時尚雙語:卡拉OK機獲評“最煩人發明”

Karaoke most irritating gadget in Britain: govt survey

Timeless, classic songs wrecked by tuneless, howling drunks: the karaoke machine is the most annoying gadget in Britain, a survey for the government found.

A TNS Omnibus poll for the Department for Communities found that the Japanese invention topped a list of gadgets that people wished had never been invented.

Nearly a quarter (22 percent) of those surveyed chose the karaoke machine. 17 percent said 24-hour sports channels, 12 percent chose video games consoles, while 11 percent said mobile phones and seven percent said alarm clocks.

"Seeing the karaoke machine at the top of that list made me smile," said Kane Kramer, a director of the British Inventors Society.

"When people are singing karaoke they are enjoying themselves, but as a member of the audience you are just watching somebody who can't perform -- and isn't particularly pleasant to listen to -- for as long as you can bear it.

"It is anti-social. You might have 10 people who want to sing some karaoke, which means 150 people have to suffer it.

"But the crazy thing is that people still do go just to be a spectator at other people's inability to sing.

"After a short while -- unless they're very drunk -- they're going to find that listening to performers failing to perform for two hours is not the best way to spend the evening."

Karaoke has turned into a multibillion-dollar industry since being invented in 1971 by Daisuke Inoue, a Japanese club keyboardist looking to provide music for a customer who wanted to sing on a company trip.

Asked which gadgets people would like to see invented in the future, 18 percent said a robot cleaner, 16 percent said a time machine and 12 percent said a teleporter.

Asked what the most important safety gadgets were, 69 percent said the smoke alarm, 64 percent said seat belts and 29 percent said baby seats.

Pollsters TNS Omnibus surveyed 2,584 adults in England online.

英國政府日前委託開展的一項調查發現，卡拉OK機是英國人最討厭的發明。有了它，永恆的經典歌曲都被跑調、扯着嗓子大喊的醉鬼們給毀了。

這項由英國社區部委託TNS綜合調查公司開展的民調錶明，這項日本人的發明登上“最煩人發明榜”之首。

近四分之一的受訪者（22%）選擇卡拉OK機爲“最煩人的發明”，17%的人選擇24小時體育頻道，12%的人選擇遊戲機，分別有11%和7%的人選擇手機和鬧鐘。

英國發明家協會的負責人凱恩•克拉默說：“看到卡拉OK機出現在排行榜首位時我笑了。”

“人們唱卡拉OK時，自己會很陶醉，但觀衆們卻不得不在一旁忍受着不悅耳的歌聲。”

“這違背了社交規律。如果有10個人想唱卡拉OK，那就意味着有150個人要忍受煎熬。”

“但最不可思議的是，人們還是樂於見證別人糟糕的唱功。”

“除非喝得酩酊大醉，否則要不了一會兒，觀衆們就會發現連聽兩個小時這樣的歌聲並不是度過良宵的最好辦法。”

自卡拉OK機1971年問世以來，已發展成爲產值達數十億美元的行業。卡拉OK由日本一名俱樂部鍵盤手井上大佑發明，當年他在爲一位想在公司旅遊時一展歌喉的顧客提供音樂伴奏時突發奇想，發明了卡拉OK機。

在被問及未來最希望看到的發明時，18%的受訪者選擇了清潔機器人，16%的人選擇時光機，12%的人選擇遠程傳送機。

在被問及“最重要的安全類發明”時，69%的受訪者認爲是煙霧報警器，64%的人選擇安全帶，29%的人選擇嬰兒座椅。

共有2584名英國成年人蔘與了該在線調查。

Vocabulary:

timeless: independent of time; eternal（不受時間影響的；永恆的）

keyboardist:鍵盤手