If you think your vocabulary is weak, a little effort every day over six to nine months can go a long way in improving it. Here are some tips for increasing your vocabulary.

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#}. You may be comfortable reading a particular part of the newspaper but make an effort to read different articles on every page. The editorial (社论的) page is highly recommended not only for vocabulary but also for structuring and presenting thoughts.

    Make it a habit to read a new book every week. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}. You can consider becoming a member of the local library. Make a list of new words and look up their meanings in the dictionary.

    Watch English movies and television shows. It's an interesting way to enrich your vocabulary. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}.

    Use vocabulary cards. Vocabulary cards are used by students who are trying to learn many words in a short time. You can make your own cards by writing the word on one side and the meaning on the other side of a piece of paper. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}.

    Use the Internet. The Internet is an unlimited resource for reading material.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}. You will come across plenty of material to read. The Internet will also introduce you to new words. Be sure to look them up in a dictionary.

A. Read the newspaper every day.

B. Everyone has his own way of choosing books.

C. Vocabulary is important for you to learn English well.

D. Pick up a topic you like and search for articles about it.

E. Besides, by doing this you can learn the correct pronunciation as well.

F. Flash cards are a convenient tool to use to learn new words in your free time.

G. It is not surprising that those who read a lot of books develop good vocabulary.

Prepare to Succeed

    People are always thinking about success. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} This thought isn't one that brings them closer, however, because thinking, dreaming or wishing just doesn't get it done.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}You may ask, “Why is preparation necessary?”

    The easiest answer to this question is to say that if you are not ready to move forward, then you may just as well keep doing what you have always done.

    Success doesn't come easy. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Success requires you to be prepared to sacrifice leisure time, or time spent watching television or going out with friends, at every opportunity. Success means you are prepared to do whatever it takes to constantly move the yardsticks （码尺）forward day after day.

    Here is just one quote, from Calvin Coolidge, the 30^th president of the United States, that expresses what preparation is about: “{#blank#}4{#/blank#} It is rather the vital necessity of action today to ensure our strength tomorrow.” This quote can be interpreted to mean that you may have strength or confidence to start on your way right now to move toward your final goal. However, it is also critical that committed action each day builds to help you keep going when obstacles arise or when you just don't feel like you have the interest or energy to stay focused.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}That shows you what steps or actions to take, when to take them or what to do if issues, obstacles or other life issues get in the way.

    The bottom line is actually quite clear: You are either willing, able and committed to achieve what you want, or you are simply dreaming or wishing that success finds you.

A. There are no shortcuts （捷径）.

B. Success is getting what you want.

C. Our real problem is not our strength today.

D. Preparation also means that you have a plan or a goal.

E. The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today.

F. It is in their brains as they go about daily routines looking for something better.

G. One of the most important parts of personal or professional success is preparation.

How to Help Children Learn From Their Mistakes

    Everyone makes mistakes. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} As parents, it's our duty to help our children learn from their mistakes. Turning a mistake into a learning experience will help your child grow. Here are some tips for helping children learn from their mistakes.

    Explain exactly what the mistake is. It's important to make your child accept the fact that he made a mistake. Talk with your child and help him exactly understand what he did is not right.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}Never imagine he knows; always talk over the problem early.

    Ask your child to make an apology if his mistakes hurt others. This step takes a mistake that is connected with another person even further.{#blank#}3{#/blank#} By making your child go to see and talk with the person who was hurt, he will more fully understand the results of the mistake and learn from what bad experience.

    Offer suggestion in different ways to lead your child to avoid making the same mistakes again. You can choose to share your personal examples if you had the same problem before.{#blank#}4{#/blank#} He may not want to do exactly the same thing, but it will get him to start in the right direction.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Having your child try to work through the problem and know how to deal with it only by himself will help develop his reasoning skills, which is good for his self - development. In this way, he will know what he should do if a similar situation appears in the future.

A. Tell your child how you deal with the problem.

B. Children need to learn the results of their mistakes.

C. Praise him if he fully understands the mistake he made.

D. Now it's time to help him properly correct mistakes.

E. Encourage your child to find a way to deal with the problem alone.

F. Learning from mistakes is what makes us become better people.

G. Sometimes a child fails to know why the things he did are wrong.

    Everyone knows that fish is good for health. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}But it seems that many people don't cook fish at home. Americans eat only about fifteen pounds of fish per person per year, but we eat twice as much fish in restaurants as at home. Buying, storing, and cooking fish isn't difficult. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}This text is about how to buy and cook fish in an easy way. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}Fresh fish should smell sweet: you should feel that you're standing at the ocean's edge. Any fishy or strong smell means the fish isn't fresh. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}When you have bought a fish and arrive home, you'd better store the fish in the refrigerator if you don't cook it immediately, but fresh fish should be stored in your fridge for only a day or two. Frozen fish isn't as tasty as the fresh one. There are many common methods used to cook fish. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}First, lean it and season it with your choice of spices(调料). Put the whole fish on a plate and steam it in a steam pot for 8 to 10 minutes if it weighs about one pound. (A larger one will take more time.) Then, it's ready to serve.

A. Do not buy it.

B. The easiest is to steam it.

C. This is how you can do it.

D. It just requires a little knowledge.

E. The fish will go bad within hours.

F. When buying fish, you should first smell it.

G. The fats in fish are thought to help prevent heart disease.

    With the development of technology and economy, social media is becoming one of the fastest-growing industries in today's world. A study conducted by the US Pew Research Centre showed that 92 percent of teenagers go online daily. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Changing relationships.

    High school student Elly Cooper from Illinois said social media often reduces face-to-face communication. "It makes face-to-face relationships harder because people's attention is given to their phones instead of their friends," Cooper said.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Beth Kaplan from Illinois meets her long-distance friend through social media. He currently lives in Scotland, but they're still able to frequently communicate with each other. "I can feel close to someone that I'm talking to via FaceTime," Kaplan said.

    Wanting to be "liked".

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} The 19-year-old Essena O'Neill announced on the social networking service Instagram that she was quitting social media because it made her unable to stop thinking about appearing perfect online. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Teenagers who get harmful comments can't help but feel hurt.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

    However, Armin Korsos, a student from Illinois, takes advantage of the comments(评论) he receives over social media to improve his videos on the social networking site YouTube. "Social media can help people show themselves and their talents to the world in a way that has never been possible before," Korsos said.

A. Opening new doors.

B. Teenagers' attitude toward social media.

C. Unpleasant comments can also do great damage to a teenager's self-respect.

D. The wide spread of social media has changed nearly all parts of teenagers' lives.

E. Yet, the social media is beneficial to show people's talents.

F. The rise of social media has changed the way teenagers see themselves.

G. Yet, some people believe social media has made it easier to start relationships with anyone from anywhere.

{#blank#}1{#/blank#} People use money to buy food, furniture, books, bicycles and hundreds of other things they need or want. When they work, they usually get paid in money.

Most of the money today is made of metal or paper.{#blank#}2{#/blank#} One of the first kinds of money was shells.

Shells were not the only things used as money. In China, cloth and knives were used. In the Philippine Islands, rice was used as money for a long time. Elephant tusks, monkey tails and salt were used as money in parts of Africa.

The first metal coins were made in China. They were round and had a square hole in the centre.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

Different countries have used different metals and designs for their money.{#blank#}4{#/blank#} Sweden and Russia used copper to make their money. Later some countries began to make coins of gold and silver.

But even gold and silver were inconvenient if you had to buy something expensive. Again the Chinese thought of a way to improve money.{#blank#}5{#/blank#} The first paper money looked more like a note from one person to another than the paper money used today.

Money has had an interesting history from the days of shell money until today.

A. The first coins in England were made of tin (锡).

B. But people used to use all kinds of things as money.

C. No one knows for certain when people began to use money.

D. People strung (串连) them together and carried them from place to place.

E. Money, as we know, is all made of paper.

F. They began to use paper money.

G. Today anyone will accept money in exchange for goods and services.