In classes, your teachers will talk about topic that you are studying. The information they provide will be important for you to know when you take tests. So you must be able to take good written notes from what your teachers say.

Here are the three stages(阶段) of taking notes and what you should do during each stage.

1. Before Class Review your notes you have taken before you come to class. This will be good for remembering what was covered. Get you ready to understand new information your teacher will provide.

2. During Class Keep your attention on what your teacher is saying and „the signal words that tell you what your teacher is going to say and it is important to write in your notes. Examples of signal words are „The most important point…and „Remember that… Be sure to include in your notes information that your teacher repeats or writes on the blackboard. Write quickly so that you can include all the important information in your notes. Do this by writing abbreviations(缩写） such as med for medicine, using symbols such as % for percent, and writing short sentences.

3. After Class Rewrite your notes to make them more complete and accurate (准确的) by changing abbreviations into whole words, symbols into words, and shortened sentences into longer sentences. Use them to answer your questions. If necessary, ask your teacher for help.

 What do you when you begin to read an English newspaper？

 You'd better know what sections are there.Usually，there is international news，business，science and technology，entertainment or lifestyle，sports and cartoons.You can choose your favorite section to read carefully.

 Then，you come to the article itself.If you don't have time to read the whole article，the headline（标题）and photo give you a general idea of the story.

 Different kinds of articles

A news article includes body text and a photo with a short piece of text under it.It usually puts the most important information at the very beginning.If you don't have much time to read the story，just have a look at the first paragraph.

 A feature article is an in-depth（深度的）report on an event or person.It usually has an interesting opening.You get to know the idea of the article as you read.

 Another kind of article is an opinion（评论）article.Usually，some famous people give their own opinions about an important issue in a fun way.Opinion is different from news stories that are all facts.

 Be a critical（批判性的）reader

There are advertisements in newspapers.They can provide useful information about products，places，food or jobs.Remember that people make advertisements to sell you things.You don't have to do everything advertisements tell you to do.You should be critical enough to judge which advertisements are useful and which are not.

    My name is Mary. I am a middle school student. I like traveling. And I dreamed of visiting Beijing many times before. Last month I went there with my parents. I was so excited that I couldn't go to sleep the night before we started. I got up early and packed my backpack for the trip the next morning. It took us 25 hours to get there by train .After the breakfast and a short rest, we began our visiting plan. We visited many places of interest in Beijing, such as the Great Wall, the Palace Museum and the Summer Palace. They are all very fascinating, especially the Great Wall. We really enjoyed ourselves that week.

    After visiting so many exciting places of interest, I felt tired but happy because I learned a lot about the history of the city. As soon as I arrived home, I talked about it on the Internet with my classmates and showed them some photos that I took. They were happy to see the photos and they said what a great trip I had had.