodbye to Single Life 和单身告别
Feifei: 大家好，我是冯菲菲。欢迎收听英国问答Ask About Britain, 我们在这个节目中专门回答有关英国文化习俗的各种问题。今天和我在一起的是Helen.
Helen: Hello everyone. While many couples choose to co-habit, getting married for many is still the way to show commitment to each other.
Feifei: 是的，虽然现在很多年轻人选择同居，但是也有很多人愿意和另一半以结婚的形式来表达相互之间的承诺。去年英国就举行了23 万个婚礼。
Helen: Our question today is from Yoyo and it's about what people do before they get married.
Feifei: 今天的问题来自Yoyo, 她想知道在结婚前，准新郎官和准新娘会参加些什么样的活动来告别他们的单身生活。
Helen: How do people celebrate the end of being single. Let's hear from wedding planner Barbara Collins.
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Obviously men have stag nights, they used to be the night before the wedding, but that's becoming less and less popular, because you don't want a bridegroom suffering from too much alcohol on your wedding day. So they go a week before now if you can.
Feifei: Barbara 是职业的婚礼策划人wedding planner. 她介绍说准新郎官bridegroom一般都会叫一帮好朋友，在结婚前出去玩一次。
Helen: This is called the stag night or stag party. It's a fun event held for the bachelor before he gets married and only men are allowed to join the stag party.
Feifei: 这个告别单身汉的聚会stag party 只允许男人参加。Barbara 说这个聚会以前是在婚礼的前一晚举行，不过现在有所改变。
Helen: The reason for this is because usually lots of alcohol is consumed by the bridegroom and his mates and you can't guarantee that he'll be sober on the big day. So it's better not to have the party so close to one's wedding day.
Feifei: 是的， 很多准新郎在自己的单身聚会上都会喝个烂醉，第二天耽误了结婚大事，那可就闯大祸了，所以现在大家更倾向于婚礼前一周庆祝。
Helen: Not everyone thinks a drink-fuelled stag party is a good thing. Some bachelors choose to do something different to celebrate the end of being single.
Feifei: 那么让我们来听听Ben 是怎么庆祝他的单身夜聚会？
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The culture at the moment seems to be getting on a plane and going to Eastern Europe, and doing lots of drinking, but I didn't really fancy that. I wanted to do something outdoors, get very wet and cold and sleep in a barn with no heating, 'cause that's the sort of thing that sounds like fun to me.
Helen: Ben says that there's a culture for bachelors to have their stag night in Eastern Europe.
Feifei: Ben 说现在很多英国人都会飞到东欧国家Eastern Europe 去庆祝单身夜，因为那里的生活消费和酒的价钱比英国都要便宜很多。
Helen: But Ben didn't want to do that for his stag party. He wanted to do something outdoors.
Feifei: Outdoors 野外，他的单身夜是和朋友们在野外度过的。
Helen: It was very physical and they trekked in the mountains. It was very wet and cold. They slept in a barn with no heating.
Feifei: 听起来一点都不像一个party. 他们白天登山，天气很冷而且还飘着小雨。晚上是在一个没有暖气的大仓库里度过的。
Helen: Well, certainly Ben's stag weekend didn't follow the general trend. He chose to celebrate the end of his single life with a difference and they had fun.
Feifei: 准新郎官有单身夜，那么准新娘有些什么样的活动呢？让我们来听听Emily 的回答，她计划今年底和她的未婚夫步入婚礼殿堂。
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Lots of women, just before they get married, usually couple of weeks before they get married, they'll have a hen-do, which is a party for the bride-to-be, to go and have fun. So they'll usually go to a club or a restaurant, or they might go away for the weekend; they might dress up silly, usually the guests will give the bride some silly presents to do with getting married and she might wear a pretend veil and things like that.
Helen: So the bride-to-be has parties too, they are called hen-dos, hen parties or hen nights.
Feifei: Hen 的原意是母鸡， hen night, hen do 和hen party 都是指准新娘的单身聚会。只有女孩子可以参加，一般在婚礼的前几个星期举行。
Helen: Hen parties can be quite wild and loud. I have seen girls in fancy dresses wearing pretend veils. It's all about having fun.
Feifei: Veil 面纱，女孩子聚在一起的时候会很热闹， Emily 说一般大家会出去吃顿饭，或者去蹦迪go clubbing, 或者一起外出度周末。
Helen: Many brides-to-be nowadays would like to relax and get pampered before their big day and spa weekends are very popular.
Feifei: Pamper 尽情享受。很多准新娘也选择把hen dos 安排到spa 温泉水疗休闲中心，大家一起好好享受一下。
Helen: A nice massage, a deep cleansing facial, I'd really like that.
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So there's no set rules, as to what you have to do, everybody is different, so everybody has different celebrations before they get married.
Feifei: 就像刚才Emily 说的那样，举办结婚前告别单身的聚会没有任何特殊的规矩there's no set rules, 每个人都不一样，所以庆祝的方式也会不一样。
Helen: I hope we've given Yoyo some idea about how people celebrate the end of their single life before getting married. Please join us next time.
Feifei: 谢谢收听，我们下次节目再会。
Helen: Bye bye.
词汇学习：
1. cohabit 同居
2. bachelor 单身男子
3. trek 长途跋涉
4. wedding planner 婚礼策划师
5. hen 母鸡
6. veil 面纱
7. pamper 宠爱，精心照料
8. spa 温泉疗养地
9. massage 按摩
10. facial 做面膜