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-- 作者：southernsky -- 时间：2008-12-25 10:51:48 -- 草台 makeshift; low-quality This term usually refers to a makeshift stage used for providing entertainment performances in rural areas. Now it is widely used to mean anything that is makeshift, or of low quality. 架空历史 alternate history Also called virtual history or alternative history. It is a mixture of speculative fiction, science fiction and historical fiction. Usually set in a fantasy world whose history has diverged from the actual world, alternate history literature asks the question, "What if history had developed differently?" 素质场 Cheat-you-out-of-your-pocket place The term literally means "a place of quality." It refers to some restaurants or other entertainment venues where sexy women lure men into unreasonably expensive services, such as a small glass of ordinary wine for an astronomical price. These women, however, never go to bed with men. Cheated men often cannot complain, as they are lured by sex in the first place. These men are then ironically called "men of quality." 饕客 tao Gourmet The Chinese term is a bit humorous. It is not just about any gourmet. It refers to a gourmet who eats in wild joy. 性福 Sexual satisfaction The term has the same pronunciation as that of "happiness" in Chinese. But the newly-coined term here actually means sexual satisfaction, not any other form of "happiness." 以房养老 house-for-pension scheme This term refers to a new scheme to increase the income of senior citizens in the city. People who are 65 or older are qualified to sell their home to the city’s Housing Fund, but they can continue to live in it by paying a market-level rent to the fund. Although different from the reverse mortgage scheme, it also allows seniors to access the equity in their home. 死党 sworn friend The Chinese expression originally means a diehard follower but is often used these days by youngsters in reference to their own very close friends who they believe will never let them down in whatever situation. 孤儿 office loner This term, meaning literally "orphan," is often used by young people to refer to an office worker who is isolated, or chooses to be isolated, by others, either because of his or her bad behavior, disputable character or other problems. 植物人 plant lover It is used these days in reference to eco-conscious people who like to grow plants near their homes. The Chinese term literally means a person in a comatose state. 淘客 online shopper The term refers to those who search online for goods they like to purchase via a relatively safe third-party transaction platform. The phrase took off when taobao.com, a local C2C online shopping Website, became more and more popular. 寒促 winter promotion It refers to sales promotions initiated by IT firms during the winter vacation or Chinese Lunar New Year holiday seasons. 卡神 card manipulator The term is the opposite to "card slave," people who borrow from one credit card to pay off debts on another credit card and live on the edge of bankruptcy. The card veterans can make the most of their credit cards or membership cards to earn points and benefits. 美丽垃圾 beautiful garbage The phrase refers to the over-extravagant gift packing made of materials such as metal, glass, silk or even rosewood. Despite the beautiful look, people usually throw it away after unpacking, causing a big waste. 急婚族 hasty marriage clan It refers to those who marry hastily, mostly under the pressure from work or family or after waiting too long to find the right partner. 零绯闻 gossip-free While some mediocre showbiz artists, especially actresses, tend to fabricate love stories and have them published to attract attention, others just walk all the way to stardom and even to an accomplished retirement without any such gossip. 豆腐帐 tofu ledger The term was used to describe account books made by tofu street sellers who wrote down each sale clearly and counted all the costs and profits at the end of each month. But now it refers to detailed accounts of personal expenditure. Many white-collar workers today love to jot down and share their everyday spending record on the Internet. 打飞的 hail air taxi Some people take planes as ordinary taxis to somewhere simply for shopping or an examination. People jokingly call it "hailing an air taxi." For example, more than 200 students from a city in southwest China took planes to Hong Kong during the National Day |