Steve and Mark were good friends. They decided to spend their vacation in Haiti. Since they _____ no French, they took a French wordbook with them and hoped it would help them in difficult situations.

The flight was _____ , and the hotel was very comfortable. Each day after breakfast, Steve and Mark_____a picnic lunch and dinner and went off to visit _____ of interest. After a while, the boys became tired of eating picnic meals and decided to eat a big fish dinner in a good restaurant. Unfortunately, they _____ their wordbook in the hotel.

They _____ the menu carefully. After ten minutes, Steve said to Mark, “ I don’t understand this menu.” “Neither do I,” said Mark. “I see poison on this menu. Are they _____ here?” “Maybe. They even spelled poison _____ They spelled it p-o-i-s-s-o-n instead of p-o-i-s-o-n. But it must mean the same thing. Maybe we should go to _____ restaurant. Because I don’t ______ to eat something that will kill me. “ But Mark was ______ So he said, “There is no other restaurant near here, and I’m tired of walking around the city. Let’s order something else instead. It’s _____ here, so the food must be good.”

The boys looked at the menu again. They finally decided to order steak,______ they really wanted fish. The boys just pointed to the word steak, and the waiter ______.

As they were eating they ______ some tourists speaking English. “ This ______ is delicious.”

“We’re lucky we picked a restaurant that’s famous for its fish”.

Steve and Mark wondered about what they ______ . “Famous for its fish? There was no fish on the ______ !” said Mark.

Finally, Steve decided to find out what all this was about. “ Excuse me, how did you order fish when it wasn’t on the menu?” “ Sure it’s on the menu. It’s right here. Poisson.” Steve shouted, “ Poisson. That’s poison ! We were ______ why a restaurant like this could have poison on the menu.”

The tourists ______ One of them said, “ No. Poisson is French for fish.”

   Some years ago, I was hired by an American bank. I received a letter from the head of the Personnel Department that _______. "Dear John, I am quite pleased that you have decided to join us." That "quite" _______ me. I thought he was saying" We're _______ pleased you decided to join us although I _______ we had hired someone else. "Then I discovered that in American English "quite" sometimes means "very", _______ in British English it means "fairly".

So the _______ lesson about working in other countries is to _______ the language and by that I don't just _______ the words people speak. It contains _______ language, dress, manners, ideas and so on. The way people do things ________ many of the differences we see between cultures.

Some of these differences may be only on the surface-dress, food and hours of work-while ________ may be deeper and take longer to deal with. Mostly, it is just a question of getting used to the ________ and accepting them, like the climate, while we're getting on with business.

Some of the differences may be a（n）________. People are ________ polite; the service is better; you ask something to be done and it happens without having to ask again.________, other differences can be ________ punctuality（准时）.If you invite people to a party at 7 o'clock, your guests will consider it polite to ________ exactly on time in Germany, five minutes early in the American Midwest, an hour early in Japan, 15 minutes afterwards in the UK, up to an hour afterwards in Italy and some in the evening in Greece. I ________ not to use the word "late" because there is nothing wrong with the ________ people base their behavior on. It is simply ________ in their own country.

   Like most people these days，I can't imagine life without e-mail. But there's something about a letter，something more personal，more meaningful.

During my freshman year of college I was _____ . I loved to sing，and I was cast as the lead in the fresh play. The _____ didn't allow much time for studying，and then there were _____ to make and parties to go to. _____ my straight A average in high school，I didn't have good study habits. My first college report card _____ it. I sat on my dorm-room bed，staring at C's and D's.

I knew my parents had gotten a copy of my _____. My mother was an advocate for women's education. My dad ran his own business and was a leader of the community. They'd been so _____ I was following in their footsteps. I could have called home，but long-distance calls were expensive then. _____ ，telling my parents“I'm so sorry I've disappointed you”hardly seemed _____ .

I got two letters from the student union. My dad's letter was typed on his business paper. I could hear his voice，quiet，______ and kind.“I understand you are struggling. We have all been there. We all fail sometimes. We ______ ourselves and our family. ______ those who deserve to be at the top, when they fail, get right back up to the top again. And I know you will.”Dad wasn't ______ of me. He believed I could succeed. If only I had believed in myself as he did!

Then I opened the envelope from Mom. As I read, the miles between us disappeared and her words went straight to my _____ “I suspect you are ______ burdens. Perhaps you feel guilty about ______ that you are not proud of. This is the time when everything we' ve taught you — persistence, forgiveness and diligence — will ______ .”

I did, often. College got much better. My grades ______ . I joined a group that sang at dinners and concerts.

A letter can change the ______ . The message is simple and true: letters can touch our lives mysteriously and ______ .