互联网让英国人变得越来越失去耐心（双语）

 

    排队、热啤和下午茶曾一度是英国人的典型特点。而如今，英国人似乎不再愿意排队了。Queuing, along with warm beer and afternoon tea, was once a quintessential British trait. But it would seem we are no longer prepared to wait in line.

    英国人购物时能忍耐的最长排队时间已从六年前的五分钟降至目前的两分钟。Two minutes is the longest many British consumers are prepared to queue, down from five minutes just six years ago.

    此外，调查发现，由于不愿排队，三分之二的英国人在购物时宁愿不买走人。Two-thirds of us have walked away from buying something in a shop because we were so fed up with queuing, the survey also found.

    耐心排队一度被视为英国人的典型特点，这一习惯是在（战争）配给年代培养起来的。排队被视为一种礼仪的象征，人们在买东西时愿意排很长的队，有时候排到时却发现他们想要的黄油或猪肉已经卖完了。Queuing patiently was once considered a typically British trait, fostered during the era of rationing. It was deemed a sign of civility that consumers were prepared to wait a long time, sometimes only to discover the shop had run out of butter or meat.

    英国的巴士只有一个上车门，这也被认为是英国人比欧洲其它国家的人更有耐心排队的一个重要原因。欧洲其他国家的主要交通工具是有轨电车，这种车带有多个门，所以人们就无需规矩地排成一队等待上车。British buses, with only one place to hop on, are also believed to be a key reason why we have been more prepared to queue than our European cousins – where the predominant form of public transport was the tram, with multiple doors, which discouraged the single, disciplined line.

    然而，这项为巴克莱银行和巴克莱信用卡发行公司开展的调查发现，五分之二的英国人排队超过两分钟就不耐烦了，51%的人在购物时如果看见商店里排着长队干脆就不进去了。However, the survey undertaken for Barclays and Barclaycard discovered that two fifths of British refuse to queue for longer than two minutes and 51 percent of shoppers refuse to even enter a store if they spy a queue.

    这一调查结果与2004年的一项类似调查形成对比，当年的调查发现半数受访者在繁华商业区购物时排队最多可以忍耐五分钟。