听播客学英语 18 一杯香浓的茶

 　　That was Miss Binnie Hale, singing a song called ‘A Nice Cup of Tea’, which she recorded 70 years ago, in 1941.

　　We British love tea. We drink more tea per head of population than any other country in the world, except for Ireland¹. If you go to the Tea Council² website, you will see a counter³ at the top of the page which shows how many cups of tea we have drunk⁴ so far today. By the end of the day, the counter will reach 165 million – that is three cups of tea per person per day. Coffee has become more popular in Britain in recent years, but even today we drink more than twice as much tea as coffee.

　　However, tea drinking is not an old tradition in Britain. We made our first cup of tea sometime⁵ in the middle of the 17th century. We found that we liked it, that it refreshed⁶ us and made us strong and happy, and we have continued drinking tea ever since. In the 19th century, tea became popular among working-class people, and it has remained the favourite drink of ordinary British people ever since. And it is well-known⁷ that the Queen likes a nice cup of tea, as well.

　　Tea drinking has a much longer history in China, where people have drunk tea for thousands of years. But British tea is not pale and delicate⁸ like tea in China. It has a rich brown colour and a strong taste. Nearly everyone in Britain puts milk in their tea, and about a third of people add sugar to make the tea sweet. (Yukk! I cannot stand tea with sugar!) It is well known that no-one outside Britain knows how to make tea properly. When we British go on holiday in, for example, France or Spain, and we ask for a cup of tea in a hotel or cafe, the waiter brings us a cup of lukewarm water and a tea bag on the end of a piece of string. This is wrong, completely⁹ wrong, and in the interests of international harmony¹⁰ and understanding I shall now explain how to make a nice cup of tea, British style.

　　First, you put some water in a kettle¹¹ and put it on the stove to boil. When it is nearly boiling, you pour a small amount of the hot water into a tea-pot, and swill¹² it round, and pour it out again. This warms the tea pot. Then you put tea or tea bags into the tea pot. How much tea? Well, my mother used to say that you should put in one teabag for each person, plus one for the pot. So, if you are making tea for two people, you should put three teabags into the pot. Then you pour boiling water onto the tea, and let the tea stand for about three minutes. If you have milk in your tea, put the milk in the cup first and pour the tea onto the milk, not the other way round. After you have poured the tea, and offered sugar to those strange people who like sweet tea, you should pour some more boiling water into the tea pot. Why? Because the one thing which is nicer than a nice cup of tea is another nice cup of tea.

　　We use the word “nice” all the time in spoken English. “It’s nice weather today. Did you have a nice time on holiday? It was so nice of you to come and visit us. Did you meet Jane’s mother? She is such a nice person. Please sit down. I’ll make us a nice cup of tea.”

　　In fact, “nice” is probably the most overused word in the English language. We use it so much that it has become almost meaningless. It is a good idea to find other words to use instead of “nice”, if you can.

　　Did you notice something else about the song at the beginning of the podcast? I am talking about the names of different meals. “At half past eleven, my idea of heaven is a nice cup of tea,” sings Binnie. We have a special word in English for a snack in the middle of the morning, which you will hear sometimes, though it is now a bit old-fashioned¹³ – ‘elevenses’, because of course we have our snack at about eleven o’clock.

　　After elevenses, Binnie has her next cup of tea with her dinner. Until perhaps 30 years ago, most working people in Britain had their main meal in the middle of the day. They called it “dinner”, and many older people still do. Later in the day, people had a light meal at five or six o’clock and they called it “tea”. And, like Binnie, they had a cup of tea with their tea!

　　Today, most people have a light meal in the middle of the day – perhaps a sandwich and an apple, which they eat at their desk in the office. We call this meal “lunch”. People eat their main meal of the day in the evening, when they get home from work, and they call this meal “supper”. “Dinner” nowadays means¹⁴ a formal evening meal for a special occasion¹⁵, where we dress up in smart clothes, and have nice food and wine and candles!

　　So, a lot has changed since Binnie Hale recorded her song seventy years ago. But a nice cup of tea is still a nice cup of tea! I am going to make one now.

1 Ireland   

n.爱尔兰(西欧国家)；爱尔兰岛(西欧)

参考例句：

• Ireland lies to the west of England.爱尔兰位于英格兰之西。
• Dublin is the capital of Ireland.都柏林是爱尔兰的首都。

2 council   

n.理事会，委员会，议事机构

参考例句：

• The town council passed a law forbidding the distribution of handbills.市议会通过法律，禁止散发传单。
• The city council has declared for improving the public bus system.市议会宣布同意改进公共汽车系统。

3 counter   

n.柜台；计数器；adj.相反的；adv.与…相反地；vt.反对，反击；vi.反对，反击

参考例句：

• This counter is closed now.这个柜台现在已停止营业。
• Set the counter to zero and you'll know where the recording starts.把计数器拨到零，你就会知道录音从哪儿开始。

4 drunk   

adj.醉酒的；(喻)陶醉的；n.酗酒者，醉汉

参考例句：

• People who drives when they are drunk should be heavily penalised.醉酒驾车的人应受重罚。
• She found him drunk when she came home at night.她晚上回家时，经常发现他醉醺醺的。

5 sometime   

adv.将来某一时候；改天

参考例句：

• He came sometime last month.上个月某个时候他曾经来过。
• It will happen sometime and somewhere.有朝一日这总会在什么地方发生的。

6 refreshed   

v.使恢复，使振作( refresh的过去式和过去分词 )；使…记起；重新斟满；爽快

参考例句：

• The long sleep had refreshed her. 一场酣睡使她重又精力充沛。
• I awoke feeling rested and refreshed. 我睡醒后感觉精力充沛，神清气爽。

7 known   

adj.大家知道的；知名的，已知的

参考例句：

• He is a known artist.他是一个知名的艺术家。
• He is known both as a painter and as a statesman.他是知名的画家及政治家。

8 delicate   

adj.巧妙的，敏感的；易损的，娇嫩的

参考例句：

• Be careful with those wine cups — they are very delicate.当心那些酒杯—它们很容易碎。
• The delicate handicraft works will not bear rough handling.精致的手工艺品经不起粗鲁的摆弄。

9 completely   

adv.完全地，十分地，全然

参考例句：

• She never completely gave up hope.她从不完全放弃希望。
• I feel completely in the dark on this question.这件事使我感到茫然。

10 harmony   

n.调合，协调；和睦，和平相处；(音乐)和声

参考例句：

• The couple lives in perfect harmony.这对夫妇和睦地生活着。
• His ideas were no longer in harmony with ours.他同我们的想法不再一致了。

11 kettle   

n.(浇水用的)水壶；水壶，水锅

参考例句：

• The kettle is boiling.水壶里的水开了。
• She put the kettle on the gas stove.她将水壶放在煤气炉上。

12 swill   

v.冲洗；痛饮；n.泔脚饲料；猪食；（谈话或写作中的）无意义的话

参考例句：

• Having finished his coffee,he swilled out the mug and left it on the draining board.喝完咖啡后，他涮了涮杯子然后把它放在滴水板上。
• A crowd of men were standing around swilling beer.一群人正站在一起痛饮啤酒。

13 old-fashioned   

adj.旧式的，保守的，挑剔的

参考例句：

• Why do you still dress in an old-fashioned mode?你为什么还穿款式陈旧的衣服？
• Here is an old-fashioned pump for drawing water from a well.这里有一个旧式水泵可从井里抽水。

14 means   

n.方法，手段，折中点，物质财富

参考例句：

• That man used artful means to find out secrets.那人使用狡猾的手段获取机密。
• We must get it done by some means or other.我们总得想办法把它干完。

15 occasion   

n.场合，时机，机会，诱因，理由；vt.惹起，引起

参考例句：

• Her dress was too showy for such a formal occasion.在如此正式的场合，她的服装过分华丽了。
• Her tears were fought back on such an occasion.在这种场合下她忍住了眼泪。