The Perfect language learner

Every language student wants to know the secret to making progress in the shortest time. What does the perfect learner do to better acquire a foreign language? The following are some tips which may help you     1     your language skill.

Learn every day

Even when you are really tired, do some learning, even if it’s only 5—10 minutes. Never miss a chance to increase your knowledge. Use it     2     lose it! Practice makes perfect.

Memorize new vocabulary

To     3     learn a new word, you have to remind yourself of it six times over hours, days and weeks. Write down all your new vocabularies in a small book that you can always carry around with you, or keep a     4     in your mobile phone—you always have it with you, don’t you? According to a recent study, 86 percent of the participants believe that they are more likely to be successful in remembering new words with a vocabulary list.

Be     5    

Don’t worry about small mistakes! No one minds! When you learn new vocabularies or grammar, use it as soon as possible. If you can’t use them accurately, it is likely that someone will correct you at once. Challenge yourself!

Go for it!

My name is Lin Tao. I have a lot of classes at school, and I am especially     1     of my English scores. I spend my whole     2     time learning English. However, my favorite subject was not English three years ago. The reason why I changed is that I was influenced by my friend, Wang Lei.

One day,     3     I was playing with Wang Lei at a park, a foreigner came to us. He introduced something to us in English, but I failed to understand what he     4     saying. To my surprise, Wang Lei had a conversation with him in English     5    . Then the man thanked     6     for helping him patiently and left. I was so embarrassed (尴尬的).

That     7     was a great lesson for me. So I decided     8     English well. I got up early every morning to read aloud. My teacher also gave me lots of help. Besides, I practiced speaking with Wang Lei to improve my poor pronunciation. After I finished my homework. I often read some English novels. It was     9     a good way to increase my vocabulary by reading.

Luckily, I got the     10     place in the last final exam. I know that learning English well requires     11     efforts. So, I won’t be proud and will keep studying hard.

Learning English is not easy,     1     don’t worry. We have some suggestions for you. Firstly, some second language students don’t walk around with grammar books in their pockets. They carry dictionaries. Good second language learners, writers,     2     and listeners have a large vocabulary (词汇量) under their control. Second language researchers are starting to understand that grammar isn’t the most     3     part of second language study. Vocabulary is the key to learning a language. But which words should students learn? English has a very large vocabulary. In a language like English,     4     native speakers (母语使用者) know only a part of all the words. Second language learners need to     5     that they will never learn all the words, so they need to spend their time learning the most useful ones.

Secondly, reading is helpful in learning a     6     language. Reading improves students’ speaking, writing, grammar and vocabulary skills. Grammar, writing and speaking are improved because students are meeting examples of correct English by     7     in English. Students who read a lot learn what is correct and what is not correct.

Improving the second language skills requires extensive reading (泛读). Extensive reading requires reading widely all the time—at     8     30 minutes a day. Students read things which interest     9    . However, the important point is that it should be easy     10     to enjoy.

We all know robots from science fiction and children's toys. But what are robots, exactly?

There are two kinds of robots. The first kind is a machine     1     do something that is usually done by people. For centuries, people have made mechanical robots,     2     in ancient Greece and China. They made mechanical birds that could fly and sing. In those days, people didn't call them robots,     3     "automata".

Czech author Karel Capek was the first to use the word "robot" in 1920, in his play R.U.R. In this play, robots are made in a factory, but they look, think and act like humans. They are     4     the robots we see in science fiction films. We sometimes call this second kind of robots "androids".

R2D2 is a cute robot character in the Star Wars films. They call him a "droid". That is     5     "android", and he became very popular. He looks like a robot but     6     he can behave like a human. He moves his head and body like a human, and he says things we could     7     say.

A more human-looking android in science fiction is Data, an officer on the spaceship Enterprise in the Star Trek films series. Although     8    , he cannot understand human behavior. He wants to have feelings like humans. But he is always an outsider, and he looks at human beings with the eyes of a stranger. However, his difficulties with how people behave give fans of the series     9     of what they themselves are like as human beings.

In 1950, the writer Isaac Asimov published     10     of stories, I. Robot. These stories predict that useful robots will become more important, but they also ask the question, "What does this mean for humans?"

Old new medicines

What should you do if you have a headache? In modern times, people often take aspirin（阿司匹林）. But is aspirin     1     a modern medicine?

More than 4, 000 years ago, ancient Egyptians used dried leaves to treat pain. And in the fourth century B.C., a medicine made from tree bark（树皮）    2     to treat fevers. In the nineteenth century, European scientists discovered that both medicines have the same chemical（化学物质）. They used the chemical to make a modern medicine—aspirin. Today, it’s one of the world’s     3     and most helpful medicines.

Some of the medicines we have today come     4     traditional Chinese medicine. In the third century B.C., some people     5     studying the human body. They tried many     6     ways to treat the patients and recorded     7     results. For more than 2, 000 years, doctors recorded     8     they founded in books. These ancient books are still useful today. Tu youyou, a Chinese medical researcher, found that in the past, people used a herb with yellow flowers to treat fevers. After studying it, she developed a medicine that saved millions of people from     9    .

For     10    , Western medicine paid little attention to traditional Chinese medicine. But today, scientists are studying traditional treatments     11     new medicines.