Many Chinese students don't pay much attention to spoken English at school. They think it necessary to practice speaking English in class, but not out of class. Here is a story to show you how important it is to speak the English language freely in everyday life.

    A foreigner once got hungry and went into a restaurant in London. He sat down at a table. When the waiter came, the foreigner opened his mouth, put his fingers into it and took them out again in order to express that he wanted something to eat, for he could not speak English. The waiter soon brought a cup of tea. The man shook（摇动）his head. The waiter then took away the tea and brought a cup of coffee. The man again shook his head. He tried again and again, but he wasn't able to make the waiter understand him. Finally another man came in. He spoke English clearly and fluently. In a few minutes, there was a large plate of meat and vegetables on the table before him.

    So you can see a man will go hungry if he doesn't master（掌握）a foreign language.

    Tony stops his car by the side of the road. He is very tired and wants to get some sleep. Just when he lies down on the seat, a man comes and asks him the time. He looks at his watch and says, “It's a quarter past eight in the morning. “ Tony tries to sleep again, but there is another knock on the window of his car. “Sir, do you know what time it is, please?” a woman asks. He has to look at his watch again and tells her, “It's half past eight a. m..”

    Tony can't sleep well because there are too many people knocking at his window. He writes a note and puts it on the window of his car. It says, “I don't know what time it is!”

    Once again Tony tries to get some sleep. Just at that time, a young man knocks at his window and says, “Hi, sir ! It's a quarter to nine a.m. now!”

    Gina comes from England. She is fourteen years old. Her mother is Mrs Johnson. She is a nurse at a hospital. She likes fruit and vegetables. She doesn't eat too much sweet food or meat, so she stays healthy. Gina likes chocolate and candy. But her mother tells her that too much sweet food isn't good for her teeth. Gina likes cola. But her mother tells her that it isn't a kind of healthy drink. Gina thinks her mother's words (话) are right. So she eats well and stays healthy. Gina's father is a bus driver. He likes having meat. He likes sweet food--chocolate and candy too. He eats too much food for dinner so he is fat. Gina and her mother often say to him, "Healthy food and drinks are important to everyone."

    Ray's wedding had gone off smoothly. Everyone seemed to have had a good time. A few people had too good a time; they went home with designated (指派的) drivers. All evening, the gift table remained unguarded. Who would steal anything, Ray thought. He had never heard of such a thing happening at a wedding. But his best friend Aaron said there was a first time for everything. He strolled out regularly from the inside festivities (庆祝) to check on the gift table, making sure no one suspicious was hanging around it.

    Ray and Julia went on a 3-week honeymoon to Italy right after the wedding. When they got back, they opened all the gifts and sent out thank-you notes. But there was one problem. A married couple that used to be good friends had apparently given nothing. This surprised Julia, because Walt and Mary said they were thrilled to be invited. And, they actually seemed to have had a great time at the wedding. Frankly, Ray didn't even care if they hadn't given a gift. He just needed to know whether to send a thank-you note. Ray called Aaron. Aaron said maybe Walt had left an envelope on the gift table like Aaron had. "Yes, but we got your envelope with the cash inside," Ray said. "Maybe my envelope looked too thin, and some thief thought Walt's envelope looked nice and fat."

    Aaron asked Ray if he had looked everywhere for Walt's gift. Had he called up the wedding site to see if anything had been left behind? Ray said that he had looked everywhere and made a lot of calls that were fruitless.

    Ray didn't know what to do. If he sent Walt and Mary a thank-you note for a gift they hadn't given, they would be insulted. If he didn't send them a thank-you note for a gift they had given, they would get angry.

    "What would you do?" Ray asked. Aaron said he would call Walt up and tell him the problem.

    "You can't go wrong with simply being honest," Aaron said.

    "Oh, yes, you can," Ray contradicted (反驳) him. "Sometimes it's best to let sleeping dogs lie." But he thought about it, and finally decided that Aaron was right. He called Walt and told him the problem. Walt said that yes, he had given an envelope. In fact, the envelope contained $500 cash.

    "$500?!" Ray asked. "That's a lot of cash, Walt!" Walt admitted that it was, but he had gotten a fat raise (加薪) early that year and Ray's was the only wedding he'd been to in quite a while. Ray thanked him very much, and apologized sincerely for someone stealing Walt's generous gift. Walt told him that it was "only money".

    When Ray told Aaron about Walt's gift, Aaron laughed. "The only thief at the wedding was Walt! I quit playing cards with him last year because I caught him cheating. And it was only a $10 pot! I'm sure I told you about that."

    "Yes, you did tell me," Ray said. But, of course, he had to send Walt a thank-you note anyway.