I’ve lived in many different countries, and now I’m in Hong Kong. _________ all of that time, I learned five or six different languages. I love learning languages. Not only are they important, but I also find them interesting.

I lived in Barcelona, Spain for ten years before. When I first _________ there, the most important thing was being able to communicate with local people. Let me tell you about some of my _________ in learning a language. I didn’t attend classes because I didn’t think I was good in classes. I _________ to learn by just talking to people, finding out what I needed to say by checking dictionaries and listening carefully.

I watched the typical kinds of programs that we can see on TV every day. It was _________ because they always had the same topics. So I could become _________ with the words as they were repeated again and again. Gradually, I learned many new words and _________. To have a better understanding of the language, I took a dictionary with me sometimes, or I asked other people what a word meant.

Anyway, the best _________ I ever had was just talking to people in the street, or in shops. I would _________ in my mind what I wanted to say before I went in. At first, I was afraid. __________ after you get over the embarrassment, it’s quite funny. You will find people to be very kind and patient in most cases.

One evening an old man was sitting quietly outside his home, enjoying the beautiful sunset. His grandson ran home with anger on his face. “What is wrong?” his grandfather asked. The boy rested his head on the old man’s shoulder. “My friend didn’t play with me today. He played with the older boys and left me alone. I hate him!”

The old man hugged the boy. “I know how you feel.” he said. “In my long life I experienced anger and hatred   (仇恨) , too, because someone did bad things to me.” He touched the boy’s hair gently. “But hatred and anger make you tired. Do you know why?” The boy shook his head.

“It’s because there is a terrible fight going on inside every one of us, between two wolves, “ said the grandfather.

“Two wolves?” asked the boy. He thought two wolves fighting inside him sounded strange.

“Yes, two wolves, “said his grandfather.

“One wolf is full of anger, hatred, jealousy (妒忌) and lies. He fights against everyone because his anger stops him from thinking.”

“The other wolf is calm and lives in harmony with (与……和谐相处) everything around him. He is full of peace, love, hope and joy. He only fights when it is the right thing to do and he always fights properly.”

The old man looked into his grandson’s eyes. “It is not easy to live with these two wolves fighting inside us.”

“Which wolf will win, Grandfather?” asked the boy.

The old man smiled,   “The one that I feed the most.”

Imagine a family is having dinner at a restaurant. What are they doing? Maybe they are eating and drinking. More possibly, they are looking at their own phones and ignoring (忽视) one another. These days, this is a very common scene and there is a word for it: phubbing.

Phubbing is an ordinary part of modern life. When a conversation gets boring, we turn to our phones. Often, people are using their phones to chat with other people or look at past memories. It’s funny. They could be chatting and making memories with the people next to them. But most of the time, they are losing themselves in an unreal world alone. That is not a good thing.

A study says that phubbing may ruin our relationships. When married people become phubbers, their relationship stops satisfying them and they may argue more. Phubbing hurts friendship, too. People say their phubbing friends don’t really respect them.

But why do people become phubbing? It’s because there’s a whole world inside our phones. That world’s pull is very strong. It’s almost like a drug. People can’t control themselves, so it’s hard to blame (责备) them for phubbing.

If others ignore you, be patient with them. Remind them to put their phones down and talk to you. You should pay attention to your phubbing habits, too. If you spend more time on your phone, stop. Put your phone away, look at the people beside you, listen to them and have fun with them.

Are you nervous about a big test at school or your performance at work?

Just take a walk, no longer than ten minutes. Not only will it clear your mind but it may also improve your brain’s ability to store and recall memories. That is what researchers at the University of California and the University of Tsukuba in Japan found in their latest study.

The experiment involved (涉及) 36 participants (参与者) who were in their early 20s.     41    

After this, they had a memory test where they were shown pictures of objects like some fruits and vegetables and asked to recall them later.     42     After that they got the results.

It was found that people were better at distinguishing (区分) the pictures after 10 minutes of exercise. To take a closer look at what was happening, researchers did brains scans (扫描) on some of the participants to see their brain activity during the experiment. It found that the more a person’s performance improved,     43     The short-term exercise seemed to increase connectivity in the brain area.

This showed that an increase in memory power may be possible to achieve.     44     But there were still some problems.     45     The researchers said that this kind of experiment should be used on older adults in future research.

Should children help with housework? According to some parents, children should spend their time on schoolwork. However, I don’t think so. Let me e    46     why.

When I was a kid, I was c    47    . One day, I forgot to bring my English book, so I called my mother to bring it for me. “As a student, you should p    48     everything for yourself. Making sure that all your books are in your schoolbag is your job, “my mother said on the phone. I knew she was right. It was my r    49     to plan my own things well.

Now, I become a mother. I often ask my son to do housework. I also ask him to help go shopping and teach him how to buy something better with less money, I believe he can c    50     for himself well in the future.

Everyone wants to have a healthy body. However, sometimes we may get an i    51    , such as colds. Different people have different opinions about colds. They think there are many r    52     for colds. Some people think that you may s    53     from a cold if your feet get cold. While other people’s t    54     are that strong winds cause colds. So, on trains and buses, they usually don’t like to sit next to open windows. Today, scientists know that colds are caused by a virus. But the old ideas are still very popular, so many people still don’t a    55     the truth.