It was a hot summer day. My mum     1     (hold) a small note and waving at every taxi that passed along the Suzhou road. We had come here by train     2     Shanghai to visit the classical gardens. But now we had already been standing by this road for over     3     hour. We needed to go to the station to catch     4     (we) train to Shanghai and had asked a local shopkeeper to write down the name of the station for the driver to understand. But every driver who stopped to examine the note drove off without     5     (say) a word. There we were, helpless and     6     (lose) in China.

Luckily, a young lady walked over and found out that the paper only said “xièxiè” —Chinese for “Thank you”. No wonder no one would take us. We     7     (sudden) realized that my father had repeatedly asked the shopkeeper to “write this down, please. Thank you! Thank you!” Apparently, he had assumed us funny foreigners     8     wanted to know the word for “thanks” in Chinese. That explained the     9     (puzzle) expression on the taxi drivers’     10     (face) as they just read “thank you” on the note. Thanks to the help of the passer-by, we were eventually able to catch the train.