阅读理解。 For thousands of years, the most important two buildings in any British village have been the churchand the pub. Traditionally, the church and the pub ar e at the heart of any village or town, where the people gather together to socialize and exchange news. As a result, British pubs are often old and well preserved. Many of them have become historic sites. The most famous example is the pub in the city of Nottingham called "The Old Trip to Jerusalem", which dates back to the year 1189 AD and is probably the oldest pub in England. However, British pubs are not just for kings and queens; they welcome people from all classes and parts of society. On a cold night, the pub's landlord or landlady can always find a warm place for you by the fire. There is always honest and hearty food and plenty of drink available at an affordable price. That's how things used to be. Things are beginning to change. It is said that the credit crunch(信贷紧缩) is causing 39 British pubs a week to go out of business. People do not have enough spare money to spend on beer. Recently, the UK government banned smoking in all pubs, and that may also have affected the number of customers going to pubs. This decline is happening despite the fact that in 2005 the UK government started to allow pubs to stay open after 1l pm. Previously, with 1l pm as closing time, customers would have to drink quite quickly, meaning they sometimes got more drunk than they would if allowed to drink slowly. The British habit of drinking a lot very quickly is known as "binge drinking", and it causes long-term health problems for people and problems with violent crime for communities. In order to save their businesses, pubs are trying to change with the market. British pubs now offer something for everyone. A lot of pubs us ed to be "Working Men's Clubs", meaning that women could not usually enter. Today, however, women can freely enter 99% of pubs without experiencing any problems. Perhaps things are changing for the better after all.