1 . Reading is an important part of learning English, but many students find it difficult.    1     .

●Read for the main ideas

Read the text for the first time, and don't stop. Read to understand the main ideas    2    . You' ll be surprised that you can usually understand the main idea of the story.

●    3     .

Context（上下文）refers to words and situations that are around a word you don't understand. Look at the example sentence:

I went to the schlumping to buy some chitla for dinner.

What's "schlumping"?-It must be a store because you bought something there. What's "chitla"?-It must be food because you are going to eat it for dinner.

●Use your own language

One of the best tips on improving reading is to think about how you read in your own language. Start by thinking about how you read different documents. How do you read the newspaper?    4    ?How do you read train schedules? And so on. Taking time to think about this will help give you clues（线索）on how to read in English-even if you don't understand every single word.    5     .

●Understand different reading skills

Here is a quick overview of the four types of reading skills used in every language:

Skimming-used to understand the main idea

Scanning-used to find a particular piece of information

Extensive reading- used for pleasure and general understanding

Intensive reading- accurate reading for detailed understanding

2 . The Story of Music

How did music begin? Did our early ancestors first start by beating things together to create rhythm, or using their voices to sing? What types of instruments did they use?     1     The answers show that the history of music is, in many ways, the history of humans.

So, what is music?

This is difficult to answer, as everyone has their own idea. “Sound that conveys emotion” is what Jeremy Montagu of the University of Oxford and author of the article describes.

    2    

If we take singing, then controlling pitch(音高) is important. Scientists have studied the skulls and jaws of early apes, to see if they were able to make a sound and control pitch. Another important component of music is rhythm. Our early ancestors may have created rhythmic music by clapping their hands.     3    

Many of these instruments are likely to have been made from soft materials like wood, and so haven't survived. What have survived are bone pipes. So, music is old, and may have been with us from when humans first evolved.

But why did it arise and why has it existed?

There are many possible functions of music. One is dancing. Another obvious reason for music is entertainment.     4    

However, the major reason why music arises and exists may be that it brings people together.     5     He concludes: “It has even been suggested that music, in causing such bonding, created not only the family but society itself, bringing individuals together who might otherwise have lived alone.”