I enjoy learning English but can remember individual words easy. However, when it comes to reading comprehension, it’s really the challenge. Last weekend, I tried to read a storybook write in English to improve my reading. At first, I refer to the dictionary every time I came across a new word, which I found it not very helpful. I often felt puzzling about what I had read. Then I tried to finish a chapter completely with looking up the new words. What surprised me was I could understand the story merely from the context. I hope I will make great progresses in English in this way.

In order to deal with the common travel dilemma of language barriers and miscommunication, some Swiss     1     (design) have created an item of clothing that speaks for itself.     2     (found) in 2015, Iconspeak aims to break language barriers by creating     3     (amaze), simple and helpful products that many travelers can use around the world.

''Simplicity is always what unites us in many forms. Whether you call it lazy    4    genius, we like to keep it simple. Then follows our starting point of how to bridge the language barriers of our world: a shirt ,''declares the Iconspeak website.

So how does the T-shirt address the problem? On it     5     (be) nearly 40 easily recognizable symbols, representing common concepts travelers can use to express     6     (they)wherever they are in the world.

In 2013 when co-founder George Horn and his friends were riding motorbikes through Vietnam, one motorbike    7     (break) down. In search of assistance, they ended up in a village     8     no one could understand them. By drawing out images and symbols on pieces of paper, they could somehow explain their situation.

Not like any fashion statement, the shirt is     9     unique translation tool.   Individuals can relay messages by     10     (simple) pointing to universally understood symbols for trains, buses, hotels, hospitals, airplanes and even Wi-Fi.

I am a 18﹣year﹣old Chinese girl． I've been learning English in a few years． To my joy， with the help of Linda， my pen pal in American， I'm getting more and more interesting in English． Linda， like many girls， are kind and lovely． Although her English isn't easy to understand it， we enjoy write to each other and we usually talk a lot about our school activities． By communicating， we also realize that Chinese culture or American culture are so differently． I am determined to work hard improve my English so that I can introduce some traditional Chinese festivals to her．

8 . For the past few months, my three-year-old daughter has spent an hour every week learning a foreign language. She walks into a small room in a local school, where she and a handful of three and four-year-old spend the next hour dancing to ^“La Vaca Lola”, a song about a Spanish cow, creating finger puppets(木偶) to voice what they like and don’t like (me gusta, no me gusta) and shouting out which animals are big (grande) or small (pequeno).

She tells us little about the classes. In fact, for the first few weeks, nothing at all. I begin to wonder if it was a huge mistake (each lesson works out at about £9) but then I show her “La Vaca Lola” on YouTube. She shouts vaca with enthusiasm and with what I hope is a Spanish accent.

The wish to enroll(使……加入) her in language lessons came, like most things, gradually and then in a sudden rush. In my day job, I read and edit stories about the Chinese economy. For a long time, I felt that it would be good for her to learn another language but I had no great plan as to when.

Then I read Edward Luce’s The Retreat of Western Liberalism and all my thoughts and worry about the economy combined into a panic. Waking in a sweat, it seemed obvious that if my daughter was to have any kind of future, she would have to learn another language. Ideally (理想地) immediately.

I thought about Mandarin Chinese, one of the top 10 languages most important for our future, according to the British Council (others include Arabic, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Dutch and Japanese). But there were no classes for young children nearby. There were, however, local Spanish classes—the number-one language on the list. When she started to sing “Incy Wincy Spider” in Spanish and English—helped by a Spanish nursery worker-our decision was made.

9 . In our life most people like green and green is an important color in nature. It is the color of most growing plants. Sometimes, the word green means young, fresh, and growing.     1    .

For example, a greenhorn is someone who has no experience, who is new to a situation. In the 15^th century, a greenhorn was a young cow or ox whose horns have not yet developed.     2    . By the 18^th century, a greenhorn had the meaning it has today ---- a person who is new in a job.

About 100 years ago. Greenhorn was a popular expression in the American west.    3    . The greenhorn lacked the skills he would need to live in the hard, rough country.

Someone who has the ability to grow plants well is said to have a green thumb.     4    

A person with green thumb seems to make the plants grow quickly and well. You might say that the woman next door had a green thumb if her garden continues to grow long after your plants have died.

Green is also used to describe the unpleasant emotion, jealousy. The green-eyed monster is not a frightening creature from outer space. It is an expression used about 400 years ago by William Shakespeare in his play “Othello”.     5     A young man may suffer from the green-eyed monster if his girlfriend begins going out with someone else. Or, that green-eyed monster may affect your friend if you get a pay raise and she does not.

Keeping a diary in English is one of the most     1     (effect) ways to improve our English writing ability.     2     (compare) with other forms of writing, it is shorter and takes     3    (little) time. It can help us to develop the habit of thinking in English.     4     we persist in this practice, gradually we’ll learn how to express ourselves in English. In keeping a diary in English, we certainly run up against many     5    (difficult). In the first place,     6     often happens that we have trouble finding appropriate words and phrases to give expression to our mind. Secondly, there are many idiomatic ways of saying things in Chinese. And it is extremely hard for us to put them into English properly. As far as I     7     (concern), my     8     (suggest) is that we should always have a notebook and a Chinese-English dictionary within easy reach. Whenever something beats us, we can first put it down in our notebook and then consult our dictionary. We can also turn to our English teacher for help, if necessary. In short, I believe that it is    9    great use to keep a diary in English for     10     development of our writing skills.