Clearly you have been watching too many episodes of Downton Abbey. Anyway, afternoon tea is a posh (aristocratic/top 0.1% of the population) snack (as we non-aristocrats would call it) between lunch and dinner that was accompanied by a cup of tea. We regular British people drink tea and eat snacks whenever we feel like it - 8am, 9pm, 2am. In my house while I was growing up, we would have a big dinner at lunch time (weekends mainly) and then tea later. This would consist of a sandwich and a piece of cake or a biscuit that we ate in front of the telly. We were too full from the enormous dinner (called lunch in the U.S.) that all we could manage was small meal. Even now the meal after work/school is called tea whether you drink tea with it or not, and whether it consists of sandwiches or is a main meal.

很明顯你是看《唐頓莊園》看多了，但不管怎樣下午茶是午餐和晚餐之間搭配茶一起吃的流行(占總?cè)丝?.1%的上流社會的貴族)小吃(我們這些平民的叫法)。我們普通英國人隨時都可以喝茶吃點心——8am, 9pm, 2am。在我家里，從我小時候開始，午餐時間會吃一頓很豐盛的正餐(主要在周末)，然后喝茶。喝茶時還會看著電視吃三明治、蛋糕或餅干。正餐(美國稱之為“午餐”)太豐盛，我們都吃得太撐，所以之后只能少吃點東西。甚至現(xiàn)在放學(xué)或下班之后吃的飯都叫“茶點”，無論喝不喝茶，也不管是吃三明治還是吃正餐。

However, if we visit someone in the afternoon (obviously a planned in advance visit), they will make some scones, cake, sandwiches and other delicious stuff to be served and I suppose that is technically ''afternoon tea''. If they were inviting you for dinner, they would say so. If they say nothing, you will absolutely be offered tea and scones/sandwiches/biscuits (cookies in the US) or anything else they have.

然而如果我們下午去拜訪別人(肯定是提前約好的)，他們會準(zhǔn)備一些烤餅、蛋糕、三明治還有其他美味的食物，我覺得那才是真正意義上的“下午茶”。如果他們邀請你吃晚餐，他們會明確地說是“晚餐”，但如果什么都沒說，那就會為你準(zhǔn)備茶和烤餅/三明治/餅干(美國稱之為“曲奇”)或任何家里有的小吃。

I grew up in the North of England, so it may be different elsewhere, but that is my experience.

我在英格蘭北部長大，可能跟其他地方不太一樣，但這就是我的經(jīng)驗。

獲得376好評的回答@James McCallum:I would like to put forward the case that “Yes, we do!”

我想說“是的，我們還有下午茶”。

Times have changed, tastes have changed but afternoon tea still exists.

時代變了，口味變了，但下午茶依然存在。

Children come home from school at 4pm. Mum/Dad will make them a drink and something to eat. Maybe a sandwich, maybe some cake, maybe a cup of tea… Mum/Dad will probably join in. What do you call this..? Afternoon tea!

孩子下午4點放學(xué)回家，媽媽/爸爸會給他們準(zhǔn)備點吃的喝的�？赡苁侨�明治、蛋糕，也可能是一杯茶，媽媽/爸爸可能也會一起吃。你管這個叫什么?下午茶!

I go shopping with friends/family to the town centre. We’ve looked in all the shops and now we need to sit down and think about which shops to return to for those final purchases. Look at that, it’s almost 4pm… It may be that we sit down for a capuccino and a couple of macarons but I can only think of one way to describe this… Afternoon tea.

我和朋友或家人去市中心購物，已經(jīng)逛完了所有地方，現(xiàn)在需要坐下來想想該回哪家店把看中的東西買下來�？纯幢�，差不多下午4點了，我們可能會坐下來喝杯卡布奇諾，吃幾塊馬卡龍。但我只能想出一個詞來描述這些，那就是“下午茶”。

Do most British still keep the traditional activities such as afternoon tea?

大多數(shù)英國人還保持著喝下午茶這樣的傳統(tǒng)習(xí)俗嗎?

We’re in the office. Boring! We’ve more or less finished for the day but the clock says no (it’s 4pm). Someone puts the kettle on and we sit down for a chat about the next few days. Ooh someone found a box of cupcakes… Wow! We’ve just had… afternoon tea!

我們坐在辦公室里，很無聊!一天的工作差不多做完了，但還沒到下班時間(才下午4點鐘)。有人會燒點水，我們坐在一起聊聊未來幾天的事，哦，有人找到一盒紙杯蛋糕。哇哦，我們剛剛喝了…下午茶!

We may not be using flowery teacups. We’re not dressed like characters from Downton Abbey either. We may not sit there for two hours.

我們可能沒有用帶花紋的杯子，沒有穿得像《唐頓莊園》一樣，我們可能沒有一坐就是兩個小時。

But do we still stop at 4pm for a drink and something to eat??? YES!

但我們?nèi)匀粫�在下午四點停下工作來點吃的喝的嗎?是的!

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