Mr. Bean is an internationally recognized comedy character on TV and in films. He constantly gets into awkward and absurd situations, which greatly amuses audiences regardless of their nationalities or culture. The humour is always made clear through a series of simple and funny acts that rely purely on body language, which is universal.

    One of my favourite shows is that Mr. Bean has a meal in a fancy restaurant. After being seated at his table, Mr. Bean takes out a card, writes a few words on it, seals (密封) it in an envelope and places it on the table. After a moment, he looks back at the envelope but this time he looks surprised, as if he did not know it was there. He opens it to find a birthday card and delightedly puts it on the table for everyone to see.

    When he looks at the menu, an astonished look swiftly appears on his face. He takes all the money out of his wallet, counts it and puts it in a saucer (茶托). He then looks from the menu to the money with concern until he finds one thing that makes him smile. Then he orders a dish called "steak tartare". When the dish arrives, he is shocked to discover that "steak tartare" is actually raw hamburger. He makes an attempt to eat it, but it is clear from the look on his face that he finds the taste truly disgusting. He cannot hide his feelings, except when the waiter asks if everything is all right. When this happens, he smiles and nods, indicating that everything is fine. When the waiter is not looking, however, he busies himself hiding the raw meat anywhere he can reach-the sugar bowl, the tiny flower vase, inside a bun (小圆面包) and under a plate. He becomes so desperate in the end that he even hides some inside the purse of a woman sitting near him and throws some down the trousers of the restaurant's violinist!

    I like to watch Mr. Bean on TV, but I wouldn't like to meet someone like him in real life and I certainly wouldn't like to have dinner with him!

    When I was sixteen 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 was used to speaking a foreign language to people who didn't understand English. But when I went to America, I was really looking forward to having a nice easy holiday without any language problems.

    How wrong I was! The misunderstanding began at the airport. I was looking for a public telephone to give my American friend Danny a call and tell her that I had arrived. A friendly old man saw me looking lost and asked if he could help me.

    "Yes," I said, "I want to give my friend a ring."

    "Well, that's nice," he said, "Are you getting married？But aren't you a bit young?"

    "Who is talking about marriage?" I replied. "I only want to give my friend a ring to tell her I've arrived. Can you tell me where there is a phone box?"

    "Oh!" he said, "There is a phone downstairs."

    When at last we met, Danny explained the misunderstanding to me.

    "Don't worry," she said to me, "I had so many difficulties at first. There are lots of words which the Americans use differently in meaning from British. You'll soon get used to all the funny things they say. Most of the time, British and American people understand each other!"