Famously weather-obsessed British people spend on average six months of their lives talking about whether it's going to rain or shine, according to a survey published Friday.
Speculation about whether it's going to be wet, complaints about the cold and exclamations about the heat are also the first points of conversation with strangers or business acquaintances for 58 percent of Britons, it said.
The study of 2,018 adults by pollsters ICM found Britons talk about the weather for about 49 hours every year and the subject comes up more often than work, TV, sport or gossip.
Nineteen percent of over 65s questioned also believe they can predict the weather as well as a professional weatherman.
The most usual explanation for the fascination with weather is that it is so changeable here -- although this doe not explain why other meteorologically-challenged countries are not similarly interested.
Whatever the reason, "these findings prove that we really are a nation obsessed by our climate," said Paul Llewellyn of Lloyds TSB Insurance, which commissioned the poll.
(Read by Nelly Min. Nelly Min is a journalist at the China Daily Web site.)
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(Agencies)
上周五公布的一項調查顯示，以關心天氣而著稱的英國人一生中平均有六個月的時間在談論將要下雨還是出太陽。
調查稱，58%的英國人在與陌生人或生意夥伴交談時首先會討論一番是否會下雨或抱怨感嘆一通天氣的冷熱。
這項由ICM民意調查機構開展的調查共有2018名成年人參加。調查發現，英國人每年談論天氣的時間約為49個小時，而且這一話題比工作、電視、運動或八卦更常出現。
在65歲以上的受訪者中，有19%的人還認為自己能像專業天氣預報員一樣預測天氣。
英國人之所以如此關注天氣，最通常的解釋是英國天氣的多變，但這無法解釋為什麼其他天氣多變的國家的民眾沒有同樣的興趣。
委託開展該調查的英國勞埃德保險集團的保羅•盧埃林說，不管是什麼原因，「這些發現證明英國人的確很關注天氣變化」。
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英國人看電視時間增多 每天超四個小時
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（中國日報網英語點津 陳丹妮 編輯蔡姍姍）