【正文】 they don’t allow 13 people have dinner together. All in a word, they avoid number thirteen in every aspect. Ordinary people feel upset on 13th in every month. Therefore, thirteen became a taboo word in western countries. Another number concerning taboo in western is Friday. It also has long been considered as an unlucky day. “This taboo term affects people probably not only because they believe that Jesus Christ was put to death on the cross on Friday, but also because Friday is for many years the day of execution of criminals, monly called “hangman’s day”. [19] Another striking contrast is that Chinese people like even numbers. For example, they say “好事成雙”， “成雙成對(duì)” 。 no one should e in without permission. So it is also with his life and personal affairs’”.[17] Chinese people often like to greet to others like “Have you had a meal?” This mon greeting indicates we begin our conversation with our acquaintance, just as foreigners ask “How nice the weather!” But the Chinese greeting will make the foreigners suspect that you want to invite him to join the dinner. Sometimes when we get together and talk naturally about these questions: “ How about your salary?” “Are you married?”, “What do your wife/husband do?”, “How much is your skirt?” In this way, we express our care for our friends. Generally speaking, we never feel embarrassed about these conversations, but when we ask the westerners the same questions, they will think we may involve in their privacy. Annoyingly, in western countries, it is also improper to ask about other people’s religious beliefs. “Are you religious?” “What is your religion?” “Are you Catholic?” etc are questions that might be offensive to most English speakers. People don’t like, especially female, others to ask them “How old are you?”, because they are very sensitive to their age. “Even on a birthday call one may find the following congratulation: You may not like to be reminded that you are a year older today, but that would not keep me from saying ‘happy birthday!’.” [18] But in contrast, there was no such concept of privacy in Chinese people’s mind. In numbersIn China, the number “4” and the word “死 (death)” almost sound the same. People do not like the number “4”, because it reminds them of “death”. Among old people, they think “73” and “84” are two key ages. If you are 73 or 84 years old, you will die before the King of hell invites you. So many old people avoid talking their exact ages. While in western countries, one of the most influential taboo numbers is 13. According to the story of “The last supper”: Judas, the person who betrayed Jesus, sat in the chair, therefore, Number thirteen is universally considered to be unlucky. No door’s number is thirteen。 use “big C”, “l(fā)ong disease”, or ”terminal illness” to replace “cancer”. Abbreviations are often used to alleviate the shocking effect. For instance, SARS is used to substitute the terrible name “Severe Acute Respiratory Syndromes”. In Chinese, when we talk to a patient, we may say “你今天不舒服，別上班了”.Here, we use “不舒服 ” instead of “病”. As a soldier, we may say “掛彩了” instead of “傷”.Mental illnesses are thought not to be mentioned directly. For example, when referring to a mental illness, we just say “a little eccentric” or “a little confused”.Either in Chinese or Western, people have sympathy for one’s physical disability. If someone looks ugly, we will say she/he looks plain/ordinary and we won’t use the word “fat” to describe a man. We only use “heavily set” or “on the heavy side”. If a girl is thin, we won’t use skinny. We just say slender, and when we refer to a crippled, we will say, “physically handicapped”. In Chinese, if one is deaf, we will say “耳朵背”, “耳朵有點(diǎn)不好”, “說話得近點(diǎn)” . In English, it is called “hard of hearing”. In terms concerning parts or excretion of the body In both cultures, people think that certain parts of the body and the excretion of body cannot be mentioned in daily conversations. They are often considered taboos.For example, in English, there are so many euphemisms for lavatory, such as “washroom”, “restroom”, “bathroom”, “fort station”. If they want to go to lavatory, they will say: “go to the bathroom”, “do their business”, “answer nature’s call”. In Chinese, “廁所” is always avoided in public occasion, one may say :“去一號(hào)” or“去方便一下” .. In discrimination“In recent years, there is a growing tendency to regard as taboo language that reflects a demeaning attitude towards certain social or ethnic groups. Racist language and sexist language, for example, are offensive to the social or ethnic groups discriminated against.” [13] Discrimination against woman is a universal and unreasonable phenomenon in the society. And its reflection on language is sexist language. Both in English and Chinese, there are traces of sexist language. Unless one is careful enough with his/her speech, one may easily offend others unconsciously.In China, under the control of strict hierarchy feudal society, the females were regarded inferior. They depend on male and were dominated by male. So the discrimination and prejudice against women is the longterm accumulation, which is inevitably reflected in Chinese. For example, the sayings “婦人之見”, “頭發(fā)長見識(shí)短”, “男子漢不和婦人一般見識(shí)” , “長舌婦”, etc, reflect the pejorative attitude toward women. And there are also many derogatory titles for women, such as “賤人”, “潑婦”, “母老虎”, “母夜叉”, “娘兒們”， “悍婦” etc. Since the Chinese women’s social statuses have increased, these sayings are used much less frequently. The using of the scornful and pejorative words for women in public often gets criticism and resentment.In English, there are also many sexist expressions. For example, a person of unknown sex is referred as “he”, or ”him” rather than “she” or “her”. A person who presides a meeting is the “chairman”, even if she is a woman. There are