Once there was a teacher who took all of his students for tea. What made the student surprised was that all the{#blank#}1{#/blank#}on the table were different. Each of them took a cup and stalled drinking their own tea, looking at the others' cups.

    The teacher said, "Do you notice your behavior(行为)? You are all looking at each other's tea cups and some of you even envy(羡慕)the{#blank#}2{#/blank#}cups of others. "Then he{#blank#}3{#/blank#}on." I put the different cups here on purpose(故意地)!Life is like this tea. You all have the same thing in your cups—tea. And yet you can't{#blank#}4{#/blank#}enjoy it with your envy of another's cup. You forget{#blank#}5{#/blank#}your own life when you envy someone else's life. So now, taste your own tea! Does it matter from which cup it comes?"

    Asking for information or help is very common and necessary (必要的). In English,"{#blank#}1{#/blank#} are the restrooms?" and "Could you please tell me where the restrooms are？?" are {#blank#}2{#/blank#} requests—both are correct English, but the first could sound {#blank#}3{#/blank#}. It's important to use correct languages, but sometimes this is not {#blank#}4{#/blank#}. We need to learn how to be polite when we make requests.

    In English, just {#blank#}5{#/blank#} in Chinese, we change the way we speak when {#blank#}6{#/blank#} with different people. The {#blank#}7{#/blank#} you use might depend on whom you are speaking to {#blank#}8{#/blank#} how well you know them. Usually in English polite questions are longer and {#blank#}9{#/blank#} extra language such as "Could you please...?" or "Can I ask...?" Sometimes, we might even need to spend some time {#blank#}10{#/blank#} into a question or request.