托福词汇之引领潮流的“果冻鞋”

这两年流行的五颜六色的果冻鞋，你穿过吗？这种鞋因外形可人、方便易穿、价格低廉受到很多年轻消费者的喜爱。据说，果冻鞋早在上世纪80年代就在国外盛行了。

Jelly shoes or jellies are shoes made of PVC plastic. Jelly shoes come in a large variety of brands and colors and the material is frequently infused with glitter. Its name refers to the semi-transparent materials with a jelly-like sheen. The shoes became a fad in the mid 1980s, when a pair could frequently be purchased for less than one US dollar. Like many other fashion trends from the 1980s, jellies have been revived a number of times since the late 1990s.

果冻鞋（jelly shoes或jellies）是由聚氯乙烯塑料制成的鞋。很多品牌都生产这种果冻鞋，颜色多样，而且生产时会在材料中添加闪闪的亮片。之所以叫jelly shoes，就是因为制造这种鞋的半透明材料会表现出类似果冻那样的色泽。果冻鞋在二十世纪八十年代中期曾经很流行，一双鞋售价不到一美元。像其他上世纪八十年代的时尚潮流一样，果冻鞋自上世纪九十年代以来曾经数次回归时尚前端。

The exact origins of the jelly shoes are unclear. A frequently offered explanation is that they were designed by a shoe maker in France after World War II, when there was a leather shortage in Europe. Another possibility is that the shoes were created somewhere in the late 1950s or early 1960s, when plastic became a commonplace material, and fashion designers began to experiment with it.

关于果冻鞋的起源，没有一个明确的说法。经常提到的一种说法是，果冻鞋是在二战后由一位法国的鞋匠设计的，当时欧洲正经历皮革短缺。另一种说法是，这种鞋大约是在上世纪五十年代后期或者六十年代早期出现的，当时塑料已是常规材质，时尚设计师就开始试着用塑料做鞋。