Many students feel it difficult to remember new words when they begin to study English. Now I will give you some advice.

1. Do not waste time in learning a list of English words. It is. the hardest way to remember English words. How do you learn to speak Chinese? You did it by listening carefully to the people talking to each other. You can find radio programs, TV programs and records, and listen to them carefully. The best way to learn all new words is through ear. As you listen to more and more dialogues, you will learn how English is pronounced in phrases and sentences. Of course, it is at enough to learn new words; you must learn how words are put together, and why some words in English are emphasized.

2. Some people have found that they can learn the names of everyday objects, such as box, cup, desk and so on, in the following way. They write the names of subjects, they say the words. Try this and see if this way works for you. If it does not, then go on to practice your dialogues.

1. Who gave the advice? Perhaps it was given by       .

A. Carl Marx                                               B. a teacher from England

C. American parents                                           D. a teacher of English

2. The advice the writer gave us is mainly about       .

A. how to learn English                                        B. how to put words together

C. how to learn new words      

D. how to write the names of the objects on paper and put the paper on them

3. The writer gave us two pieces of advice. He seems to enjoy       .

A. the first one               B. the second one        C. both of them          D. neither of them

4. The writer thinks that the best way to learn new words is       .

A. to do more reading                                   B. to do more writing

C. to do more listening                          D. to learn which word is emphasized

5. The way to write the names of the objects on paper and put the paper on them       .

A. works for everyone                               B. does not work for anyone

C. works only for some people                        D. works only for the Chinese students

A rabbit is running into his hole. You may ask, “What happened?”
Well, when a rabbit sees something dangerous, it runs away. Its tail moves up and down as it runs. When other rabbits see this tail moving up and down, they ran, too. They know there is danger. The rabbit has told them something without making a sound. It has given them a signal.
Many other animals use this kind of language. When a bee finds some food, it goes back to his home. It can’t tell the other bees where the food is by speaking to them, but it does dance in the air. This tells the bees where the food is.
But animals say things by making sounds. A dog barks, for examples, when a stranger comes near. A cat purrs(发出呼噜呼噜的声音) when pleased. Some birds make several different sounds, each with its own meaning.
But human beings have something that no animals have---- a large number of words about things, actions, feelings or ideas. We are able to give each other information to tell or inform other people what is in our mind or how we feel. By writing words down we can remind ourselves of the things that have happened, or send messages to people far away. No animals can do this. No animals has the wonderful power of language.
No one knows how man learned to make words. Somehow he learned to make them. As centuries went by, he made more and more new words. This is what we mean by language.
People in different countries made different kinds of words. Today there are about fifteen hundred different languages in the world. A very large English dictionary, for examples, contains four or five hundred thousand words. But we don’t know all these. The words we know are called vocabulary. We should try to make our vocabulary larger. Read as many books as possible. When we met a new word, look it up in the dictionary. A dictionary is the most useful book.
【小题1】What’s the meaning of the underlined word?

A rabbit is running into his hole. You may ask, “What happened?”

Well, when a rabbit sees something dangerous, it runs away. Its tail moves up and down as it runs. When other rabbits see this tail moving up and down, they ran, too. They know there is danger. The rabbit has told them something without making a sound. It has given them a signal.

Many other animals use this kind of language. When a bee finds some food, it goes back to his home. It can’t tell the other bees where the food is by speaking to them, but it does dance in the air. This tells the bees where the food is.

But animals say things by making sounds. A dog barks, for examples, when a stranger comes near. A cat purrs(发出呼噜呼噜的声音) when pleased. Some birds make several different sounds, each with its own meaning.

But human beings have something that no animals have---- a large number of words about things, actions, feelings or ideas. We are able to give each other information to tell or inform other people what is in our mind or how we feel. By writing words down we can remind ourselves of the things that have happened, or send messages to people far away. No animals can do this. No animals has the wonderful power of language.

No one knows how man learned to make words. Somehow he learned to make them. As centuries went by, he made more and more new words. This is what we mean by language.

People in different countries made different kinds of words. Today there are about fifteen hundred different languages in the world. A very large English dictionary, for examples, contains four or five hundred thousand words. But we don’t know all these. The words we know are called vocabulary. We should try to make our vocabulary larger. Read as many books as possible. When we met a new word, look it up in the dictionary. A dictionary is the most useful book.

1.What’s the meaning of the underlined word?

2.A dog can tell something__________.

3.It has been proved that no animals are able to_________.

4.Generally speaking, what we mean by “vocabulary” is_______.

5.What must we do in order to make our vocabulary larger?

The holiday is coming to us. Finally, after months of study, you have some time to yourself. So, why not read a book? Well, some people will say, “Why do you like reading books? We have Internet. It offers a lot of more colorful fun. Books are history!” But I am sure you can learn a lot from books than Internet.
One clear reason is that a well-chosen book can give you a lot of wonderful  words, as long as you have a good dictionary, of course. Believe me; it’s far easier to get new words from a book or an article than it is from the TV or the Internet.
But another more important point is that books give you something that the Internet cannot. The general webpage (网页) is picture-heavy and the text is as easy to read as possible. While “easy” may attract (吸引) you, unluckily it’s not helpful for any long-term development of reading skills and the general language level. Because of that, reading on the Internet can’t take the place of reading books.
But perhaps the best reason is that just choosing what you read and doing it independently means that it’s something you do by and for yourself. You can choose what you want to read. It’s hard work, but you’ll find that what once seemed like a duty is now a pleasure.
【小题1】Does the writer advise people to read books in their holidays?
【小题2】What can people get from a well-chosen book?
【小题3】What’s the general webpage like?
【小题4】How many reasons for reading a book does the writer mention in the passage?
【小题5】What does the writer want to tell us in the passage?