A man walks along the Albert Embankment in the rain in central London, 2009. According to a survey famously weather-obsessed British people spend on average six months of their lives talking about whether it's going to rain or shine. (Agencies) |
Famously weather-obsessed British people spend on average six months of their lives talking about whether it's going to rain or shine, according to a survey published Friday. Speculation about whether it's going to be wet, complaints about the cold and exclamations about the heat are also the first points of conversation with strangers or business acquaintances for 58 percent of Britons, it said. The study of 2,018 adults by pollsters ICM found Britons talk about the weather for about 49 hours every year and the subject comes up more often than work, TV, sport or gossip. Nineteen percent of over 65s questioned also believe they can predict the weather as well as a professional weatherman. The most usual explanation for the fascination with weather is that it is so changeable here -- although this doe not explain why other meteorologically-challenged countries are not similarly interested. Whatever the reason, "these findings prove that we really are a nation obsessed by our climate," said Paul Llewellyn of Lloyds TSB Insurance, which commissioned the poll. (Read by Nelly Min. Nelly Min is a journalist at the China Daily Web site.) (Agencies) |
上周五公布的一項(xiàng)調(diào)查顯示,以關(guān)心天氣而著稱的英國(guó)人一生中平均有六個(gè)月的時(shí)間在談?wù)搶⒁掠赀€是出太陽(yáng)。 調(diào)查稱,58%的英國(guó)人在與陌生人或生意伙伴交談時(shí)首先會(huì)討論一番是否會(huì)下雨或抱怨感嘆一通天氣的冷熱。 這項(xiàng)由ICM民意調(diào)查機(jī)構(gòu)開(kāi)展的調(diào)查共有2018名成年人參加。調(diào)查發(fā)現(xiàn),英國(guó)人每年談?wù)撎鞖獾臅r(shí)間約為49個(gè)小時(shí),而且這一話題比工作、電視、運(yùn)動(dòng)或八卦更常出現(xiàn)。 在65歲以上的受訪者中,有19%的人還認(rèn)為自己能像專業(yè)天氣預(yù)報(bào)員一樣預(yù)測(cè)天氣。 英國(guó)人之所以如此關(guān)注天氣,最通常的解釋是英國(guó)天氣的多變,但這無(wú)法解釋為什么其他天氣多變的國(guó)家的民眾沒(méi)有同樣的興趣。 委托開(kāi)展該調(diào)查的英國(guó)勞埃德保險(xiǎn)集團(tuán)的保羅?盧埃林說(shuō),不管是什么原因,“這些發(fā)現(xiàn)證明英國(guó)人的確很關(guān)注天氣變化”。 相關(guān)閱讀 英國(guó)人看電視時(shí)間增多 每天超四個(gè)小時(shí) (中國(guó)日?qǐng)?bào)網(wǎng)英語(yǔ)點(diǎn)津 陳丹妮 編輯蔡姍姍) |
Vocabulary: meteorologically: with respect to the weather 天氣、氣象方面的 |