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Yang Li
大家好，我是杨莉。欢迎收听BBC英语教学节目《你问我答》。每期节目，我们都会从大量的来信或录音中挑选一个最有代表性的问题给予解答。有英语学习方面的也有英国文化习俗方面的。今天我们回答来自山东的 April 提出的一个礼仪问题。请听她的录音。

Question
My name is April. I'm from Shandong province. I have a question. I want to know something about table manners in the UK. 

Yang Li
谢谢 April。先前的餐桌礼仪（上）篇的节目里我们介绍了英国基本餐桌礼仪。今天是续集，看看出席正式宴请时的一些礼仪要求 formal dinner etiquette，这样在你赴宴时就不会疑惑和紧张了。今天的礼仪专家有请我的同事 Neil。看看他有哪些提示。

Neil
First of all, if you have special dietary requirements please let the host know beforehand. For instance if you are a vegetarian you will be given the vegetarian option.

Yang Li
首先，如果你要是有什么忌口或特别要求，一定提前告诉做东的主人。比如你是一位素食者，那么主人会给你安排素食餐的。

Neil
Remember always dress smartly. Generally speaking the invite will have a dress code. Usually suit for a man and evening dress for a woman.

Yang Li
记住穿着要精神。一般来说请柬上会注明着装要求，通常情况下会要求男士穿西装，女士穿晚礼裙。

Neil
With banquets, you will find that seats are pre-arranged. Just find your name and be seated. 

After you are seated, wait for your host to make the first napkin move. When the host puts the napkin on his or her lap, the guests should follow suit.

Yang Li
如果是正式宴请，座位都会事先安排好，而且桌子上会有名字卡片，你只需要对号入座就是了。入座之后，你一定要等主人先动手去拿餐巾，然后看主人把餐巾放到他/她的腿上，模仿去做就成。

Neil
Formal dinners usually start with wine and will be poured from the right. Please wait until your host has lifted his or her glass before you drink yours. If you don’t want wine, place your fingertips lightly on the rim of the glass when the server approaches to pour. You can say "I'm not having any today".

Yang Li
正式宴请一般都会以葡萄酒开始。服务员从右边斟酒。请等主人举杯开始喝酒时你再开始喝。如果你不想喝酒，可以在服务员来斟酒时轻轻地把手指尖儿挡在酒杯边上，你可以说“我今天不喝酒了”。

不过恐怕最让中国人头疼的还是摆在面前的一系列刀，叉，勺。怎么辨认和使用？我们听听 Neil 怎么说。

Neil
The number of pieces of cutlery will indicate the number of courses you can expect, and the general rule is to start from the outside. As far as I know you may expect up to seven courses, in this order: soup, fish, sorbet, or another palate cleanser, a meat or fowl dish, cheese, dessert, and coffee. Note that food is served from the left and empty plates are cleared from the right. Wine is poured from the right.

Yang Li
从餐具的数量就能看出将上多少道菜。使用规则嘛，从外面的一圈开始。Neil 说，据他所知，正式宴请的菜单上最多会有七道菜。一般顺序是汤，鱼，果汁冰沙或清口菜，肉或家禽，还有奶酪，甜点和咖啡。注意每道菜都是从左边端上来，空盘子从右边撤下去。酒则从右边满上。

Neil
There's another interesting thing about formal British table manners. You can use your cutlery to signal when you are finished or you are resting. Try to visualise the face of a clock, when you have finished eating, you can place both the knife and fork at about the 10:20 position with the points at 10 and the handles at 20. However if you are just pausing you should place your knife and fork on the plate with an inverted V shape with the prongs pointing down.

Yang Li
还有一个有意思的英国餐桌礼仪就是如何用刀叉来表示自己吃完了还是停顿休息一下。设想一个时钟，如果把刀叉并在一起放在10点20分的角度就表示“吃完啦”。如果是停顿一下，就需要把刀叉分开，形成倒 V 字形，叉子齿尖朝下，刀刃面朝里。

 好了，希望大家有机会实践一下以上这些正式场合的就餐礼仪。谢谢 Neil， 也谢谢 April 的问题。我们的邮箱是 questions.chinaelt@bbc.co.uk 欢迎把你的问题以录音形式发送给我们。谢谢收听。再会。