7 . When I was in primary school, I fell in love with reading. The books _______ me to a wonderful world. The _______ I read, the more I wanted to know. However, my parents couldn’t _______ so many books. I had to solve the problem by myself.

There was a bookshop near my home. One day I walked into _______ bookshop and picked up a book. I didn’t know whether I could read there without buying any book. I just read a few pages and then put it back. _______ , no one noticed me reading there. So I went there to read every day. Several days later, while I was reading, the owner (店主), “You like reading, don’t you? ” I looked down and answered nervously,   he said with a smile. “You may read books here _______ you help me clean the bookshop.” I felt quite _______. “Really? It’s so kind of you!” I was very happy because I was _______ to read there. From then on, I spent a little time _______ the bookshop. After that, I read quietly there. That way, I read lots of books.

Now I’m studying in high school, and I can borrow books ________ the library. I’ve kept a good habit of reading. It has made a big difference to my life.

8 . I started learning English at the age of 22. It is a bit late to start learning a language. Of course the age is not a problem if you really want to learn something, and I support (支持) lifetime learning. However, it is also a fact that kids learn languages much faster than adults (成年人).

Anyway, I studied English first and then studied Translation (翻译) in the US. I had to first finish the six-month long English study and score 550 on the TOEFL (托福) in order to go to the US.

It was challenging to score 550 on the TOEFL in six months for an English learner from the start. However, the six-month-long study was very successful. In order to do well, I moved to a different city and I rented (租) a house with a friend who was also studying English. We did not have any distractions (干扰因素) such as televisions or computers or smart phones, and anyway there was no smart phones in 1995 and we were lucky to get fewer distractions.

We had classes every weekday from 8:30 to 16:30 with a lunch break only. Every day after the classes were over, we would directly go back home and have something for dinner and start doing our homework. This study would go on until we became sleepy.

I remember this went on and on for six months, the only distraction was the weekend movie break. Finally, both my friend and I were very excited about getting a TOEFL score of 550 and went to the US. All the best to you in your journey of learning a language.