In England, people often talk about the weather because they can have four seasons in one day. In the morning the weather is warm just like in spring. An hour later black clouds come and then it rains hard. The weather gets a little cold. In the late afternoon the sky will be sunny, the sun will begin to shine, and it will be summer at this time of a day.

    In England, people can also have summer in winter, or have winter in summer. So in winter they can swim sometimes, and in summer sometimes they should take warm clothes.

    When you go to England, you will see that some English people usually take an umbrella or a raincoat with them in the sunny morning, but you should not laugh at them.

    If you don't take an umbrella or a raincoat, you will regret (后悔) later in the day.

    "How are you?" is a nice question. It's a friendly way that people in the United States greet each other, but "How are you?" is also a very unusual question. It's a question that often doesn't have an answer. The person who asks "How are you?" hopes to hear the answer "Fine", even if the Derson's friend isn't fine. The reason is that "How are you?" isn't really a question and "Fine", isn't really an answer. They are simply other ways of saying "Hello!" or "Hi!".

    Sometimes, people also don't say exactly what they mean. For example, when someone asks "Do you agree?". the other person might be thinking, "No, I disagree. I think you're wrong. "But it isn't very polite to disagree so strongly, so the other person might say "I'm not  so sure. "It's a nicer way to say that you don't agree with someone.

    People also don't say exactly what they are thinking when they finish talking with other people. For example, many talks over the phone finish when one person says "I have to go now. "Often, the person who wants to hang up gives an excuse: "Someone's at the door." "Something is burning on the stove. "The excuse might be real, or it might not. Perhaps the person who wants to hang up simply doesn't want to talk any more, but it isn't polite to say that. The excuse is more polite, and it doesn't hurt the other person.

    Whether they are greeting each other, talking about an idea, or finishing a talk, people often don't say exactly what they are thinking. It's an important way that people try to be nice to each other, and it's part of the game of language.

    February 14th, Valentine's Day, is a complicated but interesting occasion. First of all, Valentine's Day is not a holiday from work. No one gets a day off. In many countries it is observed by sending cards to your friends and candies or flowers to your husband or wife if you're married, or to your boyfriend or girlfriend if you're not married. In Japan, some girls even give their fathers chocolates.

    Why is this holiday for people in love called Valentine's Day?

    One explanation comes from a Christian man whose name was something like "Valentine". He lived at a time when the Roman Emperor refused to allow any Roman soldiers to get married for any reason. Many couples came to Valentine to be married. So he would secretly marry them in a Christian ceremony. He was discovered and put in prison by the Emperor. One tradition says that he wrote notes to his friends by marking on leaves and then throwing them out of the window of his prison. The leaves were shaped like a heart. Valentine was killed on February 14th and Valentine's Day recalls his tragic death.

    On Valentine's Day, American elementary school children make or buy Valentine cards, write the name of a classmate on them, and take them to school and put them in a special Valentine's Day box. And then on that day the box is opened, the cards are taken out and given out.

    Well, it's time for WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. Today we have some expressions offered by Francisco Carlos, a listener in Brazil.

    The first is "face the music". One story says the expression began in the theater. New actors, shaking with fear, were told that their only way out was to go out and face the music. The music was played by the musicians seated in front of the stage.

    A similar expression is "face up to". It means to accept something difficult or painful. For example, a man must face up to the fact that he lied about a business deal and will lose his job.

    A child was told off by his mother at home because of his bad grades in study, but he put a good face on it before his friends.

    Meeting someone face-to-face can be exciting, especially if the other person is famous. It is an expression one might use after visiting the White House and meeting the president face to face. Or a teacher might ask for a face to-face meeting with the parents of a student in trouble.

    Almost 500 years ago, William Shakespeare also used some words about music in his play Two Gentlemen of Verona. Valentine secretly loves Lady Sylvia. His servant jokes that Valentine's love for her is as hard to see as the nose on a man's face, thus creating another expression: as plain as the nose on your face. Of course, a man's nose can't be hidden.

    Today, with the development of society, people all over the world almost have the same hobbies That is to say, we are not very different in some way. However, cultures are still quite different. In the East and in the West, social rules are not the same.

    In the East, it takes a long time to become someone's friend. People are very close to their friends. When people from the West meet you, they will call you a friend right away. That doesn't mean they are close to you.

    When people from the East meet you, they want to know about your age, your salary (薪水) and whether you are married or not. For people from the West, these are not polite questions. They think such kind of questions violates their privacy (隐私).

    Family is important for everyone. However, in the East, kids live with their parents for a long time. They still listen to them after they grow up.

    In the West, independence is very important. After their kids grow up, they leave home. They don't have to listen to their parents.

    In the East and in the West, people think differently, too. People in the West think less and act more. In the East, people notice relationships between things, and they often keep their opinions quiet.