Reading 1

Can you make a telephone call? Of course you can make it in Chinese．But a call in English is quite different from the one in Chinese．If you want to ask Mr. Smith to answer the telephone, you cannot say, “Please ask Mr. Smith to answer the telephone．” Instead you must say, “May I speak to Mr. Smith?” If you want to ask if Mr. Smith is answering the telephone, you should say “Who is that? Is that Mr. Smith speaking?” instead of “Who are you?” If you want to tell the other one who you are, you should say, “This is Tom （speaking）．” Instead of “I'm Tom．”