A lot of B ritish people remain strongly attached to coal or wood fireplaces，although it causes a great dealof work and adds to the pollution of the ai r.Some of them liked to spend a greatdeal of money and trouble in putting in dummy fireplaces，which would never beused because they thought that a living room without a fi replace would be a roomwithout the basic cha racteristic of coziness.Many rooms are in fact heated by gasor electric fires，but they a re usually placed in front of old style fi replaces，andmany people prefer to choose electric fires that are designed like coal fi res，withimitation pieces of coal which a re Iit when the current is tu rned on. To other Europeans，the best known quality of the B ritish，and in pa rticular ofthe English，is reserve.A reserved person is one who does not talk very much tostrangers，does not show much emotion，and seldom gets excited.It is very difficultto get to know a reserved pe rson because he never tells you about anything ofhimself，and you may work with him for many yea rs without eve r knowing wherehe lives，whether he ma rries and has children，how many chiId ren he has，andwhat his interests or hobbies are.English people tend to be like that.When sta rtinga conversation，one can never ask questions like‘‘How old a re you？Where do youwork？What is you r salary？Where did you buy you r watch？How much did itcost？”etc.Similarly，a conversation in B ritain is generally quiet and restrained.Loud speech is considered ill-bred.The reluctance to communicate with each otheris an unfortunate quality in some way since it tends to give the impression ofcoldness.And it is true that the English are not noted for thei r generosity andhospitality.On the other hand，they are perfectly human behind thei r barrier ofreserve and may be quite pleased when a friendly stranger or foreigner succeeds fora time in breaking the barrier down. ……
