雅思阅读材料：男士美容保养

　　LAST NOVEMBER, my female co-workers at The Wall Street Journal discovered that the sole product I used on my face was soap. Their reaction to this mundane revelation wasn't all that nice. They began calling me 'the man who doesn't moisturize.' As in, 'Would you ask the man who doesn't moisturize if I can borrow his stapler?'

　　去年11月，我在《华尔街日报》(The Wall Street Journal)的女同事发现了我用在脸上的唯一产品是香皂。对于这个平淡无奇的发现，她们的反应并不那么友好。她们开始叫我“不用保湿霜的男人”。比如她们会说，“你能问问那个不用保湿霜的男人，我能借他的订书机用一下吗?”

　　One of our style editors took pity. 'You've never moisturized?' she asked gently. 'I don't remember,' I admitted. Judging by her expression, she graciously decided to assume I had amnesia. 'Well, we'll have to do something about that,' she said. And so began my eye-opening, skin-altering, brain-addling, four-month adventure in the world of male beauty regimens.

　　我们的一个时尚编辑表示同情。她轻声问道：“你从没做过保湿吗?”我承认：“我不记得了。”从表情来看，她优雅地断定我有健忘症。她说：“好吧，我们得做点儿什么。”于是我开始了历时四个月在男士美容世界里大开眼界和脱胎换骨的脑补探险旅程。

　　First, a little background. It isn't that I am unaware of the guy-beauty industrial complex. I know, for instance, that Clinique basically started it all with its pioneering men's skin-care line in 1976--a program it's relaunching this month. According to Jenny Belknap, vice president of global treatment marketing, the relaunch was triggered by the company's discovery that, while women traditionally bought the men's products for their husbands and sons, 'we firmly understand that now men are buying for themselves.' To make the line more male-friendly and less boggling, Clinique is cutting back from 25 products to 19 and shortening product names. Not that men seem all that intimidated by skin care: According to Mintel, a Chicago-based market research group, 63% of guys 25-34 report that they use moisturizer.

　　首先介绍一点背景。我并非不知道男士美容的产业联盟。比如我知道倩碧(Clinique)基本上是靠它1976年首创的男士护肤系列发展起来的――本月又即将重新推出。其全球护肤业务营销副总裁珍妮贝尔纳普(Jenny Belknap)表示，这次重新推出是因为公司发现，虽然过去都是女性为丈夫和儿子购买男士产品，但“我们坚信，现在男士们都是自己购买”。为了让这个系列对男性更加友好而且更容易让人接受，倩碧把产品数量从25件减到了19件，并且缩短了产品的名字。并不是所有男士都对护肤感到畏惧：据芝加哥市场研究机构英敏特(Mintel)调查，25岁至34岁的男士中，有63%的人称自己使用保湿霜。

　　Though I am legitimately hazy regarding my own historic moistness levels, I did go through an exceptionally vain phase in my mid-to-late 20s, a couple of decades ago. I had a Manhattan stylist renowned as the 'King of Blondes' highlight my hair, whose natural color suggests a particularly lackluster mouse. I visited a Mexican spa where a bored local woman rolled me in seaweed as if fashioning a giant joint. I spent wads of money on stress-relieving massages, including one that concluded abruptly when the theretofore silent, aged Asian masseur stopped kneading my right shoulder and shrieked, 'The wing is broken! The wing is broken! It cannot carry the child!'

　　尽管我对自己脸部的湿度情况一直不清不楚，但几十年前，在我25到30岁之间那几年，我的确经历过花时间 饬的阶段。当时被誉为“金发之王”(King of Blondes)的一位曼哈顿造型师给我做了头发挑染，我本身的自然发色就像一只毫无生气的老鼠。我去了一家墨西哥水疗中心，一个百无聊赖的当地女人用海草把我卷起来，就像卷一支巨大的大麻烟。我花了大把钱在缓解压力的按摩上，包括那次遇见一个上了年纪的亚洲男按摩师。他默默揉捏着我的右肩，突然停下来尖叫道：“翅膀断了!翅膀断了!它没法带幼仔了!”那次按摩就意外结束了。

　　I remember at one point growing convinced that my boss was monitoring my under-eye puffiness, but, soon after, I regained my equilibrium. My grooming routine was gradually reduced to: unscented Dove soap, Barbasol shaving foam, interchangeable drugstore shampoos and some despised hair gel that made me feel like one of those oil-coated ducks blinking in the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez disaster.

　　我记得有段时间我坚信老板在观察我浮肿的眼袋，但不久后我重新找到了平衡。我的日常梳洗用品逐渐缩减成：无香型多芬(Dove)香皂，Barbasol剃须泡沫，各个牌子的超市洗发水，还有被人鄙视的发胶，这款发胶让我觉得自己是埃克森?瓦尔迪兹号(Exxon Valdez)漏油事件发生后，满身油光闪闪的鸭群里的一员。

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