One day, I happened to meet an Englishman in a store and soon we began to talk. As I was talking about how I was studying English, the foreigner seemed to be very surprised, gently shaking his head and saying, “You don’t say! You don’t say!” I was puzzled（困惑的）, and I thought, “Perhaps this is not a right thing to talk about.” So I said to him, “Well, shall we talk about the Great Wall? Have you ever been there?”
“Certainly. When I’m back home, everyone will laugh at me if I leave here without seeing it. The Great Wall is wonderful!” he answered.
“Yes, it is one of the wonders in the world. And people from all over the world have come to visit it,” I added. As I was telling him more about it, he said again, “You don’t say!”
I couldn’t help asking, “Why do you ask me not to talk about it?”
“Well, I didn’t ask you to do so,” he answered, greatly surprised.
“Didn’t you say ‘You don’t say!’?” I asked again.
Hearing this, the foreigner laughed loudly. He began to explain. “‘You don’t say!’ means ‘Really?’. Perhaps you know little about English idioms（习惯用语）.”
Wow! How foolish I was! Since then I have been careful with English idioms.
【小题1】Why was the writer puzzled?| A．Because the Englishman knew the Great Wall so well. |
| B．Because the Englishman had some trouble understanding him. |
| C．Because he thought the Englishman was not very polite. |
| D．Because he thought the Englishman asked him to stop talking. |
| A．He thought it was awful. | B．He thought it was wonderful. |
| C．He thought it was common. | D．He thought it was bad. |
| A．He laughed at the writer. |
| B．He got mad and shouted at the writer. |
| C．He walked away without saying a word. |
| D．He laughed and explained the meaning of the idiom to the writer. |
| A．Be careful! | B．Stop talking! |
| C．Really? | D．It’s hard to say! |
| A．Culture. | B．Geography. | C．Science. | D．Sports. |
