英國問答

無所事事的下午，泡上一杯香濃的奶茶，看幾頁書，那該是多么愜意的秋日時光啊！But wait! 你知道如何沏出正宗的英式奶茶嗎？讓我們聽聽《英國問答》這個節目，從中找出答案。節目中訪問了帶不同口音的英國人，感興趣的同學除了可以模仿主持人的英式發音以外，還可以進行聽力訓練哦！

Helen: Hello， welcome to Ask About Britain from Learning English. I’m Helen.

Zoeuml;: And I’m Zoeuml;.

Helen: This is a programme where we want you to ask us any questions about the UK.

Zoeuml;: That’s right， any questions you can think of.

Helen: And today， I’ve chosen a question from Michelle， who emailed us a few days ago.

QUESTION:

Most English people like drinking tea. And my question is – if I want to drink the tea， should I add the milk first or last?

Zoeuml;: Milk first or tea first?

Helen: Now people have always argued over this， but personally I think you should put the milk in first. I’ve always made my tea that way. Mark drinks quite a lot of tea， and he believes that there’s a good reason why you should add milk before you add tea.

Traditionally， one should add milk to the cup first， and then hot tea. The reason for that is that， fine bone china will crack[裂開]

if you add very hot liquids to it. So in order to avoid a， a…a cupboard full of broken and chipped fine bone china cups， you add the milk first. Unfortunately， nowadays it is quite common for people just to use any old mugs[馬克杯] not of a particularly fine quality， and tea will often be added to the cup before the milk， which is quite incorrect.

（按照傳統做法，你應該先將牛奶加到杯子里，然后沖入熱茶。這樣做的原因在于，如果你倒入很燙的液體，高級骨瓷會被燙裂。所以為免

一……滿柜子都是裂了口、破破爛爛的骨瓷杯子，你要先加牛奶。不幸的是，現在人們沏奶茶往往只用些舊的馬克杯，而不是材質上乘的杯子；而且往往先倒茶再加牛奶，這是很不對頭的。）

Helen: The cups are made from fine bone

china， which usually means white，

translucent[半透明的]， delicate[精致的] china. If you add hot liquid to fine bone china cups， then the cups could crack and you won’t want to show your guests cracked tea cups， would you?

Zoeuml;: Definitely not.

Helen: The milk acts as a protective barrier[屏障]

between the cup and the hot tea. Now， but not everyone follows this rule， and that’s

because we don’t really use fine bone china cups any more， we have mugs. Now， if the mug is cracked， we just get another one.

If you make tea in a pot， then you can put the milk in first and then the tea. But if you are making tea in a cup， if you put the milk in with the teabag， and then put in hot water， that doesn’t work at all， because you need the…you need the hot water to hit the teabags if you’re to release all of the flavour， to get nice tasting tea. So if making it in a mug， definitely hot water first， then milk.

（如果用茶壺泡奶茶，你可以先把牛奶加進去，然后再加茶。但如果你在杯子里沏奶茶，要是你把牛奶和茶包一起加進去，然后再倒熱水，這根本行不通，因為你需要……你需要用熱水沖茶包，這樣才能把所有的香氣激發出來、才能泡出一口好茶。所以，如果要用馬克杯泡奶茶，肯定是先倒熱水，后加牛奶。）

Helen: It’s quite dramatic[戲劇化的] the way Claire described the process. You need the hot water to HIT the teabags. So if you are making tea in a mug， then add in hot water first and then milk. Now until next time， it’s

goodbye from me and Zoeuml; at Learning

English. Take care. Bye.

Zoeuml;: Bye-bye.