你曾經看過快閃族（flash mob），或曾經加入他們嗎？快閃族通常先用手機或在網路上私下約好，在指定的時間和地點做同樣一件事，然後快速離開。他們的行動可能只是追求好玩，也可能為了向社會傳達他們的想法或訴求。雖然快閃族做的事看似怪異，卻達到在不違法的情況下，成功引起社會大眾注意。讓我來看看世界各地的快閃族怎麼個快閃法吧！
One of the earliest large-scale flash mobs was London’s “Silent Disco” in 2006. People gathered in Underground stations and began dancing to music on their iPods. The idea was to have people dancing to tunes that only they could hear, which would naturally look pretty bizarre to bystanders. More than 4,000 “mobsters” showed up at Victoria Station, and were eventually dispersed by police.
最早的大規模快閃族之一是二○○六年倫敦的「無聲迪斯可」。人們群集地鐵站，開始一邊聽自個兒 iPod 播放的音樂，一邊跳舞。當時的構想是，讓人們隨著只有自己能聽到的旋律起舞，這在旁人看來當然相當怪異。當時共有超過四千名快閃族在維多利亞車站現身，最後被警方驅離。
In 2007, Vancouver hosted the first “Vancouver Water Fight.” Everyone brought squirt guns and sprayed each other for several minutes. Sound nuts? The next year, 5,000 people showed up. And in March 2008, the world’s largest pillow fight took place simultaneously in 25 cities around the world. According to the Wall Street Journal, 5,000 people turned out in New York City alone.
二○○七年，溫哥華舉辦第一屆「溫哥華水仗」，每個人都帶了玩具水槍，互相掃射幾分鐘。聽起來很瘋狂嗎？次年共有五千人與會。而二○○八年三月，世界最大的枕頭仗在全球二十五個城市同時開打。據《華爾街日報》報導，光是紐約市就有五千人參加。
Another interesting kind of flash mob is the Zombie Walk. Hundreds or even thousands of people dress up like zombies and limp through shopping malls. The idea is to spoof shoppers and suggest that they too are zombies because they purchase name brand products after being told what to do by TV commercials. Of course, people taking part in flash mobs are also told what to do by others. So who’s the real zombie?
另一種有趣的快閃族是「殭屍遊行」。數百人甚至上千人化裝成殭屍的模樣，在購物中心蹣跚而行。用意是要戲弄購物者，暗指購物者也跟殭屍沒兩樣，因為電視廣告叫他們買什麼品牌的產品，他們皆唯命是從。當然，參加快閃族的人也是照別人的話行事，所以誰才是真正的行屍走肉呢？
Then again, if you’ve been chained to a desk all day, going out the door and doing something silly and harmless is a fun way to socialize and blow off steam. In the words of one recent participant: “I can’t believe how satisfying that was!” It looks like this form of organized spontaneity is here to stay.
不過話又說回來，如果你已經綁在辦公桌前一整天，出門做些愚蠢又無傷大雅的事，也是參與交際和紓解壓力的有趣方式。套用最近一位快閃族成員的話：「想不到那竟然會讓我這麼心滿意足！」看來這種「有組織的自發性」將會留存下去了。
單字字彙
large-scale (a.) 大規模的
disco (n.) 舞廳，迪斯可音樂
underground (n./a.) 地下（的），首字母大寫 Underground 則為「倫敦地下鐵」
tune (n.) 旋律，曲調
bizarre (a.) 怪異的
spray (v.) 噴灑
simultaneously (adv.) 同時，同步
limp (v.) 跛行
satisfying (a.) 心滿意足的
摘選自《EZTalk總編嚴選：英文閱讀Know it ALL》
除了上面文章內容，你還可以參考下方更多相關英文教學。
更多英文字彙
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