London is such a wonderful city. It is very large. The Thames River runs1the city from west to east. So the city has2parts: the South and the North. In the North, there are important buildings, shops, big parks and interesting places.

    The weather in London is good.  In winter it is not very cold and in summer it is not very hot3the city is near the sea.  People say4London is a foggy city and it often rains.  It is true.

    Last year, when I5in London I met one of the6fogs in years.  You could hardly see your hand in front of your face.  Cars and buses moved along with their lights on. When evenings fell, the weather7even worse.  The fog was as thick as milk. 8the buses and cars stopped. I happened9an important meeting on the other side of the town, but it was impossible to find a car. I had to get there10.

    A young man from a village called Nawalapitiya married a young woman from Maiyuwa, a small village. They lived with the man's big family-his parents, his brothers, their wives and children.  The family kept an elephant, in which the woman soon took a great interest. Every day she fed it with fruit and sugar.

    Three months later, having quarreled with her husband, the woman went back to her parents' home. Soon the elephant refused to eat and work.  It appeared to be ill and heartbroken. One morning after several weeks the animal disappeared from the house.

    It went to the woman's home. On seeing her, the elephant waved its trunk and touched her with it. The young woman was so moved by the act of the animal. So she went back to her husband's home.

    An Englishman was showing a foreign visitor around London. "What's that strange building?" asked the visitor. "That's the Tower of London." "I see. How long did it take to build it?" "About 500 years." "In my country we can build it in five months." Shortly after that they came to St. Paul's Cathedral（大教堂）. "Very interesting!" said the visitor. "How long did it take to build it?" "Nearly forty years." said the Englishman. "In my country we can finish it in forty days at most," said the visitor. This went on all day.

    They visited most of the best known buildings in the city. Every time they saw a new one, the visitor asked what it was and how long it took to build it. Then he said that they could do the same thing much faster in his country.

    At last the Englishman got angry with the visitor though he tried not to show it. Several days later they came to the House of Parliament（议会）and the visitor asked his usual question, "What is that? . "The Englishman answered, "I have no idea. It wasn't there last night."

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

    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.

    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.

    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）.

    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.

    We have known for a long time that flowers of different plants open and close at different times of a day. Yet no one really understands why flowers open and close like that at special times. The question is not as simple as we might think, as recent experiments have shown. In one experiment, flowers were kept in complete darkness all the time. We might expect that the flowers, without any information about the day, did not open as they usually do. In fact, they continued to open at the usual time. This has shown that they have some special ways of knowing the time.

    Their sense of time does not depend on the information from the outside world. It is inside them a kind of "inner clock". This discovery may not seem to be very important. However, it is later found that not just plants but animals including man have this "inner clock" which controls the working of their bodies and influences their activities. Human beings, then, are also influenced by the mysterious power. Whether we wish or not, it affects such things in our life as our need for sleep or food.