Nowadays, lots of foreigners are learning Chinese. Like many of them, I _______ knew two words of Chinese （ “Ni Hao” and “Xie Xie”） when I first came to Beijing, China in 2009. As you can guess, my life was _______ for a while after I arrived. Simple tasks like ordering food or taking a taxi were quite stressful.

I knew I had to learn more Chinese, so I _______ a Chinese class. My teacher was _______, although I didn’t learn enough to have a real conversation. Later I studied on my own as well, but my progress was still slow. And I decided to _______.

Around this time, I started playing in a band with a Chinese man who became one of my best friends in Beijing. He taught me a lot of _______ about music, such as “melody”. He learned a lot of English from me in return, so it was a good way to _______ language and culture.

I have learned enough Chinese to _______ many problems like booking train tickets. These days, there are more foreigners who are studying Chinese. I can _______ why it’s an amazing language.   Finally, I found that the best way to learn a ________ is to make friends with native speakers and spend time with them.

We’ll finally grow up someday, leaving our parents and facing the challenges in life. Parents may not be able to solve every problem for us. Instead, we should have enough life skills to deal with the problems that come our way.

This is what our countries to do now: Helping more students gain working spirit. To stress the importance of hardworking spirit education (劳动教育) among students of different ages. A guideline (指南) was released (发布) recently. The guideline calls for students to respect work. Students should learn basic life skills and form good working habits through such education.

The government has been trying to stress the importance of hardworking spirit education. But this has been overlooked (忽略) in recent years. Many teens do not value the importance of working hard and are uninterested in doing so.

According to a study of nearly 3,000 students that was done by Ningbo Evening News in March, only 22 percent of primary and middle school students help with everyday chores around the house.

Schools and families play an important role in teaching students about the value of working hard, the guideline says. Primary and middle schools should provide students with hardworking spirit classes every week. Schools can also hold activities to give students real - world work experience. For example, schools can teach children how to plant trees on Tree - Planting Day.

As children' s first teachers, parents should also encourage children to learn how to do chores at home. Students should master one or two life skills every year. These skills can include cooking, washing their own clothes and tidying their rooms.

Many students think it is too difficult to learn English well, though they know it is important.     23    

Firstly,     24     A lot of people can’t speak English well because they are afraid of making mistakes. But in order to improve your spoken English, you need to be brave and confident. Don’t care too much about the mistakes in your spoken English. Being able to express your ideas is the most important thing.

    25     You can watch Hollywood movies like Spider-Man and Captain America. Listen to what they say carefully and try to understand the main ideas of the movies.

    26     I know that students are tired nowadays and you always have to do exercises of different subjects. But practice makes perfect. Only by doing a lot of exercises can you get better English skills.

    27     You just have to find the best way for you.