VOA慢速英语:American Expressions in the Home

Some unusual words describe how a person spends his or her time.  For example, someone who likes to spend a lot of time sitting or lying down while watching television is sometimes called a couch potato. A couch is a piece of furniture that people sit on while watching television.
有一些特别的词语用来描述一个人如何打发时间。比如，某人喜欢花大把时间坐着或躺着看电视，有时就被称做“电视迷”（沙发土豆）。沙发就是人们看电视时坐在上面的一件家具。

Robert Armstrong, an artist from California, developed the term couch potato in nineteen seventy-six.  Several years later, he listed the term as a trademark with the United States government.  Mister Armstrong also helped write a funny book about life as a full-time television watcher.  It is called the “Official Couch Potato Handbook.”
来自加州的演员罗Robert Armstrong于1976年推广了“沙发土豆”这个词汇。几年后，他在美国把这个词注册为商标。阿姆斯特朗还协助编写了一本讲述整天都在看电视的人的生活的诙谐书籍，名为《职业电视迷手册》。

Couch potatoes enjoy watching television just as mouse potatoes enjoy working on computers.  A computer mouse is the device that moves the pointer, or cursor, on a computer screen.  The description of mouse potato became popular in nineteen ninety-three. American writer Alice Kahn is said to have invented the term to describe young people who spend a lot of time using computers.
电视迷（沙发土豆）喜爱看电视就像电脑迷（鼠标土豆）喜爱电脑一样。电脑鼠标是能在电脑屏幕上移动指针和光标的设备。电脑迷（鼠标土豆）这个词从1993年开始流行。据说美国作家爱丽丝•卡恩发明了这个词汇，用来描述在花大把时间在电脑前的年轻人。

Too much time inside the house using a computer or watching television can cause someone to get cabin fever. A cabin is a simple house usually built far away from the city.  People go to a cabin to relax and enjoy quiet time.
花过多的时间在屋内使用电脑或看电视会使人得幽居病。 幽居是指一间通常建在远离城市之外的简单小屋。人们常去小屋的放松和享受安静的时光。

Cabin fever is not really a disease.  However, people can experience boredom and restlessness if they spend too much time inside their homes.  This is especially true during the winter when it is too cold or snowy to do things outside. Often children get cabin fever if they cannot go outside to play. So do their parents. This happens when there is so much snow that schools and even offices and stores are closed.
幽居病并不是一种真正意义上的疾病。但如果人们在家里呆了太长时间的话, 他们便会感到无聊和烦躁不安。这尤其适用于冬季过于寒冷或是有过多积雪，而导致不能出去做事的情况。孩子们如果不能出去玩，就会有很大可能患幽居病。他们的父母同样如此。这种情况大多发生在因为积雪过多，而使得学校，甚至办公室和商店均已关闭的时候。

Some people enjoy spending a lot of time in their homes to make them nice places to live.  This is called nesting or cocooning. Birds build nests out of sticks to hold their eggs and baby birds. Some insects build cocoons around themselves for protection while they grow and change.  Nests and cocoons provide security for wildlife.  So people like the idea of nests and cocoons, too.
有些人喜欢花很多时间在家里，使之成为宜人的生活场所。这就是所谓的筑巢或结茧。鸟类用树枝筑巢来保护他们的蛋和幼鸟。有些昆虫当他们成长和变化时即在周围结茧以保护自己。巢和茧为野生动物提供了安全。因此，喜欢关于巢和茧的人的想法亦是如此。

The terms cocooning and nesting became popular more than twenty years ago.  They describe people buying their first homes and filling them with many things.  These people then had children.
结茧和筑巢这两个词在20多年前开始流行，形容的是首次购房的人，他们在家里添置许多东西, 然后生儿育女。

Now these children are grown and have left the nest. They are in college. Or they are married and starting families of their own far away.  Now these parents are living alone without children in their empty nest. They have become empty nesters.
现在，这些孩子们已长大成人，离巢而去。他们有的上了大学，有的结婚，在离家很远的地方建立了自己的家庭。而他们的父母却空巢孤居,成为空巢老人.

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