BBC地道英语:Airbrush 涂抹/掩饰

Diarmuid: So what's that you're reading, Wang Fei?

Wang Fei: It's a celebrity magazine. I'm looking at these beautiful female celebrities. 你看，这些女明星个个都漂亮！有些人都岁数一大把了，也有的已经生儿育女了，看上去仍然这么年轻!简直让人难以置信。

Diarmuid: Ooh, let's have a look.

Wang Fei: Look at them. They are all so perfect. How do they do it? They must spend all day in the gym.

Diarmuid: Wow! They do look good, don't they? Too good to be true really.

Wang Fei: What do you mean they look too good to be true?

Diarmuid: Come on, Wang Fei. You don't believe these photos are real, do you?

Wang Fei: 不是真的？！Diarmuid 为什么说这不是真的？Diarmuid, are you saying that these pictures are not real?

Diarmuid: Of course they're real. But that doesn't mean they haven't been airbrushed.

An airbrush is quite different from a paint brush.

Wang Fei: Airbrushed. What do you mean by airbrush?

Diarmuid: Airbrushed. That's two words put together: air.

Wang Fei: Air. 空气。

Diarmuid: And brush.

Wang Fei: Brush 刷子。

Diarmuid: Airbrush. A.I.R.B.R.U.S.H.

Wang Fei: And the meaning?

Diarmuid: An airbrush originally meant a tool used to spray paint to cover a surface.

Wang Fei: Oh! Airbrush 就是喷油漆的喷雾器，喷漆枪。

Diarmuid: But it also refers to a photographic technique used to make corrections to photographs.

Wang Fei: Oh! 明白了. Airbrushing 就是对照片加以精工细作的粉刷美化，特别是让照片上的人，看上去比实际要好看很多。

Diarmuid: Let's hear some examples.

Examples

A: Have you seen those photos of Madonna? She looks amazing.

B: They're probably airbrushed. She can't still look that good at her age.

A: What do you think of airbrushed photos of celebrities in magazines?

B: I disagree with it. It means people grow up hating their own bodies because they're not like these fake images.

Wang Fei: Diarmuid, do people really use an airbrush to alter these photographs?

Diarmuid: In the past yes, but nowadays people use computer programmes like Photoshop to change digital images.

Wang Fei: 确实如此，用图片处理软件一处理，照片就会比实际好看很多了。

Diarmuid: So don't believe everything you see in magazines and websites. That's all for today folks.

Wang Fei: 欢迎大家登陆我们的网站了解更多的新词新语 bbcukchina.

Diarmuid: Bye for now.

Wang Fei: Bye.