Learning a new language can be a big challenge at any age; however, it seems to be especially difficult to master a foreign tongue as we age.
When we are growing up, we are building a language system in our mind, which allows us to communicate freely. If we start a new language after youth, however, we are adding a new set of rules to our mind. That is why we find it difficult to learn a new language—we’re building a new speech system when we are not young any more. Why is it easier for kids to learn a new language? Children are relatively more active, open-minded and their language system is not fixed, meaning it is less work for them to pick up new things.
The good news is that learning a language isn’t really that hard if you’re opening your mind. But it does take hard work and motivation to achieve your goals.
It’s important to remember what you’re actually learning is how to communicate in a new way with other human beings. If you often share your daily experience with others in that language, what you’re learning is related to you. For example, if I’m learning Italian, I would never remember how to say “Dove e la biblioteca?” or “Where is the library?” but I will always remember how to say “Ti piace il caffe?” or “Do you like some coffee?”
In addition, TV shows, films and video games in foreign languages are all great forms of entertainment for learning a new language. Anything that relates you to the language and culture is great, so long as you find it enjoyable.
Adding a single new word to your vocabulary can be interesting and rewarding. The road to fluency can be hard, but the view along the way is really amazing, so it’s OK if you are driving slowly.
1. What affects language learning according to the first two paragraphs?| A．Money. | B．Age. | C．Mind. | D．Work. |
| A．Adults can pick up new things quickly. |
| B．Children have a fixed language system. |
| C．Adults find the new rules easy to remember. |
| D．Children outrun adults in language learning. |
| A．Using it in daily life. | B．Playing video games. |
| C．Going to the library. | D．Taking down its rules. |
| A．How to Build up Your Vocabulary? |
| B．Language Learning: Chance or Challenge? |
| C．Why do Children Learn Faster Than Adults? |
| D．Is It too Late to Master a Foreign Language? |
相似题推荐
The most successful people all have certain habits in their daily routines.
Set your goal. Before you can begin to work on your new habit, it is worthwhile to consider your goal.
Consider your motivation. Once you have identified your goal and the new habit you need to accomplish this goal, take some time to consider your motivation.
Give yourself time. Forming a new habit can take a long time. Some people can form a new habit in as little as a few weeks, while other people will take several months. As you work to form your new habit, just keep in mind that it may be a while before it comes true.
| A．Identify ways to achieve goals. |
| B．Find the habit you want to form. |
| C．Good habits are sure to make you a success. |
| D．These habits help contribute to their success. |
| E．Figure out exactly what you hope to accomplish. |
| F．Try to be patient with yourself as you form your new habit. |
| G．Your motivation is the reason you want to form this new habit. |
【推荐2】Tom appeared on the sidewalk with a bucket of whitewash and a longhandled brush. He stopped by the fence in front of the house where he lived with his aunt Polly. He looked at it, and all joy left him. The fence was long and high. He put the brush into the whitewash and moved it along the top of the fence. He repeated the operation. He felt he could not continue and sat down.
He knew that his friends would arrive soon with all kinds of interesting plans for the day.
They would walk past him and laugh. They would make jokes about his having to work on a beautiful summer Saturday. The thought burned him like fire.
He put his hand into his pockets and took out all that he owned. Perhaps he could find some way to pay someone to do the whitewashing for him. But there was nothing of value in his pockets—nothing that could buy even half an hour of freedom. So he put the bits of toys back into his pockets and gave up the idea.
At this dark and hopeless moment, a wonderful idea came to him. It filled his mind with a great, bright light. Calmly he picked up the brush and started again to whitewash.
While Tom was working, Ben Rogers appeared. Ben was eating an apple as he walked along the street. As he walked along it, he was making noises like the sound of a riverboat. First he shouted loudly, like a boat captain. Then he said “Ding－Dong－Dong”， “Ding－Dong－Dong” again and again, like the bell of a riverboat. And he made other strange noises. When he came close to Tom, he stopped.
Tom went on whitewashing. He did not look at Ben. Ben stared a moment and then said: “Hello! I'm going swimming, but you can't go, can you？”
No answer. Tom moved his brush carefully along the fence and looked at the result with the eye of an artist. Ben came nearer. Tom's mouth watered for the apple, but he kept on working.
Ben said, “Hello, old fellow, you've got to work, hey？”
Tom turned suddenly and said, “Why, it's you, Ben! I wasn't noticing.”
“Say—I'm going swimming. Don't you wish you could? But of course you'd rather work—wouldn't you? Of course you would.”
Tom looked at the boy a bit, and said, “What do you call work？”
“Why, isn't that work？”
Tom went back to his whitewashing, and answered carelessly.
“Well, maybe it is, and maybe it isn't. All I know is, it suits Tom Sawyer.”
“Oh come, now, you don't mean to say that you like it？”
The brush continued to move.
“Like it? Well, I don't see why I shouldn't like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day？”
Ben stopped eating his apple. Tom moved his brush back and forth, stepped back to look at the result, added a touch here and there, and stepped back again. Ben watched every move and got more and more interested. Soon he said，“Say, Tom, let me whitewash a little.”
Tom thought for a moment, and was about to agree, but he changed his mind.
“No—no—it won't do, Ben. You see, Aunt Polly wants this fence to be perfect. It has got to be done very carefully. I don't think there is one boy in a thousand, maybe two thousand, that can do it well enough.”
“No—is that so? Oh come, now—let me just try. Only just a little.”
“Ben, I'd like to, but if it isn't done right, I'm afraid Aunt Polly … ”
“Oh, I'll be careful. Now let me try. Say—I'll give you the core of my apple.”
“Well, here—No, Ben, now don't. I'm afraid …”
“I'll give you all of it.”
Tom gave up the brush with unwillingness on his face, but joy in his heart. And while Ben worked at the fence in the hot sun, Tom sat under a tree, eating the apple, and planning how to get more help. There were enough boys. Each one came to laugh, but remained to whitewash. By the time Ben was tired, Tom sold the next chance to Billy for a kite; and when Billy was tired, Johnny bought it for a dead rat—and so on, hour after hour. And when the middle of the afternoon came, Tom had won many treasures.
And he had not worked. He had had a nice idle time all the time, with plenty of company, and the fence had been whitewashed three times. If he hadn't run out of whitewash, Tom would have owned everything belonging to his friends.
He had discovered a great law of human action, namely, that in order to make a man or a boy want a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to get.
1. How many characters are mentioned in this story?| A．4 | B．5 |
| C．6 | D．7 |
| A．Because he was tired and wanted to play with his toys |
| B．Because he wanted to throw his toys away |
| C．Because he wanted to know if he could buy help with his toys |
| D．Because he wanted to give his toys to his friends |
| A．Tom wanted to do the whitewashing by himself |
| B．Tom planned to make Ben give up his apple first |
| C．Tom was unwilling to let Ben do the whitewashing |
| D．Tom was afraid Ben would do the whitewashing better |
| A．Tom was interested in whitewashing the fence |
| B．Tom had a lot of friends who are ready to help others |
| C．Tom was unwilling to whitewash the fence, but he managed to let other boys do it for him |
| D．Tom was good at whitewashing the fence, so he looked at the result of work with the eye of an artist |
| A．His warm heart and kindness to friends. |
| B．His curiosity about Tom's brushing job. |
| C．Tom's threat. |
| D．Aunt Polly's idea. |
| A．The Happy Whitewasher |
| B．Tom And His Fellows |
| C．Whitewashing A Fence |
| D．How To Make The Things Difficult To Get |
【推荐3】Who doesn’t love taking interesting personality quizzes and comparing the results with their friends?
Values are the big ideas that shape your decisions. These ideas are broad goals like having financial security, being close to family, or staying healthy.
While your values are the motivation behind your goals, your passions can provide the focus needed to reach them. You will know you are passionate about something if it holds your interest for extended periods of time. If you build a career (or even a hobby) around these passions, you will remain happier and more fulfilled than if you neglect them.
4. Get feedbackAsk your friends and family how they see your personality.
| A．Know how to maintain passion |
| B．Know what you are passionate about |
| C．You can set goals that fit your personality |
| D．Learning more about your personality is fun |
| E．You have to spend a lot of time making complex choices |
| F．Everyone has a sense of what they know is right and wrong |
| G．Compare what they say to how you feel about your personality |
【推荐1】Best Language Learning Methods
Are you struggling(斗争)to pick up a foreign language? Or probably looking for language learning methods?
Learn a language by using the 80/20 Rule. What is the 80/20 Rule? It is a rule that suggests 20 percent of your efforts will bring about 80 percent of your results. Or 80% of our efforts get only 20% of the results.
Break down your learning materials into smaller pieces. If you have enough time to learn your new language, you should make good use of it.
Don’t forget listening and speaking. Learning a new language includes listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
| A．It is very simple but useful. |
| B．These skills are all very important. |
| C．Start by translating when you study. |
| D．Learn to think in the foreign language. |
| E．In fact, short reading materials are easy to get. |
| F．What is the most effective way to learn it well? |
| G．Try dividing the learning materials into smaller parts. |
【推荐2】I count myself among the polyglots who know several languages! I grew up speaking only French and started learning English in middle school, then German, then Latin and Ancient Greek, then Italian... and I never stopped, I have studied 21 languages to date- some for decades and others for just a few months.
Tip 1: Practice consistently
In my experience, setting aside 15 minutes a day for practice is more efficient for acquiring a language than doing a single three-hour block once a week, especially if you’re not an advanced speaker. Think of it like the compounding principle of wealth:
Tip 2: Record yourself
Tip 3: Be compassionate
Being kind to yourself while learning, a language will do some magic for you! There are many ways to apply self-compassion to learning: for example: Remember that it takes time to build both accuracy and comfort using the language, so set realistic goals. Be patient if you don’t reach those goals as quickly as you were hoping! Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t sound how you’d like after one, two or even 15 years.
| A．Here are 3 tips for all language learners |
| B．Many language learners ignore the method |
| C．This is one of my very favorite learning tricks |
| D．Trying too hard to perfect an accent can give you performance anxiety |
| E．And on the other, it gives me an opportunity to hear myself make mistakes |
| F．Pushing yourself out the comfort zone will make you achieve greater progress |
| G．Saving a little every month over a long stretch of time is more effective than trying to save a lump sum before retirement. |
【推荐3】Although I learned English for years. I could not speak in complete sentences when I studied in London as an exchange student. In the beginning, I even needed to think twice before replying to a simple greeting.
Practice “output” more often;
At the time I didn’t have opportunities to talk with the local people. So, I self-talked to describe what happened around to myself.
Another method is that you can record yourself speaking and then listen to the recordings to identify areas that needs improving.
Language is not a hard science. It is more than just a set of rules, but a means of communication. Like small children picking up their mother tongue, we can get speaking skills more naturally by becoming completely involved in the language and using it. When using a language, we focus on the idea itself, rather than the rules.
Find the “support group” that suits you,
Find a native tutor. A language tutor is a great idea where you can practice regularly and get your mistakes fixed in time.
| A．Communicate with local children. |
| B．Raise your mind like a kid. |
| C．It is of much benefit to write in the language. |
| D．It was so painful that I was so confused about my language ability. |
| E．Or try some language clubs. |
| F．It is easier for you to “open your mouth”. |
| G．It doesn’t matter if you make mistakes. |
【推荐1】Children may not be putting coins in piggy banks for much longer. With the move towards a cashless society, pocket money is moving digital.
To reflect this trend, many mobile budgeting apps for children have sprung up worldwide：GoHenry, Osper, and Gimi, to name but a few. These apps offer a simple money management service for children, often for a monthly fee paid by the parents. Parents can add money to children's accounts, set limits and monitor transactions(交易). Children can choose to save their money or spend it using a prepaid card.
These apps aim to teach young childrenfinancial concepts, such as budgeting, interest rates and income. For instance, the Swedish app Gimi—with 1.2 million users globally—has virtual savings jars where children can deposit money. Parents can pay children interest as they save. There is also a chores feature, where parents can pay children for completing household tasks. The account is attached to a prepaid card that is currently available in Sweden only, but is expected to be launched elsewhere in Europe in 2020.
Haglund, CEO of Gimi, believes the app can teach children responsible spending habits. "You don't become better at money management just because you have a degree in economics. It's more about the attitude and the relationship you have with parents' money when you're 6 to 12 years old," he says.
But Catherine Winter, managing director of financial capability at The London Institute of Banking and Finance, warns that while digital tools can help there needs to be a more structured approach to financial education. The area should "have regular, dedicated, classroom time and ideally should be taught as a standalone subject," she said. “Children would then have the right context and foundation to get the most out of both the apps and their money.”
1. What does the underlined part "this trend" in paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Putting coins in piggy banks |
| B．Pocket money moving digital |
| C．Mobile budging apps springing up. |
| D．Money management service being offered |
| A．It pays children interest as they save. |
| B．It has 1. 2 million users all over Sweden. |
| C．It can teach children concepts related to money |
| D．It is attached to a credit card available in Sweden only. |
| A．Digital tools can help a lot with spending habits |
| B．Money management requires financial capability. |
| C．A regular classroom-based financial education is needed. |
| D．Children can get the most out of their money with the apps |
| A．The rise of the digital piggy bank. |
| B．The trend towards a cashless society. |
| C．The importance of financial education. |
| D．The popularity of money management apps. |
【推荐2】The term “graffiti” is an Italian word meaning scratching or scribbling(乱涂). It entered the English language in the 1850s, specifically to describe the casual wall writing that experts found in Pompeii and the Roman tombs. Originally a term used only in ancient scribbling, the word has undergone considerable expansion of meaning in the past 75 years so that it now refers to any written message on a wall. Graffiti are characterized by their casualness; if they were more formal, they would be known as inscriptions(铭文).
The first piece of graffiti was found on one of the walls of the city Pompeii, which was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. It was one of 1,600 pieces of graffiti uncovered in Pompeii during a dig in the 19th century. Not surprisingly, there is much evidence of graffiti writing on the pyramid and temples of ancient Egypt. It is likely that ever since people have had walls and materials to scratch or paint with, they have been engaged in this simplest form of communication.
The writing of graffiti gives people a unique opportunity to achieve some kind of public audience. Thus short poems, declarations of love, pieces of political and revolutionary polemic(论战), and criticisms of institutions and people form a significant part of graffiti.
Apart from its usefulness in terms of self-expression, graffiti is also a valuable source for historians. There is always the possibility that historical events may be recorded by the presence of graffiti. Perhaps the most interesting example of this is the graffiti relating to the gladiatorial(角斗士) contests held in Pompeii. Graffiti can also give us a unique view into the daily life and customs of a people, for its casual expression encourages the recording of details that more formal writing would tend to ignore.
In the late 1970s, graffiti became popular. A thought written on a toilet wall in Wolverhampton can now be read in Chicago or Adelaide. In its own way, this is probably the most fascinating example of McLuhan’s concept of “the global village”. We now have a worldwide toilet wall.
1. According to the first paragraph, graffiti________.| A．is another name for “inscription” |
| B．got its name from the English language |
| C．was born in the 1850s |
| D．Mainly refers to casual writing or pictures on walls |
| A．Graffiti has a long history. |
| B．Graffiti is an attractive form of art. |
| C．Graffiti made the ancient city Pompeii famous. |
| D．Graffiti was ancient Egyptian’s main way of communication. |
| A．Graffiti’s great value. |
| B．Graffiti’s features. |
| C．Graffiti’s way of expression. |
| D．Graffiti’s connection with people’s daily life. |
| A．graffiti can show people’s customs |
| B．graffiti can provide valuable historical evidence |
| C．graffiti was mainly used to record important events |
| D．graffiti can provide more detailed information than formal writing |
| A．the presence of graffiti makes the world closely connected |
| B．the concept of “the global village” is famous worldwide |
| C．graffiti has become very popular all over the world |
| D．people like using toilet walls to share their graffiti |
【推荐3】I know it may be hard to convince you, but let me try: Don’t kill the next spider you see in your home.
People like to think of their dwellings as safely separated from the outside world, but many types of spiders can be found inside. Some are accidentally trapped, while others are short-term visitors. Some species even enjoy the great indoors, where they happily live out their lives and make more spiders. These fellows are usually secretive, and almost all you meet are neither aggressive nor dangerous. And they may be providing services like eating pests—some even eat other spiders.
My colleagues and I conducted a visual survey of 50 North Carolina homes. Every single house we visited was home to spiders. The most common species we encountered were cobweb spiders and cellar spiders. Both build webs where they lie in wait for prey(猎物) to get caught. Cellar spiders sometimes leave their webs to hunt other spiders.
Although they are all-around predators(捕食性动物), tending to eat anything they can catch, spiders regularly capture harmful pests and even disease-carrying insects—for example, mosquitoes. There’s even a species of jumping spider that prefers to eat blood-filled mosquitoes in African homes. So killing a spider doesn’t just cost the insect its life; it may take an important predator out of your home.
It’s natural to fear spiders. They have lots of legs and almost all are venomous—though the majority of species have venom(毒液) too weak to cause issues in humans, if their fangs can pierce our skin at all. Even entomologists themselves can fall prey to arachnophobia(蜘蛛恐惧症). I know a few spider researchers who overcame their fear by observing and working with these fascinating creatures. If they can do it, so can you!
1. What is a common misunderstanding of spiders according to Paragraph 2?| A．They can be trapped easily. |
| B．They often attack human beings. |
| C．They are friendly to human beings. |
| D．They live far away from human beings. |
| A．Losing a great assistant. | B．Catching more insects. |
| C．Developing rare diseases. | D．Rescuing other insects. |
| A．By discovering their habitats. | B．By protecting their skin. |
| C．By getting along with them. | D．By recognizing their venom. |
| A．Spare spiders. | B．Monitor spiders. | C．Defeat spiders. | D．Control spiders. |
