1、Chapter 9 British Way of LifeI. Leisure ActivitiesA recent survey showed that people in Britain spend about 45% of their free time watching TV, 24% of their free time socializing, 22-23% on sport and hobbies, and 10% on other activities. (America: a country on wheels)The most common leisure activity
2、 in the UK is watching TV. Many TV programs are about wildlife, animals, holidays, cooking, and gardening. The British are known as a nation of gardeners. Most people have a garden on their property. Saturday is traditionally the day for shopping and watching sports.Sunday morning is usually for rel
3、igious worships. On Sunday afternoons, there might be some yard sales in the neighborhood.For holidays abroad, the 10 countries to which UK residents made the most visits in 2005 were as follows: Spain, France, USA, Irish Republic, Italy, Greece, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal and Belgium. Most holi
4、day trips were taken during the July to September quarter, which are the most popular months for holidays and many English school children are also on vacation in this period. Seaside package holidays are the most popular type of holiday. Relaxationbar/club theatre/ cinema spa/ lounge/ tanningfoot m
5、assageYoga centertea roomoutdoor activities （canoe sailboat）Living places for tripsgrand hotel /hotelexpressinnlodge/ motelguest houseB Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Indian; GreeceAmerica is coffee-drinking nation. American coffee: Cappuccino (1/3 coffee,1/3 milk, 1/3 foam); Latte (more milk than coffee,
6、 almost no foam); Decaf coffeeIV. SportsThe British people are great lovers of competitive sports. It is natural for them to begin talking with a sports discussion even when they are neither playing nor watching games. They still have an admiration for sportsmanship, for playing with respect for the
7、 rules and the opponents and for winning with modesty and losing with good temper.Cricket is invented in England and is regarded as the most English of all games. A liking for it seems to reflect the English character. Its comparative slowness and quietness is associated with its gentlemanly sportsm
8、anship. In recent years, it has become less popular than it was before. For the great majority of the British people, the eight months of the football season are more important than the four months of the cricket season. The players wear white trousers and appear quite formally dressed. Matches do n
9、ot last just a few hours and they can go on for days.It is usually called “gentlemens game” and it is associated with a set of moral values, in particular the idea of “fair play”.Rugby is more popular than association football in some regions like Wales. It is the traditional game of most public sch
10、ools. It is played with an egg-shaped ball which may be carried and thrown. Each team has 15 players who try to stop the man with the ball by throwing him bodily to the ground.Soccer claims the highest popular attendance in the country. But for most people, football is a professionals game to be wat
11、ched on Saturday afternoons. Professional football is big business. Every large town has at least one professional football club. The highlight of the English football year is the FA (Football Association ) Cup Final each May. Horsemanship is skill in handling and riding horses.Horse racing, which i
12、s divided into two kinds flat-racing and hurdle racing, is chiefly a betting sport. The flat-racing season goes from the end of March to the end of November. Hurdle racing takes up the winter months.Golf is probably the most attractive of British sports. Many men and women of all ages are profession
13、ally fond of it. Golf is played over an area of countryside in which there are 18 small holes. Each is indicated by a flag, and each one is several hundreds yards away from the next. There are usually two players playing against each other. Each has a small ball which he has to hit towards and into
14、each hole in turn, counting the number of strokes. The winner is the one who completes the course in the smallest number of strokes.Tennis (a game for two people or two pairs who use rackets to hit a small soft ball backwards and forwards over a net)Squash：a game played by two people who use rackets
15、 to hit a small rubber ball against the four walls of q square courtBilliards (a game played on a cloth-covered table in which balls are hit with a long stick against each other and into pockets at the edges of the table)Baseball (an outdoor game between two teams of nine players, in which players t
16、ry to get points by hitting a ball and running around four bases)Hockey (a game played on grass by two teams of 11 players each, with sticks and a ball)Curling (a winter sport played on ice by sliding flat heavy stones towards a marked point)MuseumsMany of the major national museums are in London. T
17、hey have world-famous artistic, archaeological, scientific and historical collections. The British Museum was founded inn 1753, and much of the collection here is magnificent. The British Museum LibraryIt is one of the largest and richest libraries in the world. There are many treasures and , in par
18、ticular, many unique manuscripts.VI. Mass MediaNewspapersIn the UK, there are 12 national daily newspapers, nine Sunday newspapers, more than 100 regional morning, evening and Sunday newspapers and nearly 1600 weekly paid-for and free distribution newspapers.The British press is mainly divided into
19、two types of national newspapers: the quality newspapers (broadsheets) and popular newspapers (tabloids).The national quality newspapers, with more lengthy articles and bigger formats, were founded earlier and mainly contain political, industrial, financial and cultural news in the UK and internatio
20、nal news as well. They include The Times, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, and The independent. Most of the tabloids are half the size of broadsheets. “Tabloid” is a pharmaceutical term, used for substances which were compressed into pills. They publish sensational stories to exci
21、te the reader and have enormous circulations. Daily Mail, the Sun and Daily Mirror are typical tabloids.Radio and TelevisionBritish radio and television play an important part in daily life, social activities, cultural and educational causes. They are chiefly run by three companies: the British Broa
22、dcasting Corporation (BBC), the Independent Television Commission (ITC) and the Radio Authority, though there are many commercial companies. There are five BBC radio channels during the day for sound broadcasting and they cater for different tastes. The BBC World Service operates extensive internati
23、onal short-wave services in 39 languages for about 700 hours per week. New AgenciesThere are several news agencies in Britain. Reuters, the Press Association Ltd, and Extel Financial are the main ones. Reuters is one of the four major news agencies in the West. It is an important tool of the British government, though it is said to be a private or independent enterprise. It was founded in 1851 in London.
