Mr. White lived in the country. One day, he bought a second-class train ticket and went to London to buy something. All the seats in the second-class carriages had been taken when Mr. White got on the train. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Half an hour later, {#blank#}2{#/blank#} So he went into one of them and took an empty seat. The other four men seemed to be rich people because they all wore fine clothes. But just before the train started, a different kind of person jumped in and sat down.{#blank#}3{#/blank#} It was clear that he was very poor.

    Everyone in the carriage looked unhappy with the young man. Mr. White thought that he would not be the only person to pay more. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}If so, he was wrong. For when the train had traveled an hour, the door opened and the ticket-collector came into the carriage. Of course, Mr. White had to pay more money for his ticket. But to his great surprise, one by one each of the four men held out a second-class ticket. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} He was the only man who had the first-class ticket in the carriage.

    We often see top students around us and everyone knows about them. Let us take Jenny as an example. She is the monitor of our class. She spends a lot of time working for our class. But she always gets good grades in all subjects. How do students like Jenny do that? When I asked her, she said, "Hard work is not the whole story. It's not how long you sit at the desk with your books open. It's what you do as you are sitting." In fact, we can see many top students spend fewer hours on their studies than their classmates. Jenny gave me some valuable suggestions.

    If your math teacher gives you five problems, you should do six. If your Chinese teacher gives eight pages of reading, you should read nine. The more you practice, the more you learn.

    Studying is a matter of your personal interest, so choose the way you are most comfortable with. Some people like working at night when the house is quiet, while others like doing their work early in the morning. However, others like studying as soon asthey arrive home from school while the work is fresh in their minds. No matter which way suits you, try to do your best.

    Studying is your business and the business comes before entertainment(娱乐). When you are studying, phone calls should go unanswered, TV shows unwatched, snacks given up. Studying is the only thing in your mind. Nothing can pull your attention away from what you are studying.

    Studying is like eating. You should eat a little at a time. You can plan what to do today, but don't do too much. When you can't finish the work you planned to do, you will feel stressed and may lose confidence. On the other hand, you will not study well without a good plan. It all de pends on how you manage your time.

    The students who hand in a clearly written paper are already half way to get an A.. Tidy papers are likely to get higher marks than messy ones. When you write clearly and do your work carefully, the thoughts in your mind are clear. You can avoid making more mistakes.

    My name is Zhang Tian. There is a computer in my bedroom. I often use it to do many things. I can do my homework on it. Sometimes I go online and download some information for my lessons. It helps me a lot. Now I am good at all the subjects at school. When I have time, sometimes I watch movies on the Internet. I can also download music from the Internet. I have some good friends from different cities, so we often talk with each other at the weekend. My mother always tells me not to play computer games, because it's not good for my eyes. I don't have a printer now. My father is going to buy one for next month.

Information Card

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    Develop an "ear" for that language. This means that you should always listen to what others are saying and then repeat it.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    For everything that you have in your house, label（贴标签）its name in this language. You can place these labels in your living room, kitchen, and even the bathroom. You would be surprised by how quickly you've picked up so many new words by using this method.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Find some books to read. You will find it easier to read if you choose the ones that you're interested in. You should remember the useful phrases and beautiful sentences while reading.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    One of the best ways to learn a new language is to find a partner. So try to make more friends and find a partner to help you. You will find you can talk with others in that language more and more fluently（流利地）.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

    If all these methods can't help you, take some training classes. It may cost you a little bit of money, but they can really take your language learning to a new level.

Reporter: {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

Michael: I perform in the evenings, but luckily I don't have to get up early. So in the mornings I sleep in, and then practise on stage for 45 minutes. I have to do a lot of exercise before each show.

Reporter: {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

Michael: Because it's like a dream of flying. When you do a great performance on the trapeze, it's an unbelievable feeling.

Reporter: {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

Michael: Working at such a high level every day.

Sometimes you wake up with a stomachache, but you have to perform.

Reporter: {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

Michael: You need to be strong to deal with physical training. You mustn't be heavy, or your partner can't catch you easily. You can't be at all nervous when there are 5，000 people watching you.

Reporter:  {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

Michael: We get paid per show and the amount depends on your contract（合同）. Of course，we can set extra money for extra performances.

    Have you ever counted the number of digits (数字) in your mobile phone number? Your number has 11 digits. You may sometimes find it hard to remember your number. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Why is that?

    The 11 digits can be divided into three parts. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} The first three numbers tell you which mobile phone service provider you are using. For example, 135 is for the China Mobile Communication Corporation and 188 is for China Unicom. The fourth to the seventh digits tell you which area the number is recorded in. And the last four digits are random (随机的).

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} We once had 10 numbers. But as our population grew, there were not enough numbers for us to use. So we began to use 11 digits starting from 1999.

    Eleven digits can be used to make tens of billions of mobile phone numbers, according to the Xinhua News Agency. That's enough for each person to have seven or eight phone numbers to use in China. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Usually, the service provider will reuse a canceled number after three to six months. If you call a number that you haven't contacted (联络) for a long time, you may find that its owner has changed.

    Besides China, Britain and Japan also use 11-digit mobile phone numbers. But their numbers always start with. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Countries like the United States, Australia and India use phone numbers with 10 digits. Canada's mobile phone numbers are perhaps the world's shortest: they use seven digits.