In Canada you can find dogs, cats, horses and so on in almost every family. These are their pets. 【小题1】 Before they keep them in their houses, they take them to animal hospitals to give them injections (注射) so that they won’t carry diseases. They have special animal food stores though they can get animal food in almost every kind of stores. 【小题2】

When you visit people’s houses, they would be happy to show you their pets and they are very proud of them. You will also find that almost every family has a bird feeder in their garden. All kinds of binds are welcomed to come and have a good meal. 【小题3】 Nobody is allowed to kill any animals in Canada. 【小题4】 If you killed an animal, you would be punished. If an animal happened to run over by a car, people would be very sad about it.

【小题5】 One of them might be their families are not as close as ours. When children grow up, they leave their parents and start their own life. Then the old will feel lonely. But pets can solve the problems. They can be good friends and never leave them alone.

After coming to America, the use of “yes” and “no” brings me a lot of trouble, because the use in Korean is different from that in English. For example, if I am asked, “Haven’t you had dinner yet?” and I have not had dinner yet, then in Korean I usually say “Yes, I haven’t.” But in English, I have to say, “No, I haven’t.”

Because of this, my friends often get the opposite meaning from what I want to give them. One day, I had dinner with an American student, Bob. He asked me some questions and I answered them sincerely. A few days later, I found some roommates thought that I came from D.P.R.Korea. One day, I stopped by Bob’s room and asked why he was spreading the wrong information. “Oh, you told me that. Don’t you remember?” he said. “When I asked you ‘You are not from D.P.R.Korea, are you?’ you clearly answered, ‘Yes, of course.’ Did not it mean that you are from D.P.R. Korea?”

One weekend night, my roommate Mark brought his children into the dorm (宿舍). They made some noise while playing. The next morning, I met Mark. He asked me with a smile, “Didn’t my children make noise last night? Didn’t it make you uncomfortable?” Because I did not mind the noise at all, I clearly said “Yes!” The smile suddenly disappeared from Mark’s face, and he said, “I am sorry about that. They are going right now. See you later.” I could not understand what he was sorry about, and I just said, “OK. Bye!” After a moment of thinking, I realized how stupid I was. That evening, I explained to Mark and said sorry to him. I knew he thought that I had been very rude.

Now to deal with this problem, I have set simple rules: First, take a five-second break if I am not sure of “yes”or “no”. Second, use “pardon me”, so the person may explain to me in a direct way.