Living in a foreign country can be exciting, but it can also be confusing (令人迷惑的).A group of Americans who taught English in other countries recently discussed their experiences. They decided that miscommunications were always possible, even over something as simple as “yes” and “no”.

On her first day in Micronesia, an island in the Pacific, Lisa thought people weren’t paying any attention to her. The day was hot. She went into a store and asked,“Do you have cold drinks?”The woman there didn’t say anything. Lisa repeated the question. Still the woman said nothing. She later learned that the woman had answered her: She had raised her eyebrows (眉毛), which in Micronesia means“yes”.

Jan remembered an experience she had in Bulgaria, a country in Europe. She went to a restaurant that was known for its cabbage. She asked the waiter, “Do you have cabbage today?” He nodded his head. Jan waited, but the cabbage never came. In that country, a nod means “no”.

Tom had a similar problem when he arrived in India. After explaining something in class, he asked his students if they understood. They answered with many different nods and shakes of the head. He thought some students had not understood, so he explained again. When he asked again, they did the same thing. He soon found out that his students did understand. In India, people nod and shake their heads in different ways depending on where they come from. You have to know where a person is from to understand whether they mean “yes” or “no”.

If you meet aBritish person in the street, it is very likely that he or she will apologize whether it is his or her fault (过错) or not.

It seems that Britain is becoming a nation where everyone is saying sorry. Almost each person says sorry about eight times each day—and one in eight people apologize as many as 20 times a day.

As you may have seen, the British apologize more often than members of other cultures. A research shows that in many cases, people’s love of saying sorry in Britain goes a little further than it does for Americans. For example, about 15 British people would say ”sorry” while only 10 from the US would do this if they sneezed, if they corrected someone’s mistake of if someone knocked into them.

In the old days, “sorry” was used to express regret and sadness for having done something wrong. But now British people use the expression as a way of showing good manners. For example, they might say “sorry” instead of “excuse me”, “pardon”, “what” or “whatever”.

People in Britain also use sorry when they share the same feeling with others—so they might say “sorry about the rain”.

However,British people’s use of “sorry” may make things very confusing (迷惑不清) and difficult for foreigners who are not familiar with their ways. But actually, people in Britain pay much attention to the feelings of others. This is the very reason why they apologize every day.

Once upon a time there was no tea at all in England. People there used to drink a light beer (啤酒). No coffee or milk but large glasses of beer stood on the breakfast table!

When tea was first brought to England, an old couple got some as a special treat. But they did not know how it should be used. They cooked the leaves in hot water, and spread them on a piece of bacon (熏肉) which they were going to have for dinner. They ate the leaves, and throw the tea away! However, tea is becoming as popular as coffee and milk in England today.

Tea is the leaf of a plant which grows widely in China, Japan and some other countries. Tea farmers usually grow a great many tea plants on a large piece of land. When the tea leaves are ready to be picked, it is the busiest time for tea farmers in a year. They pull off the leaves and dry them. In their spare time, they pick out the best leaves and get them ready for market. In China, whenever a visitor comes into a house, he is served with a cup of tea.

Every country has its favorite food. Italians like to eat pizza. Indians like to eat hot food. Japanese like to eat fish, often they don’t cook it.

  In England, one of the most popular kinds of food is fish and chips. People usually buy it in a fish and chip shop. They put it in paper bags, and take it home, or to their workplace. Sometimes they eat it in the park or on the road. The world’s favorite food is American fast food. If you go to some important cities in the world, you can find people eating hamburgers and chips.

  Fish and chips, and Chinese take-away food are very popular in England. But they are less popular in the USA, they eat take-away food, too, like chicken. But the most popular kind of take-away food is the hamburger. It looks like bread with meat in it. Ham(火腿) is a kind of pork, but the hamburger does not have any pork in it. The beef is inside a kind of cake. Hamburgers are delicious. They are also popular in England and Australia.

Hip-hop dancing (街舞) is popular with many young people today. They like it because they can invent（发明）their own moves. They use this dance to show their love for life. It also shows that they feel good about life, that they just want to be themselves and enjoy life, and that they are not afraid of problems.

Hip-hop dancing has a history of more than 20 years. It first began in the 1980s in the USA. In early times, in New York and Los Angles, many young black people often danced to the music in the streets. They used their legs, arms, heads and even shoulders to dance. Many young people still use most of these moves today.

Hip-hop dancing became popular all over the world because of the 1983 film Flashdance. Some people performed (表演) Hip-hop dancing in the movie. People enjoyed their performance. They began to dance like them. Then it became popular. There are two kinds of Hip-hop dancing: new school and old school. More and more young people are learning Hip-hop dancing. People believe that it is a good way to exercise their bodies, and that it is good for their health.

    There are some stories behind English words.

    You’ve spent a lot of time studying how to use English in a right way. But have you ever wondered why English speakers say some of the things they say? For example， why do they say “ an easy ask “is” a piece of cake”? Why do the two letters “OK” means “all right”?

    Many English words and phrases have stories behind them. Sometimes these stories can help us look back into the old Western history. Let’s take a look at a few of the original(起初的) common English words and phrases：

    OK

    OK was an American who lived in the 19th century. His name was “Old Kinderhook”. In one year he was trying to take the place of the leader of his town. His supporters went around the town shouting“ OK! OK!” The supporters thought their future leader was “all right”. The expression caught on， and now if something is“ all right”， people like to say“ OK”.

    Boss

    Is your boss nice to you? If not， just be glad you weren’t living in the old times. Back to that time. bosses could do anything bad to their men and could even beat them! That explains why the word “boss” comes from an old German word meaning“ to beat”.

    A piece of cake

    A famous American writer named Ogden Nash lived in the 1930s. Many readers enjoyed his poems and wrote them down in their notebooks. In one of his poems， Nash wrote， “Her picture’s in the papers now， and life’s a piece of cake.” His readers found these words interesting and quickly wrote them down. They thought that if one picture in a newspaper could make you famous， wouldn’t life be easy? For nearly 70 years， “a piece of cake” has meant any task or activity that is easy.

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One day, an American man Simon went to London to visit his friend, Rick. Rick told him that his flat was on the first floor. When he arrived, Simon went straight to the first floor of the building. But a man told him that there was no Rick on that floor. Do you know why?

In fact, the British call the first floor of a building the ground floor. The floor above the ground floor is the first floor, but Americans would call it the second floor.

The story shows that there are a few culture differences between Britain and America, though the British and Americans both speak English.

The British don’t like showing their feelings. They hardly start a small talk with strangers. For example, on the train the British often spend their time reading newspapers or books. But Americans are quite different. They’re more active and easier to talk with.

The British and Americans may use different terms for the same things. The British usually use “football” “holiday” and “lift”, but Americans like to use “soccer” “vacation” and “elevator”.

Most of us have many pencils. But do you know how these common writing tools came into being?

It started in Rome

The first example of a pencil-type instrument probably came from ancient Rome. There, a thin piece of metal was used to draw onto an early form of paper. It was also used to make marks on the page.

England’s find

Around 1564 graphite (石墨) was discovered near Cumbria, England. It was regarded as a perfect way to mark their sheep. But the graphite was very soft. So people provided it with a covering.

Italian changes

A couple from Italy thought of a better idea. They hollowed (掏空) out a wooden stick and then placed a graphite stick inside it. This created a wooden holder for the graphite.

German improvements

In 1839 Germany’s Lothar von Faber invented a way to make graphite sticks all the same. He also invented a machine to cut the pencil wood.

American production

By the late 1860s in America, pencils were in great need. American companies began designing machines to produce them. It helped meet the need and cut the cost of pencils by 50%.

Japanese ideas

In 1915, Japan’s Tokuji Hayakawa created a mechanical pencil (自动笔) which was similar to one used now.

Today both kinds of pencils are very popular with the wooden pencil being number one. More than 6 billion wooden pencils are produced in 40 different countries each year.

In the passage, _____________is the first country to use a pencil-type instrument.

It can be learned that ______________.

The best title for this passage is ______________ .