2 . In today’s world English has become a global language. Speaking or writing in English is a matter of global interest these days, for it is now a requirement for being able to communicate with the outer world.     1    .

Enthusiasm（热情）

The first thing you need to have is an enthusiasm to reach your goal. The most important thing you have to have is emotional devotion（情感，承诺）with your desire to learn English quickly.     2    .

    3    

You pass by a lot of things in English that you meet with in your day-to-day life. Things could include magazines, emails, posts on social media, websites, a piece of literary work（文学作品）or a newspaper. Read them because you never know what is waiting for you in there. You might find that a lot of things are already known to you but the content will surely be full of new vocabulary allowing you to improve faster.

Keep a note of the new words

    4    . It’s a bit more important that you keep a handy notebook with you and whenever you learn a new word or expression, write down the context along with the word. Use the word in a sentence and note the meaning, too. Sometimes you may find forgetting a certain word or phrase seems impossible.     5    . So, to prevent this you need to keep visiting your pages and go through the notes you have made time and time again.

5 . Last weekend we celebrated Jacob turning nine    1    his friends with an art party. Instead of hosting it at our house, we    2    (decide) to try something new to celebrate it. It cost US $5,000 to rent a small restaurant. I worked with a store manager. And I bought    3    (balloon) and a few other things from him.

On the day of the party, the tables in the restaurant     4    (cover) and waiters and waitresses were ready to get to work when we arrived. We started with helping the children paint their own canvases(油画)    5    then create their own T-shirts. I should have advised parents     6    (take)some old clothes.    7     (unlucky)we did not. When one child got paint all over    8    (him), I felt bad about that.

Overall, Jacob had    9    wonderful time. We were able to do the art parity for minimal cost. The smile on his face at the end of the day was all    10    mattered to me.

6 . Susan was a shy but clever girt. She ________thick glasses, which were often made fun of by her classmates. The  ________thing was that Lewis had started calling her “Four Eyes”, and the nickname had become very________. Now everyone knew her as “Suzy Four Eyes”.

One day, the class went to visit some famous caves. When walking to the caves, Lewis put his right________in a hole and slipped(滑倒). While ________, he caught Susan, who was walking next to him, and they both fell into the hole.

They ________in a dark cave. There was only a ray of light coming from the cave roof. Susan and Lewis shouted for help, ________no one came. Sitting together in the cold, dark cave, they ________a long night. .

The next morning, they still hadn’t been________. Lewis continued shouting for help, ________ to look for a way out. But nothing was found.

Hours later, Susan noticed that the light was ________into the hole in a straight line. Quickly, she gathered some leaves. ________her glasses as a magnifying glass(放大镜), she focused the ________onto the leaves until a little flame came out. Lewis watched all this with ________and excitement.__________the light from fire, they began to explore the cave.

________, they found a way out and Lewis gave Susan his sincere thanks. Now he ________having named Susan “Four Eyes”, ________after seeing that it was her glasses that had ________them both. Lewis told everyone________had happened and said, “I couldn’t have been with a better friend than Laser Light Suzy!”

And from that day there was no longer any Four Eyes at their school, but Laser(激光)Light Suzy instead.

7 . How do I know if my older computer is worth repairing? There are several things to consider.

How old is your computer?

    1     So if your computer is older than that, then it may not have suitable hardware to make repairing worthwhile.

How much are new computers nowadays?

Now brand name Windows 9 or Windows 10 desktop computers with 8GB Ram, 1TB hard drive and DVD are $500 or less.     2     You can find new computers for less, but they may not have a satisfying lifespan of 3-5 years or more.

    3    

If you have a computer that you find it hard to get replacement parts, the costs can be high. With that being said, replacing a power supply, video board, cooling fan, or Ram memory chip can be fixed at a fair price.     4    

How long will the repair take?

You should also consider the time! If the computer is used in your business, the cost downtime(停工期) may be a bigger factor than repair cost.     5     Many big computer stores have to send your laptop out for repair which can take 2-3 weeks. For business or home, one consideration might be to buy a new computer and repair the old computer if possible.

8 . Dogs are likely to have complex emotions such as jealousy(嫉妒)and pride, according to a new scientific research.

Dogs feel very jealous when they find that they are unfairly treated. And they do not like seeing their owners being kind to other creatures, especially other dogs. They often react negatively(消极地)when their owners bring home new pets, the research found. “Dogs show a strong aversion to unfair treatment,” Dr. Friederike Range of the Vienna University said.

At first, people believed most animals lack(缺少)the “sense of self” , which is needed to experience so-called secondary emotions such as jealousy, embarrassment or guilt. These emotions are more complex than feelings such as anger or joy.

Besides dogs research, another research includes cows, horse, cats and sheep, and all the results have shown that animals are far more self-aware than we thought.

Dr Paul Morris, a psychologist at the University of Portsmouth who studies animal emotions, told The Sunday Times, “We are learning that dogs, horses, and perhaps many other species are far more emotionally complex than we ever realized. They can suffer simple forms of many emotions we once thought only primates (灵长类) could experience.”

In research among dog owners, Dr Morris found almost all of them reported jealous behavior by their pets. The dog often tried to keep their owner away from a new lover in the early days of a relationship.

Behavioral experts suggest that owners should keep a close relationship with the dog as usual when a new pet or child comes along in order to prevent jealous activity from the dog such as interruptions with barking.

9 . Rainy days don’t have to get you down, a happiness expert has reported.

Paul Dolan, Professor of Behavioral Science at the London School of Economics, said that people only feel miserable in bad weather because they think about it too much. Studies have shown that people who live in warm, sunny climates are no happier than those in chilly, wet climates, he says. So the British talking about the weather may be making us gloomier(沮丧的) than the weather itself.

He said: “A study was done that measured the happiness levels of people in California compared to the North West. “They expected that people in California would be happier because it is more sunny, but they found that levels of happiness were exactly the same. If it is sunny every day you get used to it and the sunshine doesn’t make you any happier. Most of the time the weather doesn’t influence our well-being at all. But when we think about it, and think that it does, that’s when we get miserable.”

In his new book, Happiness By Design, Dolan argues that we can think ourselves happy by taking our attention away from what makes us sad.

“Most of our anxieties come from what might be,” he argues. “If you want to be happier, pay attention to the things that make you feel good.”

He also claimed that a problem shared was not always a problem halved(减半). He believed that humans are actually very good at being able to get over tragedy(悲剧) and loss.

Professor Dolan also admitted for the first time that he had a stammer(口吃), which had made his early life miserable. He added it only got better when he learned not to pay attention to his speech problem.

“Things are never as bad as you imagine them being,” he said.

10 . Winslow Homer was a famous American painter. Since Art History class in college, I had always admired his works and I was lucky to see a large exhibition of his works when I was in my early 30s. It was at this event that I bought a print of his painting. “Snap the Whip.” I had it framed and until I retired from teaching it always hung in my classroom

I thought it truly captured(捕捉) the freedom and fun of childhood. In the painting, a group of young boys are playing a game arm in arm on grass ground in front of a farm house. They are jumping and laughing wildly with great joy. One of the boys is falling down to the ground. They are not even wearing shoes!

During my last year of teaching, there was a young woman in her first year of teaching right next door to me and we got to be good friends. She had been an art student before taking up education. Her eyes were drawn immediately to this print when she entered my room. So on my last day of teaching, after the students had left, I took the painting off the wall and walked next door and gave it to her.

She was really surprised, but very pleased to have it. I was pleased that she liked it and all the students she would have would treasure(珍爱) it as much as I had. We found the perfect place for it on one of her walls and hung it together. Thank you for bring back this wonderful memory for me.