THE BRITISH MENTALITY
Although I had stayed in England for over a year, it was difficult
for me to understand the British mentality. Traveling to the office everyday by
train, I watched people concealing their faces behind newspaper. They rarely
conversed with each other, occasionally lifting their eyebrows to look at their
fellow passengers. But when I started a conversation under the pretext of the
weather I found many had a natural gift for gossip.
VOCABULARY
DEFINITIONS
Mentality: Mind
To conceal: To hide
To converse: To talk
Occasionally: Seldom, rarely
To lift: To raise
Pretext: Excuse/ false reason
Gift: Talent, skill Gossip: Friendly chat
EXERCISES
Complete
the sentences with a suitable form of the words defined above
1. Maggie
crossed the room, ______________ the lid of the pot and sniffed at the
contents.
2. Under
the
______________ of wanting to return a pen which
she had left behind, I visited her.
3. It
turned out that Jane had inherited a natural ______________ for music.
4. They
were _______________ intimately,
opening up their private problems to each other with a freedom well beyond the
usual.
5. Paul
confesses his doubts such as he would have _____________ from
anyone he did not trust absolutely.
READING
COMPREHENSION
1. The
writer was quite surprised …………...
A. as he could understand the British mind
B. because almost noone on the train was talking to each other
C. since most people were reading newspaper
D. after he saw people traveling by train
E. when he saw the British way of life.
2. Using the excuse of the weather
A. doesn't work all the time
B. is how one can get the British to talk
C. is good for gossiping about nature
D. requires natural gift for gossip
E. makes it easy to change the subject.
3. It can be inferred from the passage that
A. people in England cover their faces with a
newspaper
B. the British do not look at anybody in the
train
C. the British are in fact have a tendency to
talking
D. Englishmen always read something
E. the writer wanted to stay for another year.******
0 comments:
Post a Comment