7-7 英国人的年假（在线收听）

British Annual Holidays

Once a year most English families take an extended holiday. Until air travel became more common these family holidays were almost always spent in one of the coastal seaside resorts. Shops in the seaside towns sold buckets, spades, postcards, candyfloss¹, toffee-apples², sticks of rock³, and fish and chips.

Pitching⁴ their camps of brightly coloured canvas wind breaks on the beach, English families spent days on end appearing to enjoy melting ice creams, leaking thermos flasks⁵ and sand in everything.

Nowadays the English start their holidays at Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, Manchester, Birmingham or Heathrow airports and fly over those winding English lanes, bound for⁶ Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Florida or anywhere sunny where they can still be guaranteed amusement arcades⁷, postcards to send home, and the reassuring smell of fried food.

There many carry on just as if they were still in Bognor, Blackpool or Brighton. They stick together, ignoring the existence of the natives, and spend most of the day lying in the sun. At night they drink, dance, and throw up⁸ in discotheques⁹ thoughtfully provided for the purpose by the locals.

注释：

1. candyfloss [5kAndiflCs] n.〈英〉棉花糖(一种制成绒毛状的粉红色糖果)

2. toffee-apple [5tRfI5Apl] n. (插在签上的)涂太妃糖苹果

3. rock [rCk] n.〈主英〉彩色硬棒糖

4. pitch [pitF] vt.  支搭，架设

5. thermos flask =thermos bottle 保温瓶，热水瓶

6. bound for 开往(或驶往)……的

7. arcade [B:5keid] n.  (内设投角子电视游戏机等的)游乐中心

8. throw up 〈俚〉呕出，呕吐

9. discotheque [5dIskEJtek] n. 迪斯科舞厅

英国人的年假

大多数的英国家庭一年要休一次长假。在航空旅行比较普及之前，这些家庭几乎总是在某个海边旅游胜地度假。在海边镇上的商店里卖各种各样的东西，有桶、铲子、明信片、棉花糖、涂太妃糖苹果、彩色硬棒糖，还有炸鱼加炸土豆条。

他们在海滩搭起颜色鲜艳的挡风帆布帐篷，一连几天高兴地吃着在融化的冰激凌，用漏水的热水瓶，体验满处都是沙子的生活。

如今的英国人度假从盖特威克、斯坦斯特德、卢顿，曼彻斯特、伯明翰或希思罗机场开始，飞越英国那些弯弯曲曲的小路，飞向西班牙、希腊、塞浦路斯、佛罗里达或者任何阳光充足的地方，只要那儿能有游乐中心可玩儿，有明信片可寄回家，有油炸食物香味的慰藉。

许多人在那儿的生活，就仿佛自己还是在英国的博格诺、布莱克浦或布赖顿等城市那样。他们自己聚在一起，无视当地人的存在，一天中大多数时间都躺着晒太阳。晚上他们到迪斯科舞厅去喝酒，跳舞，把吃的喝的吐出来。这些迪斯科舞厅是当地人为让他们这样玩而精心为他们提供的。