Broadly speaking, the Englishman is a quiet, shy, reserved person who is fully 【B1】 only among people he knows well. In the presence of strangers or foreigners he often seems inhibited, 【B2】 embarrassed. You have only 【B3】 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. 【B4】 , there is here an unwritten but clearly understood code of behavior which, 【B5】 broken, makes the person immediately the object of 【B6】 It is a well-known fact that the English have a 【B7】 for the discussion of their weather and that, given half a chance, they will talk about it 【B8】 Some people argue that it is because English weather 【B9】 forecast and hence is a source of interest and 【B10】 to everyone. This may be so. 【B11】 Englishmen cannot have much 【B12】 in the weathermen, who, after promising fine, sunny weather for the following day, are often proved wrong 【B13】 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 【B14】.
The overseas visitors may be excused for showing surprise at all the number of references 【B15】 weather that the English make to each other in the course of a single day. Very often conversational greetings are 【B16】 by comments on the weather. "Nice day, isn’’t it" "Beautiful! "may well be heard instead of "Good morning, how are you" 【B17】 the foreigner may consider this exaggerated and comic, it is worthwhile pointing out that it could be used to his advantage. 【B18】 he wants to start a conversation with an Englishman but is 【B19】 to know where to begin, he could do well to mention the state of the weather. It is a safe subject which will 【B20】 an answer from even the most reserved of Englishmen.