7个只有英国人家才这样的特征

1. There are no sockets in the bathrooms.

浴室里是没有插座的

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According to the law, UK bathrooms can only be fitted with outlets if the distance from the bath and shower to the socket is at least 10 feet. And since bathrooms in British homes and apartments are quite small, there are no sockets in them. That’s the reason why washing machines are usually installed in the kitchen.

根据法律规定，英国浴室的插座至少要距离浴缸和淋浴间10英尺以上。由于英国家庭和公寓的浴室都很小，所以里面没有插座。这就是为什么洗衣机通常安装在厨房的原因。

2. Air conditioners are a rare thing in British houses.

在英国的房屋中，空调是罕见的。

Since the climate isn’t that warm in Great Britain, there’s no special need for air conditioners. If they need to air out the room, the British simply open windows. If that’s not enough, they use a normal fan.

由于英国的气候不是那么温暖，所以没有特别需要空调。如果需要通风，英国人只需打开窗户。如果这还不够，他们就用普通的风扇。

3. Bay windows are extremely popular in Great Britain.

飘窗在英国非常流行。

A bay window is a window consisting of several rectangular sash windows (3, as a rule) protruding from the main part of the house. Such windows are considered traditional, and one of their advantages is that they give much more light than ordinary ones.

这种凸出来的飘窗是由几个矩形窗框(通常有3个)组成的窗户，从房子的主体部分突出。这种窗户被认为是传统的，它们的优点之一是，它们比普通的窗户能提供更多的光线。

4. Carpets are everywhere.

哪都是地毯。

Most homes in Great Britain are covered with carpeting (excluding the kitchen). Even the bathrooms have it. If there is a staircase in the house, it will have some carpet on it too. This carpeting is used so that people’s feet don’t slip, which means the risk of falling off a staircase is very low.

大多数英国家庭的房子都铺着地毯(厨房除外)。连洗手间都有。如果房子里有楼梯，上面也会铺上地毯。使用这种地毯是为了防止人们的脚滑倒，也就意味着从楼梯上掉下来的风险非常低。

However, there are many issues that these carpets cause — they get dirty and can absorb moisture in bathrooms, which causes even more problems. Nonetheless, most British people are used to walking indoors in their street shoes. And it’s incredibly annoying because cleaning carpets can quickly become an uphill task. But it’s tradition after all.

然而，这些地毯也有很多问题，它们会容易脏，会吸收浴室里的水分，这导致了更多的问题。尽管如此，大多数英国人还是习惯了穿着外面穿的鞋在室内行走。而且这非常烦人，因为清洁地毯很快就会变成一项艰巨的任务。但这毕竟是传统。

5. Garages in houses aren’t used for storing cars.

房子里的车库不是用来存放汽车的。

Traditionally, garages in Great Britain are small (because cars used to be miniature in the past), which is why modern cars simply don’t fit in them. As a result, many people use garages as a storage room where they keep a lot of different stuff.

传统上，英国的车库都很小(因为过去的汽车都是微型的)，这就是为什么现代汽车根本装不进去的原因。因此，很多人把车库当作储藏室，在那里他们存放了很多不同的东西。

6. Mail to British homes is delivered just like in the movies — through a special slot in the front door.

就像电影里一样，邮件是通过前门的一个特殊插槽送到英国家庭的。

Of course, there are many different types of mailboxes in Great Britain: they can be a separate standing box, a group of boxes on the ground floor inside the entrance to an apartment building, or a privately rented “mailbox address.” But these same things can be found in other countries, while a slot for letters in doors is exclusive to Great Britain.

当然，在英国有许多不同类型的邮箱:它们可以是一个独立的立箱，也可以是一幢公寓大楼入口处一楼的一组邮箱，或者是一个私人租用的邮箱地址。以上这些邮箱在其他国家也能找到，但是却只有英国有在门上放信件的位置。

Owners of such boxes note that they aren’t that convenient at all. For example, if you have a dog, it will allow the dog to eat the newspaper 3 times over before you see that it has been delivered.

这些投递口的拥有者注意到，它们一点也不方便。举个例子，如果你有一只狗，这会让你的狗在你看到报纸已经送来之前就能把报纸吃三遍。

7. Doors open inward, leading into the rooms, not outward.

门是向内开的，通向房间，不是向外开的。

Though opening an interior door outward would be more space-saving, in most older homes, doors open inward. Among other reasons, this is to keep traditional confidentiality: when a person is walking along the corridor past your room, they won’t see you, even if the door is half-open.

虽然向外打开室内的门会更节省空间，但在大多数老房子里，门都是向内打开的。除了各种别的原因，它还是为了传统上的隐私保密性;当一个人沿着走廊经过你的房间时，他们不会看到你，即使门是半开着的。

As a rule, front doors also open inward. There are several reasons for this: safety (in outward-opening doors, the hinges on which the door rests are located outside the house, which increases the risk of break-ins), protection from bad weather (imagine if you open the door outward and snow and rain blow into the house), and practicality (it’s easier to pull things in after a shopping trip if the door opens inward).

通常，前门也是向内开的。有几个原因;安全(外开门，门的铰链是在房子外面，这增加了入侵的风险)，防止恶劣天气(想象一下，如果是外开门，雪和雨吹到房子里)，和实用性(在结束购物之后，内开门是更容易让你把东西带回家里的)。