When I was 16 years old, I made my first visit to the United States. It wasn't the first time I had been abroad. Like most English children , I learned French at school and I had often been to France , so I 1 speaking a foreign language to people who didn' t understand English. But when I went to America I was really looking forward to 2 a nice easy holiday without any language problems. 3 wrong I was ! The misunderstanding began at the airport. I was looking for a public telephone to give my American friend Danny a 4 and tell her that I had arrived. A friendly old man saw me looking lost and asked 5 he could help me. “ Yes," I said.“I want to give my friend a ring." “ Well, that's nice," he exclaimed.“Are you getting 6 ? But aren't you a bit young? “ Who is talking about marriage?" I replied.“I just want to give my friend a ring to tell her I' ve arrived. Can you tell me 7 _ there' s a phone box?" “ Oh,"”he said, “there's a phone box?" When at last we 8 meet up , Danny explained the misunderstandings to me. “ Don't worry,” she said to me.“I had so many 9 at first. There are lots of words which the Americans use differently in meaning from us British. You' ll1 soon get used to all the funny things they say. Most of the 10 British and American people understand each other !”