Clearly you have been watching too many episodes of Downton Abbey. Anyway, afternoon tea is a posh (aristocratic/top 0.1% of the population) snack (as we non-aristocrats would call it) between lunch and dinner that was accompanied by a cup of tea. We regular British people drink tea and eat snacks whenever we feel like it - 8am, 9pm, 2am. In my house while I was growing up, we would have a big dinner at lunch time (weekends mainly) and then tea later. This would consist of a sandwich and a piece of cake or a biscuit that we ate in front of the telly. We were too full from the enormous dinner (called lunch in the U.S.) that all we could manage was small meal. Even now the meal after work/school is called tea whether you drink tea with it or not, and whether it consists of sandwiches or is a main meal.
很明显你是看《唐顿庄园》看多了，但不管怎样下午茶是午餐和晚餐之间搭配茶一起吃的流行(占总人口0.1%的上流社会的贵族)小吃(我们这些平民的叫法)。我们普通英国人随时都可以喝茶吃点心——8am, 9pm, 2am。在我家里，从我小时候开始，午餐时间会吃一顿很丰盛的正餐(主要在周末)，然后喝茶。喝茶时还会看着电视吃三明治、蛋糕或饼干。正餐(美国称之为“午餐”)太丰盛，我们都吃得太撑，所以之后只能少吃点东西。甚至现在放学或下班之后吃的饭都叫“茶点”，无论喝不喝茶，也不管是吃三明治还是吃正餐。
However, if we visit someone in the afternoon (obviously a planned in advance visit), they will make some scones, cake, sandwiches and other delicious stuff to be served and I suppose that is technically ''afternoon tea''. If they were inviting you for dinner, they would say so. If they say nothing, you will absolutely be offered tea and scones/sandwiches/biscuits (cookies in the US) or anything else they have.
然而如果我们下午去拜访别人(肯定是提前约好的)，他们会准备一些烤饼、蛋糕、三明治还有其他美味的食物，我觉得那才是真正意义上的“下午茶”。如果他们邀请你吃晚餐，他们会明确地说是“晚餐”，但如果什么都没说，那就会为你准备茶和烤饼/三明治/饼干(美国称之为“曲奇”)或任何家里有的小吃。
I grew up in the North of England, so it may be different elsewhere, but that is my experience.
我在英格兰北部长大，可能跟其他地方不太一样，但这就是我的经验。
获得376好评的回答@James McCallum:I would like to put forward the case that “Yes, we do!”
我想说“是的，我们还有下午茶”。
Times have changed, tastes have changed but afternoon tea still exists.
时代变了，口味变了，但下午茶依然存在。
Children come home from school at 4pm. Mum/Dad will make them a drink and something to eat. Maybe a sandwich, maybe some cake, maybe a cup of tea… Mum/Dad will probably join in. What do you call this..? Afternoon tea!
孩子下午4点放学回家，妈妈/爸爸会给他们准备点吃的喝的。可能是三明治、蛋糕，也可能是一杯茶，妈妈/爸爸可能也会一起吃。你管这个叫什么?下午茶!
I go shopping with friends/family to the town centre. We’ve looked in all the shops and now we need to sit down and think about which shops to return to for those final purchases. Look at that, it’s almost 4pm… It may be that we sit down for a capuccino and a couple of macarons but I can only think of one way to describe this… Afternoon tea.
我和朋友或家人去市中心购物，已经逛完了所有地方，现在需要坐下来想想该回哪家店把看中的东西买下来。看看表，差不多下午4点了，我们可能会坐下来喝杯卡布奇诺，吃几块马卡龙。但我只能想出一个词来描述这些，那就是“下午茶”。
Do most British still keep the traditional activities such as afternoon tea?
大多数英国人还保持着喝下午茶这样的传统习俗吗?
We’re in the office. Boring! We’ve more or less finished for the day but the clock says no (it’s 4pm). Someone puts the kettle on and we sit down for a chat about the next few days. Ooh someone found a box of cupcakes… Wow! We’ve just had… afternoon tea!
我们坐在办公室里，很无聊!一天的工作差不多做完了，但还没到下班时间(才下午4点钟)。有人会烧点水，我们坐在一起聊聊未来几天的事，哦，有人找到一盒纸杯蛋糕。哇哦，我们刚刚喝了…下午茶!
We may not be using flowery teacups. We’re not dressed like characters from Downton Abbey either. We may not sit there for two hours.
我们可能没有用带花纹的杯子，没有穿得像《唐顿庄园》一样，我们可能没有一坐就是两个小时。
But do we still stop at 4pm for a drink and something to eat??? YES!
但我们仍然会在下午四点停下工作来点吃的喝的吗?是的!
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