The Reasons of Learning English

    Today lots of people in China can speak English and more and more people are learning this language. Then what do they learn English for? We have done a survey and here are some people's reasons:

    Alice White: I like traveling by myself very much. I've been to many places in China, and I plan to travel to some foreign countries. English is the most widely used language in the world, so learning English will do great help to my trips.

    Mark Smith: I'm actually not so interested in English. I like Chinese much better. However, I have to learn English. We have to take English exams and the score(分数) of English takes a large part in the total score. Luckily, I'm not doing too badly in it, or I'll have to struggle(奋斗) with it.

    Ben Green: It is necessary to learn English. As you know, the competition in the job market is very fierce(激烈的). If I have a good knowledge of English, I will have a chance of getting a good job.

    Kate Lu: It's interesting, isn't it? I can get information that others can't get. I can talk and write letters to interesting people that others can't communicate with. And I can always make people surprised by speaking good English.

Information Card

    It's December. It is snowy and the weather is really cold in the north of China. You can see many children playing with snow. Some of them are making snowmen. Some are skating on the river. It's so cold that the water in the river freezes (冻结). It's a white world. How beautiful!

    But in Australia, the weather is hot now. Many people go swimming in the sea. They are having a good time. Jim and his friends are playing soccer near the sea. They want to swim after playing soccer.

    Why can they swim in December? It is winter, isn't it? Yes, it is in China. But it isn't in Australia. That's because China and Australia have different seasons in a year.

    Do you have a tail? Of course not, we know. But tails are like opinions, actually, everyone has them: fishes, birds, most reptiles, and even some of our closest relatives

    Since tails first evolved(进化) at least 500 million years ago. Geckos (壁虎)use them to store fat. birds use them to steer through the air, But for most mammals (哺乳动物).{#blank#}1{#/blank#}Yet, as you get closer to humans on the evolutionary tree, tails disappear, Gorillas(大猩猩)don' t have them, and neither do chimps(黑猩猩) or any other apes (类人猿) including us, of course, To understand why, take a look at how we walk.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}walking like this gives us a huge advantage because unlike four﹣legged animals. which have to pour energy into every step they take, two legs take advantage of gravity(重力),which does some of the work for us. You see, each time we take a step, gravity pulls us forward. The end result is that when we walk, we use around 25% less energy than walking on all fours, and this way of getting around also totally eliminate (淘汰) the need for a tail.

    It's said that you can still see a reminder of a time when our ancient ancestors had one. Just look at a human spine(脊椎).{#blank#}3{#/blank#}That's your tailbone. It's all that's the rest of our tail.

    Now, babies are born with what looks like a tail, but that's not what's really going on. Most often, these tails are actually a parasitic twin(寄生虫). These types of tails usually form as a birth defect(瑕疵).{#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    So the tail of humans has gone, it's the result of evolution millions of years Will humans be much taller, stronger or smarter in the future?

    Think about this question: what would it be like if there was no other way to get around and we could only use our feet? {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Also, we would spend a lot of time on the way before we got somewhere. So we really need to thank all those modes of transportation (交通方式(.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} The earliest boats were canoes(独木舟). Later there were sailing boats(帆船), but they could only be used in one direction. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} 

In the 19^th century, some modes of transportation that we know today came out, such as the bike, the train and the subway. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} As it got easier to travel, people wanted to get to places faster. In the early 20^th century, the first plane in the world came out. By the 1970s, many families in the UK had a car.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} They all make our traveling easier and faster and help us see this world better.