Broadly speaking, the Englishman is a quiet, shy, reserved person who is fully 【21】______ only among people he knows well. In the presence of strangers or foreigners he often seams inhibited. 【22】______ embarrassed. You have only to 【23】______ a commuter train any morning or evening to see the truth of this. Serious looking businessmen and women sit reading their newspapers or dozing in a corner no one speaks. In fact, to do so would seem most unusual. 【24】______ , there is here an unwritten but clearly understood code of behavior. which. 【25】______ broken, makes the person immediately the object of 【26】______ . It is a well-known fact that the English have a 【27】______ for the discussion of their weather and that, given half a chance, they will talk about it 【28】______ . Some people argue that it is because English weather 【29】______ forecast and hence is a source of interest and. 【30】______ to everyone. This may be so. 【31】______ Englishmen cannot have much 【32】______ in the weathermen, who, after promising fine, sunny weather for the following day, are often proved wrong 【33】______ a cloud over the Atlantic brings rainy weather to all districts! The man in the street seems to be as accurate — or as inaccurate — as the weathermen in his 【34】______ . The overseas visitors may be excused for showing surprise at the number of references 【35】______ weather that the English make to each other in the course of a single day. Very often conversational greetings are 【36】______ by comments on the weather. 'Nice day, isn't it?' 'Beautiful!' may well be heard instead of 'Good morning, how are you?' 【37】______ the foreigner may consider this exaggerated and comic, it is worthwhile pointing out that it could be used to his advantage. 【38】______ he wants to start a conversation with an Englishman but is 【39】______ to know where to begin, he could do well to mention the state of the weather. It is a safe subject which will 【40】______ an answer from even the most reserved of Englishmen. 【21】