1. Nancy Masters à her son Connor ; her husband Hayden Philly Bingham à her son Rufus, her husband Algy

Victoria à her son Alex 2. The three boys are all in the same class at school. Rufus and Alex are old friends and Connor is new at the school. 3. The scene takes place in London, in a “good” neighbourhood. The women are having coffee at Nancy’s house, in her “drawing room”. 4. Nancy has been living there for six months and has moved to England from Dallas, Texas, in the USA. 5. She has very expensive furniture (“acres of mahogany”) and lots of expensive “state-of-the-art” technological gadgets, such as a huge TV set and a sound system. 6. a) Hayden works long hours in the City : a taxi collects him at 6.00 AM and he gets home around eight in the evening. b) There was a misunderstanding between Nancy and Philly: she thought he returned from work at 6.00 PM. 7. Nancy controls her husband’s diet, and doesn’t allow him to drink alcohol during the week. She makes him exercise at the week-end: they go jogging. 8. Victoria is being sarcastic. She doesn’t think Hayden’s life is fun at all: he works very long hours and when he gets home, he isn’t allowed to indulge or relax. Nancy makes sure he eats healthy food, she stops him from drinking and she makes him do sport at the week-end. In the reader’s opinion, Victoria disapproves of their American lifestyle: they are too health-conscious and hardworking. 9. Nancy has done everything to avoid embracing the British culture: she has enrolled at the American Library, found an American GP. Her son is only at the local school because the American school was full. And she is looking for an American hairdresser because London “salons are a little… dull”. 10. a) Ute is an au-pair who works for Nancy; Consuela is Victoria’s cleaning-lady.