下午茶！no1: Afternoon tea Afternoon tea is a light meal typically eaten between 3pm and 5pm. It originated in the United Kingdom, though various places that used to be part of the former British Empire also have such a meal. However, changes in social customs and working hours mean that most Britons only take afternoon tea on special/formal occasions. Traditionally, loose tea would be served in a teapot with milk and sugar. This would be accompanied by various sandwiches (customarily cucumber, egg and cress, fish paste, ham, and smoked salmon), scones (with butter, clotted cream and jam ― see cream tea) and usually cakes and pastries (such as Battenberg, fruit cake or Victoria sponge). The food would be often served in a tiered stand. While afternoon tea used to be an everyday event, nowadays it is more likely to be taken as a treat in a hotel, café, or tea shop, although many Britons still have a cup of tea and slice of cake or chocolate at teatime. Accordingly, many hotels now market a champagne cream tea. --------------勤奮的分割線------------- no2 Afternoon Tea Tea is the steady companion of the Scottish day, and each hotel, no matter how humble, stocks its rooms with supplies for brew-ups: electric pot for boiling water, ceramic pot for brewing, china cups and small tea-creamers, a raft of teas, honey, fresh milk, and lemons. This is a delight and astonishment, for not only is there no such thing in American hotels, but room service even in respectable ones, when asked for tea with milk, can deliver a plastic jug of tepid water, this covered by a square of Saran Wrap, and a drinking glass of milk. To request tea in an American office is often to throw the receptionist into a swivet: he or she believes that there is tea somewhere in the corporate pantry, but where? One prefers not to ask rather than to send this person on a scavenger mission, especially because the tea, if found, is a grim bag-tea like Red Rose. Naturally, one might as well ask for a trip to Bombay as to ask for looseleaf Earl GREy, or first-flush Darjeeling, or Assam tips. Home is a fluid place; each day at four o'clock, I could easily be an expatriate. One afternoon we are poking up the rocky coastline from Black Craig near Stromness north past Skara Brae to Brough Head; this western end of the island is folded and fissured in a steady cascade of bays, headlands, gloups, caves, and the handsome invasions of ocean into the land that are called geos. These places are named Lyre, Nebo, Axna, Saed, Sand, and Skipi, in a succession of sounds as quirky and original as the land. We wind slowly north toward Skipi Geo just around the Brough of Birsay, stopping to walk Marwick Head. The wide plateau at the summit of the cliff tilts at a precipitous angle toward the sea, covered with GREat, loose, cracked plates of flagstone in thin layers: orange, grey, ochraceous rocks that will weather into fertile soil or be pried up for roofing flags if they do not first slide into the sea. The bluff perpetually wet and glistening, and cold water pools dot the depressions and rectangular fissures in the rock. Over the exposed plateau, wind blows in steadily and coldly from the sea. This is the home of the largest and most spectacular seabird colony on Mainland; some thiry-five thousand guillemots, ten thousand kittiwakes, as well as fulmars and razorbills, who favor the eroded flagstone ledges for nesting and the abundance of shoaling fish for eating. But in this stormy weather, only a few guillemots -- auks, and clumsy on land -- bumble along the slabs of pitted rock cliff. For miles to the west, there is flat, grey, choppy ocean; for miles to the east, a grey, clouded sky under which low, treeless fields roll smoothly into the moors. It is nearing four o'clock in the afternoon, and sure enough, parked just off the road, overlooking the pungent tidal flats, we come upon a small caravan camper with its aluminum door open to a late-middle-aged Scottish couple, sitting at a folding table, taking tea and biscuits. Passing by, one only has a glimpse: his thick, white socks and heavy black shoes; her plump pear form and print dress; the electric kettle on the table. The archaeologists are puzzled as to why the people of ancient Skara Brae would locate their huts so close to the sea, and have surmised that in fact the settlement was originally located in a protected hollow, that time has eroded the shoreline inland toward the huts. That would make sense. Indeed, when presented at Skara Brae with the lure of a sparkling sea and the howling wind, we ourselves tucked into the hollow of a dune for lunch, eating cheese and apples in the sun with wind skimming our heads, blowing the sand into rippling ridges, flattening the beach grasses. Probably the archaeologists are right, but this utterly typical sense of Scottish domesticity blithely planted at the edge of harsh cliffs, afternoon tea conducted in the wind and cold, suggests another possibility. -----------耕耘的分割線---------------------- no3 Afternoon Tea Good for the Health of White-collar Women For white collars, too little lunch or too much work often causes their stomachs to make noises, signifying they're hungry. At this time, if they have afternoon tea on time with balanced nutrients, it would not only drive away the sleepiness, but also help in creating a perfect body. A test shows that people who have the habit of taking afternoon tea are better than those who don't by 15 to 20 percent on average in terms of memory and responsive ability. Some people in the west have afternoon tea most days because they believe it makes people feel refreshed, improves mental attention, relieves fatigue, and promotes work efficiency. According to He Jiguo, associate professor of the College of Food Science, China Agricultural University, an extra meal at around four o'clock helps people sustain their energy until dawn. Moreover, it cultivates people's habit to have less food for supper, which is considered good for people's health. Afternoon tea is different from snacks. The calories from snacks will be stored in the body. However, like other regular meals, a lot of calories from afternoon tea are consumed by the body. Select 2 to 3 foods that are supplementary to each other and you can guarantee the balance of nutrients. For example, a kind of grain food (biscuit or bread sticks), together with a portion of dairy food (sour milk or bean milk), or a fruit as well as water or tea will be fine to the body. Other than this, British scientists also discovered that afternoon tea is beneficial to reduce blood fat. Cholesterol level is not only influenced by food, but also dietary frequency. Researchers pointed out, if three meals a day are divided into four or five meals or even six, it is even better to lower the cholesterol level. (Source: rayli.com.cn, translated by www.womenofchina.cn) 我愛(ài)英文

afternoon tea