If you want to become a fluent English speaker you should take some advice. There are four skills in learning English. They are reading, listening, speaking, and writing. The most important thing you must remember is that if you want to improve your speaking and writing skills, you should first master the skills of reading and listening.
Read as much as you can. But your reading must be active. It means that you must think about the meaning of the sentence, the meaning of the unfamiliar(不熟悉) words, etc. There is no need for you to pay much attention to grammars or try to understand all the unfamiliar words you come across, but the fact that you see them for the first time and recognize them whenever you see them, for example, in other passages or books, is enough. It would be better to prepare yourself a notebook so you can write down the important words or sentences in it.
As for listening, there are two choices: besides reading, you can listen every day for about 30 minutes. You can only pay attention to your reading and become skillful at your reading, then you can catch up on your listening. Since you have lots of inputs in your mind, you can easily guess what the speaker is going to say. This never means that you should not practice listening.
For listening you can listen to cartoons or some movies that are specially made for children. Their languages are easy. Or if you are good at listening you can listen to VOA or BBC programs every day. Again the thing to remember is being active in listening and preferably taking some notes.
If you follow these pieces of advice, your speaking and writing will improve quickly, and you can be a fluent English speaker one day.
1.According to the writer, which should you improve first among the four skills?
A. Reading and listening. B. Reading and writing
C. Writing and speaking. D. Speaking and listening.
2.To improve your reading, when you read you should ______.
A. look up all the new words in the dictionary
B. think about what you are reading actively
C. spend more time studying grammars
D. copy as many words and sentences as possible
3.The underlined phrase “come across” in Paragraph 2 can probably be replaced by “______”.
A. hear B. discover C. meet by accident D. look for
4.The passage is mainly about how to ______.
A. choose suitable listening materials
B. deal with new words in reading
C. become fluent in speaking and writing English
D. improve your reading ability as quickly as possible
5.The author seems to agree with the view that____.
A. everyone should listen to VOA or BBC programs every day
B. you needn’t practice listening if you keep on reading every day.
C. you should take notes of whatever you are hearing.
D. being good at reading is helpful in improving your listening.
Not many years ago, a wealthy and rather strange old man named Johnson lived alone in a village in the south of England. He had made a lot of money in trading with foreign countries. When he was seventy-five, he gave 12,000$ to the village school to buy land and equipment for a children’s playground.
As a result of his kindness, many people came to visit him. Among them was a newspaperman. During their talk, Johnson said that he was seventy-five and expected to live to be a hundred. The newspaperman asked him how he managed to be healthy at seventy—five. Johnson had a sense of humor. He liked whisky(威士忌)and drank some each day. “I have an injection(注射)in my neck each evening.” he told the newspaperman, thinking of his evening glass of whisky. The newspaperman did not understand what Johnson meant. In his newspaper he reported that Johnson was seventy-five and had a daily injection in his neck. Within a week Johnson received thousands of letters from all over Britain asking him for the secret of his daily injection.
1.Johnson became a rich man through _________.
A. making whisky. B. doing business. C. cheating. D. buying and selling land.
2.The gift of money to the school suggests that Johnson __________.
A. had no children. B. wanted people to know how rich he was.
C. was very warm-hearted and fond of children. D. was a strange man.
3.Many people wrote to Johnson to find out __________.
A. what kind of whisky he had. B. how to live alone.
C. how to become wealthy. D. in which part of the neck to have an injection.
4.The newspaperman ____________.
A. should have reported what Johnson had told him.
B. shouldn’t have asked Johnson what injection he had.
C. was eager to live a long life.
D. should have found out what Johnson really meant.
5.When Johnson said he had an injection in his neck each evening he really meant that ______.
A. he liked drinking a glass of whisky in the evening
B. he needed an injection in the neck.
C. a daily injection in the evening would make him sleep well.
D. there was something wrong with his neck
My grandfather died in 1970, leaving my grandmother living in their old house alone. Shortly after that, we went to the animal shelter(收容所) and picked out a little ______ to accompany(陪伴) Grandma. The dog was named Penny.
Grandma and Penny quickly became very attached(依恋)to each other, and that attachment grew much ______ as years passed—they became very close. When Grandma went to ______, Penny walked along and lay beside her until she woke up.______ Penny aged, she could no longer jump up on the ______ to lie next to Grandma, so she lay on the blanket beside the bed. Grandma never went anywhere without her partner by her side.
The time came when both my grandmother and Penny were becoming ______. Grandma had been sent to hospital several times, and Penny couldn't ______ around very well. When Grandma was in hospital, Penny would sit at the window ______ out for the car bringing Grandma home and would ______ wait at the door when Grandma came through it. Each homecoming was a great meeting again between the two.
On Christmas Day in 1985, Grandma was again taken to the hospital. Penny, ______, sat watching out the window for the car bringing Grandma home. Two mornings later, I ______ she couldn't stand and wouldn't eat. Later, she had difficulty in breathing. I quickly ______ her to the hospital where Grandma stayed to let her see her owner for the last time. There, as soon as Penny saw Grandma, Penny's eyes brightened suddenly and then slowly ______.Grandma left this world, several ______ later.
After fifteen years of loving friendship, Grandma and Penny passed away on the same day. God had it all worked out—Penny was waiting at the door to ______ her when Grandma came home.
1.A. mouse B. cat C. bird D. dog
2.A. stronger B. higher C. farther D. longer
3.A. work B. hospital C. sleep D. church
4.A. Since B. While C. As D. Though
5.A. table B. bed C. chair D. blanket
6.A. lost B. active C. weak D. tired
7.A. lie B. walk C. play D. jump
8.A. looking B. crying C. climbing D. getting
9.A. worriedly B. hurriedly C. excitedly D. disappointedly
10.A. as usual B. in time C. by accident D. at once
11.A. believed B. guessed C. heard D. found
12.A. guided B. posed C. sent D. followed
13.A. opened B. brightened C. closed D. wetted
14.A. hours B. days C. weeks D. months
15.A. call B. greet C. miss D. help
In some languages, 100 words make up half of all words ______ in daily conversations.
A. using B. to use C. used D. having used
________ at the cafeteria before, Tina didn't want to eat there again.
A. Having eaten B. To eat
C. Eat D. Eating
The climate here is quite different from ______ of Shenyang.
A. this B. it C. that D. one
