大雪封门 英国已婚男女上网寻一夜情

Thousands of married men and women around Britain are turning to adultery to relieve the boredom of being snowed in, according to an extramarital dating website.

Spouses forced to work from home in swathes of the country where snow has brought transport to a standstill are flocking online to search for new romances, according to the website IllicitEncounters.co.uk.

The site, which provides a forum for married people looking to start affairs, says it has gained more than 2,500 new members over the past six days, the majority of whom are registering from the areas worst-hit by the extreme weather.

There has been a particularly high level of applications over the past 24 hours, with a record number of new dating profiles set up as millions of people woke up to heavy snow this morning.

Many of the new applicants are from Hampshire, Berkshire, and West Country, with more than 900 new members joining from Dorset, Devon and Cornwall in the last three days. The site has been forced to employ extra staff to cope with the influx.

The rise in membership is thought to be caused by the boredom of being stuck at home in the snow as the UK knuckles down for its coldest winter in 30 years. Married men and women are also thought to be taking the opportunity to register from home, away from the prying eyes of colleagues in the office.

Sarah Hartley of IllicitEncounters.co.uk said: "The adverse weather has obviously influenced many sign-ups. Usually, the West Country is a relatively quiet area for us – but over the last 3 days we have received over 900 new members from Cornwall, Devon and Dorset.

"Perhaps these wives and husbands have just been waiting for a time when they could join, away from the eyes of their work colleagues and, most importantly, their partners."

The website, which was launched in 2003, has 350,000 members in the UK, the majority of whom are professionals aged between 36 and 40.

英国一家婚外恋网站日前称，由于连日大雪让人倍感无聊，英国各地数千名已婚男女竟寻求“婚外情”排解寂寞。

据IllicitEncounters.co.uk网站称，大雪导致英国很多地区交通中断，使得很多已婚男女不得不在家工作，而在这段时间里，他们则蜂拥至网上寻找新恋情。

这家为已婚男女提供寻找婚外情机会的网站称，在过去六天的时间里，网站的新注册会员超过2500人，其中大多数人来自受此次极端天气影响最恶劣的重灾区。

今晨英国各地普降大雪，在过去24小时内，该网站的新注册会员激增，约会资料创建数量增长空前。

其中很多新注册会员来自汉普郡、伯克郡和英格兰西南部。过去三天内，共有900多名来自多赛特郡、德文郡和康沃尔郡的网民注册成为该网站的会员。为此该网站不得不招聘新员工。

该网站会员人数激增一方面是因为很多人被大雪困在家中无事可做。今年英国遭遇了近30年来最寒冷的冬天。另一个原因是已婚男女趁待在家里的时候注册该网站，以免在办公室注册被同事看见。

IllicitEncounters网站的莎拉．哈特利说：“恶劣天气显然是注册人数激增的原因之一。对于我们来说，英格兰西南部是个相对比较‘安静’的地区，但在过去三天里，有900多名新成员来自多赛特郡、德文郡和康沃尔郡。”

“也许这些已婚男女一直在等待合适的时机，以免被同事，尤其是被伴侣发现。”

该网站于2003年成立，目前在全国已有35万名会员，其中大多数人为年龄在36岁至40岁之间的专业人士。

Vocabulary:

be snowed in：被雪困住

swathe：a strip, belt, or long and relatively narrow extent of anything（长而窄的地带）

prying：impertinently or unnecessarily curious or inquisitive（爱打听的）

sign-up：an act or instance of signing up（注册）