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! You don't say!" I was puzzled (困惑的), and I thought, "Perhaps this is not a right thing to talk about." So I said to him, "Well, shall we talk about the Great Wall? Have you ever been
there?"
"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 do you ask me not to talk about it?"
"Well, I didn't ask you to do so," 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 (惯用语).
"Wow! How foolish I was! Since then I have been careful with English idioms.
1. The writer was puzzled because ________.
A. the foreigner knew the Great Wall so well
B. the foreigner had some trouble in understanding him
C. the writer himself didn't understand the meaning of "You don' t say!"
D. the foreigner was not polite
2. What made the foreigner laugh?
A. The wonder of the world.
B. The English idiom.
C. The writer's talking about the Great Wall.
D. The writer's question.
3. When the foreigner used the idiom "You don't say!", he meant________.
A. "Shut up!"
B. "Really?"
C. "Stop talking!"
D. "Look out!"
4. The story probably (可能) happened in_________.
A. China
B. America
C. England
D. Australia
