雅思写作：流行时尚
By Mr. Jeenn Lee Hsieh
谢振礼老师海外投稿
>In some countries people are strongly influenced by fashion, such as clothing and hairstyle. What in your opinion attracts people to fashion? Is this a positive or negative development?
在有些国家，人们受到流行时尚强烈的影响，比方说衣着和髪型。依你之见，到底什么原因，人们会如此受到时髦的吸引？这种趋势应该是好还是不好的现象？
雅思范文
谢振礼解说
Being a popular expression of social and economic realities, fashion represents in part the world in progress and influences people more on the positive side than otherwise. It is in plain sight that what attracts people to fashion is as much a social vanity to look good as a necessity to catch up with the economic mainstream. The development of fashion is closely associated with social freedom and economic well-being.
流行时尚代表一部分进步中的世界，其影响应该是正面的，因为它是表达社会与经济现实的大众心声。谁都看得出来，人们所以会被流行吸引，一则是社会上的虚荣心，大家都想要样子好看，一则是大家觉得有需要追逐经济主流。肯定的说，流行趋势的发展与自由社会和小康经济有密切的关联。
The inclination to keep steps with the in-coming fashion is human nature and must be considered as a social right. Society, as changing, looks for the newest, and if economically possible, the best. Thus, people are free to want the latest in clothing and the greatest in hairstyle. Indeed, when one looks at fashion, it catches the eyes that fashion advances as do all things--ideas, culture, technology, working conditions, among others. In fact, fashion reflects a society in evolution, of course with paces quicker today than in the past. So fast indeed that, more often than not, what looks fashionable now is likely to be soon out of date, if not completely out of style.
倾向于新潮流同步，乃是人性使然，所以应该把赶时髦看成社会权利。话说改变中的社会，凡事都要最新潮流的，而却，如果经济许可，还要最好的。这样一来，衣服要穿新款，髪型要最赞的。冷眼观之，时髦是不断前进，与别的事情一摸一样--观念，文化，科技，工作环境，等等都在前进。事实上，流行时尚根本是在反应进化中的社会，只不过今日所走的脚步比从前要快的多了。真的，进化如此之快，快得好像今日的时髦，很快就要过时，即使有些格调不至于完全消失。
Fashion can be bought, and for that nobody is to blame. It thrives on economic surplus more than any other thing. That is probably why before the Industrial Revolution trends did not change as much and as often as they do today. Further, with the arrival of the Electronic Age, people tend to dress and adorn themselves from head to toe in tune with the changing economic outlook. Small wonder that some younger people go as far as imitating celebrities like pop signers and Hollywood stars. Addiction to fashion is, however, more true of better-off people, particularly women who seem intending to annoy other women.
只要有钱就买得到时髦，这一点倒不能怪谁。要不是财务有余，别的因素不致于会让时髦趋势如此应运而生。君不见在工业革命之前，流行潮流不像今天一样大改变而常改变。接着电子时代的来临，人们更是从头到脚都按经济的外貌装饰自己。不足为奇的，大有年轻人极度的模仿当今名人模样，打扮得如流行歌手和好莱坞的大明星。这种被流行时尚套牢的现象，在富足者身上特别明显，尤其是女人，好似女人打扮时髦是想与别的女人大别苗头。
Accordingly, it is understandable that those who are more vulnerable to the influence of fashion are people in better social and economic conditions, as is the case of some countries whose changes are more sensitively felt. As a rule, vanity in social freedom and prosperity in economic outlook join forces in allowing fashion to play its influential role. Perhaps, a possible exception to the rule is a beggar who can wear anything in whatever color, entirely indifferent to what fashion has to say about this changing world, and fears none.
如此说来，大致可以理解一点，也就是说，凡比较受时髦影响的那些人，同时也是社会与经济情况比较好的那些人，这种说法可以从若干国家中看得出来，因为它们对改变的现象有高度敏感。几乎毫无例外，社会自由造成的虚荣，加上经济外貌的繁荣，共同允许时髦能扮演足具影响力的脚色。也许应该提出一个例外，也只有乞丐才无所谓穿什么衣服，也不管什么颜色，忘然一切，时尚所言的多变世界，无所畏惧。