Hello, I'm Anna Jones and I have been invited to talk in this programme about London life. And in today’s programme we’re looking at a very English custom - the custom of tea-taking. I think the whole art of tea-taking is a very elegant and a very English thing to do. This whole ambience of tea-taking makes you be elegant.

I am the director of press and public relations at the Ritz hotel in central London. The Ritz hotel is one of the most famous hotels in London and is celebrating its centenary. It opened 105 years ago in 1906. The Ritz is especially well known for its wonderful teas but taking tea at the Ritz is not an everyday event—it’s usually reserved for a special occasion like a birthday or anniversary. Tea is served in the beautiful surroundings of the Palm Court. Displays of flowers and palms add to the experience of tea-taking. The whole character or quality of the Ritz makes you feel elegant. It makes you feel attractive and you behave in a very graceful way. And it’s not just a cup of tea either—it’s almost like having a 3 course meal.

The actual food items on the tea menu come on a three-tiered cake stand. The bottom being the finger sandwiches—very traditional—and the waiter will explain what the fillings are. Then we do our scones in the middle and we do our cakes and pastries on the top. It’s done almost like courses.

Well, we say that the food arrives on a “three-tiered cake stand - there are three levels, one on top of each other and on each level there’s a plate for holding the food. And what food is there? There are finger sandwiches—these are small sandwiches filled with a variety of different things. This kind of sandwich is “very traditional”—it’s something that has been going on in the same way for a very long time—so finger sandwiches have been a part of the traditional English afternoon-tea for a long time. In the middle of the tier there are scones which are small round cakes which are often eaten with jam and cream which is known as a cream tea. And finally, at the top of the tier there are various cakes and sweet pastries.

People say that tea is its almost done like “courses” - a part of a meal which is served separately from the other parts of it. Now what about making the tea? How do you make a proper cup of English tea? What is the most important thing about making a cup of tea?

The most crucial thing about tea-making is to make sure that the water is “piping” hot—it is very hot and has just boiled. Then after pouring the water onto the tea leaves you let the leaves “stew” or absorb the water to make the tea. If you hear someone talking about “stewed tea” they are describing tea that has been left too long in the tea pot before being poured and tastes strong and bitter.

What about the milk? What is the tea making etiquette? What are the rules or socially accepted ways of adding the milk? Does it go in to the cup before the tea is poured or afterwards? Well at the Ritz the etiquette—or the accepted way—is to add the milk afterwards so that the guest can decide how strong or weak they would like their tea.

Well as we mentioned earlier the Ritz is a very famous London hotel—so famous in fact that its name now appears in the dictionary as an adjective. What do you think it means? Even the name The Ritz has become generic in the dictionary, people talk about things being “ritzy” and even if something is not very ritzy or something is very ritzy and that all comes from the name. If something is described as “ritzy” it is expensive and fashionable—for example you might describe someone’s dress or car as ritzy. Well its 4 o clock now so it must be time for a cup of tea!

【解析】
這是bbcleaningenglish.com上一篇以Afternoon tea at the Ritz為題的文章。Ritz是著名的豪華連鎖大飯店，英國的下午茶也是出名的。本篇文章前半部分講述了下午茶的佐餐，后半部分主要講如何沏茶。文章雖然 有點長，但是與生活相關，內容分布也比較明顯，易于理解，如果考生平時多讀些文化生活方面的英語文章就會倍感輕松。

在這里，就這篇文章提供給大家一點點小建議：首先，聽力里面基本上不會涉及到很復雜的句式；其次，如果碰到一個很難的詞匯，請大家仔細聽是否有and, that is or that means , which 等詞，因為很有可能后面跟的就是一個同義詞，或者解釋該詞的從句；最后，大家要記住口譯考試中的聽力填空并不要求一定要字字正確，所以，如果實在想不起該 詞，可用同義詞代替，畢竟，口譯要求的是傳達說話者的意思，而不是完全正確復制整篇文章。

最后，有些詞匯還是需要平時累積的：
anniversary n. 周年紀念；
elegant adj. 優雅的；
ambience n. 氣氛；
course meal 主菜；
three-tiered 三層；
filling n. 餡料，填充；
scone n. 烤餅；
pastry n. 油酥點心；
piping hot 滾燙的；
stew v. 燉，燜；
etiquette n. 禮節，禮儀；
ritzy adj. 豪華的，高級的；
The Ritz 麗茲（里茲）大飯店；
Palm Court 棕櫚閣（大堂酒廊）