Say what other English proverbs you know

j. Imagine you are a foreigner in Russia. What would you find strange here? List three or four most unusual national habits.

4. Understatement

Understatement is another character trait of the British. It is a very complex concept. George Mikes, a Htmgarian by birth, who stayed in Britain rather long, wrote a lot about the British. Here is a funny passage, which George Mikes wrote almost forty years ago:

Foreigners have souls, the English have not. The English have no soul; they have the understatement in­stead.

If a continental young man wants to declare his love to a girl, he kneels down, tells her that she is the sweetest, the most charming and ravishing person in the world, that she has 'something' in her, something peculiar and individual and that he would not be able to live one more minute without her. In the more temperamental countries the young man may add he will shoot himself on the spot.

In England the boy pats his adored girl on the back and says softly: 'I don't object to you, you know".

If he is quite mad with love, he may add: 'I rather fancy you, in fact'.

If he wants to marry a girl, he says: 'I say... would you?.

If he wants to make an indecent proposal: 'I say... what about..."

Those are the examples of understatement. _________________

Exercises