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.

Get a Thorough Understanding of Oneself

    In all one's life time it is oneself that one spends the most time being with or dealing with. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    When you are going upwards in life you tend to overestimate(高估) yourself. It seems that everything you seek for is within your reach. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} It's likely that you think it wise for yourself to stay away from the outer world. Actually, to get a thorough understanding of oneself, you may as well keep the following tips in mind.

    Gain a correct view of oneself. You may look forward hopefully to the future but be sure not to expect too much, for dreams can never be fully realized. You may be courageous to meet challenges but it should be clear to you where to direct your efforts. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Self-appreciate. Whether you compare yourself to a towering tree or a blade of grass, a high mountain or a small stone, you represent a state of nature.  {#blank#}4{#/blank#} If you earnestly admire yourself you'll have a real sense of self-appreciation.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} In time of anger, do yourself a favor by releasing it in a quiet place so that you won't be hurt by its flames; in time of sadness, do yourself a favor by sharing it with your friends so as to change a bad mood into a cheerful one; in time of tiredness, do yourself a favor by getting a good sleep.

    Get a full control of one's life. Then one will find one's life full of color and flavor.

A. But it is precisely oneself that one has the least understanding of.

B. So long as you have a perfect knowledge of yourself, there won't be difficulties you can't overcome.

C. When you are going downhill you tend to underestimate yourself for your own incompetence.

D. It has its own value.

E. Especially if it is well within your reach, you are just too blind to see it.

F. Do oneself a favor when it's needed.

G. Do yourself a favor when you resist the attack of illness.

    We eat in our cars, at our desks, on the go, and in front of die TV. We eat take-out, packaged and prepared meals. Why? Because it fits our not-enough-time-in-the-day lifestyles.{#blank#}1{#/blank#} Well, I'm certainly not the first one to think it-or say it-but we all need to slow down.

    Consumer trends around the globe show that over the past three decades people are purchasing more prepared foods at grocery and eating out more than ever before. It's predicted that we'll spend more at restaurants in the coming years.{#blank#}2{#/blank#} However, we're getting less healthy.

    While debates can be seen in different media over diet food industry's contribution to our growing waistlines and our health problems, the bottom line is this:{#blank#}3{#/blank#} We can choose to eat a fast—food lunch on the go. We can throw a frozen meal in the microwave and call it dinner. We can eat without thinking, in front of the tube, at our computers, and while driving a car.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}. Studies have shown meaningful links between family meals and kids' mental and physica I well— being. Eating sensibly doesn't take much time or money, but it does require you to make a conscious decision to do so. Wrapped in endless work, appointments and social activities, we often fail to enjoy a relaxing meal with our families.

    While it can be a challenge to always put healthy eating first, just do your best. Remember that diet food you eat has a more significant intact on your health, weight and well-being than almost any other activity you do.{#blank#}5{#/blank#} Every meal made at home—even just once or twice a week—is a step closer to a healthier body and a slower food lifestyle.

A. Lunch is the biggest calorie intake when it comes to eating out.

B. Treat it with the importance that it deserve, but start small.

C. Our food matches our lives.

D. Purchase food locally and skip as many packaged items as you can.

E. What we eat, where we eat and how we eat are all under our control.

F. We're consuming an increasing number of calories.

G. We can devote an hour of the day to enjoying a meal with our families.

    Meet Thomas Wilson. Thomas is famous all over the world. He holds the world record for sleeping in (睡过头). One weekend, Thomas slept in for two days, three hours and fourteen minutes. It was unbelievable. No one in history had ever slept in for so long before.

    Thomas was very proud of his world record. His friends were proud of him, too. Whenever Thomas walked down the street, people always came up to him and shook his hand. Thomas was a star.

    The on]y who wasn't proud of Thomas's world record was his father. Dad didn't like it when Thomas slept in. He complained that whenever Thomas slept in, the lawns didn't get mowed. He was worried about how high the grass was getting. Every weekend, it seemed to get higher and higher. “It's like a jungle there,” Dad moaned (抱怨) to Thomas one day. But Thomas wasn't worried about the grass getting higher. He had more important things on his mind—like sleeping in.

    One morning, Thomas was woken from a deep sleep by a loud roaring noise. It sounded like a wild animal pacing about under his bedroom window.

    Thomas rushed over to the window and pulled the curtains back. His eyes bulged like basketballs. “What on Earth…?” He gasped. There, in the middle of the backyard, was a lion! “Awesome!” cried Thomas. Suddenly, a giraffe poked its head through the window. It munched the leaves from a plant sitting by Thomas's bed. Next, an elephant walked past the swimming pool and squirted (喷出) water all over Dad's car! “Cool!” cheered Thomas. “Now I don't have to wash Dad's car today.”

    Every boy and every girl expects their parents to give them more pocket money.{#blank#}1{#/blank#} One main purpose is to let kids learn how to manage their own money. The amount of money that parents give to their children to spend as they wish differs from family to family. Timing is another consideration. Some children get weekly pocket money.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    First of all, children are expected to make a choice between spending and saving. Then parents should make the children understand what is expected to pay for with the money. At first, some young children may spend all of the money soon after they receive it{#blank#}3{#/blank#} By doing so, these children will learn that spending must be done with a budget.

    In order to encourage their children to do some housework, some parents give pocket money if the children help around the home.{#blank#}4{#/blank#} They believe helping at home is a normal part of family life.

    Pocket money can give children a chance to experience the three things they can do with the money.{#blank#}5{#/blank#} They can spend it by buying things they want. They can save it for future use. Saving helps children understand that costly goals require sacrifice. Saving can also open the door to future saving and investing for children.

A. Others get monthly pocket money.

B. They can spend it by giving it to a good cause.

C. Why do their parents just give them a certain amount?

D. Some children are not good at managing their pocket money.

E. Learning how to get money is very important for every child.

F. Some experts think it not wise to pay the children for doing that.

G. Parents are usually advised not to offer more money until the right time.

Just as team members today have assigned doing roles, there should also be thinking roles. By knowing how other members of your learn and organization think—and by others knowing how you think—everyone can be more productive. So how should you evaluate how you and your team think? After a lot of trial-and-error, we developed a three-step method that delivers practical and meaningful results.

    Focus. Do you tend to pay the most attention to ideas, process, action, or relationships? For example, in the morning do you think about the problems you need to solve, the plans you need to make, the actions you need to take, or the people you need to see? This isn't about picking one to the exclusion(排除)of the other. It's about where your focus naturally lands.

    Orientation(方向). A good way to identify your orientation is thinking about what tends to bother you in meetings. Are you more likely to complain about getting dragged into the weeds or about things being too general and not specific enough? These dimensions are complementary(补充的)to personality, skills, and traditional roles.

Combination. By combing these two dimensions you can know about the thinking style at work in whatever context or setting you chose. When you know your thinking style, you know what naturally energizes you, why certain type of problems are challenging or boring, and what you can do to improve in areas that are important to reaching your goals. Once you know your style, it helps to share it with others, and have others share theirs with you. In this way, your thinking style becomes a useful tool—a kind of social currency—for the team. Imaging you put together a team to work on a new initiative(行动). Wouldn't you like to know who is energized by big-picture strategy discussions and who finds them frustrating? Who likes to work on the details of the execution? And who is energized by managing the team dynamics?

    The landscape of business is changing rapidly, and we have to find new and better ways to connect and communicate. We all want to work better together, the challenge is actually making it happen. Understanding collaboration(合作)through the way of thinking rather than doing is a practical and powerful step forward.