I started learning English at the age of 22 in 1995, which is late to start studying a language.

I joined a_________to study English. I needed to get a 550 TOEFL score to study in the USA. It was a_________task for me as a beginner. At the end of the program, I took the TOEFL and I_________it. I was the only person to get a 550 score from the_________class. After a few weeks I was_________to go to the USA.

There was no one to pick me up at the airport. So I was_________with my 550 TOEFL score to find my way around. It was not that easy and the_________did not help me at all.

I remember asking people very simply and probably_________how to get to my hotel, and in return I would_________nothing. But I understood one____________from one person’s answer —“CORNER” and I was able to go to a corner where there were some free phones to call specific hotels.

So I____________one of the phones and called my hotel. I was trying to explain my____________with my broken English. Finally, I____________to understand that there were direct hotel buses from the airport. It was at that moment that I felt successful in learning English because I was able to____________ .

I have been a learner of the English language ever since and my learning never____________.

When I first entered university my aunt, who is an English professor, gave me a new English dictionary. I was _________ to see that it was an English-English dictionary, also known as a monolingual (只用一种语言的) dictionary. ___________ it was a dictionary intended for non-native learners, none of my classmates had one, _________ to be honest, I found it extremely _________ to use at first. I would look up words in the dictionary and _________ not fully understand the meanings. I was used to the _________ bilingual dictionaries, in which the words are ___________ both in English and Chinese. I really wondered why my aunt gave me such ___________ to make things so difficult for me. Now, after studying English at university for three years, I _________ that monolingual dictionaries are ____________ in learning a foreign language.

As I found out, there is, __________, often no perfect equivalence (对应) between two __________ in two languages. My aunt even goes so far as to __________ that a Chinese “equivalent” can never give you the ____________ meaning of a word in English! __________, she insisted that I read the definition (释义) of a word in a monolingual dictionary when I wanted to get a better __________ of its meaning. __________, I have come to see what she meant.

Using a monolingual dictionary for learners has helped me in another important way. This dictionary uses a(n) ____________ number of words, around 2,000 in its definitions. When I read these definitions, I am ____________ exposed to the basic words and learn how they are used to explain objects and ideas. __________ this, I can express myself more easily in English.

Very few of us become fluent in another language by studying it in high school. I made a(n) ________ to maintain (保持) the little bit of French that I learned in school,   but eventually realized that this was ________. I was well aware that new languages are best learned when young,   and that our abilities________ with age. However, just before my 50th birthday,   I signed up for French classes.

After I was ________ to see which group I belonged to,   I was placed at almost the ________ level. When I looked around at my first Saturday morning class,   I was struck by how many of the students were learning French as a third, fourth, or ________ fifth language.

While I’d always considered myself as a quick ________ that was no longer the case. I absorbed new vocabulary very slowly. What I learned one week seemed to ________ as soon as I learned the next skill. I looked up the same ________ and language structures over and over again.

A couple of________ later,   I can listen to the news in French and catch 90 percent of it on the first try,   read a novel if the language is not too difficult,   and hold up my end of a ________ if it doesn’t go too fast. Who knows what I might still ________?   I’ve learned so much beyond grammar and vocabulary. I’ve met people from around the world who have the ________ to make fools of themselves to learn something new. I have a ________ understanding of how something can look completely different from another perspective. I’ve learned that a language is not just a set of words,   but a way of ________.

But most of all, I’ve learned that it really is never too late to learn something new.