Millions of British people have given up the traditional “thank you” and took the place of it with the less formal(正式的) “cheers”, according to a survey.
Although the common person will say “thank you” nearly 5,000 times a year, one in three are more likely to add a “cheers” or “ta” where it’s needed to show they are fashionable.
One in twenty now say “nice one” instead, while the younger are more likely to offer a “cool” than a “thank you”.
“Merci”, “fab” and even “gracias” were also listed as common expressions to use, as “much appreciated(感激)”.
One in twenty who took part in the survey of 2,000 people by the Food Network UK for Thank You Day, which is marked on November 24, 2011, said a formal “thank you” was now not often needed in everyday conversation. More than one in ten adults said they regularly(有规律地) won’t say thank you if they are in a bad mood. Most people stated(陈述) that saying thank you was something that their parents trained them. A huge 70 percent of those who are questioned will say thank you to a person’s face without even meaning it, while one fifth avoid(避免)saying it when they know they should.
It seems our friends and family get the stress of our bad manners. Half of them admit (承认) they’re not good at thanking those closest to them. Many of them explain that they don’t say “thank you” because their family “already know I’m thankful”.
When spoken words won’t do, it falls to a nice text to do the job for most people.
One third will still send a handwritten thank-you note---but 45 percent admit it’s been more than six months since they tried to send one.
A quarter of British people say “thank you” with food, with 23 percent cooking a meal to show their appreciation to someone. Another 15 percent make a cake.
It follows that 85 percent of people will be angry because of not getting the gratitude (感激)they feel they should receive.
【小题1】Most of the people who took part in the survey say that they say “thank you” _______.
| A．when they are in good mood | B．completely out of habit |
| C．when they feel truly grateful | D．purely out of politeness |
| A．different ways of expressing gratitude are all fashionable |
| B．people should avoid saying “thank you” nowadays |
| C．a thank-you note is still appreciated by most people |
| D．people in a bad mood never say “thank you” |
| A．Most people express their gratitude to others by buying food for them. |
| B．About fifty percent of people try not to say thank you when they should. |
| C．Most people may feel natural when they fail to receive others’ gratitude. |
| D．Many people think it unnecessary to say thanks to their family members. |
“Why is Mandarin (普通话) difficult?” and “Is it hard to learn Mandarin?” are common Baidu searches for beginners in the Mandarin language.
Grammar
Compared to languages like French or English, Mandarin grammar is a piece of cake.
Pinyin Pronunciation
Pinyin may be a challenge for many, as Mandarin sounds don’t often happen within the English language.
Tones
In our view, it’s about time we stop asking “is it hard to learn Mandarin Chinese”.
| A．Instead, just start learning. |
| B．Maybe we should use Mandarin more. |
| C．How can we learn Mandarin easily and fast? |
| D．However, with practice it shouldn’t be a problem. |
| E．Mandarin doesn’t have any of those different tenses. |
| F．They may be one of the most difficult parts in learning Mandarin. |
| G．How can we improve the ability to communicate in Mandarin? |
Can you write down a Chinese word being read to you? Sometimes it can be difficult when you find the word is not included in most dictionaries.
Lu Jialei, was born in 1999, from Hangzhou Foreign Language School, won the CCTV Chinese Character (汉字) Spelling Contest（竞赛） on Oct 18th, 2013. About 160 people competed. The host read a word to the contestant(选手), explained its meaning and gave sample sentences. The contestant was needed to write down the word.
Winning the contest was a “surprise” to Lu. “I was not the smartest one,” she said. “But I paid attention to details.” To prepare for the contest, she and her teammates studied the Modern Chinese Dictionary for 10 days. There are more than 56,000 entries (词条) including characters, words and phrases in it. She also had a secret weapon(武器). She studied how Chinese characters were formed.
“When others paid attention to the plot of a story, she looked at how writers use words and sentences to express themselves,” said Su Yunsheng, Lu’s Chinese teacher. Su is happy to see students like Lu find the beauty of Chinese language.
“Besides using something Chinese and having Chinese traditional festivals, learning to write Chinese characters is also an important part of inheriting (传承) Chinese culture,” said Su.
【小题1】Lu Jialei studied the Modern Chinese Dictionary ________ for the contest.| A．for more than one week | B．as long as one week |
| C．for more than half a month | D．as long as half a month |
| A．after the contestant read the word to the host |
| B．before the host read the word to the contestant |
| C．after the host explained its meaning and gave sample sentences |
| D．before the contestant explained its meaning and gave sample sentences |
| A．she paid attention to details |
| B．she was the smartest contestant |
| C．she found the beauty of Chinese language |
| D．she studied how Chinese characters were formed |
| A．Liu Jialei may be a college student now. |
| B．Liu Jialei is hard-working. |
| C．It’s easy to win the contest . |
| D．More and more students find the beauty of Chinese language. |
Mr. Smith had a hotel near the biggest train station in London. A lot of foreigners stayed there for the night. Mr. Smith only knew English, so he found it not easy for him to understand the people from other countries such as Russia, France and Japan. He thought Russian was boring but Japanese was interesting. So he asked a friend of his who knew Japanese to teach him. He studied hard and happily. At first he learned some, but soon he found that it wasn’t easy to remember Japanese words. His friend asked him to write down the useful words on his notebook so that he could use them. He did as he was told. He found it helpful for him to do so.
One evening, there were a lot of people in the dining room of his hotel. They were all busy eating something, but a Japanese was walking up and down there. He seemed to be waiting for someone. Mr. Smith thought to himself, “Maybe the man is hungry and wants to eat something, but he doesn’t know any English. I’ll try to help him.”
Because Mr. Smith knew only a little Japanese, he had to take out his notebook and showed the sentence “I am very hungry” to the Japanese.
To his surprise, the Japanese took a look at it and gave him two dollars, and then left the hotel.
【小题1】Maybe Mr. Smith was from ________.| A．Russia | B．China | C．Japan | D．England |
| A．interesting | B．difficult | C．boring | D．easy |
| A．thought the man was hungry |
| B．found the man was really upset(心烦的) |
| C．could practise Japanese with the man |
| D．knew who the man was waiting for |
| A．walk up and down |
| B．teach him more useful words |
| C．stay in the dining room for dinner |
| D．help him serve other foreigners |
| A．Mr. Smith knew three foreign languages. |
| B．The Japanese thought Mr. Smith was a man asking for money. |
| C．The Japanese might be waiting for someone to have supper together. |
| D．The Japanese gave Mr. Smith two dollars and then left the hotel. |
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