What would you say if we told you that you could learn to speak a new language in only 7 days? Pretty unbelievable right? But how could it be? To find out,we spoke to David-one of our brave Babbel learners—to see how the Babbel app successfully got him speaking Norwegian(挪威语)in just one week.

How much time did you learn each day?

    I didn't need to give my entire life over to learning Norwegian. Each Babbel lesson takes only 15 minutes, and I set myself the achievable aim of finishing three Babbel lessons daily.This took only 45minutes each day.

How did the Babbel app help you learn so quickly?

    The Babbel app has a course plan for beginners that taught me how to make sentences in Norwegian within the first few days. Then I was able to personalize my learning by selecting single-topic lessons on eating, drinking, music, culture, traveling and so on. This allowed me to quickly enlarge my vocabulary!

    This way of learning kept me highly active,and made sure I wasn't bored to tears with grammar practice that we all remember from school!

    “After 7 days I was able to introduce myself in Norwegian,talk about my hobbies and interests, and most importantly,communicating with a native Norwegian speaker in a real conversation and I could even play a joke or two!”

    Would you introduce this app to others?

    Certainly! Babbel has 14 languages to choose from so if you're thinking about brushing up on your German for a business trip, or learning a bit of Portuguese (葡萄牙语) for next year's summer vacation, you'll be happy to hear that you only need an app, 7 days of learning to get you conversational.

    Before we came to Canada in 1951, when I was three, my parents and I spent a year at refugee camp (难民营) in Austria. We had escaped from what was then called Czechoslovakia. My parents had already lost their livelihood once to the Nazi. Mummy was freed from the Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen and spent the years after the war trying to find her family, only to discover she was the only survivor. She met my father in a small town outside Prague. They married and had me in 1948. When we arrived in Montreal, everything we owned was contained in an army trunk and a couple of army blankets. Mummy bought an old sewing machine and some inexpensive materials and using patterns in magazines, taught herself to sew. Her hands were always going, making something. She learned English by singing along to the hit song as she worked.

    For me, high school was a lonely time. My mother worried that I'd never come out of my shell so she signed me up for classes at the Montreal Children's Theatre. That's where I found my voice with her strong faith in me, Mummy had opened a door. Although she was an educated woman, I never heard my mother said “This is what I gave up for you.” She was always there for my younger brother and me. When I sat in the kitchen with her, I felt safe. When she made soup or sewed a ballet costume for me, it was all a gift, a labor of love. She wanted to make us happy. For a long time, I had a picture hanging in the kitchen saying “Put your heart into it.” I grew up with that phrase. Mummy taught that lesson by example, and it has become my own work ethic(职业道德).

    “Don't get discouraged, Hallie,” Kathy said, comforting her with a hug. “It sounds as if you have a bit of a mystery to solve. Maybe you should do a little spying on Maya.”

    Feeling better, Hallie put on her scuba gear（潜水服）again and waited. Maya, the dolphin, had been swimming playfully, but suddenly she threw herself to the back of the tank where the filter box（过滤箱）was located. She stuck her nose down behind the box and then swam away.

    Hallie followed Maya. “What was she doing here?” she wondered. When she looked behind the box, her question was answered. She swam back and saw Maya was in front of Kathy with a comb in her mouth waiting for her treat.

    “Maya! Where did you get that?” demanded Kathy, taking the comb and throwing her a fish.

    “I know,” declared Hallie, handing Kathy a handful of items, “I followed her to the filter box and these are what I found.”

From the look on Kathy's face, Hallie knew everything was beginning to come to light.

    “Do you remember the other day you said that Maya really liked her treats?” asked Kathy.“Well, I think this was more than a training exercise for Maya. Every time you found something in the tank, that meant one less fish for Maya. She couldn't bring all the items to me at once, so she found a hiding place for them. That way you came up empty-handed, but Maya would always get her treat.”

    “Okay, Maya,” said Hallie facing the dolphin, “you win! The treats are all yours.”

    Maya dived down, and then jumped out of the water, turning herself over in midair. Shaking their heads in disbelief, Hallie and Kathy reached for the fish. Maya deserved the treat.

阅读理解

    Although computers used to be large, expensive and difficult to use, they have been made smaller, cheaper and easier to use. As a result, more people have been buying computers for their homes and businesses. They are used to record information and make difficult things easy.

    Let's look at some of the many ways computers may affect(影响) your life.

    Want to get the best treatment at hospitals? Your doctors at hospitals have been greatly helped by computers to get information about patients. It is possible for doctors from different hospitals to read the records of patients, discuss them and make decisions on the best treatment. It would, at one time, take them hours and days to do so.

    Want to talk to your friends both at home and abroad? Then it's necessary to connect your computer to the Internet and set up your own e-mail letter box. You can then collect and send mails in seconds. It will be a waste of time and money to post your letters.

    Want to get advice from Michael Jordan on how to play basketball like a NBA super star? Now it is possible to find out what it is on the Internet.

    But if you think you have entered the information age because you have the chance to use the Internet, you are wrong. The reason is quite a simple one: over 98 percent of the information on the Internet is in English. The information on-line won't be helpful to you unless you can use English freely.

    To see the world is one thing; to have someone to share it with is another. Indeed, travel becomes more interesting when you have a travel partner. A travel partner can be a close friend, a family member, a pal you've met online, or a business friend.

    You can have someone to talk to.

    Traveling alone is fun, but wouldn't you feel lonely？Having a travel partner can remove the feeling of loneliness. This is especially true if you can get a travel companion who is very familiar with the place you're traveling to. You don't have to ask any information from the locals, and you can increase the time you spend in the country.

    __________________________

    One of the major headaches in traveling is the costs involved. You can't simply ignore the rising price of hotels or plane tickets. You should also think about your daily needs, such as your food. Of course, you can't simply go back without bringing any souvenirs (纪念品) to your friends and family. All these can ruin your budget. However, when you have a travel friend, you can have someone to share the expenses with.

    You can meet a good friend.

    Having a travel mate is a good way of meeting a new friend or even a lifelong partner. You can never count the number of couples who actually found their way into each other's heart while traveling together in another country.

    You can have someone to watch out for you.

    When you're in a foreign land, you'll never be really safe. You don't know the rules as well as the culture of the people. A travel mate will be perfect to remind you of your duties in the country and to watch your back just in case you get lost.So why don't you find a travel companion now?

    Let's find out how...

    The Pew report—which was based on surveys carried out in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece, Poland and the Czech Republic—concluded that the European Union was “ the new sick man of Europe”.

    The percentage of Europeans with a favorable view of the EU has plunged from 60 percent last year to 45 percent now.

    The UK may be considered the most Eurosceptic（欧洲怀疑论者）country, but its support for the union has barely changed in the past 12 months, slipping only two points to 43 percent.

    By contrast, France's backing for the EU has slipped sharply, from 60 percent last year to 41 percent today.

    On the question of whether to remain in the EU, 46 percent of the British want to leave the union and surprisingly, the same percentage want to stay.

    The Pew report's authors said, “The long-drawn economic crisis has created bad forces that are pulling European public opinion apart, separating the French from the Germans and Germans from everyone else.”

    They added, “The effort over the past half century to create a more united Europe is now the main disaster of the euro crisis. The European project now stands in a bad reputation across much of Europe.”

    The only European leader rated highly by their own voters was the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, with 74 percent voters in favor of her.

    Prime Minister David Cameron was the next highest with a positive score of 37 percent among the British public, although he can take some comfort from the fact that 58 percent of Poles（波兰人）and half of all French people think he is doing a good job.

    In spite of the dark economic future and growing doubt of the EU, there were strong majorities of more than 60 percent in favor of keeping the euro in the five countries surveyed that use the single currency.