冰屋咖啡館

江蘇 李金夢

在喜馬拉雅山的滑雪勝地古爾瑪,一家酒店的主人在這里建造了一間冰屋咖啡館。盡管天氣很冷，咖啡館依然很受游客們的歡迎。

主題語境：人與社會 篇幅：373詞 建議用時：7分鐘

1Gulmarg is a ski resort high in the Himalayan mountains and one of the hotels at Gulmarg is the Kolahoi Green Heights, which is pretty high up, about 2.6 kilometers above sea level.

2With so much ice and snow around from December to March,people at the Kolahoi hotel decided to build an igloo（冰屋）cafe. Syed Wasim Shah, who created the cafe, decided to create the largest igloo cafe in the world.The coffee bar can seat up to 40 people.

3The work began in early December and it wasn't until the next February that it was completed.When it was finished,they had created the biggest igloo cafe in the world,which is called Snoglu.

4Before this,Guinness World Records said the largest snow igloo was in Switzerland,which was 10.5 meters tall,and 12.9 meters across.Snoglu is 11.4 meters tall and 13.6 meters across.“We have already written to Guinness,”says Mr Shah.It will take a while,but he feels sure his igloo has set a new record.

5Snoglu has 10 tables and can hold up to 40 people at a time. The benches, tables,and decorated railings are all made out of packed snow.Sheep skins cover the icy benches to make them more comfortable.

6Snoglu is separated into two different sections. One part holds artwork made out of snow and ice. The other part of Snoglu is a working cafe, selling coffee, hot chocolate, and snacks. The hotel's manager says the cafe focuses on items that can be served quickly,since it's so cold in the igloo that most guests don't want to stay too long.

7Tourists seem to love Snoglu in spite of the cold. Mr Shah says there are between 300 and 400 visitors every day.The hotel is charging a small fee to enter Snoglu to keep it from becoming too crowded.

8The snow in Gulmarg started to melt away in mid-March,but Mr Shah has big plans for the future. Next year he plans to rebuild the cafe. He also wants to create an igloo village,with rooms where people can spend the night.

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Difficult sentence in the text

The work began in early December and it wasn't until the next February that it was completed.工程從12月初開始，一直到第二年2月才完工。

【點石成金】本句中，it wasn't until...that it was completed 為強調句。