阅读理解

　　There is no doubt about it．The best way to learn new words is to do it unconsciously．I don’t mean while you’re unconscious．I mean while you are unconscious of the fact that it is sinking in．

　　That is how I learnt the 30,000 words in my vocabulary by living in an English-speaking world, mother tongue．I just pick them up．But some of them may be misunderstood．Now, to misunderstand does not mean not to understand．To misunderstand is to understand but incorrectly．

　　The 5 ％ mislearnt of all the words we “know” will be the least frequently used words, as the more frequently used words are less likely to be mislearnt．Some of the misunderstandings may live with all our lives, without knowing that we got them wrong．

　　Many English teachers think that this natural method of learning words in one’s own mother tongue can be used for a second language learning．They teach their students how to play the Guessing Game．“There is no time to look up in your dictionaries all the new words you come across,” they will say．“You have to practice guessing what the word means from the context．”

　　This method of guessing in a second language learning does not work．It may succeed in many cases, but results in hundreds or thousands of wrongly-guessed meanings of words．

　　And what’s more, there are more separate meanings than there are words themselves．Our learners’ dictionaries usually have many meanings．A good dictionary is what makes self-learning possible．

　　Don’t guess! Look it up!

完形填空

　　Some Japanese still get married by parents’ arrangement．Yoshio and Hiromis Tanaka, a young Japanese 　　1　　 living in the United States, told the story of their 　　2　　 marriage．“We didn’t marry for love in the western sense．We got married in the　　3　　 Japanese way．Our parents arranged our marriage 　　4　　 a match-maker．In Japan, we believe that marriage is 　　5　　 affecting the whole family rather than a matter concerning(与……有关)only the young couple．　　6　　 we think it is very important to match people according to their 　　7　　 background, education and so on．When our parents thought it was time for us to get married, they went to a local 　　8　　 and asked her for some suggestion．We discussed the details and looked at the 　　9　　 she sent, and then our parents asked her to arrange an interview for 　　10　　 of us．”

　　A Japanese marriage interview is held in 　　11　　 place, such as a hotel or a restaurant, and is 　　12　　 by the boy and the girl, their parents and the match-maker．Information about the couple and their families is 　　13　　 over a cup of tea or a meal．Then the boy and the girl are 　　14　　 for a short time to know each other．When they return home, they have to tell the family 　　15　　 they want to meet again or not．

　　Yoshio 　　16　　,“When our parents realized we were 　　17　　 about each other, they started to make arrangements for our wedding．My family paid money to 　　18　　．This is the money to help pay for the wedding ceremony and for setting up the house 　　19　　．We also gave her family a beautiful ornament(装饰品)to put in the 　　20　　 room of their house, so everyone knew that Hiromis was going to marry．”

完形填空

　　Some Japanese still get married by parents’ arrangement．Yoshio and Hiromis Tanaka, a young Japanese 　　1　　 living in the United States, told the story of their 　　2　　 marriage．“We didn’t marry for love in the western sense．We got married in the 　　3　　 Japanese way．Our parents arranged our marriage 　　4　　 a match-maker．In Japan, we believe that marriage is 　　5　　 affecting the whole family rather than a matter concerning(与……有关)only the young couple．　　6　　 we think it is very important to match people according to their 　　7　　 background, education and so on．When our parents thought it was time for us to get married, they went to a local 　　8　　 and asked her for some suggestion．We discussed the details and looked at the 　　9　　 she sent, and then our parents asked her to arrange an interview for 　　10　　 of us．”

　　A Japanese marriage interview is held in 　　11　　 place, such as a hotel or a restaurant, and is 　　12　　 by the boy and the girl, their parents and the match-maker．Information about the couple and their families is 　　13　　 over a cup of tea or a meal．Then the boy and the girl are 　　14　　 for a short time to know each other．When they return home, they have to tell the family 　　15　　 they want to meet again or not．

　　Yoshio 　　16　　, “When our parents realized we were 　　17　　 about each other, they started to make arrangements for our wedding．My family paid money to 　　18　　．This is the money to help pay for the wedding ceremony and for setting up the house 　　19　　．We also gave her family a beautiful ornament(装饰品)to put in the 　　20　　 room of their house, so everyone knew that Hiromis was going to marry．”