When I was 16 years old, I made my first visit to the United States. It wasn’t the first time I had been abroad. Like most English children I learned French _________ school and I had often been to France, so _________ speaking a foreign language to people who didn’t understand _________. But when I went to America I was really looking forward to _________ a nice easy holiday without any _________ problems.

_________ wrong I was! The misunderstanding (误解) began at the airport. I was looking for a public telephone to give my American friend Danny a _________ and tell her that I had arrived. A friendly old man saw me looking lost and asked _________ he could help me. “Yes,” I said, “I want to give my friend a ring” “Well, that’s _________.” he exclaimed (惊叫), “Are you getting married? But aren’t you a bit __________?” “Who is talking about marriage (婚姻)?” I replied. “I __________ want to give my friend a ring to tell her I’ve arrived. Can you tell me __________ there’s a phone box, please?” “Oh!” he said, “there’s a phone downstairs.”

When at last we did meet up, Danny explained the misunderstandings to me. “Don’t worry,” she said to me. “I had so many __________ at first. There are lots of words which the Americans use differently in meaning from us British. You’ll soon get used to __________ funny things they say. Most of the __________ British and American people understand each other!”

When I was 16 years old, I made my first visit to the United States. It was not the fist time I had been_______. Like most English children, I learn French_______school and I had been to France, so I was used to speaking a foreign language to people who did not understand English. But when I went to American I was looking forward to_______ a nice easy holiday without any_______ problems.

How wrong I was! The understanding began at the airport. I was looking for a_______ telephone to give my American friend Danny a_______ and tell her that I had arrived. A friendly old man saw me looking lost and asked _______ he could help me.

“Yes,” I said. “I want to give my friend a ring.”

“Well, that is nice.” he exclaimed. “Are you getting_______? But aren’t you a bit_______?”

“Who is talking about marriage?” I replied. “I________ want to give my friend a ring to tell her I’ve arrived. Can you tell me________ there’s a phone box?”

“Oh,” he said, “there’s a phone downstairs.”

When at last we________ meet up, Danny explained the misunderstandings to me. “Don’t worry,” she said to me, “I had so ________ difficulties at first. There are lots of words which the Americans________ differently in meaning from us Britain. You’ll soon get used ________ all the funny things they say. Most of the time British and American people understand each other.

The benefits of a bilingual brain

Hablas espafiol?Parlez-yous francais? 你会说中文吗?If you answered, “sí,” “oui,” or “会” and you’re watching this in English, _________ are you belong to the world’s bilingual and multilingual majority. And besides having an easier time traveling or watching movies without subtitles, knowing two or more languages means that your brain may actually look and work _________ than those of your monolingual friends.

So what does it really mean to know a language? Language ability is typically measured in two active parts, speaking and writing, and two   _________ parts, listening and reading. While a(n) _________ bilingual has near equal abilities across the board in two languages, most bilingual around the world know and use their languages in varying proportions. And   _________ their situation and how they acquired each language, they can be _________ into three general types. For example, let’s take Gabriella, whose family immigrates to the US from Peru when she’s two-years old. As a compound bilingual, Gabriella develops two linguistic codes simultaneously (同时地), with a single set of concepts, learning both English and Spanish as she begins to   _________ the world around her. Her teenage brother, on the other hand, might be a coordinate bilingual, working with two sets of concepts, learning English in school, while _________ to speak Spanish at home and with friends. Finally, Gabriella’s parents are likely to be subordinate (次要的) bilinguals who learn a secondary language by filtering it through their mother_________.

Because all types of bilingual people can become fully proficient in a language __________ accent or pronunciation, the difference may not be apparent to a casual observer. But recent   __________·in brain imaging technology have given neurolinguists a glimpse into how specific aspects of language learning affect the bilingual brain. It’s well known that the brain’s left hemisphere is more dominant and analytical in __________ processes. while the right hemisphere is more active in emotional and social ones, though this is a matter of degree, not an absolute split. The fact that language involves both types of functions while lateralization (脑部的偏侧性) develops gradually with age，has led to the critical period hypothesis. According to this theory, children learn languages more easily, because the plasticity of their developing brains lets them use both hemispheres in language acquisition, while in most adults, language is lateralized to one hemisphere, usually the left.

But regardless of when you acquire additional languages, being multilingual gives your brain some__________ advantages. Some of these are even visible, such as higher density of the grey matter that contains most of your brain’s neurons and synapses, and more activity in certain regions when engaging a second language. The heightened __________ a bilingual brain receives throughout its life can also help delay the onset of diseases, like Alzheimer’s and dementia by as much as five years.

So, while bilingualism may not   __________ make you smarter, it does make your brain more healthy, complex and actively engaged, and even if you didn’t have the good fortune of learning a second language as a child, it’s never too late to do yourself a favor and make the linguistic leap from, “Hello,” to, “Hola,” “Bonjour” or “你好’s” because when it comes to our brains a little exercise can go a long way.