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 Li:    大家好我是杨莉，欢迎收听你问我答节目，今天和我同在录音室的是我的同事William
Kremer. Hello William.
 
William:    Hello Li. So, what’s on the menu today? 
 
Li:    Today we’re going to be answering a question from our listener Lanny.
Lanny writes, “I found BBC Learning English by accident and like it very
much. It can help me improve my oral and listening.” 
 
William:  You know, I like this Lanny, he sounds like a really nice guy.
 
Li:    Yes, full of compliments. Lanny’s question is “Please can you kindly advise
some blessing sentences for wedding, bearing and so on.” 我想他这里说的
bearing 大概指的是生孩子, 这在英语里通常是 childbirth. 所以  Lanny 希望我们能
够介绍一些祝福语，你觉得怎么样 William?
 
William:  Well as it happens I have something that will help us answer Lanny’s
question today. On these quite formal occasions what we say to people is
often the same as what we write in a card. And I don’t know about you Li,
but when someone gives me a nice card I can’t throw it out. 
 
Li:   William 保存着他收到的所有祝福卡。 Actually, I’m the same, William.
 
William:  Ah, are you Li? Ok, well, I’ve got my box of cards here. 
 
Li:     Oh wow! That’s huge! How many have you got there?
 
William:    Oh many many cards. I should through them out but I can’t. So let’s start
off by looking at birthday cards. Li, could you read that one? 
 
Li:  Ok, let me see. “Dear Alex…” Who is Alex?
 
William:  Alex, that’s my wife. 
 
Li:   Oh right, ok. “Happy Birthday, love and best wishes, Grandma.” And kiss,
kiss. 
 
William:   And then, what does it say at the bottom?
 
Li:   “Have a lovely day!”

William:   So it’s a birthday card to my wife from her grandmother. She wrote,
“Happy birthday” and she also wrote “Have a lovely day”.
 
Li:    Happy birthday 生日快乐 and have a lovely day 美好的一天。
 
William:  That’s quite normal, to say something like, “I hope you have lovely day”, or
maybe, “I hope you have a very special day”.
 
Li:    I hope you have a very special day 希望你度过特殊的一天。
 
William:  Ok now Li, I’ve got another card for you. 
 
Li:    Oh another one. Oh these cards are lovely! 啊，这些贺卡很可爱哟！这个卡上
有鱼。 Let’s see. “Dearest William, many happy returns, from Sophie and
Brett”. 
 
William:  “Many happy returns”. That’s a little bit more formal than saying ‘Happy
Birthday’. And it’s quite a useful phrase. We can use it for birthdays,
anniversaries and weddings. You can also use it at New Year. 
 
Li:    Many happy returns 这句祝福语比较正式，不过可以在多种场合使用，其中也包括
元旦祝福。 William 刚才你提到了你的妻子，我想问问，你有没有保存着你们婚礼时
的卡片呢？
 
William:  Oh yes, yes! You think my wife is going to let me throw them out?!
 
Li:   I’m sure you have loads of those cards. 
 
William:   Here’s one, here's one. Now on the front of this card it reads, “To the
Happy Couple on your wedding day”. The ‘happy couple’ means the couple
that’s just got married.
 
Li:  The ‘happy couple’. 幸福的一对。 另外从习惯上看英国会称呼你们这两位新人为克莱
默先生和克莱默夫人，  ‘Mr and Mrs Kremer’, isn’t it ?
 
William:  Yes Li, it is. But not all women change their names now, so it’s best to
check that one first! Now, do you want to read the inside of that card?
 
Li:  I’d love to. Pretty card isn’t it? “To Alex and Will, Wishing you many happy
years together. Love from Jo and Martin.” Wishing you many happy years
together 希望你们百年和好。 
 
William:  And here’s another one.
 
Li:  “Dear Alex and Will, Congratulations on your wedding day. We wish both
all of the health, wealth and happiness that life can give you for the future.
All our love, George and Rich”. 
 
William:  So George and Rich said “congratulations” and also, like the other card,
they talked about the future. “We wish both all the health, wealth and
happiness that life can give you…”
 
Li:    That’s very sweet. 在新婚贺卡上人们是不是经常读到对新人未来的祝福语呢？

William:  It’s very common. Another thing you can do if you like reading is to maybe
look for a quote to make the card a little bit more special.
 
Li:  在写祝福语的时候还可以引经据典 quote, 以便更为特殊。我觉得很多人可能都会觉得
对待结婚这类人生大事进行祝福时要郑重其事，因此要使用比较正式的英语，对吗？
William?
 
William:  No, that’s not true. In fact, the more personal and heartfelt that you make
your card, the better. So use ordinary English that you can use to express
your feelings normally.
 
Li:  I see. William 说卡片寄语越是亲切 personal 和发自内心  heartfelt 越好。所以最
好的办法就是使用自己感觉舒服的语言，越自然越好。 William 还有一个问题，刚才
我们看的一张卡片上提到了富有 wealth, “We wish both all the health, wealth
and happiness that life can give you.” 在英国人赠送卡片时，祝福别人富有和生
财是常见的吗？
 
William:  No, actually that is a little unusual. I know that in China people often talk
about money, but in Europe we don’t so much. So it’s more common to
say, “I hope the future you brings you joy”; or something like, “May the
future bring much happiness”. Now Li, here’s one last wedding card that I
thought might be useful for our listeners to hear. 
 
Li:  Let’s have a look. “Alex and Will. Hope you have an amazing day and a
fantastic honeymoon break. Sorry I can’t be at your big day and I hope all
goes well. All the very best. I’m sure you will have a wonderful life
together. Love Tim and Jo.”
 
William:   Nice card isn’t it?

 
Li:   Yes. 这位发贺卡的人在卡片上说，很抱歉，他们无法前来参加婚礼。
 
William:  That’s right. Sorry I can’t be at your big day. When people talk about ‘the
big day’ they mean the wedding day.
 
Li:    Ah 很有意思英国人经常把新婚夫妇称为 the happy couple, 把婚礼日称为 the big
day. Lanny 还想知道怎么为新生宝贝祝福，那 William 你有没有宝贝贺卡?
 
William:  No, I don’t thank goodness!
 
Li:    Don’t you want a baby William?
 
William:  Well, no, not at the moment. But when you write a new baby card it’s
normal to address it to both parents but usually the mother gets a special
mention. So you would say something like, “I hope that mum is recovering
ok”. And then I would write about what a successful human being the new
child will be with such good parents!
 
Li:  所以通常情况下是把贺卡发给父亲不过母亲往往对母亲进行特别问候，同时说一些祝福
的话，比如在这么优秀的父母教育下，孩子一定前途无量。等等。哎 William, 你再说
说在这方面有没有专门的祝福用语？

William:  Yes, you often hear reference to ‘the new addition to the family’. And that
means the baby. So you would say for example “Congratulations on the
new addition to the family”. 
 
Li:  That’s interesting. 新生儿有时被称为 the new addition to the family 家庭新成
员。好了，到此为止我们已经学了不少祝福语。 William, shall we have a recap?
 
Examples
 
I hope you have a very special day.
 
Many happy returns.
 
To the happy couple.
 
Wishing you many happy years together.
 
We wish you all the health, wealth and happiness that life can give you.
 
Sorry I can’t be at your big day.
 
Congratulations on the new addition to the family.
 
 
William:  So Lanny, I do hope that this programme has answered your question.
 
Li:  我想 Lanny 一定很高兴。另外我想提醒大家，不论什么时候，只要你遇到了英语学习
方面的问题就尽管给我们发电子邮件，当然加上录音就更好。我们的邮箱是
questions.chinaelt@bbc.co.uk. 也许我们优先选中你的问题。 
 
William:    Now that will be a cause for celebration!
 
Li:      Bye bye.
 
William:  Bye!