One person said her excuse was that her 'goldfish drowned' - and added that the guy she fed that line to believed her, indicating that she may have dodged a bullet.
還有一個人的理由是她的“金魚淹死了”，之后她又補充說那位男士居然信了，這表明她可能成功躲過了一劫。

Others told lies that tempted fate, creating fake personal tragedies that left them otherwise 'occupied'.
另外有些人用類似造化弄人的謊言來編造個人的悲慘故事，以此表明他們真的“沒有時間”。

'Grandma was in the hospital,' one woman said she told a man who was pursuing her, before adding why the excuse almost didn't work: 'He offered to go with me.'
比如一位女士對她的追求者說：“我奶奶住院了。”但后來她說這個理由幾乎沒什么用，因為“他說他要和我一塊去?！?/p>

Another told a suitor: 'My friend just got in an accident and she's in the hospital.'
還有一位女士跟她的追求者這樣說：“我朋友出了點意外，她現在人在醫院?！?/p>

Of course, sometimes just saying that you're busy doesn't do the trick, as a determined person might continue to try to find a time that works. To prevent that possibility, some people just attempted to scare potential dates off.
當然，有時候單單表示你很忙是沒什么用的，因為一個有決心的人會接著跟你約其他合適的時間。為了防止這種可能性，有些人試圖嚇跑這些潛在的約會對象。

'There's a porno of me circling the web right now. You OK with that?' wrote one, while another woman said she told a man: 'I have a male genitalia phobia.'
有一位女士這樣寫道：網上有一張我的艷照，你能接受嗎？”另外還有一位女士跟一位男士說：“我有男性生殖器恐懼癥?！?/p>

'I've had a yeast infection for the past five years,' wrote a woman who chose a photo of a tray of doughnuts as a background for her words.
“過去五年里我一直深受宮頸感染的困擾”，一位女士這樣寫道，然后她選擇了一張托盤上滿是甜甜圈的圖片來做她的文字背景。

Two girls even told men that going out with guys was against the rules, saying: 'My dad doesn't allow me to go out on dates by myself,' and 'I'm a nun and I'm not allowed to marry.'
還有兩位女生對男士們表示跟他們約會是不符合規定的，其中一位說：“我父親不允許我單獨出去約會”，另一位則說：“我是修女，不能結婚?！?/p>

Then, naturally, there is the option of telling someone you play for a different team, as one woman showed when she told a man: 'I think I just found out I'm not into guys. I'm homosexual.'
當然，你也可以選擇告訴別人你和他們不是一類人，比如一位女士在“耳語”上發了這樣的圖文，當時她跟那位男士說：“我剛剛發現我不喜歡男人，我是同性戀。”

Vocabulary
blurt out: 脫口而出
scramble:爭搶
wriggle out of：設法逃避
repercussion：影響

英文來源：每日郵報

譯者：曾媛GXUN

審校：馬文英

編輯：杜娟