像愛爾蘭人一樣喝酒

像愛爾蘭人一樣喝酒

愛爾蘭人愛喝酒是舉世聞名的，都柏林更是世界著名的吉尼斯黑啤（Guinness）原產(chǎn)地。全國的大小酒吧不計其數(shù)，據(jù)說面積不過45平方公里的都柏林就有2000多家酒吧。對當?shù)厝藖碚f喝酒更像是在享受，甚至喝酒的氛圍感覺和如何倒酒也是一門技術(shù)活。

測試中可能遇到的詞匯和知識：

stout 烈性啤酒[sta?t]

lager 貯藏啤酒['lɑ?g?]

soak up 吸收[s??k]

Guinness 吉尼斯黑啤酒（英國產(chǎn)強性黑啤酒的一種）['ɡinis]

go to great lengths 不遺余力

adamant 堅強的；堅定不移的；堅硬無比的['?d?m(?)nt]

austerity 緊縮；樸素；苦行[??ster?ti]

legacy 遺贈，遺產(chǎn)['leg?s?]

traumatic 創(chuàng)傷的[tr??'m?t?k; tra?-]

Celtic Tiger 凱爾特之虎；愛爾蘭之虎 凱爾特之虎|愛爾蘭過去是西歐最貧窮國家之一，其經(jīng)濟高速增長開始于1995年，從那時起這個國家被稱為“凱爾特之虎”。在接下來的12年，愛爾蘭經(jīng)濟以史無前例地速度增長，每年增長率為6％－11％不等。

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The Irish reclaim the art of pulling the perfect pint（745words）

By Vincent Boland

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Devitts pub in central Dublin is an increasingly rare thing. It has been owned by the same family for years, it offers traditional Irish music “sessions” every week and it serves a decent pint.

You might think that last attribute is a given: don’t all Irish pubs serve a decent pint? Alas, no. In a country where nearly everything — politics, sport, roads, business, education, food and people’s expectations — has changed mostly for the better over a generation, this is one institution that is still stuck in the 20th century.

Ireland’s pubs, collectively, are deep in debt as a result of the financial crisis; many have closed in recent years. Though Dublin has its share of loud, shiny new bars, its “l(fā)ocals” can be dismal places, with tatty interiors and bad food. But their dirty little secret, it turns out, is that bar staff have either lost or never acquired the most basic skill of all: pint-pulling.

“We’ve lost the art and craft that used to be associated with our trade,” says Deirdre Devitt, owner of the Camden Street pub. “The young fellows behind the bar — they have zero training.” Ger Galvin is on a mission to change that, which is why he was in Devitts one recent evening, along with representatives of the drinks and pub trades. Galvin is the founder of the Hibernian Brewing School and has designed a course — starting next month, with the backing of the City & Guilds vocational education organisation — to train Ireland’s bar staff to pull “the perfect pint”. “Is there a skills problem in Irish pubs? I think there is,” he says. “When the world was simpler, bar staff were trained to the level they needed to be at. But now people want to know what they are drinking, what the difference is between one beer and another. Seventy per cent of people who come into an Irish pub today don’t know what they want to drink. They are after an experience — and staff need to be able to respond to that.”

The art of pulling a pint applies particularly to Guinness, the most traditional offering in an Irish pub. It is not a beer, it is a stout — heavier and creamier than lager or beer, and its pulling requires patience. But the skills gap applies to the business of pint-pulling in general, and to the wider question of hospitality in pubs.

The Irish like to think they are a hospitable people — partly because it is true and partly because it is what tourism advertising has been telling them for years. Tourism is an essential industry, and one of the traveller’s top desires is to sit in a bar, drink a pint and soak up some of the atmosphere of the country.

According to research by Tony Foley, an economist at Dublin City University, the number-one experience sought by visitors is “l(fā)istening to Irish music in a pub”. The country’s most visited attraction is the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin: the “home of Guinness”. It attracted 1.5m visitors last year.

Both the drinks industry and tourism chiefs say it is time for pubs to ensure the experience that visitors have in museums such as this is matched in Ireland’s actual pubs. Drinks industry bosses say they go to great lengths to produce excellent beers; they are increasingly adamant that such excellence must not break down at the point of sale.

There are two other factors forcing pubs to change. One is the growth of craft brewing in Ireland. Jonathan McDade, head of the Irish Brewers Association, says there are likely to be 70 breweries producing craft beers by the end of this year, compared with just a handful 20 years ago. But, he says, there is “no unified, minimum industry standard, and we want to create one”.

The second is that Irish people, in general, have much higher expectations of the quality of what they consume than they did even during the Celtic Tiger years of economic expansion between the mid-1990s and the mid-2000s. As they start to spend again, after years of austerity, they are no longer willing to tolerate second best. It is one of the happier legacies of the traumatic financial crisis.

With a tentative economic recovery under way, some pubs are starting to flourish again. “Camden Street is flying — it’s a sign that things are better,” Devitt says. “But pubs need to change. It’s no longer about slapping a pint on the bar.”

請根據(jù)你所讀到的文章內(nèi)容，完成以下自測題目：

1. What kind of pint does Devitts pub serve?

A. decent

B. bad

C. sour

D. perfect

2. What do people want to know when they are drinking now?

A. how much they can drink

B. the difference is between one beer and another

C. the taste of the drink

D. the mood when they are drinking

3. Which one is not right about the stout?

A. heavier

B. its pulling requires patience

C. beer

D. creamier

4. Which one is right to describe Irish people?

A. hostile

B. hospitable

C. resentful

D. frugal

[1] 答案 A. decent

解釋：都柏林的酒吧為四面八方慕名而來的客人都是提供著相當好的品脫酒。

[2] 答案 B. the difference is between one beer and another

解釋：在客人喝酒的同時，他們更想了解的是酒與酒之間的區(qū)別，而不單單只是為了味道或是口感。

[3] 答案 C. beer

解釋：烈性啤酒不是啤酒，它比啤酒更需要裝入杯時的耐心，酒的特性上更重更濃，口感更好。

[4] 答案 B. hospitable

解釋：愛爾蘭的人民是非常熱情友好的。