speed dating
火车提速，网络提速，建设提速……如今，男男女女的约会和恋爱也跟着大提速。今天我们就来说说现在很时髦的“闪电约会”，“闪电恋爱”，以及“闪婚”都是怎样翻译的。
假如你还觉得online dating(网络交友)是时下最时髦的男女联谊方式的话，那就太落伍了。美国现在最流行的就是speed dating.中文对此还没有约定俗成的说法，所以speed dating 翻译为“闪电约会”或“快速约会”也只是权宜之计。
Speed dating是由犹太人的一项习俗或仪式衍生而来的，它的目的只有一个，那就是在最短的时间里，认识最多的异性。
Speed dating is a method of meeting potential partners in which each participant has only about 5 minutes to talk to each of his or her dates before being moved on to the next one. At the end of the event, paticipants decide which dates they would like to see again.
参加闪电约会的人通过一连串约5分钟的简短交谈可以和较多的异性进行一对一的接触。活动结束后，参与者再向自己感兴趣的异性提出再次见面的邀请。
HBO影集《欲望城市》第三季Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell这一集，就是在演Miranda参加闪电约会。以下是speed dating的例句：
In an episode of Sex and the City, Miranda goes speed-dating, only to discover that her law career is a turn-off to the guys.
而德国则开设“相亲特快”，帮助人们speed dating.
Deutsche Bahn, Germany’s national railway operator, has announced a speed-dating ride on the eve of Valentines Day aboard its so-called "Flirt-Express" train to help hopeless romantics find a partner. Lonely hearts are encouraged to ride the train’s special speed-dating carriages serving 15 stations in 10 major cities and flirt with a passenger every 5 minutes until he or she finds a potential sweetheart.
德国国有铁路运营商联邦铁路公司近日宣布，情人节前夕将开设“相亲特快”，帮助单身男女在旅途中闪电约会，找寻“另一半”。相亲乘客将从德国10个主要城市的15个车站登上该列车特设的“闪电约会”车厢，可每隔5分钟更换谈话对象，直到找到意中人。
Time is money. “闪电约会”后，不妨继续“闪电恋爱”——whirlwind romance.
Whirlwind是旋风的意思，旋风迅疾且难以预测，所以a whirlwind romance is a romance that happens very quickly and quite unexpectedly。A whirlwind romance 就是那种突然而快速的恋爱，换句话说，就是闪电式的罗曼蒂克。来看看下面这段对话：
A: Is Claire still going out with Peter?
B: Oh no, they split up about a month ago. They were together about two months, were madly in love, and then it all went wrong.
A: Oh, a bit of a whirlwind romance then eh?
而如果恋人在认识之后不久就结婚了，你就可以用flash marriage(闪婚)来表示。
However, the ’flash marriage’ model has aroused heated public debate. "Will such marriages be long-term and stable," many white-collar employees asked.
但闪婚模式引发了人们的热议。许多白领发出这样的疑问：“这样的婚姻会持久而稳定吗？”