Reading is a very important skill. 阅读也是一种提高你的英语的好方法。However, to make sure what you read isn't too difficult, it's important to know what makes texts difficult and how you can improve your understanding of them. Here are some suggestions.

    ①Understand the purpose of your reading. The way you read depends on the purpose of your reading. The kind of reading you do in class or for your homework is different from how you read a novel for pleasure in the summer holidays.

    ② Find background information. Find something out about the topic you are going to read.

    The more background information you have, the easier it'll be to understand the text.

    ③Increase your vocabulary（词汇）. The more vocabulary you have, the easier your reading will be.

    ④ Use your dictionary correctly. A common mistake is to read everything very slowly and carefully, looking up each unknown word. Sometimes this is necessary, for example, when reading exam questions. However, it takes a long time and can be very boring; it can even make understanding more difficult!

    If you've followed the above advice and still can't understand a text, then it's simply too hard for you. Stop reading and ask someone to help you. 没有人想要放弃。However, you'll just be wasting your time if you continue to work at a text that's beyond you.

    Think about the distance（距离） you traveled in the last six months of your life. About how many miles（kilometers） did you go? Lucid went quite a distance. On March 22, 1996, she started a journey. She traveled 188 days, 4 hours, and 14 seconds in total. This is a little over six months. So what distance did Lucid travel? She went 75.2 million miles（1,203,200,000 kilometers）!

    How could Lucid go so far? How could she journey so fast? Lucid was an American astronaut and she was in space. She lived on a space station. The space station was the Russian space station Mir. She lived and worked with two Russian astronauts.

    On Mir, it was hard for Lucid to know what day it was. Why? Mir. did not stay in one place. It orbited the Earth. It went around the Earth. Mir's orbit meant that darkness did not mean the day was over. Darkness fell many times during a 24-hour period. Darkness fell about every 45 minutes. Lucid did something to help her remember what day it was. She wore pink socks on every seventh day. The pink socks reminded Lucid about something else, too. The pink socks helped Lucid remember that Jell-O would be served for dinner. On Mir, Jell-O was a special treat. It was only served on Sunday.

    Lucid worked hard to deserve the honor of working on Mir. She went to school for a long time. She was one of the first six women to be accepted into the astronaut-training program. She flew on several American missions. When accepted for Mir, she had to learn Russian in less than 18 months. On Mir, Lucid conducted many experiments. One experiment she conducted was with wheat. Lucid grew wheat. Growing plants in space was important, because green plants could provide oxygen and food for space travelers.

Your nose has many important jobs, and is always busy.

Smelling

    Smelling helps you gather information about the world around you. A good scent (气体),like flowers, brings you pleasure. A bad scent, like smoke or sour milk, warns you of danger. Most things around you release scent particles (微粒) into the air. These invisible chemicals enter the nose when you breathe. Nerves in the nose send information to the brain to identify a smell. You are able to recognize thousands of smells.

Breathing

    Most of the air you breathe enters through your nose. The nose uses hair and mucus (粘液) to clean dust and germs (细菌) out of the air. The air that enters your nose contains oxygen. Your body uses oxygen to unlock the energy in the food you eat.  Even when you sleep, your body needs energy to keep your heart beating and your brain working.

Tasting

    Your nose helps you enjoy food. Flavor is a mixture of taste and smell. The smell of the food helps you identify what you are eating. The sense of smell contributes more to (贡献) food flavor than the sense of taste .When you are sick and have a stuffy nose, your food doesn't taste as good because without smell, food loses most of its flavor.

Smell memory

    Smells can bring back memories. Your brain uses a process to create a picture in your mind from the odors(气味)you smell. Smells can affect your feelings because the part of the brain that helps you identify smells is close to the area that affects your emotions, mood and memory. More smell memories are collected as you get older.

    Your nose has many important jobs, and is more than just a smeller!

    My mom hates to cook. She'd rather ride her motorcycle or practice rock climbing. She also spends a lot of time with me. Every morning Mom takes me to school by motorcycle. Occasionally I'll come home to find her scaling(攀爬)the side of the house.

As her daughter, I used to feel embarrassed that my mom was so different. But now________.

    It all started with a cooking project. Every student in Mrs. Maitland's home-economics class was supposed to create an original dish, then present it at school the following Tuesday morning. Mom and I spent hours in the kitchen. We tried jelly-filled hot dogs, baked ham with chocolate sauce, and hard-boiled eggs rolled in coconut. We eventually agreed on chocolate cakes with bright green pepper mint frosting. I was satisfied. It beat hot dogs, anyway.

    The big day came. Our parents appeared, bringing many tasty dishes. Finally, I saw Mom, empty handed! I met her at the door. "You forgot it, didn't you?"

    Mom's eyes opened wide. "I'm sor--" She couldn't finish her apology. A loud alarm cut her off. Mrs. Maitland yelled, "Fire! This is not a drill! Everyone out of the building!"

    We all headed for the stairs and gathered at the parking lot. Smoke started to curl out of one of the third-floor windows. Mom held my hand tightly. I forgot about my cake.

    Suddenly, we heard a scream. We looked up and found Danny Patterson was trapped in the burning building! Mom disappeared. She grabbed her climbing tools from her motorcycle and walked quickly toward the building.

    She scaled the huge pine tree next to the school. At the top, she started to throw her weight back and forth. The tree swung toward the window, and she hopped onto the ledge and into the building.

    Mom's ropes flew as she created a harness. She secured one end, and then lowered Danny safely to the ground. Everyone cheered!

    Who cares if my mom hates to cook?

    In the eyes of many foreigners, Chinese are the best hosts and the worst guests in the world. They're not really bad guests, but because the guest-host relationship in China is much different than in some western counties, it appears they are not nice guests. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Whenever I enter a Chinese person's home, there is always fruit on the table for me, and someone is quick to bring me a cup of tea or water. In the west, generally the guest is not a god. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    My wife's mother, a very kind elderly Chinese lady, doesn't smoke. When I see some of her guests smoking in her house, as a non-smoker, I feel unhappy. Usually I want to stop them directly, but I must realize that in China, to be a good host, she must not do that. In most North America homes, if you are a guest, and the hosts are not smokers, you should not smoke in their house.  {#blank#}4{#/blank#} But, don't be surprised if they say," No, you can't smoke. "

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Some western people may not adapt to these habits very soon. Thankfully my wife is Chinese, so whenever we visit a Chinese family she tells me to buy them a gift. However, giving a gift to a host is not always necessary in my country. So, if you invite international guests to your home, don't be too surprised if they don't bring you a gift.

    In China, you probably won't need to change the guest-host relationship very much because you will probably only be the host, and Chinese are naturally very good hosts. If western hosts invite you to their house, try not to be too surprised if their style of treating you is not what you have expected.

A. In China, guests are almost like gods.

B. Guests in China also have special habits.

C. At the very least, you could ask, "Is it OK if I smoke?"

D. Acting according to the host's way of doing things is usual behavior for a guest.

E. And western guests sometimes look impolite or even rude in the eyes of Chinese guests.

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