最新高中年级英语阅读材料(2)

　　高中年级英语阅读材料(三)

　　Speaking her mind

　　PAN Fangdi, a Senior 2 student at Shenzhen Middle School, took first place at the sixth "21st Century Scholastic Cup" National High School English Speaking Competition.

　　It was held on December 8 in Beijing. Fifty students from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macao spoke on the subject: "What the Olympics mean to me."

　　Pan impressed the judges with her fluent English and critical (批判的) thinking. But she was completely surprised when the host announced her as the winner. "The general level of the competition is high and all the other participants were competitive. I didn't expect the prize," she said.

　　Pan said her secret method for learning English is to watch American dramas. It is not only fun, but also helps to expand (扩大) vocabulary. She admitted that she's not good at remembering English words, but if it appears again and again in a show, she will remember it naturally.

　　Chen Qiongma, a Senior 3 student from the Diocean Girls School in Hong Kong, was first runner-up. The judges spoke highly of her tones, pitches (音高) and pace. "She set a very good example of how fast you should speak at a speaking competition. You must be well paced. Going too fast will get you nowhere," said one of the judges, Professor Mao Sihui from the Macao Polytechnic Institute, when he was commenting on common student errors in the competition.

　　Chen has been learning English since kindergarten and advises reading lots of books to learn English well. "I love reading English literature. I also like to watch Disney cartoons," she said.

　　But reading books isn't enough. Chen Lin, retired professor from Beijing Foreign Studies University and an advisor (顾问) to China Daily for 27 years, said that reading English newspapers is also important. "Reading classics helps you to learn good English, while reading newspapers helps you to learn new English," he said in a speech after the competition.