VOA慢速英语2020 新冠对婚庆业影响严重（在线收听）

Concerns about the growing number of coronavirus illnesses in the United States and elsewhere has greatly affected the wedding industry.

人们对美国以及其他地方新冠病例数量增加的担心已经大大影响了婚庆业。

People who are about to be married are facing difficult choices: do they postpone, cancel or go ahead with their wedding plans?

即将结婚的人面临着艰难的抉择：是延期、取消还是继续按计划走？

"So much extra stress," said 26-year-old Hayley Pass. She and her fiancé had 155 confirmed guests for their March 22 wedding in Cedar Grove, New Jersey.

26岁的海莉表示，“我额外的压力太大了。”海莉和自己的未婚夫邀请的宾客中有155个确诊病例，他们的婚礼原定3月22日在新泽西州罗汗柏林举行。

Pass added, "After all this planning it's like, really, we're going to postpone? We just really want it to happen but it seems like the worst is yet to come."

海莉补充表示，“我们都筹划这么久了，而我们现在要纠结是的是——要延期举办婚礼吗？我们太期待这场婚礼了，但现在似乎还不是最糟糕的情况。”

The couple will only cancel the wedding if their location cancels on them or if their closest loved ones decide not to attend.

除非婚礼举办地取消婚礼或者这对新人最亲近的人们决定不参加婚礼，不然他们俩是不会取消婚礼的。

Other couples have also decided to keep their wedding dates for now, with the busiest wedding months ahead.

还有其他一些新人也决定暂时按照原定婚礼日期进行，而最繁忙的结婚月即将到来。

Postponing or canceling a wedding raises many questions. Will businesses and sellers all be available on the same new date and time? Will couples lose money that they already paid?

无论是延期还是取消都会引发很多问题。一些企业和买家在新日期是否还能提供服务？新人们已经支付的定金是否会打水漂？

Usual wedding insurance does not cover concern over a spreading virus. That concern has caused many governments to place restrictions on travel and large gatherings in places around the world.

一般的婚庆保险无法保障病毒扩散引发的担忧。这样的担忧已经让很多政府限制了出行和大规模集会。

Some insurance companies are answering questions over how policies work in such an unusual situation.

一些保险公司解答了政策在特殊情况下是怎样的问题。

For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. Most people recover.

对大多数人来说，新冠病毒只引发了轻度或中度症状，比如发热、咳嗽。对一些人来说，尤其是一些年龄稍大的成年人来说，如果他们已经有一些健康问题的话，新冠病毒会引发更为严重的疾病，如肺炎。大多数人都可痊愈。

People in the wedding industry are feeling the effects of widespread concern over the virus.

婚庆业的一些人感受到了人们对病毒广泛担心的影响。

Abby Murray is a travel agent in Charlotte, North Carolina. She specializes in planning honeymoons – trips many couples take after a wedding. At this time of year, she would usually have 20 customers. She now has two.

艾比是北卡州的一名旅行代理人。她专门负责蜜月规划——蜜月是很多新人在结婚后都会做的出行。在每年的这个时候，艾比通常都有20个客户，但现在她只有2个客户。

Murray said, "People are scared to book their honeymoons right now. People don't even want to explore it. They're going to move forward with their weddings but take their honeymoons at a later date."

Virus containment measures across China have caused factories there to slow their production of goods – including wedding dresses.

The Green Bride shop in Littleton, Colorado, usually receives up to 60 wedding dresses shipped from China each month from February to May. But this February, it received only four.

Holly Marsh is one of the store owners. She said, "If the wedding is in June, and the dress is supposed to be here in February and it's not going to get here until May, what do you tell them?"

David Gaffke owns the store Complete Bridal in East Dundee, Illinois. He depends greatly on China for manufacturing the dresses he sells.

"It's frustrating when it comes to having to tell a bride that we're not able to fulfill your needs," he said. "This is the most important dress they're going to wear."

Photographer Michael Busada in Washington, D.C. depends on weddings for about half of his business. He has 36 weddings under contract this year, including one that recently canceled after the bride was possibly exposed to the coronavirus. Another wedding went from a large location with 150 guests to a home ceremony with 20.

Busada offered the couple that was forced to cancel a credit or postponement, without penalty. "Everybody's struggling. It doesn't do me any good to be the bad guy," he said.

Words in This Story

exposed – adj. open to view

location – n. a place or position

symptoms – n. changes in the body or mind that indicate a disease is present