完形填空

　　Can you remember the day 　　1　　 you spoke your first word?

　　Try to imagine(想像)　　2　　 first few months of your life were like．I am 　　3　　 you just spent most of your time eating, sleeping and crying．　　4　　 you grew older, you were awake(醒着的)more of the time．It 　　5　　 your parents more time to play with you and talk to you, you tried your best to watch and listen．You began to know 　　6　　 people made certain sounds to go with certain things．

　　Then you began to try making the sounds you 　　7　　．And little by little you were able to make the 　　8　　 sound for one thing．

　　On that day you came to understand the 　　9　　 of language．The secret is that a certain sound 　　10　　 a certain thing．One sound might be as good as 　　11　　．But it is no good as a word 　　12　　 everybody agrees on its meaning．Only when a 　　13　　 of people use the same sounds of things, they can understand each other．Then and only then do these people have a 　　14　　．

　　After you found the secret of language, you 　　15　　 words．Some of the words meant 　　16　　, such as BOOKS, CHAIRS, and SHOES．　　17　　 words meant doing things, such as GO and SWIM．And other described(描述)things, such as GOOD and DIRTY．Soon you learned to 　　18　　 words together to express(表达)an idea, such as “I want to go out and play with my friends．” This is 　　19　　．People can communicate(交流思想)in it．So we say language are 　　20　　 to communicate．

阅读理解

　　The publication of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" pleases booksellers across China．The British and American editions were No．1 and No．3 respectively on the sales chart of the Beijing Xidan Book Building last week．The book's poster is highlighted and news about the book can often be heard on the radio．

　　Why is the book so attractive to children? With curious mood, the author got a copy of "Harry Potter"．Originally, I wanted to glance over it and made some criticisms．But, out of expectation, the author has been deeply attracted by the magic world．On the other hand, one cannot help asking：where is our own "Harry Potter"?

　　The Chinese nation has a history of 5,000 years, which cannot be regarded as short and its culture as not profound．With a vast market of youngsters, China did publish many books popular among children．However, why are the present works not as good as those imported?

　　There come two major reasons：Firstly, quite a number of children's books are of strong sense of teaching, and lack interest and entertainment．Children often have a feeling of being "educated"．No wonder they don't like them．Secondly, children's reading materials involving "idiom stories" and "Chinese talents' stories", though always in different covers, are usually much the same or plagiarized．One knows the ending as early as in the beginning．In final analysis, the authors of the books seldom take children's requirements into consideration．

　　As a matter of fact, each child has his own wonderful imagination．They long to understand the world and nature．Similarly they have their own choices．They dislike similar stories, even if the stories are excellent．First-class reading for children should be very interesting, which contains knowledge and the essence of national culture, which are presented in children's language．

　　Market is a touchstone for products．The theory also holds true for cultural products．It is hoped that the authors of children's books can learn something from the good market of "Harry Potter" and write out more and better books loved by children．