完形填空

　　Once upon a time a peacock(孔雀)and a tortoise(乌龟)became good friends．The peacock lived in a tree on the bank of a river in which the tortoise had his 　　1　　．Every day after the peacock had a drink of water, he 　　2　　 dance near the river and 　　3　　 his beautiful feathers to his friend．

　　One 　　4　　 day, a hunter caught the peacock and was about to 　　5　　 him away to the market．The unhappy bird 　　6　　 the hunter to allow him to say goodbye to his friend, the tortoise, 　　7　　 it would be the last time he would see him．The hunter 　　8　　 and took him to the tortoise．

　　The tortoise asked the hunter to let the peacock 　　9　　, but the hunter laughed at the request, 　　10　　 that was his means of livelihood(生活)．Then the tortoise said,“If I give you a beautiful present, will you let my friend go?”

　　“　　11　　,”answered the hunter,“that is all I want．”

　　The tortoise 　　12　　 into the water and in a few seconds he came up with a beautiful pearl．To the hunter's great astonishment, he handed it to him．This was 　　13　　 the hunter's expectation, and he freed the peacock immediately．

　　A short time later, the bad hunter 　　14　　 and told the tortoise that he thought he had not 　　15　　 enough for the release of his friend, and 　　16　　 that, unless a pearl which is similar to that one was offered to him, he would catch the peacock again．The tortoise, who had already advised his friend to 　　17　　 himself in a distant place, was greatly 　　18　　 with the greedy man．“Well,”said the tortoise,“if you 　　19　　 having another pearl like this one, give it to me and I will find you a(an)　　20　　 match of it．”

　　The hunter gave the pearl to the tortoise quickly．Then the tortoise replied,“I can't find another one and give you two!”

　　He disappeared into the river, leaving the hunter sorry for being so greedy．

阅读理解

　　Here are a few tips we’ve put together to help you learn English well．

　　Tip 1　Speak, speak, speak!

　　Practise speaking as often as you can－even speaking to yourself is good practice．

　　Try recording yourself whenever you can．Compare your pronunciation with the master version, see how you can do better and have another go．If you do this several times, you will find that each version is better than the last．

　　Tip 2　Why not learn with someone else?

　　It helps if you can learn with someone else．If you can persuade a friend or family member to study with you, it will make you keep working．Agree times to meet and set goals for the week, and test each other regularly．

　　Tip 3　Don’t get stuck by a word you don’t know

　　Ptactise improvising(即兴的)ways of getting your meaning across when speaking spontaneously(本能地), even if you don’t know the exact words or phrases．Think of things you might want to say whenever you have spare time．A basic example is the rise of tenses．If you don’t know the past tense but want to talk about yesterday, use the verb in the present tense and use the word for “yesterday”．Use facial expression, hand movements, anything to get your meaning across．

　　Tip 4　Language learning is also about intuition(直觉)

　　Guesswork is an important strategy in learning a new language．When listening to recorded material, you aren’t expected to understand everything first time round．If you play the same piece several times, you will most probably understand something new each time．Learn to make maximum use of all the clues you can pick up．For example, what do the speakers sound like? Happy? Angry? Calm? etc．

　　Tip 5　Build up your vocabulary

　　A wide vocabulary is the key to successful language learning but don’t try to learn too much at once．It’s best to study frequently, for short periods of time．Take a maximum of six or seven items of vocabulary and learn them．Put them into sentences to fix them in your mind, then come back to them later．Much of the vocabulary in the course is presented by topic．

　　And above all, have fun!