南京的读者应该对这幅图片见怪不怪。近日，南京首家“泄愤吧”在升州路某夜总会开业，图片中，郁闷美眉正对“泄愤模特”拳打脚踢，以发泄心头郁积的愤懑。

请详看图片说明：A customer (R) attacks a staff member at the Rising Sun Anger Release Bar in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province August 7, 2006.

Stressed-out Chinese can now unleash pent-up anger at a bar that lets customers attack staff, smash glasses and generally make a ruckus, a Chinese newspaper reported on Monday. The Rising Sun Anger Release Bar in Nanjing employs 20 muscled young men as "models" for customers to punch and scream at.

随着生活节奏加快、工作竞争压力增大，人们心头的郁闷也是越积越多，pent-up anger恰到好处地形容了郁积在高压之下的愤懑。

Pent-up（压抑的）由动词词组pen up衍生而来，pent是pen的过去分词。Pen除了表达“钢笔”外，还可用来形容“栅栏；把…关起来”，如The desire to travel has been pent up for the last two years.（近两年来，心中老是憋着想出门旅行的念头）。

另外，pent-up常用来形容emotion（情感）、love（爱）、hatred（仇恨）等情感名词，而“释放、发泄”这些情感则常用release，unleash等动词来表达。

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（英语点津陈蓓编辑）