English is an important international language，but that doesn't mean it's easy to learn．①Many experts have tried to make English easier to learn,but they weren't always successful．

    In 1930，Professor C．K．Ogden of Cambridge University invented Basic English．It had only 850 words and Ogden said most people could learn it in just thirty hours．The problem was that people who learned Basic English could write and say simple messages，but they couldn't understand the answers in“real”English!

    R．E．Zachrisson，a university professor in Sweden，decided that②对英语学习者来说最大的问题是拼写 ， so he invented a language with the name of Anglic．Anglic was similar③      English，but with much simpler spelling，"father'' became “faadher'' and “new'' became “nue”．Unluckily，Anglic never became popular．

  In the age of international communication through the Internet，a new form of English might appear．A large number of world's emails are in English and include examples of“Netlingo”like OIC(Oh，I see)and TTYL，(Talk to you later)．In another fifty years，English might not be used．We might all speak fluent Internetish !

    The best way of learning a language is using it. The best way of learning English is talking in English as much as possible. Sometimes you'll get your words mixed up and people won't understand you. Sometimes people will say things too quickly and you couldn't understand them. But if you sense of humor, you can always have a good laugh at the mistakes. It's better for people to laugh at your mistakes than to be angry with you, because they don't understand what you are saying. The most important thing for learning English is:“ Don't be afraid of making mistakes because everyone makes mistakes.”

    American school students usually go to school on foot, or on the school bus. Some students ride their bikes to school.

    In the middle school, students usually take classes for six hours a day. They study English, math, history, science, PE, music and art.

    School begins at half past eight in the morning. At noon, students have lunch at school. After lunch, they go to their classes. School is over at about 4 o'clock. Most students often watch TV and do homework after supper.

    On weekends, American school students go to the church, do shopping, visit grandparents or go to the park with parents.

    American school children don't have too much homework. But they watch TV too much. Some even watch TV three to five hours a day. It's bad for health. So their parents worry about it. They play games, do sports or do reading with kids to take their kids away from TV.

    Rock art is the name given to pictures drawn on rock by ancient peoples. In the American Southwest, rock art can be seen on the walls of caves and mountains. Many of these places are in the Four Corners area, where the states of Arizona，Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico meet. More than 7, 000 rock art places have been found just in Utah, where the area's dry climate(气候)has helped keep the art.

    There are three forms of rock art. The first is petroglyphs, which are pictures carved(雕刻)into the surface of rock. A sharp(尖利的)stone may have been used as a carving tool. A heavy stone may have been used to hit the sharp stone into the surface. The second form of rock art is pictographs, which are pictures painted on the rock. The paint was made from plants and trees. The artists painted with fingers, brushes made from hair，or bird bones. The third kind of rock art is geoglyphs(峡口浮雕), which are designs made in the ground by taking away stones.

    Some rock art shows faces, hands, animals, and trees. Other pictures are symbols such as lines, circles, and squares. Some scientists think these symbols marked the location of water or good hunting grounds. Some think the symbols were put there during special celebrations. Others think the symbols showed the movement of planets and stars. Still others believe that they were just doodles.

    Some rock art may be a form of writing. Large scenes are shown on mountains. Some scenes seem to tell a story. A hunting scene may include animals and people with hunting tools. A scene with many people holding hands could mean friendship. Rock art in caves may have been a way to decorate the artist's home.

    Some rock art in the Southwest is about 200 years old. Other rock art may be 10, 000 years old. Scientists think an ancient people called the Anasazi created the older works. They were farmers and lived in caves.