Drinking in American
Alcohol(含酒精的飲料) and the law
It is difficult to give a description of American laws
concerning alcohol because they vary from state to state and
city to city. The following, though, may be noted.
Some towns,even state are totally is sold at all except
that they allow the sale of very weak (3.2 percent alcohol)beer,known as “three-two” beer. Some places do not allow the
sale of alcohol on Sundays, even in shops—you may find abar
locked over the alcohol shelves. You can see it but not buy
it! Other places permit alcohol to be sold on Sunday
afternoons and evenings, but not on Sunday mornings. (Note
that this means sales have to stop at midnight on Saturday.)
In many parts of America, you are not allowed to drink alcohol in a public place.That is, you may not sit in a parkorwalk along a street drinking beer,and you cannot even take a
nice bottle of wine on your picnic. In some places, people can
be seen taking drinks in public places from cans wrapped in
brown-paper bags. These are not cans of Coca-Cola. And in many
states you are not allowed to drink alcohol while driving, oreven have an opened alcohol container in the car.Some bars
have a license(執照) only for beer and wine. Others are also
allowed to sell spirits(烈性酒) and thus, as Americans say,
“mixed drinks”.
Many bars have a period known as “Happy hour”, often
longer than an hour, when they sell drinks at lower-than-usual
prices. This is usually around 5 p.m. and may be only on
certain days of the week.
The Legal Drinking Age
Legal drinking age varies from place to place but is
generally between 18 to 21. Some places permit the
consumption(消費) of beer at 18 but spirits only at 21. Others
permit the consumption only of “three-two” beer from 18 to 21.
(Young people therefore often drive from one place to another
with more liberal drinking laws.) In any case, in some parts
of the USA young people are allowed to vote, marry, raose
children, keep full-time jobs, be tried in courts as adults,
join the army and even buy guns—but NOT have a glass of beer.
In some places people aged between 18 to 21 are allowed to go
into bars but not allowed to drink.
Another even more interesting aspect of American
drinking-age laws is that in some places people below legal
drinking age are not even allowed to sell alcohol.
Providing Proof of Your Age
In most places these drinking laws are fairly rigidly
enforced(嚴格地實施). You may, for example, find people lining up
to get into a bar and discover that the queue is caused by a
guard on the door who is asking everybody for ID(身份證). If you
ask him why he wants to know who you are, he will inform you
that he actually wants confirmation(確認) of how old you are. On
such occasions Americans often show their driving licenses,
which have their date of birth written on them.
美國的酒大致可分為啤酒、雞尾酒、威士忌和葡萄酒。啤酒有淡啤酒和濃啤酒之別；包裝採用瓶裝、聽裝和壺裝。雞尾酒和“混合飲料”含有很濃的酒精成分，飲用方式一般有加冰和不加冰兩種，其配製方式各種各樣。威士忌也是一種烈性酒，而且呈油狀，分為黑麥威士忌和蘇格蘭威士忌。葡萄酒分為紅、白兩種，但值得注意的是：標有“Chablis”商標的葡萄酒並非法國所產的無甜味的白葡萄酒，而是美國加利弗尼亞州生產的白葡萄酒，該酒在美國享有盛譽。
Beer
American beer, with very few exceptions, varies from the
mediocre(普通的) to the terrible. There are not many types of
beer in the US—“light” and “dark” are two terms commonly used.
It is therefore normal to order beer simply by brand name.
In a restaurant, in fact, it is quite all right to order “a
beer”, and they will tell you what they have.
It is not necessary, either, to specify quantity when
ordering beer. If it comes in bottles or cans, you will get a
bottle or can, and if it’s “on tap”(可以隨時取用的) you will get a
glass, unless you order a “pitcher”(有嘴和柄的大酒罐 i.e.a jug).
The latter is very convenient thing to do, since you can then
take the jug and glasses to your table and keep filling up
without going back to the bar. (It is harder, however, to know
how much you have drunk.)
Some beer comes in bottles with tops that look as if they
need an opener, but you can, in fact, screw(擰開) them off by
hand—though you have to be very careful not to hurt yourself.
It is possible, in some stores and bars, to find a wide
selection of beer from all over the world, especially Western
Europe and Australia, and it is good fun to experiment with
these.
Cocktails
Cocktails and “mixed drinks” are much more popular and
rather stronger in the USA than in Europe, and visitors may
not be familiar with some of the terminology(術語). “On the
rocks”, as you probably know, means with ice, while “straight
up” or “up” means neat and without ice.
There are hundreds of different cocktails, and there is no
space here to list all the different names.
The Hard Stuff
In America “whiskey” means
bourbon(一種烈性威士忌酒，最初為美國肯塔基州Bourbon地區所產) unless otherwise
indicated. Bourbon is a rather oily spirit made from
maize(玉米). Rye(黑麥威士忌酒) whiskey is called “rye” and Scotch
whiskey “Scotch”.
Wine
In bars wine can often be bought by the glass. Don’t be
Misled by names such as “Chablis” is used to refer to white
wine, and “Burgundy” to red—Americans seem never to have heard
of white Burgundy.
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