文化 | 英国人酷爱海滩度假

对于英国人来说，海滩度假具有独特的魅力和不可阻挡的吸引力。或许是因为许多人从小便随着家人一起去海边游玩，英国民众似乎特别钟爱海滩度假，对这种休闲方式参杂着一种怀旧的特殊情感。所以在经过一段时间的辛苦工作，需要放松一下的时候，许多英国人会选择去海边。色彩斑斓的海滩小屋、海滩上钓螃蟹或是寻找贝壳，在细雨中吃鱼和薯条或者用装满热水的保温杯取暖，这些既是童年回忆，也是英国海滩的独特魅力。虽然自20世纪60年代起，英国的海滨城镇经历了萧条，许多城镇至今仍未恢复元气，但乘飞机出行日益拥堵，而且频频爆出服务问题，加之“居家度假”（staycation）这一理念的兴起，海滩度假成本又低，目前来看，这种传统的度假方式或许能再次引领休闲度假潮流。

本篇课程首发于2018年4月16日

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The British Seaside

Traditionally, whenever the British felt the need to relax – either after a heavy week in their industrial cities, or a hard year on the land – they headed to the sea.
For the British, the seaside still holds a deep-seated appeal today.

There's something rather special about the Great British Seaside.
Perhaps it's the nostalgia of family holidays that haven't changed much since our grandparents' time – the donkey rides, the sandcastles on the beach, the Punch and Judy shows on the pier and the sticks of rock.
The colourful beach huts, the striped windbreakers and the simple but addictive pleasures of crabbing or looking for shells on the beach are all part of the age old tradition of a seaside holiday.

The British seaside has an old-fashioned charm all of its own even when you're eating fish and chips in the drizzle and warming your hands on your thermos flask of hot tea.
From the 1960s, though, Britain's seaside towns have slid into a breathtakingly fast decline.
Many have yet to recover.

Still, the story is not all doom and groom.
A loathing of today's intensely crowded and sometimes demeaning air travel, the rise of 'staycations' and the low cost of the British seaside holiday have all been helping to revive officially deprived towns.
The British seaside holiday is making a comeback.

▍生词好句

1. deep-seated: adj. firmly established at a deep or profound level 深层的；根深蒂固的；深位的

2. nostalgia /nɒˈstaldʒə/: n. a feeling that a time in the past was good, or the activity of remembering a good time in the past and wishing that things had not changed；n. 乡愁；怀旧之情；怀乡病

3. pier /pɪə/: n. a long platform on legs, from the shore into the sea, typically with entertainment facilities and amusement places and restaurants and pubs even； n. 码头

4. crab /krab/: vi. fish for crabs；n. 螃蟹

5. drizzle /ˈdrɪz(ə)l/: n. light rain falling in very fine drops

6. thermos flask /ˈθəːməs/ /flɑːsk/: a vacuum flask (= thermos bottle; thermos)
   · flask: a container or bottle

7. not all doom and groom: if something is not all doom and gloom, it may seem like a bad situation, but if you look deeper, there are some good things happening.

8. staycation /steɪˈkeɪʃ(ə)n/: a holiday or vacation in your own country

9. arcade /ɑːˈkeɪd/: a machine where you put your coins and you try to win something

beach huts海滩小屋
striped windbreakers 条纹的风衣
loathing n. 嫌恶