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　　The weather – and the British obsession with talking about it – has been puzzling outsiders for decades。

　　英國人癡迷于談?wù)撎鞖?，這個(gè)問題數(shù)十年來一直讓外界人士困惑不已。

　　Several features of Britain‘s geography make the weather the way it is： mild， changeable， and famously unpredictable。 Britain’s position at the edge of the Atlantic places it at the end of a storm track – relatively narrow zones over oceans that storms travel down， driven by the prevailing winds。

　　英國地理的特點(diǎn)造就了英國天氣的現(xiàn)狀：溫和多變，眾人皆知其難以預(yù)料。英國位于大西洋邊緣，處于風(fēng)暴軸的末端。所謂“風(fēng)暴軸”，即海洋上暴風(fēng)經(jīng)過的相對(duì)狹長的地帶。

　　As the warm and cold air fly towards and over each other， the earth‘s rotation creates cyclones。 Then there is the Gulf Stream， which makes the British climate milder than it should be， given its northern latitude， and the fact that the UK is made up of islands， meaning there is a lot of moisture in the air。

　　冷熱氣流相互對(duì)沖，地球旋轉(zhuǎn)引起旋風(fēng)。英國地處北緯、由島嶼構(gòu)成，在墨西哥灣流影響之下空氣中有許多水分，英國氣候因而更溫和了。

　　Many of the day-to-day conversations British people initiate about the weather， however， are mundane。 Comments like “cold， isn‘t it？” don’t even particularly demand a full response； a grunt of agreement will suffice。

　　然而，英國人發(fā)起談?wù)撎鞖獾娜粘?duì)話枯燥乏味。諸如，“很冷，不是嗎？”這樣的評(píng)論根本不需要完整的回答，咕噥一聲表示同意足矣。

　　Weather talk is a kind of code that we have evolved to help us overcome social inhibitions and actually talk to one another。

　　談?wù)撎鞖馐菐椭藗兛朔缃徽系K演變而來的代碼，讓人們可以真真正正相互交談。

　　In some situations， weather talk is an icebreaker。 In others it‘s used to fill awkward silences， or divert the conversation away from uncomfortable topics。 We can also use weather speak to gauge other people’s mood。

　　有些情況下，談?wù)撎鞖饪梢云票?、活躍氣氛；另一些情況下，可以填補(bǔ)尷尬的空白，轉(zhuǎn)移令人不自在的話題。也可以通過談天氣來判定別人的心情。

　　Of course， these kinds of purely social conversations also occur in other cultures。 But both the nature of the conversation – and their content – will vary。 A country like Britain will choose a safe and personally unobtrusive topic – such as the weather。

　　當(dāng)然，這樣純社交對(duì)話在其它文化里也有，但談話性質(zhì)和內(nèi)容不一。英國這樣的國家會(huì)選擇安全低調(diào)、不會(huì)唐突傷及個(gè)人的話題，比如天氣。