“How are you?” is a nice question. It’s a friendly way that people in the United States greet each other, but when a person says “How are you?” he expects() to hear the answer “Fine,” even if the person’s friend isn’t fine. The reason is that “How are you?” isn’t really a question, and “fine” isn’t really an answer. They are common ways of saying “Hello” and “Hi”. Sometimes people also don’t say exactly what they mean. For example, when someone asks, “Do you agree?” the other person may be thinking. “No, I don’t agree. I think you are wrong.” But it doesn’t sound very polite, so he may say, “I’m not so sure.” It’s a nicer way to say that you don’t agree with someone. People also don’t say exactly what they are thinking. For example, when a person wants to finish talking with other people on the phone, he may say “I have to go now”. Sometimes he often gives an excuse, “Someone is at the door”, “Something is burning” so on. The excuse may be real, or it may not. It’s a polite way to stop a conversation and it doesn’t hurt the other person’s feeling. It’s an important way that people try to be nice to each other, and it’s a part of the game of language. “你好嗎？“是一個友善的問題。這是一種美國人民互相問候對方的友好方式，但是當一個人說：“你好嗎？“即使這人的朋友不是很好，他期望聽到的回答：”好，“。原因是，“你好嗎？ “不是一個真正的問題，”好“也不是一個真正的回答。它們是說“你好”和“嗨”的常見方式。 有時候，人們不是精確地說出他們的意思。例如，當有人問，“你是否同意？“其他人可能會想�！安�，我不同意。我認為你錯了�！安贿^，這聽上去不是很有禮貌，所以他可能會說，”我不那么肯定�！斑@是一個
較好的方式來表達你不同意某人。 人們也不是精確地說出他們的所想。例如，當一個人要結束與他人在電話中的交談，他會說：“我得走了�！庇袝r候，他常常給出一個借口，“有人在門口”，“有東西燒糊了”等。借口可能是真實的，也可能不真實的。這是一種停止談話的禮貌方式，這樣不會傷害他人的感覺。這是一個人們盡量善待對方的重要途徑，，這也是語言游戲的一個部分。
