I now have under my belt four languages—— in order from the most fluent to the least

I now have under my belt four languages—— in order from the most fluent to the least fluent: French, Chinese, Spanish and Portuguese. I can also communicate at a basic- level Italian.

    My love of languages starts from childhood, when I began imitating other people’s accents. Although my ability to learn languages fast might be partially genetic(遗传）as my mother is a speech therapist (治疗师) and has a great ear for sounds and accents, I strongly believe my abilities today come more from my personal efforts and interests.

My eagerness for learning foreign languages started when I was 12 years old in junior high school. We were given the choice of French and Spanish. I picked French. On a class trip to Quebec City, I noticed that I was totally crazy about trying my newly-learned French with the local people while my classmates were less interested. This led me to studying French in my junior years of high school, and later, I also studied Chinese in college.

While I’ve never lived in a Spanish-speaking country, I’ve reached a level of fluency in Spanish by watching a ton of Spanish TV series. The Portuguese comes from my own personal efforts while travelling in Brazil.

Below I’ll list the benefits of learning new languages and my personal tips on how to learn new languages:

Children’s development: It’s reported that learning foreign languages improves children’s critical thinking skills. Kids studying foreign languages do better in other subjects including mathematics and science.

Finding a job: If an employer needs to fill a position, he / she will be much more likely to pick the person who knows a second language. Foreign language speakers have more advantages to bridge the link between a company and its customers.

Making new friends: I have met so many friends and nice people around the world, with whom I would not be able to communicate if I couldn’t speak foreign languages.

Travel: When visiting other countries, the ability to speak the local language not only makes the trip more convenient, but also much more enriching.

41. The underlined phrase “under my belt” in the first paragraph means “            ”.

A. hidden something in my pocket         

B. swallowed something in my stomach

C. mastered something well              

D. carried something with my belt

42. What contributes most to the writer’s ability in learning foreign languages?

A. Having personal interest and efforts.     

B. Traveling a lot abroad.  

C. Watching a lot of TV.                 

D. Being a speech therapist’s son.

43. The writer most probably lived_______________.

A. in France    B. in Spain    C. in Brazil    D. in Canada

44. Which of the following benefits of learning a foreign language is NOT mentioned?

A. Learning about different cultures.       

B. Making travel easy.

C. Making friends.                     

D. Finding jobs.

45. What will be most probably talked about in the following paragraphs?

A. The importance of foreign languages.    

B. Examples of learning new languages.

C. The development of language learning    

D. Tips on how to learn new languages.

CADAD