Four Free Mobile Apps to Help You Learn English Faster
Have you realized that you can put your smartphone to really good use for learning English? Here are 4 free mobile apps that will help you do just that.
Hello English
It covers all the aspects of language learning, including vocabulary, translation, grammar, spellings, spoken and reading skills. It uses interactive games to teach different English lessons and offers new audiohooks, latest news, and books. However, you should already understand basic English structures and alphabets, for the app can't help you learn English from scratch(从零开始).
Duolingo
If you want to learn English from scratch, then this is the app you are lookking for. Duolingo uses interactive games to help you learn English. For beginners, the app focuses on helping you learn verbs, phrases and sentences.
Lingbe
If you are ready to practice your spoken skills in the real world, you'll need Lingbe. It's a community-based app where people help each other and share their native languages. It connects you with real people on call who are native English speakers.
HelloTalk
HelloTalk is similar to Lingbe as it connects you with native speakers to help improve your language skills. However, it adds a few extra functions that might interest you. You can view the information about users to find a match that interests you. Additionally, you can also send text and audio messages, and even do video calls with other people.
If you are a beginner, start from Duolingo and then use Hello English to take full command over the language. For fluent spoken English learners, you can try out Lingbe or HelloTalk.
Is smile just a facial expression? Of course not! It is not only used to express pleasure, affection, and friendliness, but also the commonest way to show our good will perfectly without saying anything. A Chinese saying runs: "Never hit a person who is smiling at you." It is a time-proven fact that smile is a language all its own-a universal language-understood by the people of every nation in the world. We may not speak the same tongue as our foreign neighbors, but we smile in the same tongue. We need no interpreter for thus expressing love, happiness, or good will.
One day while shopping in a small town in southern California, it was my misfortune to come across a clerk whose personality conflicted with mine. He seemed quite unfriendly and not at all concerned about my intended purchase. I bought nothing, and marched angrily out of the store. On the outside stood a young man in his early twenties. His expressive brown eyes met and held mine, and in the next instant a beautiful, brilliant smile covered his face. The magic power of that smile made all bitterness within me melt, and I found the muscles in my own face happily responding. "Beautiful day, isn't it?" I remarked, in passing. Then, obeying an impulse(冲动), I turned hack. "I really owe you a debt of gratitude," I said softly. His smile deepened, but he made no attempt to answer. A Mexican woman and two men were standing nearby. The woman stepped forward and eyed me inquiringly. "Carlos, he no speak English," she volunteered. "You want I should tell him something?" At that moment I felt changed. Carlos' smile had made a big person of me. My friendliness and good will toward all mankind stood ten feet tall. "Yes," my reply was enthusiastic and sincere, "tell him I said, 'Thank you!' " "Thank you?" The woman seemed slightly confused.
I gave her arm a friendly
pat as I turned to leave. "Just tell him that 
" I insisted. "He'll understand, I am sure!"
Oh, what a smile can do! Although I have never seen that young man again, I shall never forget the lesson he taught me that morning. From that day on, I became smile-conscious, and I practice the art diligently, anywhere and everywhere, with everybody.
Rising numbers of older adults are unable to care for themselves, often leading to serious health problems and even death, according to state and local government agencies. So-called self-neglect cases generally involve the inability to perform basic self-care, such as providing oneself with food, personal health, medication and safety.
Seniors who no longer drive, for instance, are often unable to get to medical appointments, worsening health problems that can make them unable to care for themselves. A fall can result in body injuries leaving one bedridden and unable to care for oneself. Failure to pay bills for public services could lead to service cutoffs. Forgetting to pay rent could lead to the loss of a home.
Mr. Mc-Cormack, 75 years old, and his wife, 71, both had mental illness and stayed in hospitals from time to time, unable to care for their possessions. Despite repeated visits to their home by local officials, the Mc-Cormacks refused assistance. But after they were found living in their car parked outside their house in December 2017, officials removed them from their home and helped them settle in a nursing home.
Self-neglect cases, like above, involved 144, 296 people across the country in 2018, according to a report. The federal government doesn't have comparable data for previous years, but several state and local service providers say they are seeing the self-neglect problem rise.
The reasons seniors stop caring for themselves vary, including illness, depression and poverty. The loss of the spouse or a neighbor who previously kept an eye on an individual often starts a decline into self-neglect, experts say. And the key to reducing self-neglect cases is providing services to enable seniors to remain in their homes safely, such as reliable transportation for medical appointments and shopping, as well as affordable home help.
Visitors to Henn-na, a restaurant outside Nagasaki, Japan, are greeted by a unique sight: their food being prepared by a row of humanoid robots. The "head chef", named Andrew, is using his two long arms: he stirs batter(面糊)in a metal bowl, then pours it onto a hot grill. In a nearby hotel, robots check guests into their rooms and help with their luggage.
CEO Hideo Sawada, who runs the restaurant and the hotel, predicts that 70 percent of the jobs at Japan's hotels will be automated in the next five years. He said, "Since you can work them 24 hours a day, and they don't need vacation, in the end it's more cost-efficient to use the robot."
This is seemingly worrying. In fact, in America, automation(自动化)helps the food-service and accommodation sector continue to grow. In the company Panera, because of its new kiosks, an app that allows online ordering, the chain is now processing more orders overall, which means it needs more total workers to meet consumers' demand. Starbucks customers who use the chain's app return more frequently than those who don't, the company has said, and the greater efficiency that online ordering allows has increased sales at busy stores (luring peak hours. Starbucks employed 8% more people in the U. S. in 2016 than it did in 2015, the year it began to use the app.
Of course, whether automation is a net benefit to workers in restaurants and hotels, and not just a competitive advantage for one chain over another will depend on whether an improved customer experience makes Americans more likely to dine out and stay at hotels, rather than brown-bagging(自备午餐)it or find an Airbnb to book unique homes.
Today is a wonderful day to think about the year going by, the success you achieved, the things that did not go so well and the things you want to do. To help you make this year your best ever, take a few moments to think about these five suggestions.
Have a clear idea of what you want to achieve and make a schedule. Imagine what you want to finish. See it in your mind. Write down your goals, and never doubt that you will be successful.
Find positive factors. Stay away from the dream stealers, who would bring you down. Be enthusiastic. Make decisions to improve your life. Let the world see and hear it and let everyone feel it.
Spend quality time. Rise early and spend some quality time on your work or reading. Value not only the time you spend by yourself, but also the time you spend with your loved ones.
Say thank you to the people who have helped you. Call up a friend or loved one and tell him how much he means to you. Acts of appreciation cost nothing hut mean everything. Remember they will never forget how you make them feel in their hearts.
A. Show enthusiasm in everything you do.
B. Have a plan for your action.
C. Spend quality time with your loved ones.
D. Surround yourself with loving and supportive people.
E. Show people you appreciate and care about them.
F. Let it show in your body language, your smile and your voice.
G. Life is so dear, so make the most of every day.
When I was thirteen, I was diagnosed(诊断)with a kind of attention disorder. It made school1for me. When everyone else in the class was2tasks, I could not.
In my first3class, Mrs. Smith asked us to read a story and then write on it, all within forty-five minutes. I raised my hand4and said, "Mrs. Smith, you see, the doctor said I have5problems. I might not he able to do it."
She6at me through her glasses, "You are no different from your classmates, young man."
I tried, but I even didn't finish the7when the hell rang. I had to take it home.
In the quietness of my8, the story suddenly all became9to me. It was about a blind person, Louis Braille. He lived in a time10the blind couldn't get much education. But Louis didn't11. Instead, he invented a reading system of raised dots, which opened up a whole new world of12to the blind.
Wasn't I the "blind" in my class, being made to learn like the "sighted" students? My thoughts spilled out and my pen started to13. I completed the14within 40 minutes.15, I was no different from others; I just needed a16place. Why should I ever give up17Louis could find his way out of his problems?
I didn't expect18when I handed in my paper to Mrs. Smith, so it was quite a19when it came hack to me the next day with an "A" on it. At the bottom of the paper were these words: "See what you can do when you keep20."
My grandma is a gentle lady. Like many women of her time, she has a talentsewing(缝纫). She made all my childhood clothes by hand. As a young girl, I didn't like playing outside with my friends. I preferred to spend time(help) her sew.
My grandma taught meto express love and care. Almost a year ago, I was struggling(find) a birthday present for my friend when a thought came to me: "Why don't I sew her a gift?" I made a(decide) to sew her a pencil case. I cut out material fromold skirt, drew a design and started sewing.took me many tries to complete the case. The final result wasn't as pretty as I had imagined, but it was(good) pencil case I could make.
Just yesterday, my friend(call) me and said that every time sees the pencil case, she thinks of me and gets a warm feeling. Hearingshe said made me very happy.
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号(∧)，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：在错的词下画一横线，并在该词下而写出修改后的词。
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。
Linda Evans was my neighbor and best friend. When I was 13, my family moves away. Then we lost in touch. Over the years, I missed Linda very much. There was an empty place in my heart that only a friend like Linda should fill.
One day I was reading a newspaper while I noticed a photo of a young woman who looked very much like Linda. So I decided to wrote to her. She called as soon as she got letter. She said excited, "The woman in the photo is my mother." Minutes late I heard a voice that I knew very well, even after 40 years. We laughed and cried and talking about each other's lives. Now the empty place in my heart has filled.
要点提示：
1）浪费粮食的现象；
2）珍惜粮食的意义；
3）开展相关活动。
注意：1）词数100左右；
2）可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
