One of the things to be learnt in a foreign language is guessing all the time what kind of thing to come when listening to someone talking. People do this all the time in their own language, so it is necessary (必要的) to do this in a foreign language, too. Here are some examples.

    ⒈"What's the matter?" "I went to a party last night, so I…"

    ⒉"I feel so tired these days."" I think you'd better…"

    ⒊"Of course, she never stops talking. She is one of the most…"

    You can see from the above three examples that the context (上下文) helps a lot in understanding what is being talked about. So "guessing "is very important in understanding English, especially (尤其)spoken English.

    If you meet a British person in the street, it is very likely that he or she will apologize whether it is his or her fault（过错） or not.

    It seems that Britain is becoming a nation where everyone is saying sorry. Almost each person says sorry about eight times each day-and one in eight people apologize as many as 20 times a day.

    As you may have seen, the British apologize more often than members of other cultures. A research shows that in many cases, people's love of saying sorry in Britain goes a little further than it does for Americans. For example, about 15 British people would say"sorry" while only 10 from the[US would do this if they sneezed, if they corrected someone's mistake or if someone knocked into them.

    In the old days, "sorry" was used to express regret and sadness for having done something wrong. But now British people use the expression as a way of showing good manners. For example, they might say "sorry" instead of "excuse me", "pardon", "what" or "whatever".

    People in Britain also use sorry when they share the same feeling with others-so they might say "sorry about the rain".

    However, British people's use of "sorry" may make things very confusing（迷惑不清）and difficult for foreigners who are not familiar with their ways. But actually, people in Britain pay much attention to the feelings of others. This is the very reason why they apologize every t day.

  First Frenchman: I once heard someone shout, "Look out." I put my head out of a window and a glass of water fell on me. It seems that "look out" may mean "Don't look out."

  Second Frenchman: I was once on a ship and heard the captain shout, “All hands on deck (甲板). I put my hands on the deck and someone walked on them.”

  Third Frenchman: I once went early in the morning to the doctor's and his nurse came to the door and said, "He's not up yet. Come back in half an hour." When I went a second time for him, she said, "He's not down yet." I had to go away again. Later I thought the doctor should be in the house in the evening, so I went there once more. "Oh, how sorry I am! He's not in! I'd better tell him to wait for you if you could come tomorrow." said the nurse.

  "Well! He's not up, he is not down, and he is not in. please tell me where he stays!" I said angrily.