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When I lived in Spain, some Spanish friends of mine decided to visit England by car. Befor
"We didn't stay at bed and breakfast houses," they said, "because we found that most families were away on holiday."
I thought this was strange. Finally I understood what had happened. My friends spoke little English, and they thought "VACANCIES" meant "holidays", because the Spanish word for "holidays" is "vacancies". So they did not go to houses where the sign outside said "VACANCIES", which in English means there are open rooms. (77) Then my friends went to a house where the sign said "NO VACANCIES", because they thought this meant the people who owned the house were not away on holiday. But they found that these houses were all full. As a result, they stayed at hotels!
We laughed about this and about mistakes my friends made in reading other signs. In Spanish, the word "DIVERSION" means fun. In English, it means that workmen are repairing the road, and that you must take a different road. When my friends saw the word "DIVERSION" on a road sign, they thought they were going to have time. Instead, the road ended in a large hold.
English people have problems too when they learn foreign languages. Once in Pads, when someone offered me some more coffee, I said, "Thank you," in French. I meant that I would like some more, however, to my surprise the coffee pot was taken away! Later I found out that "thank you" in French means "No, thank you."
My Spanish friends wanted advice about ______ .
A.learning English
B.finding places to stay in England
C.driving their car on English roads
D.going to England by car