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(习惯用语).”
Wow! How foolish I was! Since then I have been careful with English idioms.
小题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小题2:Where does the story most probably happen?
A．In China.
B．In America.
C．In England.
D．In Japan.小题3:The English idiom “You don’t say!” means _______.
A．Thank you
B．Excuse me
C．OK
D．Really小题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小题5:The story tells us _______ between languages in different countries.
A．the difference
B．the popularity
C．the grammar rule
D．the change
