— Yes, she is. She ________ at a junior high school.

Dear Daming,

    I'm Tom. I am a middle school student in Grade Two. I know you have difficulty in learning English. Now I can give you some advice on how to improve English. ……

Yours,

Tom

C

    It is school time again, a new start of a new period. 

You are probably feeling excited and a little sad that summer is over. Some kids feel nervous or a little scared on the first day of school because of the new things, new teachers, and maybe even a new school. Luckily, these new worries only stay for a little while.

On your first day, most teachers start the school year by introducing themselves and talking about all the things you'll do that year. Maybe you'll have a chance to tell something about yourselves to the others of the class. The most important thing for you is to learn new rules and follow them. After all, rules can make the school life better. Besides, the most exciting thing for you is to meet more new friends in a new place. The first day of school doesn't sound bad, but there is still some advice for you to make you a better person, such as developing good learning habits, making a good plan and taking your schoolwork seriously. The last but not the least is to have fun in your new school.

    As the saying goes: Good beginning is half done.

Reading is a good habit, but the problem is that there's too much to read, and too little time to read every word of it. So ①we need to find good ways to read faster. There are hundreds of skills (技巧) to help you read more in less time. Here are two skills that I think are especially good.

Preview (预看) —if it's long and hard. This skill is especially useful for ideas of heavy reading like long magazine articles (文章) and business reports (报告).

    Here's how the preview goes.

●Read the first two paragraphs (段落) and the last two paragraphs carefully.

●Then read only the first sentence of the other paragraphs.

    This skill doesn't give you all the details (细节, 详情). It stops you spending time on things you don't really want or need to read.

    Skim (略读)—if it's short and simple (简单的). Skimming is a good way to get ideas of light reading like popular magazines or sports and entertainment (娱乐) papers.

    Here's how to skim.

    ●Get your eyes to move fast. Sweep across each line.

    ●Pick up only a few ②key words in each line.

    Everybody skims differently. You and I may not pick up the same words when we skim the same piece, but we'll get a similar (相似的) idea of what it's mainly about.

    Most of us have learned English for several years, so we can read English books and magazines without the teacher's help. We feel good when we finish 1 an English story or a whole book 2 ourselves. But 3can we be a better reader?

    It is important 4some suitable (适宜的) books. Then what books are suitable? Well, I think we should first choose books that are not too difficult or too 5. Then when we are reading, we should 6 let new words take too much of our attention (注意力). Just do as we often do in our own languages. While we are reading, try to 7 the meaning of the new words, and try to decide which of the key words we could guess and which we have to 8 in dictionaries.

    If we follow the 9, we will be 10 in reading English books and magazines.

B

    We are learning English, but how can we learn English well? A student can know a lot about English, but maybe he can't speak English.

If you want to know how to swim, you must get into the river. And if you want to be a football player, you must play football.

    So you can learn English only by using it. You must listen to your teacher in class. You must read English every day. You must speak English to your classmates and you must also write something in English sometimes. Then one day, you may find your English very good.

— Sorry, he isn't in. He ________ a meeting.