Some of Paul’s schoolmates learn two languages—English and French. So does Paul. As an Englishman, Paul can also speak German and Spanish. So, do you think the British people are very good language learners? The fact is that they aren’t.

The survey done by the European Commission (欧盟委员会) showed that 62% of the British people only speak English. 38% speak at least one foreign language and 18% speak two or more. Compared with the British people, 56% of the people in other European countries speak at least one foreign language and 28% speak two or more. From this you can see that the British people are famous for not speaking foreign languages and that they are not good language learners in Europe.

And the survey also showed that English is the most widely-spoken foreign language. Many European people can have a conversation in English. That’s why British people don’t think it is necessary to learn a foreign language.

In Britain, students are not required to learn a foreign language. That means at school learning a foreign language is only an option. In UK schools it is common for children to start learning a foreign language at 11 and many of them give it up at 14. So why don’t students continue learning foreign languages at school? Because they think it is more difficult to get good results in languages than in other subjects such as science or history.

To solve this problem, the British government is looking for different ways to improve language learning at school. One way is to start learning it at a much younger age. Another one is to give school children more choices.

Changing the British attitude(态度) to learning foreign languages may be a hard task but the government decides to have a try!

1.Which country is Paul from?

A.France. B.Germany.

C.Spain. D.The United Kingdom.

2.According to the passage, students in Britain prefer to learn .

A.science or German B.history or science

C.French or history D.German or French

3.What does the underlined word “option” mean in Chinese in paragraph 4?

A.选修课 B.必修课 C.实验课 D.艺术课

4.Which of the following about the British people is TRUE?

A.They are good language learners.

B.They are famous for speaking foreign languages.

C.More than half of them only speak English.

D.56% of them speak at least one foreign language.

5.What is the best title of the passage?

A.English Speaking B.Young English Learners

C.Schools in England D.Language Learning in Britain

I think April Fool's Day is a very unusual holiday. On April Fool's Day, you have to watch out for practical jokes. You can't trust everything you hear on April 1st. Even some main newspapers will put fake news to fool people. I heard a story about how on April Fool's Day, a piece of fake news brought panic (恐慌) to London. A newspaper printed an article about aliens landed in England. This caused many people to be afraid and the local police were not very pleased with the newspaper.

It can be interesting to play tricks, but you'd better not to go too far. One April Fool's Day, I called my mother from the university I attended. I told her that I failed all of my exams and because of this, I wasn't able to graduate. She was so upset that she started to cry. I felt really bad about making her sad and tried to tell her it was just a joke. After I told her it was only an April Fool's Day's joke, she got so angry with me that she hung up the phone. I had to call her back and apologize before she would talk to me again.

April Fool's Day's jokes can be funny,but you should be careful not to hurt people's feelings by embarrassing them too much. Before you act, you should always make sure to put yourself in someone else's shoes and think about how they might feel.

1.What can't be trusted on April Fool's Day?

A.Everything you hear. B.Strangers' jokes.

C.Friends' jokes. D.Everything on TV.

2.What was the writer when he called his mother on April Fool's Day?

A.A worker. B.A student.

C.A teacher. D.A reporter.

3.Which of the following is TRUE?

A.Once aliens landed in England.

B.April Fool's Day is a usual holiday.

C.The mother felt worried when she got the call.

D.You can do anything to fool your friends on April Fool's Day.

4.What does the passage mainly tell us?

A.Don't play jokes on your friends.

B.It's bad for newspapers to put fake news.

C.Children shouldn't play jokes on their mothers.

D.Don't go too far when playing jokes on April Fool's Day.

5.What does the underlined word “fake” mean in Chinese?

A.可怕的 B.过时的

C.最新的 D.虚假的

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