Fun for the Workers 打工仔的乐趣

Workplaces all over the UK are gearing up for the festive period and all the traditions and customs that come with it. But will this Christmas be a cause for happiness and celebration or disappointment and embarrassment?

One way that colleagues in Britain show their appreciation of each other at this time of year is by doing a 'Secret Santa' present giving. Secret Santa is when people who work together buy each other gifts without saying who they are from.

Co-workers all write their name on a piece of paper and then stage a lottery in which each workmate takes another colleague’s name at random. Each person then has to buy a present for the colleague whose name they have picked, usually with an agreed budget set at a small amount of money such as five or ten pounds (50 or 100 Yuan).

As the gifts are given anonymously, the quality of presents can vary greatly; in an internet survey of Secret Santa presents, gifts that people received ranged from tickets to the opera to an air-freshener hanger for a car.

Another common seasonal workplace tradition is the office Christmas party, when workmates put on their most glamorous outfits and take advantage of a plentiful supply of free booze.

While most parties go off without a hitch, sometimes the effects of alcohol cause party-goers to regret their drunken antics.

The BBC invited people to share their most embarrassing Christmas office party stories, and received hundreds of funny stories, such as the man who split his trousers back to front with his extravagant dance moves or the tipsy lady who spent the entire night with back of her dress tucked into her pants and saw the photos that proved it later at work.

But the worst story must surely come from Stuart Vaines, who got so drunk he dunked his boss’s head down the toilet. Unsurprisingly, he was fired the very next day.

GLOSSARY 词汇表 (收听发音, 请移到小喇叭上) 

gearing up 张罗着

festiveperiod节庆时期

embarrassment尴尬

colleagues 同事

co-workers 工友们

lottery六合彩

workmate工友；同事

random随意的

budget预算

anonymously匿名的

opera歌剧

air-freshener hanger吊挂空气清新香水的钩子

glamorousoutfits 华丽的套装

booze酒水

go off without a hitch 顺利无误

drunken antics 醉酒后的胡闹行为

tipsy稍有醉意

tucked into 塞进

dunked 浸入液体（此文意思是把一个人的头按倒马桶的水里）

fired 解雇