【正文】 ulture and cultural background (Net. 1). Without a specific cultural background, language is nonexistent. If students don’t know the culture of target language, they would find it is difficult to understand the meaning of certain words. For example, Thanksgiving, Hotdog has been brought about in a specific social and historical circumstance, it is not enough merely to know the meaning of the surface of these words. The relation between students39。ve got a little headache. He might want to depart or not want to stay here any more. By this time, you would not have the habit of Chinese people to ask him how he feels. If he really feels unfortable he will say straightly. Reading English reading ability is a prehensive ability. If one wants to read an article, find out the main idea, use the information provided by the articles for inference, judgment, reasoning, he or she must master not only English language knowledge, but also a certain degree of expertise or background knowledge. When students are reading an article, although they don’t encounter a new word, have no grammatical obstacles and understand the literal meaning of each sentence, they cannot understand the overall effect of the article content and the main idea. Therefore, when we are training students’ reading abilities, we must base on training them to understand the whole passage or paragraph so that they can understand and bee familiar with the material and cultural significance related to certain social background。s tone。s title, office, or occupation, such as “黃局長，林經(jīng)理，馬校長”. But English native speakers seldom address others like this. The most frequently used titles are Mr. (for adult males), Mrs. (for married women), Miss (for unmarried women), Ms (for women whose marital status are unknown or is not indicated). There are some less frequently used titles such as president, prime minister, governor, mayor, doctor, judge, lawyer, and professor (Wang Zhenya, 1999: 139). So we39。s go together and get something to eat. or it could indicate an invitation to a meal. When we Chinese meet for the first time, there is no special expression for the occasion. But as for most Englishspeaking people, when they meet for the first time, they often say something like How do you do? and Nice to meet you. And when they apart, they are expected to remark: It’s nice meeting you. or Very nice talking with you. or something similar. Compliments and thanks It is quite mon for people to exchange pliments in English speaking countries and in China. However, there are cultural differences between English and Chinese pliments and responses. It is noted that people from Englishspeaking countries tend to verbalize their gratitude and pliments more than Chinese speakers and they tend to accept thanks and pliments more than Chinese. When Chinese people hear pliments like You are so beautiful. or You speak excellent English. They may feel embarrassed and would say No, no to decline the expression of gratitude. However, a native English speaker will accept the plement by giving positive response like Thank you or I’m glad to hear that. To them, accepting pliments is not an expression of pride or impoliteness。s more, Thank you is used more widely in Englishspeaking countries than in China between members of the family, even for minor favors like borrowing a pencil, asking directions, passing an apple, etc. Let’s look at this dialogue:Han Mei: Good evening, Lucy and Lily.Twins: Thanks for asking us.Han Mei: Would you like a mooncake?Lucy: Yes, thank you.Han Mei: Would you like another one?Lucy: May I? Yes, Thanks.Han Mei: How about another one?Lucy: Oh no. Thank you. From the example above, we can know how often Englishspeaking people say thanks. On the contrary, in China, such polite expressions are often omitted, especially among close friends and family members. Many Chinese often regard the frequent use of thank you by Englishspeaking people unnecessary and even tiresome. .Privacy and taboos Some words or expressions are to be avoided because of the tradition or social custom. And the topics talked about must be carefully chosen to suit the speakers and the settings. This may not be easy to do even in one’s mother tongue，and therefore in a foreign language it can be even more difficult. It is important to consider cultural factors in senior school English conversations. In student’s book, there is a dialogue between Meimei and Mrs. Green:Meimei: Hello! What39。s a secret. English people place a high value on privacy. To most British and Americans, age is being considering one of the improper things to ask a stranger especially a lady. Besides age, one’s ine, marital status, political attitude and religion are also considered as privacies in English culture. So in senior school English teaching we should guide the students to avoid the following topics when talk with westerners: How old are you? How much do you earn? Are you married or single? What is your religion? How much did that dress cost you? How many children do you have? Color words Cultural differences are also evident in different implications associated with the same color. The color 39。 in Chinese indicates happy events, joyous occasions and delightful things. In China, red always indicates some satisfied things or events, especially in the wedding. However, in western countries, people always avoid wearing red clothes when they take part in a wedding. As red in Englishspeaking countries has the connotation of devil, it is not a suitable color for a wedding, which is pletely different from that in China. So it is more suitable and sensible not to dress in red when attending a wedding party in western countries (Yang Hongyan, 2005). In the concept of English nations, red has a closed relationship with blood, terror, fight and is frequently connected with anger and crimes. And the word red will remind them of some