Can you swim? Do you like swimming? Yes? Well, how can you learn to swim? I think the best way is to go into the water and learn. I’m afraid you’ll never learn to swim just by reading books about swimming or looking at others swimming. It’s the same with the English study. We must practice, practice and practice.
Listening and speaking are very important for beginners. The children in English-speaking countries first listen to others. Then they try to imitate and speak. We can listen to English programs on radio. You may just understand a few words. It doesn’t matter. Just be relaxed, try to catch every word. Somebody may be a good listener. But he dare not speak. He’s afraid of making mistakes. You know we sometimes make mistakes when we speak Chinese. Don’t be afraid. We must be brave. If you really want to learn English well, you must try to speak with everyone as long as he knows English. Whether you know him or not is not important, when there’s nobody to talk with, you can talk to yourself in English. It’s interesting and also a good way to practice your spoken English. Remember, the more you speak, the fewer mistakes you’ll make.
Reading and writing are more important for senior school students. First we must choose the books we’re interested in. A lot of reading will improve your language sense. This is the most important.
Keep writing English diaries. We can also write English articles. You may even post them to English magazines. Don’t be afraid of failure. Failure is the mother of success.
Easier said than done. Well, let’s do more practice from now on. I’m sure you’ll learn English well in this way.
【小题1】You can learn to swim by_______.

选词填空
(he,  the,  grow,  high,  until,  one,  fail,  loud,  speech,  when)
Sir Edmund Hillary was the first man to climb Mount Everest. On May 29, 1953 he climbed and measured 【小题1】__________ highest mountain then known to man—29,000 feet straight up. He was spoken 【小题2】__________ of for his efforts when he came back. He even made advertisements for big companies. However, 【小题3】__________ we read his book, High Adventure, we don't understand that Hillary had to grow into this success.
You see, in 1952 he tried to climb Mount Everest, but【小题4】__________. A few weeks later a group in England asked him to give a 【小题5】__________ to its members. Hillary was given a warm welcome【小题6】__________ walking on stage. People there thought him as a hero, but Edmund Hillary saw 【小题7】__________ as a failure. He moved away from the microphone and walked to the side of the stage.
He lifted one hand and pointed at a picture of the mountain. He said in a【小题8】__________voice, “Mount Everest, you beat me the 【小题9】__________ time, but I’ll beat you the next time because you’ve 【小题10】__________all you are going to grow, but I'm still growing!”

Mary didn’t understand such sentences as“She is blue today”，“You are yellow”，“He has a green thumb”，“He has told a white lie”and so on．And she went to the teacher Mrs James for help．

Mary：Mrs James，there is a colour in each of the sentences．What do they mean?

Mrs James：In everyday English，Mary，blue sometimes means sad，yellow afraid．A person with a green thumb grows plants well and a white lie is not a bad one．

Mary：I'm afraid I don’t understand them a11．Would you give me an example for“a white lie”?

Mrs James：Certainly．Now I just give you some cakes．In fact you don’t like it，but you don’t want to let me know it．Instead you say，“No，thanks．I’m not hungry．”That’s a white lie．

Mary：It sounds very interesting．Thanks very much．

Mrs James：You are welcome．Colours are meaningful．I think you will meet more sentences like these in the future．Please come to me if you have any questions．

1.Blue sometimes means sad in________English．

      A．good         B．spoken       C．usual         D．poor

2.I don’t have a green thumb，so all my plants________．

     A．die off       B．grow well    C．look nice      D．are good

3.David is yellow and he is________to climb the tall tree!

     A．happy        B．clever       C．brave         D．afraid

4.He didn’t like me to know________of the accident．He told me a white lie at last．

     A．the reason     B．the true story    C．the meaning    D．the answer

5.He is ________today．He is told that his father is seriously ill．

     A．blue         B．yellow         C．green          D．white

Much meaning can be carried clearly, with our eyes, so it is often __35____that eyes can speak.
Do you have such kind of__36____? In a bus you may look at a stranger, but not too long. And if he___37___that he is being looked at, he may feel uncomfortable. The same in daily life. If you are looked at for more than necessary, you will look at yourself up and down, to see if there is__38____wrong with you. If nothing goes wrong, you will feel__39____toward the person who is looking at you that way. Eyes do speak, right?
Looking too long at someone may seem to be impolite. But sometimes things are different. If a man looks at a woman for more than 10 seconds, it may mean that he wishes to attract her attention, to make her understand that he___40___ her. When two people are in a conversation, the speaker will only look at the listener from time to time, ___41___ make sure that the listener does pay attention___42___what he or she is saying. Lovers will enjoy looking at each other or being looked at for a long time, to show something that ___43___cannot express.
Clearly, eye contact should be done according to the relationship between two people and the place___44___you stay.