“It is never too late and you are never too old     1     (start) to study something new!” said Ellen Rema. She began to learn English at the age of fifty.

Two years ago, because no evening classes     2     (offer) in the area Ellen lived in, she chose to study online. She bought an English course on the Internet. Ellen began with easy courses and studied hard. Her son always said, “Mom, you are a bit crazy.” “He couldn’t understand why I spent so many hours     3     (study), but I love it.” she said. “Maybe I wanted to do too much in a short time. I finished all my courses after two years, but I found I still had difficulties with grammar.” Instead of giving up, she chose to continue.

Now she is still studying in the online classroom. But to make her English better, she has set new goals for herself. “Studying online     4     (need) self-discipline (自律). ” said Ellen. “If you really want to learn, never     5     (give) up when you face difficulties and when you think you haven’t made any progress.” Ellen said studying English     6     (be not) all about hard work, It was fun. “I really like the online conversation classrooms. I have learned so much about other cultures and traditions.” she said. Ellen has been able to put her English to use by visiting England five times.

“I am very thankful to the internet. My life     7     (change) a lot by now.” said Ellen.

Language is a bridge that connects people. April 20th marks United Nations Chinese Language Day. On this day, people around the world celebrate the Chinese language. Two Chinese     1     are invited to share stories of their study!

At the age of 13, I started taking Mandarin (普通话) classes at school. It was a subject that could make the classroom deadly     2     because it was really difficult to learn, especially to pronounce the words. But when I stayed in China in 2021, I found that learning the language could be enjoyable. In Beijing, I lived with     3     people. I tried to chat with them in Chinese, sharing details about our daily lives. Living in China     4     it both necessary and fun for me to learn the language.

    5     I started learning Chinese at the age of 5, the language has been part of my life. After six years of learning, I could still hardly put a sentence together. But I never gave up. To     6     my Mandarin, I moved to Beijing in high school for a language program. The school day was long and hard. Each morning, the sound of our wake-up call would ring at 6:30 sharp. Class went     7     5:15 pm each day, and then of course we had another three hours of night study in the evening. For a 16-year-old American girl, this was a shock to the learning schedule, but I learned Mandarin quite well. I sensed that once I mastered the language, chances started presenting themselves everywhere.     8     wanted me to work for them. At that moment, I knew my effort was worth it.

【推荐3】Having an elder brother brings lots of benefits. Elder brothers look after their     1    （young）brothers and they are close     2    they sometimes argue with each other. However, a new study finds something interesting. It takes those children with elder brothers longer time     3    （learn）to speak when it comes to developing language skills.

A group of researchers in Paris did     4    study. There was a conclusion: only children with an elder brother have these language difficulties. People may think that children with elder brothers will have more chances to talk and it     5    （help）with their language development. However, the result was different.

Researchers studied more than 1000 children     6    birth to the age of 5.5 years old. What they found     7    （be）meaningful children with an elder brother had their language development two months later than those with an elder sister.

According to the findings, researchers said there may be two reasons. The first is that elder sisters talk more often than elder brothers. The     8    （two）is that elder sisters usually fight with their brothers or sisters less than elder brothers for their    9    （parent）attention.（关注）

However, researchers said they can't make sure     10    children with elder brothers have a harder time developing language skills. In the future, they would like to do more research.

Today it is quite natural to find people shake hands in some situations. People all over the world shake hands for many different    1    . We shake hands when we meet new people    2    during special festivals. Players often shake hands before or after    3    . Business people shake hands when they make a deal.

Why do people shake hands    4     of shaking feet? This is because of the fact that a long time ago most people    5    knives or guns. If some of them decided that they did not want to    6    , they would show their empty hands.     7    people shook hands so that they could not    8    knives in the sleeves(袖子). Later on, hand-shaking became a symbol of    9    .

【推荐2】People in different countries have different ways of doing things. Something that is polite in one country maybe quite impolite in a    1    . In Britain, you mustn`t lift your bowl to your mouth when having liquid food（液体食物）. But it’s different in China. And in Japan you even needn`t worry about making noises when you have it.It shows that you are e    2    it. But it is regarded as bad manners in Britain. If you are a visitor in Mongolia（蒙古）, what manners do they wish you to have? They wish you give a l    3    “burp”(打嗝) after you finisheating. Burping shows that you like the food.

In Britain, you should try not to put your hands on the table when you’re having a meal. In Mexico, however, guests are expected to keep their hands on the table during a meal. But in Arab (阿拉伯) countries you must bevery careful with your hands. You mustn’t eat with your left hand. Arabs consider it very bad manners eating withleft hands. So, what should you do if you are on a v    4    in a foreign country? Well, just do in Rome as theRomans do. You can ask local people to help you or just watch c    5    and follow them.

【推荐3】阅读填空

I’m Sally, an exchange student from the UK. So far I     1     (be) in China for eight months. Every time I want to lie on the grass, “Keep     2     from the grass” signs make me nervous.

In the UK, people make good use of the green grass. If it’s     3     sunny day, people will sit on a bed of grass and relax     4    (them) in the sun. This gives you the chance to enjoy nature. Maybe it’s a bird singing happily, or the soft wind     5     brings you cool air.

Also, in most colleges, a grass field acts     6     a soft study desk. There, students can read and study. Or it can     7    (use) for just talking, laughing or playing.

Besides, a lot of families enjoy     8    (spend) their weekends on the grass in parks. There, they can set up a picnic     9     children can play games with each other.

In some parks, however, there are different grasslands for people     10    (relax) and play sports on. If people want to relax, they’d better choose the right field, or they may feel the full power of a flying soccer ball!

American schools are quite different from t    1     in Japan. In America, at the beginning of the term, students must choose their courses and teachers first, b    2     in Japan students usually have no chances to choose their courses and teachers.

Choosing is very important for your grades in America. So at the first term, don't choose too many courses, or you'll feel very nervous and it may influence（影响）your study. Then you h    3     to ask for some teaching plans. There is some information about the subjects, the timetable, marks and textbooks. At the same time, you must choose the teachers. Different teachers have different teaching methods. I    4     the last grade call the teacher "killer", many students will give up choosing him. Because this kind of teacher will leave p    5     of homework, too many exams and give too low grades.

There is a    6     thing after you choose the course and the teacher. How to buy textbooks makes each student feel hard. The textbooks in America are very expensive. Each copy is about $30—50. To save money, many students buy some used textbooks, and some students usually b    7     textbooks from the school library. You must get enough ready before class. In class, discussion is very important. The teacher encourages you to ask questions, talk about something and show your o    8     idea. They don't usually ask you to sit well. Instead, they allow you to sit or stand e    9     you like. They don't give you much homework to do. You can learn some knowledge and do exercises by yourself. So in American schools, you must do a    10     all things yourself.

As I entered an international high school, all my friends felt surprised at my short hair. This is because, my old school thinks teenage y    1     aren’t the time for looking pretty. Then I coloured my hair blue. For the first time, I felt free and beautiful. This international school s    2     to meet my needs.

I had a t    3     education background. I went to public schools, received normal (常规的) education and was required to follow r    4     like every other student. Later, I began to wonder w    5     this education was truly suitable for me.

However, in the new school my high hopes were not met. For a while, I found myself in a surprising situation as I faced before. It was s    6     the biggest challenge I faced in my education-the freedom to try new things. In the old system, I was strongly advised a    7     trying new things. But in my new school, it worked the opposite way-we had many chances to try new things. But if I f    8    , I must be responsible (负责任的) because I put myself in such risk. Finally, it led me to get into trouble again.

As time went by, I started to find my o    9     balance. In fact, none of the education systems in the world are perfect. I am l    10     enough to have a chance to bring great value from both systems together. As a result, I've built a system for myself.

Nowadays, studying abroad is becoming more and more popular in China. Many parents send their children abroad instead of letting them receive e    1     at home.

There are many advantages for people to attend school abroad．Firstly, he can use     2     foreign language in his everyday life     3     (以便于) his ability in the second language may be greatly i    4    . While studying in a foreign county, he will meet many students     5     abroad and it is much easier to make     6     with them. Also, he can get familiar with the latest knowledge in different fields.     7     (以这种方式), there is every chance that he is     8    to widen his horizon (眼界) and b    9     his mind.

Of course, attending schools abroad may bring a lot of problems. The most serious one is language barrier (障碍). Most of the students who go abroad don’t have     10     ( [ɪˈnʌf] )   skills in the language spoken there.     11     (结果), on arriving there, they will find it difficult to u    12     what the teachers say. Moreover, they don’t know the customs of local people very     13    , and they may have trouble     14     (处理) some situations.

Therefore, one must think of both sides carefully before     15     (做决定). The place where you study is not very important, but the desire (渴望) to learn matters the most.

Zhang Jia is 17 years old and he comes from Wuhan. He is one of the Chinese     1    (student) in Canada. He     2    (live) with a Canadian family in Toronto. The parents and the brother are nice to him and always make him     3    at home.

The school is not far     4    home. He doesn’t need to go to school by subway or by taxi, so he always w    5    to school. When spare time, he usually plays the guitar. He can also write songs by himself. His dream is to become a     6    (music) one day.

On weekends he goes to the zoo to see giraffes. He doesn’t like lions because they are kind of s    7     in Wuhan. There is a show about the Chinese sturgeon (中华鲟) this weekend. He wants to see it because he can l    8    a lot about them, but he can’t go.

Because he really m    9     his parents, he often talks on WeChat to them in China on Sunday. Every time he sees them on the p    10    , he is so happy. Zhang Jia likes the life in Canada but there is still “no place like home”.