My father was talented in language learning. My family traveled around ________ I was a child, and my father could talk to everyone we met. I wish that someday I would speak as many languages as my ________ could.

When I was 11, I made ________ progress in French and almost gave it up. After I went into college,I read many books of ________ writers in translation. I loved them so much that I went to read them in their mother language. So I began to learn German. After I mastered（掌握）German, I found myself falling in love with language. Since then, I have ________ learning new languages. In my twenties, I could speak French, Latin and Greek.

Others often asked me what my ________ was. The answer was long hours of studying. Before I got married, I spent 16 hours everyday studying languages. I used to ________ outdoors while listening to a record and repeating it out loud.

Now,I can read about 40 languages and speak most of them very well. Asian languages are the most difficult to master. It ________ me almost two years to master Korean. I live in Singapore now. At home, I speak French with my sons. If my Korean wife is there, we’ll use English. When we don’t want the kids to ________ our communication, we use Korean.

I won’t stop learning languages. It ________ brings lots of fun.

People usually communicate by speaking or writing. However, people in some jobs depend on gestures for _________.

Railway workers on the ground have to communicate with engineers on the trains. To do this, they use _________. To tell the train to “go”, for example, a railway worker _________the flag above his head and moves it up and down.

Soldiers in war often cannot hear each other, so they use gestures to send _________ to each other. When a leader wants other soldiers to follow him, he _________ towards them, and then he uses his arm to point in the direction they should go. Soldiers from different countries use _________ gestures to communicate with each other when they do not speak the same language.

Gestures are used in music as well. For example, when a classical concert takes place, musicians _________ the directions of the conductor（指挥）. The conductor will lead the musicians through his _________. These gestures tell the musicians when to play, and when to stop. They also tell when the music should be loud or soft, and fast or slow. Of course, the musicians must understand the _________ of these gestures to play well together.

Many other jobs use gestures, but you may not notice them. Next time you are out on the street, please __________. You might be surprised by how many gestures you see in use.

Some English expressions have something to do with clothes. Have you noticed them? Let's have a look!

People wear pants to cover their bodies. When somebody is ___________, we can say “he has ants (蚂蚁) in his pants”. In every family, one person always takes control. Sometimes a wife (妻子) tells her husband (丈夫) what to do. Then we say “she wears the ___________ in the family”. Pants usually have pockets to ___________ things. If one spends his money ___________, we may say “he burns a hole in his pocket”. Please don't do like this!

If a person ___________ his money and does not spend too much, he will be __________ in the future. If a person sticks to his dream and he may be ___________ at last. We should “take our hats off” to them.

Mr. Brad is an important person. He has a big company. He wears a suit and tie, and a shirt with sleeves (袖子) which cover his arms. ___________ that makes him look cool and strict, we know he shows his ___________   openly to everyone. Then we can say “he wears his heart on his sleeve”. We know for certain it's easy to get along well with this kind of person.

Can you find some other similar English ___________? Use your head and you can find them by yourself.