Dear Jacob,

Budapest is awesome! It’s a city with lots of old, baroque architecture and the lovely Danube River. I’ve seen beautiful things like the Royal Palace and the immense fortress of the Citadella.

The great thing about sightseeing in Budapest is that after a long day of walking around, you can relax in a bathhouse. This city is famous for them, and they are so ornate that they are tourist destinations in themselves! You can indulge in luxury for such a cheap price!

I’ve also been spending a lot of time eating delicious Hungarian food like goulash and spiced meat pies. Yum！

I can’t wait to hear from you！

Jill

親愛的傑寇：

布達佩斯真是太令人驚奇了，有很多古老的巴洛克建築和美麗的多瑙河。我看到很多美麗事物，像是皇家音樂廳和Citadella碉堡的巨大堡壘。

最棒的就是在布達佩斯觀光了，走了一天後很疲倦，可以在溫泉浴場放鬆自己。這裡就是以溫泉浴場著名，浴場建造得很古典，本身就已經是觀光客的目的地了。用很便宜的價錢，就能放縱於奢華的享受喔！

有很多時間我都在享用美味的匈牙利食物，像是菜燉牛肉和加香料的包肉餡餅。真好吃！

期待你的消息！

吉兒

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Dear Jill,

I’m glad you’re having such a great time in Budapest. The bathhouses sound fantastic! I’m not indulging in any bathhouses here in Canada, but I sure have done a lot of swimming! One of the parks here in Vancouver has a wonderful beach and I’ve been hanging out there. It’s so funny to go to a beach that is in the middle of the city!

I’m going to let you go now as I’m meeting someone at a cafe in half an hour.

Enjoy Europe!

Jacob

親愛的吉兒：

很高興你在布達佩斯玩得開心，溫泉浴場聽起來很棒！我在加拿大沒有去浴場享受，但倒是游了不少的泳！溫哥華這裡有一座公園有很棒的海灘，我常去那裡晃。真有趣，這個海灘就位在城市中央！

先這樣了，我約人半小時後要在咖啡館碰面。

祝歐洲之旅愉快！

傑寇

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Reading Passage



Being able to unwind in one of Budapest’s many bathhouses makes visiting such a busy city more manageable. For the price of a $2 dollar ticket, you can escape the smog and soot of the city and relax in a clean bathhouse that is often as ornately decorated as a palace. In the chamomile-scented vapor of the steam room, you can sit on one of the carved stone benches until the heat gets unbearable and then jump into an ice-cold pool to cool off. The Hungarians believe that going between the two temperature extremes of hot and cold is good for the circulation and that the vapors cleanse toxins from the skin.

能在布達佩斯的一座浴場裡好好放鬆心情，參觀忙碌的城市就變得更容易了。用兩元買一張票，就可以遠離城市的烏煙瘴氣，好好在乾淨的浴場裡放鬆一下，而且浴場通常都裝飾得很華麗，像皇宮一般。在有甘菊香味水氣的蒸氣室，可以坐在石雕板凳上，直到受不了高溫，就跳進冰冷的水池中，讓身體降溫。匈牙利人相信輪流泡在這兩個極熱和極冷的溫度中，有益身體循環，而水蒸氣也能淨化皮膚的毒素。

The Hungarians have been indulging in these bathhouses for thousands of years. Baths were first introduced during the Roman Empire around 100 B. c. where emperors and nobility would unwind. When the Ottoman Empire ruled Hungary in the 16th century, bathhouses were built throughout Budapest, four of which still remain standing and used today: Kiraly, Rudas, Csaszar and Rac. These bathhouses were built over mineral-rich springs whose bubbling waters still fill the tubs. Though these bathhouses were reserved for the upper class of society, today they are open to the public, and people from all different segments of society can be seen bathing next to each other.

匈牙利人熱衷於浴場已有數千年之久了，最初是在西元前100年左右的羅馬帝國時代時引進的，當時是皇帝和貴族放鬆心情的地方。16世紀，奧圖曼帝國統治匈牙利，浴場遍布布達佩斯，其中有四座至今仍存在使用，這四座浴場是Kiraly、Rudas、Csaszar和Rac。這些浴場設立在礦物質豐富的溫泉區，沸騰的水現在仍然裝滿澡盆。雖然這些溫泉浴場是為社會上層階級保留，但今日已開放給大眾，社會不同階層的人們可以比鄰沐浴。

Each bathhouse has a curved roof, with a hot-water pool shaped like an octagon, surrounded by a vaulted and columned walkway. Light is let in through jewel-like, stained-glas8 skylights that fill the houses with a warm, colorful hue that adds to the relaxed mood. These 400-year-old baths are havens of relaxation for the people of Budapest, and to visit one of them is to get a taste of the local culture. Your experience in a lavish bathhouse might just be the most memorable one you’ll have of the city!

每座浴場都有彎曲的屋頂、八角形的熱水池，還有飾有拱型天花板和圓柱的走道。日光透過寶石般的彩繪玻璃天窗投射進來，讓浴場內一派溫暖繽紛的色調，令人更能放鬆心情。這些有400年歷史的浴場，是布達佩斯人放鬆自己的休憩處，去其中任何一間參觀都可以體驗到當地文化。去體驗奢華的溫泉浴場，可能會是在這裡最難忘的回憶！

－－摘自 寂天文化《寄英文明信片給你（歐非篇）》@

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