In the first year of lower secondary, I had some difficulties in learning English. My English pronunciation was really bad and my English grammar was worse. I did not know 1 how to improve them. I didn't want my father 2 or mother to know about this. One afternoon after the lesson, my teacher told me to wait for her outside the classroom. She took me to the school library and showed me tapes of pronunciation drills kept in a glass bookcase. She also told me how to use an English-English dictionary to improve my English grammar. "Now I think you know what you should do," she said. I made much progress and only one year later, I won the first prize in the English Speaking Contest held for secondary 3 school students in my hometown. 

• first prize: Giải nhất (phù hợp với ngữ cảnh giành chiến thắng trong cuộc thi)
• held: Được tổ chức (dùng để diễn tả một sự kiện được tổ chức)