2 . The winter skies are grey and it’s cold outside. The nights come early and we spend a lot more time _______ and alone. Many people _______ winter: so cold, so dark, so boring. But I like winter because I have more time to read.

For many students reading means school; it means _______. Reading is something your teacher assigns and it’s something you’re _______. Reading is something you have to do, not something you want to do. But for me and many other people, reading is the most _______ thing we can imagine. Getting lost in a good book can _______ a cold winter evening disappear. Dull grey skies are no _______ for the fantastic adventures of Frodo in The Lord of the Rings (《指环王》), or for romantic trouble-making of Jane Austen’s Emma (《爱玛》), or for the youthful problems of Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye (《麦田守望者》).

All of those books are studied in North American high schools. They are interesting and well written books that _______ young people. _______, even there, many high school students don’t enjoy reading the books because they are ________ their school work: “Oh, my God! Two hundred pages! I’ll never be able to read ________ much.” But sometimes a funny thing happens. They begin to read and they begin to follow the ________. Suddenly, the world inside the book becomes more exciting and more wonderful than the world they ________. At the moment the thought ________ reading is work disappears and reading becomes ________.

Reading anything is ________ but reading good books is a terrific way to improve your English. Good writers write English very well and ________ you with good examples to follow. And good books will tell you more about English ________: what people think, how they talk, how they interact with each other. But don’t let me ________ it by telling you that reading is good for you. Just think of it as a good way to ________ on a cold winter evening.