One day, I happened to meet an Englishman in the street and soon we began to talk. As I was talking about how I was studying English, the foreigner seemed to be very surprised, gently shaking his head and saying “You don’t say!”
I was confused, and I thought, “Perhaps this is not a right thing to talk about.” Then I said to him, “Well, shall we talk about the Great Wall? Have you ever visited it?”
“Certainly! Everyone back home will laugh at me if I leave here without seeing it. The Great Wall is wonderful! ” “Yes, it is one of the wonders in the world. And people of many countries have come to visit it.” As I went on telling him more about it, he stopped me again, “You don’t say!”
I couldn’t help asking, “Why couldn’t I talk about it?”
“Well, I didn’t stop you talking about it,” he answered, greatly surprised.
“Didn’t you say ‘You don’t say!’?” I asked again.
Hearing this, the foreigner laughed loudly. He began to explain, “’You don’t say!’ means ‘Really’. Perhaps you know little about English idioms(習慣用語).”
Wow! How foolish I was! Since then I have been careful with English idioms.
【小題1】What made the foreigner laugh loudly?
| A．English idioms. |
| B．The writer’s question. |
| C．Their talking about the Great Wall |
| D．The writer’s way of learning English |
【小題2】Where does the story most probably happen?
| A．In China. | B．In America. |
| C．In England. | D．In Japan. |
【小題3】The English idiom “You don’t say!” means _______.
| A．Thank you | B．Excuse me | C．OK | D．Really |
【小題4】What does the writer learn from his own experience? He should _______.
| A．improve his spoken English |
| B．speak with foreigners in a polite way |
| C．pay attention to English idioms |
| D．be brave enough talking with foreigners |
【小題5】The story tells us _______ between languages in different countries.
| A．the difference | B．the popularity |
| C．the grammar rule | D．the change |
