— I don't know either.

    Here are some ideas for learning English faster.

    Be like a new baby

    Babies learn their language slowly. First they learn to listen. Then they learn to talk. Finally, they can read and write.

    Listen to English every day

    Listen to English radio, watch English TV, go to see. English films or use online lessons.

    Practise the conversations

    Make up conversations and! practise the conversations. You'd  better use textbooks for beginners.

    Read English stories

    Start with children's storybooks. Try to read stories for ESL readers. Read ads and so on. Try EnglishClub. com for young learners,

    Write down new words

Prepare a new word notebook. Write words in alphabetical order(A... B... C... ). Make some sentences. Try to use an English- English dictionary.

    Keep an English diary

    Start with one sentence. Like how do you feel? How is the weather? What did you do today? Write another sentence tomorrow.

    Li Haoqin is an 8th grader in Mianyang, Sichuan. The 14-year-old girl studies hard in her English class. Every day, she listens carefully in class and does many exercises after class. However, she can't get good grades, so she is very sad. “Why doesn't my hard work pay off(回报)?”Li asks.

Lots of middle school students are now facing this problem: They try their best at something but can't make it.“ They don't have effective(有效的) learning methods. This is the main reason for their difficulties," says Bi Qin. She is a well- known English teacher in Beijing No. 4 High School.

    Bi Qin thinks that hard work is not enough for middle school students. She says, “Students have more subjects now. They should learn in many different ways. The more you use new words, the better you can remember them. For example, making sentences with new words is an effective way to learn.”

    Chen Xiping, 13, of Shandong, has his own way of learning English. “I study hard in school, and I also like watching CCTV-9. On this TV channel, I always see the English words from my textbook," says Chen. “It's really useful.”

    Lin Pingyi, 13, of Shanghai, has a habit of reading. “I like reading English novels like The Old Man and the' Sea(《老人与海》)。And I write notes in my diary," says Lin Pingyi.“In this way, I can remember more words, and make my reading and writing better.

    The listening test is one of the important parts of the English exam.

    Before you start to listen, you need to relax. And try to read the questions. These questions usually help you understand the dialogue or the passage.

    Then listen carefully to the first sentence. It usually tells you the main idea of the passage. When you're listening, such as:

    What happened?      When, where, and how?

    What was the result?      What does the speaker want to tell us?

    In this way, you may understand the passage better.

     When you hear some words you don't know, don't spend too much time on them. Very often, you'll find out what they mean later when you go on with the listening.

     When you are reading something in English, you may often meet with a new word. What's the best way to know it?

You may look it up in the English- Chinese. It will tell you a lot about the word: the pronunciation, the Chinese meaning and how to use the word. But how can you know where the word is in so many English words? How to find it in the dictionary quickly and correctly?

    First, all the English words are arranged(编排) in the order. In the dictionary you can first see the words beginning letter A, then B, C, D... That means, if there are two words both beginning with the same letter, you may look at the second letter, then the third, the fourth ... For  example, “pardon” is before “plough” ,“judge" is before "just”, etc.

    Do you understand how we can look up a word in a dictionary?

    The dictionary will be your good friend. I hope you'll use it as as possible in your English study.

He gets bad marks .