《中英對照讀新聞》Facebook users crash ’public’ birthday party in Hamburg 漢堡「公開」生日派對 臉書用戶不請自來

◎ 管淑平

A 16-year-old german girl ditched her own party after around 1600 people showed up in a quiet Hamburg neighborhood on Friday, June 3, to celebrate her birthday.

大約1600人6月3日週五出現在漢堡一處寧靜社區，要幫一名16歲德國女孩過生日後，這名女孩從她自己的派對上落跑了。

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The mistake began when the birthday girl, identified as Thessa, published an invitation meant to invite only a few friends over to her house. But she forgot to set the privacy settings on the Facebook invitation.

這個錯誤始於這位名為泰莎的壽星發出邀請函，她原本只想找幾個朋友到家裡，但她忘了把在「臉書」發出的邀請通知設定隱私。

After over 15000 people responded confirming that they would attend the party, the girl’s parents promptly cancelled the party. The cancellation was to no avail, however, despite the party-pooper parents, by early evening on that day hundreds of young Germans from across Germany had already begun arriving.

超過1萬5000人回應會參加後，這名女孩的父母立刻取消派對。不過，取消也沒用，儘管有爸媽掃興，數百名年輕人當天傍晚起從德國各地湧入。

The partygoers outside some carried posters saying "We love Thessa",and some even holding up signs asking "Where is Thessa?"

屋外來開趴的人拿著海報，有的寫著「我們愛泰莎」，有的甚至問「泰莎跑哪去了？」

A police spokesman said the revelers was finally broken up at 1.55 am Saturday morning. One disappointed male, who wanted to give "Thessa" a birthday present, said that he would be back next year.

警方發言人說，人潮在週六凌晨1點55分終於散去。一名帶了生日禮物原本要送給泰莎的男子很失望，說明年會再來。

新聞辭典：

crash：動詞（非正式用語），未經邀請或令人意料之外地出現在某場合。

party-pooper：俚語，掃興的人。

例句：You could be a party-pooper by crashing your ex-girlfriend’s party just like that.（你就這樣不請自來參加前女友的派對，有可能掃大家的興的。）

to（of）no/much avail：片語，沒有／很有 效果的。例句：Preaching him about his manner is to no avail.（為禮貌問題向他說教一點都沒有用。）