In rainy London, always carry your "brolly" BIG Ben, the Queen, a plate of ham and eggs-no, no, no. If you're looking for a  symbol of Britain, only one thing passes the test-the umbrella. Now, I know what you're thinking--we have rain in China and we have umbrellas too. Certainly, I will never forget the way it rained when I lived in Beijing:the sweets became instant rivers and the sky flashed with lightning for hours on end. People dove for cover under bin bags, the shops were emptied of their plastic ponchos within seconds,and I found myself soaked from head to foot, my poorly-chosen skirt and T-shirt now totally see-through. This would never have happened in Britain. For one thing, during my year in Beijing, it only really rained at about 10 times.  But although we never get a Beijing-style washout in London, the drizzle that does fall is all but constant. Even when the sky is perfectly blue, you can be sure it's going to cloud over and start drizzling again within the hour. And when it does, there is chaos. Trains stop, drains block, and buses break down as if this was the first time the local authorities had seen this wet stuff coming out of the clouds. So--as with so many things in the UK-it's up to ordinary people to sort themselves out. No self-respecting Briton will ever leave home without his "brolly" ---as the umbrella is affectionately known. A brolly has hundreds of uses, even on rare rain-free days. A real gentleman of London will use his umbrella as a walking stick. A traditional game of cricket can be played using an umbrella as a hat. Nor do you ever have to be afraid of robbers-your umbrella doubles as a defensive weapon. There is no brolly more British than my own. But it's not from London or Manchester or any where in the UK. It was a gift from my Chinese teacher--in Beijing.  How fitting that my No. l symbol of Brutishness-like almost everything in Britain-was made in China. The tone of the articles is  _  .
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