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1、 中小学课外辅导专家英语经典短文一、How to use an English-Chinese dictionary?When you are reading something in English, you may often come across a new word. Whats the best way to know it?You may look it up in an English-Chinese dictionary. It will tell you a lot about the word: the pronunciation, the Chinese meaning
2、 and also how to use this word. But how can you know where the word is in thousands of English words? How to find it in the dictionary both quickly and correctly?First, all the English words are arranged in the alphabetical order. In the dictionary you can first see the words beginning with the Iett
3、er A, then B,C,D,EThat means if there are two words “desert”and “pull”,” “desert”will be certainly before“pull”.Then if there,are two words both beginning with the same letter,you may look at the second letter.Then the third, the fourthFor example, “pardon”is before “plough”, “judge”is before “just”
4、,etc.Do you understand how to look up a word in a dictionary?The dictionary will be your good friend,I hope youll use it as often as possible in your English learning.二、Travel by bike If you go to visit London, youll see a lot of buses and cars on the road. Youll also see a lot of bikes because more
5、 people travel by bike.There are a lot of reasons for this. First, it is very cheap to buy a bike, and it is quick, too .You often have to wait for a bus for half an hour. When the bus comes, there are so many other buses and cars on the roads that the bus moves very slowly.I traveled to work by bus
6、 for about four years. I often arrived at work late and tired. Then one day, about two years ago, a friend of mine said, “ I go to work by bike. Why dont we travel together?”“Because my bike is old.” I answered, “And there are so many buses and cars on the roads. Ill feel frightened “You neednt feel
7、 frightened!” said my friend. “If you follow me and we ride slowly, youll be fine.”The next day I brought myself a new bike. Although we went slowly, we arrived ai work quickly. It took 40 minutes to go to work by bus, but only half an hour by bike!Now I dont feel afraid. I love going go work by bik
8、e. I take a different road every day. I arrived at work very quickly. Ive got a little more money now, and more important, I feel healthy.Many people think in the same way as I do. Thats why you see a lot of bikes on the road. Next year youll see more, I am sure. Perhaps in the future we will have r
9、oads for bikes only. I hope so.三、American food habits Generally speaking, American food is rather bland and inspired. Salads are popular and are served all the year round. Many American people are “calorie” conscious. This is evident in menus offering “low calorie” or “weight watchers” meals. In mar
10、kets one can find “No Cal” drinks (meaning without calories) such as ginger ale or cola. “Diet” foods without sugar or salt are also available in food stores.Waiters in American restaurants tend to assume that everyone drinks coffee. If a waiter suddenly asks “Now or later?” what he means is “Do you
11、 want coffee with your meal now or later?” Many American drinksCoffee with their meal. When dining out in the US we can ask for tea, milk,coke,bear and so on, if we prefer these to coffee, American restaurants cannot serve beer, wine, or liquor unless they are licensed to do so.The main course in Am
12、erican meals is usually meat, fowl, or fish, but rarely is more than one of these served in the same meal (except that seafood can be used as an appetizer).四、The InternetPerhaps you have heard a lot about the Internet, but what is it?The Internet is many different networks around the world. A networ
13、k is a group of computers put together. These networks joined together are called the Internet.Maybe that doesnt sound interesting. But when weve joined the Internet, there are lots of things we can do. We can have a lot of interests on the World Wide Web (WWW). We can use the Internet instead of a
14、library to find all kinds of information for our homework. We can find information about our favorites sports or film stars and do shopping on the Internet. We can also send messages to other people by e-mail. It is much cheaper and quicker than calling our friends or sending a letter.Thanks to the
15、Internet, the world is becoming smaller and smaller. People can now work at home with a computer in front, getting and sending the information they need. They can buy or sell whatever they want by the Internet. But do you know 98% of the information is in English? So what will English be like tomorr
16、ow?五、The Olympic gamesThe Olympic games are held every four years in a different city in the world. Athletes from many countries compete in a variety of sports. These sports are divided into winter and summer games.The Olympic began in Green more than 2700 years ago. The games were originally part of a religious festival in
