雙語閱讀：愛素顏，不等於愛完全不化妝的女人

摘要：一項新研究的結果顯示男人更偏愛看起來“自然”的女性，但到底有多“自然”呢?理查德·霍爾特問道。

A new study has found that most men prefer women to look 'natural'. But how natural exactly? asks Richard Holt.

I didn’t realise until quite late in life that some women don’t just wear make-up, they wear a full-on disguise – the sort you might adopt if you were evading capture. At university one of new flatmates came downstairs late one night and I thought we were being burgled.

一項新研究的結果顯示男人更偏愛看起來“自然”的女性，但到底有多“自然”呢?理查德·霍爾特問道。

我直到很晚才意識到，生活中，有些女人不僅僅是在化妝，而是戴着不折不扣的僞裝——她們用的僞裝很誇張，你甚至可以採用那種妝容來逃避追捕。大學時，我的一位新室友在深夜時分下樓來(完全沒化妝)，而我還以爲我家被破門盜竊了。

It had been obvious before that she wore a lot of make-up, but I naively hadn’t realised that without it she would look like a completely different person. On a later occasion I overheard her, in unpainted form, opening the door to a guy who knew her quite well and having to overcome his puzzled expression by saying: “John, it’s me!”

她一直濃妝重抹，這點很明顯。而我天真地沒有意識到，如果不化妝的話，她看起來完全像是另外一個人。之後有次，我聽到她講話。那時她沒有化妝，給一個和她很熟的人打開門，卻不得不因爲對方滿臉困惑而解釋道：“約翰，是我啦!”

Apparently half of women admit to doing their make-up at least four times a day and a whopping 67 percent only go bare-faced twice a month.

顯然有一半女性承認她們每天整理妝容至少四次，高達67%的女性的女性一個月只素顏兩次。

These findings are presented as part of a campaign to give women the confidence to “pare back the amount of make-up they wear” and to let their “own natural radiance shine through”.

這些調查結果都被認爲是提升女性信心“減少化妝程度”這一運動的一部分，並鼓勵她們“秀出自然美。”

The study was carried out by a company called St Ives.

這項研究是由一個名爲St Ives的公司開展的。

In case anyone remains unconvinced, the company has enlisted the help of Lydia Bright, star of a television show called The Only Way Is Essex, to front the campaign.

爲防止有人依然對此不信服，該公司還請了莉迪亞·布萊特爲這一活動開場。她可是電視節目“埃塞克斯是唯一的生活方式”的大明星。

Bright, 23, says of her time on TOWIE: “I don’t know whether anyone remembers my first ever appearance, but I was caked in make-up. It looked like I’d applied it with a trowel.”

23歲的布萊特，在“埃塞克斯是唯一的生活方式”節目中講道：“我不知道是否還有人記得我的第一次亮相，但當時我的臉上被化妝品堆疊成蛋糕一樣的。看起來像是我用抹刀砌上去的。

I don’t recall her first appearance – or any of them, if I’m honest – but I am prepared to believe her. Not least because we are treated to before-and-after shots showing what she looks like in full warpaint, and then after the damascene moment when she was told she may be overdoing it a touch.

老實講，我不記得她的第一次亮相了——或她的任何亮相。但我打算相信她。尤其是因爲她拍攝前的照片和拍攝後身着盛裝的照片都被展示出來了，人們都覺得她化妝有點過頭了。

The only problem is that the “after” shot shows a woman still wearing what appears to be quite a lot of make-up. The “before” shot looks as if she’s trying out as an Alice Cooper lookalike.

唯一的問題是，後圖展示的是一位看起來依然濃妝重抹的女子。在前圖中，她看起來似乎是想嘗試一下愛麗絲·庫珀(休克搖滾先驅)的妝容。

“No make-up” meaning “less make-up than usual” forms part of the tabloid narrative.

“不化妝“實際上意味着“畫比平時少的妝” 。

So when the campaign says that three-quarters of men prefer the natural look, it is in this context. They don’t actually mean “natural” – ie the face as it really is. They mean tabloid natural. The illusion of natural. The campaign is telling women that cosmetics are a good thing, but that they could be applying them better.

所以，當調查顯示四分之三的男人更喜歡素顏時，就是指在上述情況下。他們並不是真指“素顏”——即臉本來的樣子，他們是指淡妝素顏(假素顏)。這項活動告訴女士們，化妝品是好東西，但她們可以更好地運用它。

And I think I’m fine with that. I’ve got absolutely no problem with make-up, as long as the person underneath remains vaguely recognisable, and doesn’t look like she’s been painted in the style of a late-1930s Picasso.

而我對此沒有意見。我對化妝真的一點看法都沒有。只要能依稀辨認出妝容下的那個人，並且不要看起來像是按照20世紀30年代後期畢加索風格畫的就好。

　　“素顏”英語怎麼說

Women put on makeup to make themselves more attractive. But a recent campaign in the UK suggests a bare face may be the best look for women.

The online campaign was launched by a charity organization, reported The Telegraph. It asked women to post selfies without wearing makeup. The idea behind it was that by removing their makeup, the women exposed their real selves.

The campaign was a huge success, and "no makeup selfie" has since been trending on social media, with men and women alike commenting on how beautiful these bare-faced women look in their photos.

女性化妝是爲了讓自己看起來更加迷人。但近日英國發起的一項活動表明，或許素顏的女性纔是最美的。

據英國《每日電訊報》報道，一家慈善組織發起了一項號召女性上傳素顏自拍照的在線活動。旨在通過卸妝，展現出女性真實的一面。

該活動獲得了巨大成功，“素顏自拍”也成爲社交網站熱門話題，男女網友對這些女性的素顏照稱讚有加。

　　【講解】

文中的bare face就是“素顏”的意思，其中bare是形容詞，意爲“無遮蓋的”，修飾人時，指身體的某一部分裸露的，如：bare feet(赤腳)，而bald多指因缺少或沒有頭髮而“禿頭”，如：He shaved his head bald.(他剃了個光頭。)

最後一段中的comment一般用作不及物動詞，後面常接介詞on或upon，表示“就(某人、某事)發表看法，評論(某人等)”，如：So far, he has not commented on these reports.(到目前爲止，他仍未就這些報道發表評論。)