每天清晨15分钟，史蒂文老师带你喝一杯经济学人浓缩咖啡，了解天下事，掌握核心词。

这是 Economist Espresso 栏目的第 19 篇精选文章：

史蒂文老师制作的音频，建议您先听 1 遍

第一步 请先用 2 分钟阅读原文，不要查生词

●请边听音频，边阅读下文，不要查生词

Sweet nothings: Valentine’s Day

The day of love is not for everyone. But in Muslim-majority countries it is increasingly not for anyone. Pakistan, deeming the festival un-Islamic, has banned events and television coverage for the second year in a row.

Ultra-religious groups have long spluttered at the risk posed by chocolate love-hearts and teddy bears to the 65% of the population who are under 25. It is not only Pakistan that takes a dogmatic attitude to the feast of St Valentine (a Christian martyr, remember).

Saudi Arabia banned red roses in 2008; Iran outlawed all Valentine’s gifts in 2011. Regions of Indonesia have done the same—police even seize condoms from supermarkets—although the more permissive central government has looked the other way.

Still, Romeos thrive on breaking rules. A rose may elicit a shrug in the West; in Jeddah, where florists run a flourishing black market at this time of year, the flower whispers of a

love impossible to constrain.

第二步 请结合下方词汇表，再读文章

第三步

现在，请各位读者做两件事：

1）在手机或者电脑里开启一个专门的 notes，同步到云端，把你每天从中学到的单词、例句，复制粘贴上去，认真记忆；

2）试着翻译本文，遇到读不懂的句子，做好标记，然后在评论中找到译文，进行比对。

好，到今天为止，你已经阅读了19篇《经济学人》浓缩咖啡文章。今天的文章是关于情人节的话题，全文167个单词，包含22个重要的 TOEFL and/or SAT 词汇。恭喜你，距离 TOEFL 120 和 SAT 1600 又近一步。

这样形式的经济学人浓缩咖啡，你喜欢吗?怎样能更好的帮助到你？

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