Good manners are always good manners. That’s what I thought until I married Alexander, who is Russian.

When I first met Alexander and he said to me in Russian, “Nalei mnye chai—pour me some tea”, I got angry and answered, “Pour it yourself.” Translated into English, without a “Could you..?” or a “please”, it sounded really rude to me. But in Russian it was fine—you don’t have to add any polite words.

However, when I took Alexander home to meet my parents in the UK, I had to give him a good lesson about pleases and thank you (which he thought were completely unnecessary), and to teach him to say sorry if someone happened to step on his toes, and to smile, smile, smile.

Another thing that Alexander just couldn’t understand was why people say things like “Would you mind passing me the salt, please?” He said, “It’s only the salt, for God’s sake! What do you say in English if you want a real favour?”

He also watched in amazement when, at a dinner party in England, we swallowed some really disgusting food and I said, “Mmmm...delicious.” In Russia, people are much more direct. The first time Alexander’s mother came to our house for dinner in Moscow, she told me that my soup needed more flavouring. Afterwards, when we argued about it, my husband said, “Do you prefer your dinner guests to lie?”

Alexander complained that in England he felt like an idiot because in Russia if you smile all the time people think you are mad. In fact, this is exactly what my husband’s friends thought of me the first time I went to Russia because I smiled at everyone, and always said “please” and “thank you” in Russian.

At home we now have an agreement. If we’re speaking Russian, he can say “Pour me some tea”, and just make a noise like a grunt (咕哝声) when I give it to him. But when we’re speaking English, he has to add a “please”, a “thank you”, and a smile.

【小题1】What can we know from what Alexander said?

A．He didn’t think politeness was necessary.

B．He didn’t like the writer’s politeness.

C．He wasn’t used to the English politeness.

D．He wasn’t willing to have good manners.

【小题2】What did Alexander’s friends think of the author when they first met her?

A．She was noble.	B．She was strange.
C．She was lovely.	D．She was impolite.

【小题3】What can we tell from their agreement?

A．They respect each other.	B．They change a lot for each other.
C．They learn from each other.	D．They fail to fit in with each other.

【小题4】What topic is the text mainly about?

A．Good manners.	B．Human relations.
C．Culture shock.	D．Mixed marriages.