Here are some tips on listening. We hope it can help you in one way or another.
●Relax yourself.
Before you start to listen to something, You need to relax.
{#blank#}1{#/blank#} This will help you with your listening.
●Listen carefully to the first sentence.
{#blank#}2{#/blank#} For example, if eyou hear“Many shops in many parts of China have decided to take away all kinds of Japanese goods off their shelves, but some people say it's not a good idea. Our reporter says…”,you know you will hear a piece of news, not a children's story or a science report.
●Think when you're listening.
{#blank#}3{#/blank#} For example, you can think of the following questions: What happened? When , where and how? What was the result and what does the speaker want to tell us? In this way, you may undersrand the passage better.
●Listen for important facts.
{#blank#}4{#/blank#} For example, if the passage is a science report, you should try to remember its findings , and how the scientists got their results.
●Don't think about one or two words for too long.
You may hear some words that you don't know. But don't spend too much time on them.
{#blank#}5{#/blank#} But you can remember some words or sentences that you think are important, and you can use them when you're answering the questions.

    It may be really hard to tell others that you're feeling sad or worried. If you keep these feelings in your heart and don't talk about them with others, you will even fall ill at last.

    If you talk with someone, who cares a lot about you, like your dad or mom, you may feel better. You're not alone with your problems or worries. But if a kid doesn't want to talk with his or her Dad or Mom, what should he or she do? It's better to find another trusty(可信的)adult ,like a teacher at school. Maybe this person can help you talk with your Dad or Mom about your problems.

    Once you know who you can talk to, you should choose when and where to talk. If you think it's difficult for you to say what you think, write it down on a piece of paper. If the person can't understand what you mean right away, try to say it in a different way or give an example.

    Some kids may feel shy about sharing their feelings. But it is important to share their feelings when they need help.

    Different families have different table manners. For example, some people don't talk while they eat, some do. Some people talk with their mouths full, others don't. Some people put their elbows (肘) on the table, but others consider it unacceptable.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}. Here's some good advice. If you're new somewhere just watch what other people do and don't do. If you follow the people you're eating with, you'll always have good table manners in their eyes.

    I grew up in an old-fashioned family. The main time my family saw each other was at dinner.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}. We talked about our day through the dinner whether we had good stories or not.A reason we talked so much was that our parents didn't allow us to get up until we finished all of our food. Being the daughter of a Greek cook and an Italian woman, my mom always put doubleportions (双份) of delicious meals on our plates.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}. I still remember my father making us eat dinner for almost two hours just because we couldn't finish our food!

根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。

A. When we sat down to eat it was our time to talk.

B. The problem was that sometimes we couldn't finish all the food.

C. Table manners vary (变化) with different people and different situations.

D. You may find Western table manners are different from Chinese manners.

    You may think that English dictionaries have been used for many, many centuries. The spelling of English has always been a problem, but it was more of a problem in the days before a dictionary. In those days people spelt words in different ways which you might find interesting. But it made reading English much more difficult. So dictionaries were invented to encourage everybody to spell the same. In fact, an English dictionary like the kind you use today wasn't made until the time of the Qing Dynasty.

    The largest dictionary in the world is the Oxford English Dictionary, or OED for short. The idea for this dictionary came from an important meeting in Britain in 1857. Twenty-two years later, Oxford University asked James Murray to be the editor of its new dictionary.

    Murray had not been to college. At the age of fourteen, he left his village school in Scotland and taught himself while working in a bank. Later he became a great teacher. After Oxford gave him the job, Murray had a place built in the garden behind his house to do his work. Part of it was one metre underground. In winter he had to wear a heavy coat and put his feet in a box to keep warm. Every morning, Murray got out of bed at five o'clock and worked several hours before breakfast. Often he would work by candle light into the evening.

    Murray hoped to finish the new dictionary in ten years. But after five years, he was still adding words for the letter A! Then others went to work with Murray, and his two daughters were among them. He worked on the dictionary until he was very old. Forty-four years later, in 1928, other editors finished it. It had more than 15,000 words in twelve books. And you thought your English dictionary was big!

    Hi, I'm Linda Smith. My first name's Linda, and my family name's Smith. I'm a 12-year-old middle school student. The cute girl is my sister, Mary Smith. She's 8 years old. These are my parents, Mr. and Mrs. Smith. We're Americans, but we're not in the USA. We are in China now.

    Look! This is a photo of my room. It's very nice and clean. Here are some books on the desk. An eraser and three pencils are in the pencil box. What color is my schoolbag? It's black. You can see a Dog on my bed, but it's not mine. Its name's Pluto. It's my sister Mary's. Are those my dictionaries? No, they aren't. I borrowed (借) them from my teacher, Ms. Black. She teaches(教) me English at school.

    My room isn't big, but it always(总是) brings me happiness(带给我快乐). I love it.