调查：英国人一生谈论天气的时间长达六个月

Famously weather-obsessed¹ 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.

上周五公布的一项调查显示，以关心天气而著称的英国人一生中平均有六个月的时间在谈论将要下雨还是出太阳。

Speculation²（推测，思索） about whether it's going to be wet, complaints about the cold and exclamations³（感叹） about the heat are also the first points of conversation with strangers or business acquaintances（熟人，了解） for 58 percent of Britons, it said.

The study of 2,018 adults by pollsters（民意调查人） 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 fascination⁴ with weather is that it is so changeable here -- although this doe not explain why other meteorologically（从气象学角度看） -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.