Learning to speak English well may be the best thing you can do to improve your life. That's right. If you can communicate in English, you can do the following things:

    Contact (联系) people from all over the world. Talk about your ideas and opinions on Internet discussion groups. Send e-mails to interesting people. Learn about their life and culture.

    Travel more easily. Communicate with people wherever you go—English is spoken in more than 100 countries. Ask directions, have a conversation, or ask for help. Maybe English will save your life some day!

    Push your career forward. If you want a good job in business, technology, or science, get out of that armchair and start learning English now! If you already have a good job, start learning before you lose it! Knowing English will let you do the following things:

    Put “excellent knowledge of English” on your CV (履历). Get your dream job, and earn more money.

    Gain technical knowledge. English is the language of technology, especially high technology like computer science, and medicine. If you're going to read about technology, you'll probably have to do it in English.

    Be a world-class businessman or woman. It's simple. International business is done in English. And all business today is international. So if you want to play, you have to know English—to contact other business people, go to conferences, and read international business newspapers and magazines, ect.

    Become a better scientist. Contact scientists from other countries, go to international conferences, and visit research centers abroad. Learn about new scientific discoveries by reading papers, books, and magazines.

    Use your computer more effectively. Most computer applications are in English, so you will understand them better—and become a better employee.

    Rome wasn't built in a day, and the Internet didn't come out of a golden egg. Many of today's creations were not born of people who had creative ideas, but who did not stop at simply having an idea. They took one brick of capital (资本), another brick of knowledge, perhaps a brick or two of family and friends, and built their empires (帝国) brick by brick.

    If you want to build an online empire, you cannot settle for simply having a website full of articles, or a website full of pictures—there are already thousands of sites like that, so you need to come up with something new and creative.

    So if you are starting to build something up, ask yourself: what do you really want to do, and what are you really good at? Believe it or not, you can make money at something that you are an expert in, and you need to know what that is.

    Remember, having an online empire does not mean that you have to do it alone. You can take your friends along with you. Having a friend advertise your services online is a good way to attract more visitors to your empire.

    Building an online empire, you will have to be prepared to not only come up with creative ideas, but to carry your ideas through. Talk to people who have already succeeded in building their own empires. Talk to people who are struggling. Join a mailing list that will help you get through your struggle to achieve your goal.

    As you move forward, you will find that you can help other people, and you will have a good many stories to tell—not to mention a lot of money in the bank.

    If you learn the real secrets of creating a long term stable (稳定的) online business then you will have enough money to retire on.

    When I was going home to India last year, I called up my mother to ask if she wanted anything from China.

    When India had not opened up its markets to the world, I carried suitcase loads of dark glasses and jeans. Thankfully, we can get all these anywhere in India now.

    Still, her answer surprised me, “Green tea.”

    As long as I can remember she didn't even drink Indian tea.

    I dutifully bought a big packet of Longjing and headed home to hear the story. My mother and her brother, both regular newspaper readers, believed that Chinese green tea was the wonder drug for all illnesses.

    At the turn of the century，China was not really familiar to the average Indians. It was a strange country.

    How things change! And how soon!

    Now every town of any size seems to have a “China Market”. And everyone is talking about China.

    The government of India has planned to send a team to China to see how things are done. A minister once said that India must open the doors for more foreign investments(投资) and such a step would “work wonders as it did for China”．

    But it's a two way street. I just heard about a thousand Shenzhen office workers who have gone to Bangalore to train in software. Meanwhile, all the Indian IT majors are setting up a strong presence in China.

    No wonder that trade, which was only in the millions just ten years ago，was expected to hit about $15 billion for last year and $20 billion by 2008, a goal set by both governments.

    No wonder，my colleague wrote some weeks ago about this being the Sino－Indian(中印) century as the two countries started on January 1 the Sino－Indian Friendship Year.

    But what is still a wonder to me is my mother drinking Chinese tea.

    I am a good mother to three children. I have tried never to let my profession stand in the way of being a good parent. I no longer consider myself the center of the universe. I show up. I listen. I try to laugh. I am a good friend to my husband. I have tried to make marriage vows(誓约) mean what they say. I am a good friend to my friends, and they to me. Without them, there would be nothing to say to you today.

    So here's what I wanted to tell you today: Get a life. A real life, not a desire of the next promotion(提升), the bigger paycheck, the larger house.

    Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure(空闲); it is work. Pick up the phone. Send an email. Write a letter. And realize that life is the best thing and that you have no business taking it for granted.

    It is so easy to waste our lives, our days, our hours, and our minutes. It_is_so_easy_to_exist_instead_of_to_live. I learned to live many years ago. Something really bad happened to me, something that changed my life in ways that, if I had my choice, it would never have been changed at all. And what I learned from it is what, today, seems to be the hardest lesson of all I learned to love the journey, not the destination. I learned to look at all the good in the world and try to give some of it back because I believed in it, completely and totally. And I tried to do that, in part, by telling others what I had learned.

    By telling them this: Read in the backyard with the sun on your face. Learn to be happy. And think of life as a deadly illness, because if you do, you will live it with joy and passion(激情) as it ought to be lived.

—The trees           well, but we didn't water them.

    In a tiny room, Jenny was lying in bed waiting for an operation, nervous and worried. 1, another patient was squeezed in. After a gentle greeting, they 2the chatting. The 80-year-old newcomer was named Susan. Her son 3ran a company as CEO and her daughter worked on a TV station as director. Since her children were too 4to take care of Susan, she lived in an old people's home. Susan was proud of her children who had wonderful 5. Jenny really 6Susan. Compared with Susan, Jenny was 7but an ordinary country woman whose children were just ordinary workers.

    Soon, it was supper time, Jenny's daughter cooked 8dishes which were her favorite. Jenny invited Susan to share her supper, but she9.Susan was 10her daughter when she received a call. 11,her children couldn't come to visit her. Worse still, Susan had 12the mealtime in the hospital. She lay in bed, 13and silent. Jenny's daughter offered to buy her some food but she had no appetite  14.

    The next day, Jenny and Susan would go through a series of regular medical checks before the operation. Jenny's daughter 15to her carefully while Susan was still alone. Out of sympathy, Jenny's daughter offered to queue(排队) up, fill in different 16and register for Susan. For several days in hospital, even during her 17,Susan's children didn't show up. Susan really envied Jenny whose daughter looked after her all the time 18she recovered and moved out of hospital.

    Care from the loved ones when ill can really make one happy and encouraged, especially for a(n) 19parent. So while devoted to your career, don't forget your role in your 20.

    Some poems tell a story or describe something in a way that will give the reader        strong impression. Others try to express certain emotions. Poets use different forms of poetry to express        (they). For example，the language of nursery rhymes is concrete but        (imagine), and they delight small children because they have strong rhyme and a lot of        (repeat). And list poems have a flexible line        (long) and a rhythm to the poem. Another simple form of poem is the cinquain,        is made up of five lines and can convey strong        (feel) in just a few words. Haiku is a Japanese form of poetry that is made up of 17 syllables. And of course there are Tang poems from China which you may enjoy        particular. With so many different        (form) of poetry to choose from, students may        (eventual) want to write poems of their own.

例：If I were in your position，I would pay close attention.

→Were I in your position，I would pay close attention.

增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧），并在其下面写上该加的词。

删除：把多余的词用斜线（＼）划掉。

修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写上修改后的词。

注意：1．每处错误及其修改均仅限一词。

2．只允许修改10处，多者（从11处起）不计分。

Dear Editor,

    I'm writing to tell you about a food poisoning accident. Several days ago, my neighbor ate a bag of food buying from the market. After the meal, they had stomachaches and their faces turn pale. Lucky, one of their friends found the accident and immediately called an ambulance, which carried them quickly to a hospital. After several hours' treatment they finally escaped of death.

    As some businessmen are only interested in making money to become rich quickly, we seldom care about the necessary safety measures or which happens to buyers. They must be have charged by law. Meanwhile, I do hope whole society can realize the important of food safety.

增加：在缺词处加一个漏词符号（∧），并在其下面写出该加的词。

删除：把多余的词用斜线（\）划掉。

修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。

注意：1．每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；

2．只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。

    Two years before, I traveled to Brazil and I rented for a car. Unfortunate, I had an accident and hit another car, and I needed to stay in a hospital for at least two week. I called my parents, so I did not tell them what had happened. I knew that they will be worried about myself because I was so farther away, and that my mother would not sleep if she knew. Therefore, I told them interested stories and how I was enjoying Brazil. As a result, nobody knew truth. I still think that it was the right thing to do.