Yours,

Li Hua

   Britain is a very worldwide country. Women in Britain are usually independent and used to entering public places by themselves. The British are generally quite tolerant - they like to help if they can so don't be afraid to ask for help. The British people sometimes seem a little cool and it needs to take time to build close friendships. However，most people respond politely and positively to offers of friendship. Don't forget that if they are not familiar with your culture，they won't understand your needs and concerns unless you explain them.

But on campus you might be surprised by the lack of formality（遵守礼节）. In this relaxed attitude ，most members of faculty （全体教师）enjoy being with students and joining in conversation whether or not it is directly related to studying work. Social spaces and common rooms on campus will usually  contain a mixture of staff and students informally chatting over tea or coffee.

For drinking， alcohol is offered to anyone aged over 18. It's perfectly acceptable for adults to drink alcohol in proper amounts. For many British people ，drinking is a common part of social life -“ going out for a drink” is how they relax or spend time with friends. This doesn't mean that you have to drink alcohol. If you don't want to，you can always ask for a non-alcoholic drink instead.

You know，many people in Britain smoke. However， in some ways smoking is less acceptable than drinking， and from summer 2010 smoking was not allowed in all pubs，clubs and restaurants in England. Most restaurants provide separate smoking and non-smoking areas， and smoking is not allowed in many public places including  buses and the London Underground. If you smoke in these places，you have to pay a fine. If you are eating or drinking with friends - especially at someone else's house - it is polite to ask before you light your cigarette.

   Pablo Picasso was born in Malaga，Spain in 1881.When he died in 1973，he was ninety-one years old. But he still took up his paints and brushes to start a new picture as if he were seeing things for the first time，which is why we have called him the youngest painter. Young people are always trying new things and new ways of doing things. They don't hesitate to attempt one thing after another. Eager to experiment, they welcome new ideas.

When he was over ninety this great painter still lived his life like a young man. He was still restlessly looking new ideas and new ways to use his artistic materials. No one knew what to expect from him next. No one could be sure what kind of picture he would produce. If he had painted a picture of you, it might have looked exactly like you. Or it might have been all lines, squares, circles and strange-colored shapes. It might not have looked like human at all.

At such times Picasso was trying to paint what he saw with his mind as well as with his eyes. He put in the side of the face as well as the front. He may have painted it flat, as though it had no depth. Sometimes he seemed to paint just as a child painted, simply for his own pleasure. He didn't imitate others.

Most painters discover a style of painting that suits themselves and stick to that, especially if people admire their pictures. But Picasso was like a man who had not yet found his own particular style of painting. He was still struggling to find perfect expression for his own uneasy spirit.

The first thing one noticed about him was the look of his large, wide-open eyes. Gertrude Stein, a famous American writer who knew him in his youth, mentioned this hungry look, and one can still see it in pictures of him today.

Picasso painted a picture of Gertrude Stein in 1906. She visited the painter's studio eighty or ninety times while he painted her picture. While Picasso painted they talked about everything in the world that interested them. Then one day Picasso wiped out the painted head on which he had worked for so long. "When I look at you I can't see you any more!" he said.

Picasso went away for the summer. When he returned he went at once to the unfinished picture in the corner of his studio. Quickly he finished the face from memory. He could see the woman's face more clearly in his mind than he could see it when she sat in the studio in front of him.

Picasso was often attacked for this new, sometimes frightening style. It produced pictures like some of our worst dreams. The camera has made it unnecessary for painters to make exact representations of what they see. A camera can reflect real life more exactly. What great paintings give us is a view of life through one man's eyes, and every man's view is different.