A man was mending a street lamp when he saw a pretty young woman and three children get into a car which was in the garden of a house near him. He saw that the car had a flat tyre, and tried to warn the woman, but it was too late—she was already driving the car out of the garden, and into the busy street. When she had got there, she stopped the car at the side of the street, got out and looked at the flat tyre. The children stayed in the car. Very soon another car stopped, and the driver offered to help her. The young woman accepted his offer, and the man changed the tyre for her.

    When she had thanked him and he had gone, she drove the car back into the garden, got out with the children and went back to her work in the house –with clean hands.

    I'm an office worker and work in a downtown(闹市区) office. I live on a small island(岛), so take a boat from the island to the city center on weekdays. The boat leaves at 6:20 and① it takes about 35 minutes to get to the city. Then I have a short walk to my office. Sometimes when the weather is bad, I can't get to my office on time by boat.(Tina Brown)

    I'm a teacher. ②I take the train to work every day. The train is quick and cheap and there are hardly any delays(耽误). The trains run every half an hour. The train station is near my home. It takes only 35 minutes from my home to the school.(Ms Jackson)

    I'm a college ( 大学)  student. I live in a college. The college is very big, so I usually walk a lot. Sometimes ③it takes 15 minutes to get from one building to another. When I want to shop with my friends outside the college, we take a bus. The buses stop running after 10：00 pm. So if we get back after that time, we take the bus to our school. (Maria Black).

     It was my first time in the US. I think there is no other country that I have heard so many things about before I visited it. Burgers, big cars, fat people, good wine and fantastic cities. For sure the real experience was quite different. Although you can find all these things there, you will also find many other things to discover.

     In Los Angeles, I stayed at a place where they even produced home-made videos. I always thought in Hollywood only movies with lots of money are produced. But in this place, even parts of the living room were functioned (运作) into a scene. But anyway, this shows what you imagined about a place before arriving might be totally wrong. Now I started to understand the city is not only the place where the big movies are made, it's also where people are crazy about movies, and always try to start a production even if they don't have lots of money. People there just really love movies, they are motivated (调动积极) to give their ideas a try and at least open up a channel online with their home-made stories.

     Of course, there are many other interesting places in Los Angeles. As I stayed only a few days, it was not enough time to see all. But I advise you to have two apps on your smart phone for traveling in America. First is Yelp to find the closest and best restaurant or coffee place. And the other is Uber because especially in Los Angeles, you won't find taxis and everything is so far. You can also drive but it's wise to park your car close to a subway station and go to Hollywood by subway.

    One day a young man was standing in a crowded place, shouting that he had the most beautiful heart in the world. Most of the people who saw his heart were amazed at the beauty of his heart. It had no little flaw (瑕疵).

    Suddenly, an old man appeared and said, "Oh, my son, your heart is not as beautiful as mine."

    The old man showed his heart to the young man. It was beating strongly, but full of scars. It had places where pieces had been removed and other pieces put in. But they didn't fit quite right, and there were gaps and rough(崎岖不平的) edges. Some places have never been filled in.

    The young man laughed, "My dear old man,   ▲   Comparing your heart with mine, mine is perfect and yours is full of scars."

    The old man said, "Dear boy, my heart is just as beautiful as your heart. You see, each scar shows where I have given my love. Sometimes people give me a piece of their heart back, and it fills the space as best it can. Other times, I give my love and get nothing in return. Those are the empty spaces. They hurt, but they show me that I can love and love again. "

    The young man stood still. His eyes were filled with tears. He walked up to the old man, tore a piece of his heart and gave the piece to the old man.

    The old man placed it in his heart, and then took a piece from his old scarred heart and placed it in the wound in the young man's heart.

The young man looked at his heart, not perfect anymore but more beautiful than ever.

Several years ago, I moved to Spain. I thought my Spanish would improve quickly. I gave up everything about the{#blank#}1{#/blank#}learning: classes, books, exercises and so on. I did nothing but speak o native(本国的)speakers. It was easy and fun!

However, about a year later, I noticed that my Spanish had hardly improved. I still spoke with {#blank#}2{#/blank#} grammar structures(结构)and sentence patterns as well as limited words(有限的词汇）. 

Sometimes I {#blank#}3{#/blank#}felt that my Spanish was getting worse. It made me upset. What was wrong? I wondered. 

I {#blank#}4{#/blank#} started to realize that because I didn't get training in other aspects(方面), I would not {#blank#}5{#/blank#} any progress as I liked. {#blank#}6{#/blank#} I started to go back to my old language learning {#blank#}7{#/blank#} , including reading books, watching movies and doing grammar and reading exercises. And they {#blank#}8{#/blank#} ! I quickly made progress. I could hold more difficult conversations. 

To learn the language, one should speak it first and then use it! That's the secret to {#blank#}9{#/blank#}and effective(有效的)language learning, right? Well, I know now, that if that's all you do, progress will come very fast. Considering the {#blank#}10{#/blank#} at which native speakers speak, you don't really have the time to learn new words or grammar structures. To learn a language more effectively, you need to spend some time on other trainings besides {#blank#}11{#/blank#}.