Some of the first poems a young child learns in English are
2 . We have house rules to make LearnEnglish a fun and safe place to improve your English, so please make sure you follow these rules.
The age requirementWe welcome learners from around the world who are at least 18 years old. If you are 12 or younger, please use LearnEnglish Kids; if you are 13-17, please use LearnEnglish teens.
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Who is the LearnEnglish website mainly intended for?| A．English teachers. | B．Adult learners. |
| C．Children under 12. | D．Students aged between 13 and 17. |
1. What are the two speakers mainly talking about?
| A．How to improve English. |
| B．How to meet foreigners. |
| C．How to speak English well. |
| A．Confident. | B．Excited. | C．Shy. |
| A．Read English papers. |
| B．Talk to his English teacher. |
| C．Invite some foreigners for dinner. |
1.保持自信；2.进行大量阅读，扩大词汇量；3.多同他人用汉语交流。
注意：1.词数80左右；2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
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5 . When I first moved to China in 1998, I thought I would impress my class by using some Chinese in my speech about American weddings (婚礼). I told them everyone brings a gift to the wedding for the couple. As soon as I said this, all of the students looked surprised. I knew I had said something wrong. I realized that instead of telling them that everybody brings gifts to the hun li for the couple, I had said people bring gifts for them at the li hun!
I get laughs from some of my students because I often make mistakes and my Chinese sounds strange at times. But I tell them that sometimes their English is really strange too.
One asks, “What are you like to do in your free time?” And the other answers, “I very like basketball.” I find that even good English speakers make such mistakes. The second is by far the most common mistake I have heard among Chinese English speakers. It is a result of first thinking in Chinese and then translating each word in the sentence into English. This, of course, makes some Chinese people’s English sound strange.
“We should get off the car here,” a student told me. My school had asked two students to show me around the city by taxi. In English countries, we “get off” a bike, bus, or train. However, when we leave a car, we say “get out of the car”. Perhaps the student had learned “get off” means xia in Chinese and he thought the phrase (短语) could be followed by any means of transportation. To avoid such mistakes, you should take collocations (搭配) seriously. Only learning vocabulary and grammar is not enough.
Some of my students sound more like a book or machine than a human. Perhaps they have gotten used to depending on books. You can also read English books out loud or use a CD, but you need the real thing. If you have a chance to hear a native speaker from an Englishspeaking country, practice repeating what you hear. They can teach you how to have a conversation.
1. Why did the students feel surprised?| A．American weddings are difficult to organize. |
| B．The author’s Chinese was as fluent as Chinese. |
| C．The author used a completely wrong Chinese word. |
| D．Everyone must bring a gift to an American wedding. |
| A．Spelling mistakes. | B．Direct translation. |
| C．Cultural difference. | D．Wrong pronunciations. |
| A．He might be poor at vocabulary. |
| B．He might mistake “car” for “taxi”． |
| C．He might know very little about the city. |
| D．He might pay little attention to collocations. |
| A．Common mistakes made by Chinese English learners. |
| B．Differences between Chinese and American culture. |
| C．Suggestions on improving conversational skills. |
| D．His experience of learning English. |
内容包括：（1）询问近况并祝贺Chris 获奖；
（2）提供深入学习汉语的建议（如：读中文书籍，用中文记日记等）
（3）邀请Chris 来中国学习交流。
注意：（1）词数不少于100；
（2）可适当加入细节，使内容充实、行文连贯；
（3）开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。
Dear Chris.
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Yours,
Li Jin
7 . For Canaan Elementary’s second grade in Patchogue, N.Y., today is speech day, and right now it’s Chris Palaez’s turn. The 8-year-old is the joker of the class. With shining dark eyes, he seems like the kind of kid who would enjoy public speaking.
But he’s nervous. “I’m here to tell you today why you should … should…” Chris trips on the “-ld,” a pronunciation difficulty for many non-native English speakers. His teacher, Thomas Whaley, is next to him, whispering support. “…Vote for …me …” Except for some stumbles, Chris is doing amazingly well. When he brings his speech to a nice conclusion, Whaley invites the rest of the class to praise him.
A son of immigrants, Chris stared learning English a little over three years ago. Whaley recalls (回想起) how at the beginning of the year, when called upon to read, Chris would excuse himself to go to the bathroom.
Learning English as a second language can be a painful experience. What you need is a great teacher who lets you make mistakes. “It takes a lot for any student,” Whaley explains, “especially for a student who is learning English as their new language, to feel confident enough to say, ‘I don’t know, but I want to know.’”
Whaley got the idea of this second-grade presidential campaign project when he asked the children one day to raise their hands if they thought they could never be a president. The answer broke his heart. Whaley says the project is about more than just learning to read and speak in public. He wants these kids to learn to boast (夸耀) about themselves.
“Boasting about yourself, and your best qualities,” Whaley says, “is very difficult for a child who came into the classroom not feeling confident.”
What does the underlined word “stumbles” in paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Improper pauses. |
| B．Bad manners. |
| C．Spelling mistakes. |
| D．Silly jokes. |
8 . When people ask about my journey of learning Cantonese, I recount a path fueled by endless curiosity and a strong desire to connect with a lively culture.
Growing up in a Russian family, my interest in languages blossomed thanks to my father, who was a language enthusiast. It was during a cultural appreciation class in junior high that I was first introduced to Hong Kong films, famous for their characteristic action-packed dramas and storytelling styles. However, what truly fascinated me was the uniqueness of the Cantonese language, sparking a deep urge within me to explore it and the rich culture it represents. This marked the start of an exciting linguistic adventure.
Learning Cantonese presented challenges, including unfamiliar characters, complex tones, and different grammar structures, yet I persevered. Immersed in textbooks and available online courses, I practiced the tones every day until my pronunciation flowed naturally. Cantonese dramas and music also played a role in familiarizing me with its rhythm.
To truly grasp the essence of Cantonese, I realized that self-study wasn’t enough—I needed firsthand experience. Thus, I took a gap year to journey to Hong Kong, a city featuring the lively heartbeat of Cantonese culture. Buried in its busy streets and daily conversations, from casual chats to food ordering, I found myself enveloped in a linguistic wonderland. Within a few months, my Cantonese skills grew rapidly, boosting my confidence significantly.
My explorations extended beyond the streets. I attended formal language classes that offered professional guidance. Through hard work, I successfully completed all the courses in Cantonese Linguistics. From then on, I’ve been passionately committed to spreading the Cantonese culture, ensuring its richness reaches a wider audience.
Today, I continue my Cantonese voyage with unflagging (无穷的) enthusiasm. It has transformed into more than just a linguistic pursuit; it gives me a passport to sincere connections, deep insights, and heartfelt admiration for its one-of-a-kind culture.
1. What truly inspired the author to learn Cantonese?| A．His teacher’s recommendation. | B．Influence of friends and family. |
| C．The uniqueness of the language. | D．His interest in Hong Kong films. |
| A．To explore tourist attractions. | B．To pursue career opportunities. |
| C．To attend formal language classes. | D．To immerse himself in Cantonese culture. |
| A．Curious and creative. | B．Determined and adventurous. |
| C．Outgoing and helpful. | D．Tolerant and passionate. |
| A．Cantonese’s Charm | B．A Journey to Hong Kong |
| C．Embracing Cantonese | D．The Power of Curiosity |
| A．The man hardly practices listening. |
| B．The man doesn’t like English. |
| C．The man seldom has time to read English. |
10 . If you want to become a fluent English speaker you should take some advice. There are four skills in learning English. They are reading, listening, speaking and writing. The most important thing you must remember is that if you want to improve your speaking and writing skills you should first master the skills of reading and listening.
Read as much as you can. But your reading must be active. It means that you must think about the meaning of the sentence, the meaning of the unfamiliar words, etc. There is no need for you to pay much attention to grammars or try to understand all the unfamiliar words you come across, but the fact that you see them for the first time and recognize them whenever you see them, for example in other passages or books, is enough. It would be better to prepare yourself a notebook so you can write down the important words or sentences in it.
As for listening, there are two choices: besides reading, you can listen every day for about 30 minutes. You can only pay attention to your reading and become skillful at your reading, then you can catch up on your listening. Since you have lots of inputs in your mind, you can easily guess what the speaker is going to say. This never means that you should not practice listening.
For listening you can listen to cartoons or some movies that are specially made for children. Their languages are easy. Or if you are good at listening you can listen to VOA or BBC programs every day. Again the thing to remember is being active in listening and preferably taking some notes.
If you follow these pieces of advice, your speaking and writing will improve automatically, and you can be sure that with a little effort they will become perfect.
1. According to the author, which should you improve first among the four skills?| A．Reading and listening. | B．Reading and writing. |
| C．Writing and speaking. | D．Speaking and listening. |
| A．look up all the new words in the dictionary | B．think about what you are reading actively |
| C．spend more time studying grammar | D．copy as many words and sentences as possible |
| A．meet by accident | B．discover | C．find on purpose | D．look for |
| A．When you become skillful at your listening, you can catch up on your reading. |
| B．If you have enough input in your mind, it’s not necessary to practice listening. |
| C．It is not advised to take notes, because it will take up too much and affect listening. |
| D．VOA or BBC is a good listening resource if you do quite well in listening. |
