As an English, I can speak three languages—English, German and French, so do you think the British people are very good language learners? The fact is that they aren’t.

Some statistics (数据) from the survey done by the European Commission (欧盟委员会) showed that 62% of the British people only speak English. 38% speak at least one foreign language and 18% speak two or more. Compared with the British people, 56% of the people in other European countries speak at least one foreign language and 28% speak two or more.

From this you can see that the British people are famous for not speaking foreign languages and that they are not good language learners in Europe.

And the survey also showed that English is the most widely-spoken foreign language. Many European people can have a conversation in English. That’s why my people don’t think it is necessary to learn a foreign language.

In Britain, students are not required to learn a foreign language. That means learning a foreign language is only an option at school. In UK schools it is common for children to start learning a foreign language at 11 and many of them give it up at 14. So why don’t students continue learning foreign languages at school? Because they think it is more difficult to get good marks in languages than in other subjects such as science or history.

To solve this situation, the British government is looking for different ways to improve language learning at school. One way is to start learning it at a much younger age. Another one is to give school children more choices.

Changing the British attitude (态度) to learning foreign languages may be a hard task but the government decides to try!

In Canada you can find dogs, cats, horses etc, in almost every family. These are their pets. People love these pets and pets are their good friends. Before they keep them at their houses, they take them to animal hospitals to give them needles(针)so that they won’t carry disease(疾病). They have special animal food stores, though(尽管)they can get animal food in almost every store. Some people spend about two hundred Canadian dollars a month on animal food.

   When you visit people’s homes. they would be very glad to show you their pets .You will also find almost every family has a bird feeder (喂食器) in their garden. All kinds of birds are welcomed to come and have a good meal. They are free to come and go and nobody can kill any animals in Canada. They have a law against killing wild(野生的) animals. If you killed an animal, you would be punished(处罚). If an animal happened to get run over by a car, people would be very sad about it.

   People in Canada have many reasons to like animals. One of them is: When children grow up, they leave their parents and start their own work and life. Then their parents will feel lonely, but pets can help them. They can be good friends and never leave them alone.

    Josh and Amy are like many teenagers these days. They have jobs to do to help out around the home. Josh washes cars for his neighbors while Amy helps their neighbor’s kids with their homework. Like many families, both of Josh and Amy’s parents work outside the home.

    Everyone in Josh and Amy’s family is busy. Their mom works in an office and often has to stay late for meetings. Their father owns his own small business and stays late to finish his work. Josh and Amy go to school. Both belong to clubs and sports teams. They also have lots of friends with whom they want to spend time.

    Josh and Amy’s mom leaves for work at 7:00 in the morning and does not get home most days until 6:30 p.m. The same is true for their dad, but he leaves home in the morning even earlier.

    Josh and Amy’s parents work to be able to provide for their family. They need money to pay for their home and to pay their bills. Next year they want to buy a new car. The family also wants to go on a vacation to California. Josh and Amy need clothes, books, and other things for school. Their parents are also saving money so Josh and Amy can go to college when they finish high school.

Every year thousands of young people in England finish school and then take a year off before they start work or go to university. Some young people go to other countries and work as volunteers (志愿者). Volunteers give their time to help people. For example, they work in schools or hospitals, or they do something helpful for the environment.

    Pauline Jones, 18, lives in Cardiff, Wales. Next year she wants to go to university to study Chinese, but now she’s living in Belize. Pauline says, “I’m working with other people here to save the coral reefs (珊瑚礁) in the sea near Belize. The reefs here are beautiful, but if the sea water is very polluted (污染), the coral dies. I’m helping to do research on the coral and the fish that live around the reefs. All over the world, coral reefs are dying. We need to do something about the problem before it’s too late.”

    “I’m staying with a family here and I help do some housework. I don’t get any money, but that’s OK. I love my work here, and I’m learning a lot about the people of Belize—and myself! When I finish my work, I want to stay here for another three months. I want to travel around Belize and Central America.”

The government in China plans to end its one-child policy (政策) and let families have two children instead. The plan was meant to balance (平衡) population development and stop a falling birth rate (出生率).

China started the one-child policy in the 1980s. But the government allowed only a small number of couples to have two children. For example, some families in the countryside could have two children, if the first-born child is a girl. In 2013, the Chinese government gave other couples a chance to have two children if one of them was an only child.

Jiang Quanbao, a population expert, explained how Chinese families react to the newest policy. “Lots of young people in the cities are no longer interested in having a second child,” he said.

At the end of 2014, China had a population of 1.37 billion people. But the labor market population will drop in 35 years. That is to say, the country will be in great need of labor by the year 2050. With the “two children” policy, an increase in births can solve this problem.

①.The “two children ” policy was announced.

②. China had a population of 1.37 billion people.

③. Some families in the countryside could have two children.

④. Families could have two children if one parent was an only child.

If you live in the United States, the law says you can’t have a full-time job until you are 16 years old. At 14 or 15, you can work part-time after school or on weekends, and during summer you can work 40 hours each week. Does all that mean that if you are younger than 14, you can’t earn（赚） your own money? Of course not! Kids who are between the ages of 10 and 13 can earn money by doing lots of things. Valerie, 11, told us that she made money by cleaning up other people’s yards. Lena, 13, make money by knitting（织） dog sweaters and selling them to her neighbors, and Reisa said she had started taking art classes and showing her work to people. People have asked her to draw pictures for them and they pay her for them. Jasmine, 13, writes articles for different magazines!

Earning is learning. By working to earn your own money, you are learning the skills you will need to succeed in life. These skills can include things like getting along with others, using technology（技术） and using your time. Some people think that asking for money is a lot easier than earning it, however, when you make your own money, you don’t have to depend on someone else. The five dollars that you earn will probably make you feel a lot better in your hand than the twenty dollars you ask for.

    Surfing the Internet(网上冲浪) is interesting, exciting or dangerous, a waste of time. Different people have different ideas. But most people think the Internet is very useful for computer users. It is the world’s biggest “dictionary”. You don’t know something? Look it up on the Internet. You can find it and download it on the Internet and it’s often free. You can chat with people from all over the world. You can write emails to your foreign friends. You can do lots of things, but you couldn’t do them before. What a wonderful world it is! 

Reading books helps you open different windows to many colorful worlds. But today few Chinese people like to read. In 2012, a Chinese read an average （平均） of 4.39 books. Things are different in many other countries. A South Korean （韩国） man reads 11 books a year, a Japanese reads 17 and an American reads 21 books.

What to read

In China, many people only read self-help （自助） books. These books are usually about how to get success and health. In the US, teachers give students a reading list every few weeks. These books are about everything, like science and adventure （冒险）.

How to get good reading habits

Read in short periods （周期）. If you can’t concentrate for a long time, this way is helpful. 10 minutes on the way to and from school, 10 minutes when waiting for friends, 15 minutes before going to sleep. Then it's 45 minutes a day, about five hours a week.

Make your own reading list. Your list can be the best selling books on famous websites like The New York Times, Dangdang.com, or same books your teachers tell you to read.

Talk about your reading with your family or friends. It doubles （加倍） the fun to read. The more fun you get from books, the more books you will read.2

①Reading books for a short time once               ②Reading in bed with a bright light

③Making careful notes while reading                 ④Eating something while reading

⑤Having a good reading list ⑥Sharing the fun with your family or friends after reading