It was my first day at Grade 6. And the first lesson was _________ English. When I was doing nothing, Mr. Gough, our new English teacher, walked into the _________.

To my surprise, he held up a book, The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, and asked if anyone had _________ it. I put my hand up, because Poe was my favorite writer. Mr. Gough asked if I really understood _________ the writer tried to say in his book. My _________ made him smile, and he asked me to write an article on that subject.

After that, English classes became a new interest for me. Mr. Gough thought that students had to _________a play to understand it. "Don't just read it." he said.

As time _________ we developed a real friendship. He encouraged me to be a _________ in the future. When I left school, he said to me, "You have a gift for writing, Tony, and one day you'll come to realize how _________it is. Make use of it if you want your life to be complete."

Now I'm a writer and every time I sit down to write _________ I think of Mr. Gough. He was more than just an English teacher, because he also taught me useful lessons in life.

   Green is an important color in nature. It is also the color of most growing plants. Sometimes the word green means young, fresh and growing. Sometimes it describes something that is not yet ripe(成熟的) or finished. For example, a greenhorn is someone who has no experience, who is new to a situation. In the fifteenth century, a greenhorn was a young cow or ox whose horns had not yet developed. A century or so later, a greenhorn was a soldier who had not yet had any experience in battle. By the eighteenth century, a greenhorn had the meaning it has today—a person who is new in a job.

Someone who has the ability to grow plants well is said to have a green thumb. The expression comes from the early 1900s. A person with a green thumb seems to have a magic touch that makes plants grow quickly and well. You might say that the woman next door has a green thumb if her garden continues to grow long after your plants have died.

The Green Revolution is the name given some years ago to the development of new kinds of rice and other grains. The new plants produced much larger crops. The Green Revolution was the result of hard work by agricultural scientists who had green thumbs.

Green is also the color used to describe the powerful emotion, jealousy(嫉妒). The green-eyed monster is not a frightening creature from outer space. It describes the unpleasant feeling a person has when someone has something he wants. A young man may suffer from the green-eyed monster if his girlfriend begins going out with someone else. Or, that green-eyed monster may affect your friend if you get a pay raise and she does not.

   Animals, including insects, do not have a language like ours. They do not talk to each other in words and sentences. But if we watch them, we can see that they do have ways of communicating with each other.

Can you see the rabbit's tail which is moving up and down? When rabbits see this white tail moving up and down, they run too. They know that there is danger. The rabbit has told them something without making a sound. It has done this by using its body language.

Many other animals use this kind of language. When a cobra is angry, it raises its hood and makes itself look fierce. This warns other animals. When a bee has found some food, it goes back to its home. It cannot tell the other bees where the food is by speaking to them, but it does a little dance in the air. This tells the bees where the food is.

Some animals say things by making sounds.  A dog barks, for example, when a stranger comes near. A cat purrs when pleased. Some birds make several different sounds, each with its own meaning. Sometimes we human beings speak in the same way. We make sounds like “Oh” or “Ah!” when we are frightened or pleased or when we drop something on our toes.

But we have something that no animals have—a large number of words that have the meanings of things, actions, feelings or ideas. We are able to give each other all kinds of different information in words and sentences, which no other animals can do. No other animals  have so wonderful a language as we have.

Body language is used by people for sending messages to one another. It is very useful because it can help you make yourself easily understood. When you are talking with others, you are not just using words, but also using body languages. 【小题1】 A smile and handshake show welcome, and clapping hands means congratulations. These are accepted both by Chinese and foreigners as having the same meanings.

【小题2】 For example, men in Russia, France and Arab countries kiss each other when they meet, but men in China or Australia shake hands instead of kissing. People in Puerto Rico like touching each other, but people from English speaking countries do not touch each other. 【小题3】In some Asian countries, you must not touch the head of another person. People in Arab countries like standing close to one another when they are talking. 【小题4】 In Arab countries, you eat with the fingers of your right hand; the left hand is not used at all. In parts of Asia you must not sit with your feet pointing at another person.

When you use a foreign language, it is very important to know the meanings of body languages in the foreign country. Following this will help you live and work better with foreign people.