桃園看BBC學英文│21st Century Romance 愛在微博時代 @ TOEIC,TOEFL,IELTS,全民英檢,SAT,菁英英日語-桃園分校

準備IELTS的朋友們都知道，收聽BBC新聞是練習聽力的好工具。

菁英桃園校推薦大家利用每週專欄，由老師帶領您經由BBC六分鐘新聞，熟悉原汁原味英式腔調！

***************************************

Reading 1: Can a Tweet Ever Be a Grand Romantic Gesture?

一條微博資訊能否成為一個經典的浪漫之舉？

Picture the scene. It is dark except for the dim yellow candlelight; it is silent except for the scratching of a pen. A young lover pours out his heart in a letter to his loved one, who, days later, tears it open with a beating heart and in the strictest privacy.

The love letter has an important place in our cultural imagination, but does it have a place on social networking sites and microblogs? What is the shape of 21st century courtship?

The end of 2010 saw the kindling of a romance between the Australian cricketing star Shane Warne and the British model Elizabeth Hurley on the social networking site Twitter.

Hurley and Warne didn't just update their relationship status. The celebrities exchanged flirtatious messages in public, before Hurley had announced the end of her marriage to Arun Nayar.

So can a tweet ever count as a grand romantic gesture? Judge for yourself, with this recent message from Hurley to Warne about her parrot Ping Pong:

"Baby Ping now says 'Hello Darling' and 'Hello Little Girl'. Sweet!"

But although the pair have flirted openly online, in real life they still enjoy their privacy. Special screens around Warne's home prevented photographers from snapping the couple during Hurley's visit to Australia last week.

Glossary 辭彙表