Sandwiches of all varieties（种类） are extremely popular, and quick and easy to eat. In fact, British people eat 2.8 billion each year. Today everyone eats sandwiches, but it was not always like that. Amazingly, the humble sandwich that we know today started life as a snack for England’s super-rich（富豪）! The sandwich has a very interesting, and humorous（幽默的）, history!
The snack was named after the Fourth（四世） Earl（伯爵） of Sandwich (an Earl was a wealthy aristocrat（贵族）, who generally owned a lot of land and had political（政治） power（权力）. Sandwich was a frequent gambler（赌徒）, and was so addicted（痴迷，投入） to gambling that he would often refuse to stop even to eat meals! To avoid having to stop gambling, the Earl of Sandwich asked the cooks at his gambling club to prepare him a meal consisting of beef between two slices of bread, so that he always had one hand free to play cards and gamble, and his hands wouldn’t become dirty from the meat.
When other men saw what he was eating, they began to order the same as Sandwich, and so the sandwich was born – beginning as a snack for some of the wealthiest men in England! It quickly became popular and widespread（广泛传播） as a quick and easy food to eat.