Speech is one of the most important (29) ______ of communicating. It consists of far more than just making noises. To talk and also to be understood by (30) ______ people, we have to speak a language. That is, we have to use combinations of sounds that everyone agrees to stand for a particular object or idea. Communication would be impossible it everyone made up their own language.
Learning a language properly is very (31) ______. The basic vocabulary of English is not very large, and only about 2,000 words are needed to speak it quite well. (32) ______ the more idea you can express, the more precise you can be about their exact meaning. Words are the main thing (33) ______ we use in communicating what we want to say. The way we say the words is also very important. Our tone of voice can express many emotions and show whether we are pleased or angry, for instance.

Some doctors think that you should drink a glass of water each morning. You should drink this water first thing, before doing anything else. The temperature of the water should be similar to body temperature; neither too hot nor too cold.
Why should you drink this water? Water helps your body in many ways. It helps clean out your kidneys. It prepares your stomach for digestion. Water can also help your intestines work better. After drinking water, the intestines can more easily take out nutrients from our food. Water also helps us go to the bathroom more easily.
Scientists suggest that people take in 1,600 milliliters of water each day. But don’t drink all of that water in one sitting. If you do, your kidneys will have to work much harder to eliminate it. It’s better to drink some in the morning and some in the afternoon. Some people think it’s better to drink between meals and not during meals. They think water dilutes the juices produced in our stomachs. This can interfere with normal digestion.
Are you drinking enough water every day? Check the color of your urine. If it is light yellow, you are probably drinking enough. If your urine is very dark yellow, you probably need to drink more water. A little more water each day could make you much healthier.

Every summer, when the results of university entrance exam come out, many newspaper stories are published about students who are top-scorers across the country. Most portray students as hard-working, studious, smart and, generally, from low-income families. They are often considered heroes or heroines by their families, communes, villages and communities. And they symbolize the efforts made to lift them, and their relatives, out of poverty. The students are often too poor to attend any extra-classes, which make their achievements more illustrious and more newsworthy. While everyone should applaud the students for their admirable efforts, putting too much emphasis on success generates some difficult questions.
If other students look up to them as models, of course it's great. However, in a way, it contributes to society's attitude that getting into university is the only way to succeed. For those who fail, their lives are over. It should be noted that about 1.3 million high school students take part in the annual university entrance exams and only about 300,000 of them pass. What's about the hundreds of thousands who fail? Should we demand more stories about those who fail the exam but succeed in life or about those who quit university education at some level and do something else unconventional?
"I personally think that it's not about you scoring top in an entrance exam or get even into Harvard. It's about what you do for the rest of your life," said Tran Nguyen Le Van, 29. He is the founder of a website, vexere.com, that passengers can use to book bus tickets online and receive tickets via SMS. His business also arranges online tickets via mobile phones and email. Van dropped out of his MBA at the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Arizona in the United States. His story has caught the attention of many newspapers and he believes more coverage should be given to the youngsters who can be role-models in the start-up community. Getting into university, even with honours, is just the beginning. "We applaud them and their efforts and obviously that can give them motivation to do better in life. However, success requires more than just scores," Van said. Van once told a newspaper that his inspiration also came from among the world's most famous drop-outs, such as Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook or Bill Gates who also dropped out of Harvard University.
Alarming statistics about unemployment continues to plague us. As many as 162,000 people with some kind of degree cannot find work, according to Labour Ministry's statistics this month. An emphasis on getting into university does not inspire students who want to try alternative options. At the same time, the Ministry of Education and Training is still pondering on how to reform our exam system, which emphasises theories, but offers little to develop critical thinking or practice. Vu Thi Phuong Anh, former head of the Centre for Education Testing and Quality Assessment at Viet Nam National University in HCM City said the media should also monitor student successes after graduation. She agreed there were many success stories about young people, but added that it was imbalanced if students taking unconventional paths were not also encouraged.
Viet Nam is, more than ever, in desperate need of those who think outside the box. Time for us to recognise talent, no matter where it comes from or how.