The sun was setting and the farm would be closing soon. I dressed our three daughters quickly as my husband started the car. Cutting down our own Christmas tree had been a family tradition.

As we walked through the rows of trees, my youngest daughter Kimberly shouted excitedly, "There it is, the perfect tree!" The other two agreed. My husband and I looked at each other puzzled. It was misshapen and pine needles were missing here and there.

We tried to talk our daughters into changing their minds, but failed. We had to tie the tree to the top of our car and headed home. As we reached our house, Heather jumped out first. Suddenly she shouted, "The tree isn't there!" We thought she was kidding. However, it wasn't there.

The girls were so sad. "We'll get another tree tomorrow, "I said, secretly hoping the new tree would be prettier. But the girls gave us the look that no parent can say no to. We had no choice but to go back and find that tree.

About five minutes into our drive, we saw our tree on the side of the road. Clearly it had been run over by a truck and a big part of it had fallen off, but we took our little broken tree home anyway.

Once at home, we all agreed that the flat broken side would go up against the wall. That night, as we decorated our tree, something magical happened. By the time we were done, I had to admit, it didn't look sad after all. "This is the best tree we ever had. It's perfect!" my second daughter Samantha said excitedly. My husband and I couldn't have agreed more!

Now we always recall that little broken tree! Year by year, we tell the story of that very special Christmas almost twenty-five years ago.

I am sorry to hear that you are worried about the variety of English you have been learning.

Firstly, the differences between British and American English may surprise those  have learned English for years. There (be) a few differences in grammar and various differences in vocabulary. British and American people have no difficulty (understand) each other. They watch films and televisions from each other's countries for (please).

Secondly, there isn't only one British American English. For example, all major cities in the UK have (they) own dialects with different accents from each other. Sometimes these accents can be (hard) to understand for even a British person than some Americans. Also, there are Englishes from many other countries. People who speak these Englishes usually also manage (communicate) with other English speakers without any problems.

All learners need to be able to understand English spoken and written by as many people as possible and they need to be able to speak English so that as many people as possible can understand them. You should concentrate on this goal, not on  to speak "British" or "American" English.

I hope this is (help).