Learning English is challenging because of the various rules and exceptions to the rules. The best way to learn English is to hear it spoken and repeat the words as you hear them. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}You will learn how to make English a daily part of your life in order to learn to speak it quickly.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Ask a friend to help you write letters of English alphabet on index cards. You should write a letter on each card. Practise the letters by mixing up the cards and saying the letters. You can ask your friend to help you pronounce the letters and quiz you on your knowledge.

    Make your own videos in English. If you have a video camera, you can tape yourself speaking English and practice along with your own video. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Watch your videos daily, and repeat what is being said.

    Get a private tutor. A professional English instructor can give you one-on-one instruction that will help you understand the rules of English. Your instructor can teach you how to write and speak English.  {#blank#}4{#/blank#} You can also inquire at your local community college.

    Watch movies with English subtitles. When watching a movie in your native language, use the English subtitles so you will understand the connection between your language and English.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} You will make mistakes, and that is OK. You need to practice English as much as possible in order to quickly learn to speak the language fluently.

    In an unmanned supermarket,a customer waits to pay.With the use of advanced digital payment technology, including biological recognition and in-depth learning,the man leaves in a minute.There's no cashier in the store.At a large university,students use a hand-scanning machine that authorizes their entry into the gym.Those people are using “smart machines” which identify people by their physical characteristics.These new devices use fingers,hands, faces,eyes and voices.Some machines may even use smells.This new technology,called biometrics,gets information from parts of the body.

    In the past,biometric machines were used mainly in government agencies or in prisons.But now that the cost of the technology is lower,these machines are starting to be used everywhere,from border services to schools.

    Some people,however,are concerned that these machines will mean the destruction of personal privacy.They worry that the machines will get personal information about them.“I know it seems like these machines are invading our privacy,but actually,biometric machines help to protect it,”says Jay Tarkett,who works at a company that develops the machines.“They can be used instead of passwords on a computer,for example.They can also identify criminals at airports.So,really,they help to promote public safety,and all the information stored is kept confidential by  the machine itself.”

    Some people don't like the idea of using fingerprints because they associate them with criminals,and feel like they are being accused of something.In addition,they don't work for some people,such as bricklayers,who wear down their fingerprints.Yet,face recognition does work well because the subject doesn't really have to do anything.To cash a check at a bank,for example,the customer has to do nothing more than look at a machine similar to an automatic teller.If the face matches the picture kept on fie,the customer gets the money with no problems.The need to carry identification with you from place to place,then,would all but cease.

    It has been found that the hand scan works well in the college gym.Before this machine was used,students at the college entered the gym using cards similar to credit cards.The problem was that students often lost or forgot their cards.With the hand-scanning machine,however,the problem was solved right away.

    But the machines are still new,and there can be problems.For example,voice recognition works on the phone, but it is not precise,and can be tricked.Another constraint（限制）we notice,with machines that use face recognition in particular,is that they can be fooled if people color their hair or gain a lot of weight.However,this particular problem may be solved by a new type of technology that scans a person's iris,the colored part of the eye.It can even identify the person from a few feet away,recognizing a customer as he or she approaches the ATM.

    The aye-aye, in the same family as people, monkeys and apes, is about 40 cm long, with a bushy tale about the same length as the body. The dark brown fur is long and woolly, giving the animal a rather shaggy(蓬松的) appearance. They are found only on Madagascar, an island off the coast of Africa. It lives in the tropical forests in the east and north of Madagascar.

    The aye-aye is mostly arboreal(栖息在树上的), but is sometimes seen walking on the ground. It's active during the night, looking around in the trees for food. The aye-aye is actually the largest primate(灵长类动物) active during the night. Large eyes help the aye-aye find its way about at night. During the day, the aye-aye sleeps in a nest in a tree. Aye-ayes spend almost the whole night travelling about and feeding.

    Aye-ayes live alone. Sometimes pairs are seen, but basically little is about their lives. They don't Icap and cling to trees like primates. They move about on all four legs.They occasionally make brief cries but are silent. Worms inside dead wood form the largest part Of the aye-aye diet. The aye-aye also feeds on fruit, eggs, and bamboo shoots.

    The front feet of the aye-aye are unique. All the toes are long and thin, but the third is exceptionally long. The aye-aye taps on the tree trunk and listens for movement as searches places "'here worms might-be located. It bites at the tree to make homes. then it uses its third finger to reach inside and hook out worms, The front teeth of the aye-aye grow continuously and are worn down by its eating at bark in its search for worms.

    Aye-ayes are close to be gone or totally gone. Because of deforestation (伐木), or forest destruction, the animals have therefore been forced to eat villagers' crops, and many aye-ayes been  have been killed while doing In addition. Some people on Madagascar believe that seeing an aye-aye is a sign that someone close to them will die, so they kill the animals on sight.

    Scientists today are making greater effort to study ocean currents (洋流) . Most do it using satellites and other high-tech equipment. However, ocean expert Curtis Ebbesmeyer does it in a special way -- by studying movements of random floating garbage. A scientist with many years' experience, he started this type of research in the early 1990s when he heard about hundreds of athletic shoes washing up on the shores of the northwest coast of the United States. There were so many shoes that people were setting up swap meets to try and match left and right shoes to sell or wear.

    Ebbesmeyer found out in his researches that the shoes — about 60,000 in total — fell into the ocean in a shipping accident. He phoned the shoe company and asked if they wanted the shoes back. As expected, the company told him that they didn't. Ebbesmeyer realized this could be a great experiment. If he learned when and where the shoes went into the water and tracked where they landed, he could learn a lot about the patterns of ocean currents.

    The Pacific Northwest is one of the world's best areas for beachcombing(海滩搜寻) because winds and currents join here, and as a result, there is a group of serious beachcombers in the area. Ebbesmeyer got to know a lot of them and asked for their help in collecting information about where the shoes landed. In a year he collected reliable information on 1, 600 shoes. With this data, he and a colleague were able to test and improve a computer program designed to model ocean currents, and publish the findings of their study.

    As the result of his work, Ebbesmeyer has become known as the scientist to call with questions about any unusual objects found floating in the ocean. He has even started an association of beachcombers and ocean experts, with 500 subscribers from West Africa to New Zealand. They have recorded all lost objects ranging from potatoes to golf gloves.

    Once, a lioness and her cub were hunting in the jungle. The baby asked its mother, "Mother, why are we hunting when a deer is already at home?”

    The mother said, "My love! We can' t eat that deer because it has surrendered (投降) himself seeking our help. He is wounded and helpless. We must help him.”

    The baby cub was surprised and questioned again, "Why so? That's our food, we can eat it.”

    “Honey, you are right! It's our food and we can kill him in any second but do you think he deserves to be killed when he has come to-us for protection?”

    The baby cub couldn't understand her mother's vulnerability(软弱). It kept quiet and paced with its mother. At last, they didn't get anything and came back to their cave.

    The deer, on the other hand, was terrified of his own decision of taking shelter in the cave. Unfortunately he had no choice! He was attacked by a hunter and somehow managed to escape. While running for his life, he saw the cave and without a second thought entered it. He had already got a shot from the hunter. When he realized he was in the lions cave, he gave up the idea of running back again. The deer gazed at the lioness with a pitiful look, tears rolling down He sat there as if he urged for the mercy of the lioness.

    The lioness came closer to the deer, smelled it and slowly moved out of the cave with her cub.

    When the lions came back, the cub asked its mother to kill the deer again. But the lioness was firm on her decision. She said, "Sweetheart! We can-manage one night without any food. Tomorrow, I would definitely fetch out some food for you.”

    The cub said nothing, grunted(嘟哝）a little.

    When the cub slept, the lioness whispered to the deer, "Run, away from this area because I doubt if I could save you any longer if the next time situation demands!"

    The deer looked at the lioness with gratitude and slowly walked away from the cave.