English problem~~~?

(1)"practice makes perfect" means you are possible to learn language or develop a skill if you Tom practise enough.eg:-
The defending world swimming chanpion recorded the fastest time in an Olympic final Phelp's practice today.
People often say this to encourage someone to keep practising something.Try to improve your language skill by practise vt. regularly.(in order to become sklful.)
---practise ; spelled practice in American English.----When people practise something such as a custom, craft, TW witchcraft, indigenous religion, language, they take part in the activities associated with it.

(2)My grades weren't in the top 5% needed to win a (lot of) scholarship.
scholarship=If you get a scholarship to a university, your studies are paid for by the university or by other organizations.Scholarship has been serious academic study and the knowledge that is obtained from it is serious.You want to take advantage of your lifetime of scholarship 4 years !?

1. When she wanted to get something right, she would practise and practise and practise.
(p.1202 "Collins Cobuild English Dictionary for Advanced Learners"該動詞無受詞時，也是正確用法)
Improve your language skills by practising. = Improve your language skills by practice.
You refer to something that people do regularly as a practice.
Practice means doing something regularly in order to be able to do it better.
Practice makes perfect.
所以無論用名詞或動名詞都合文法，語義也正確。只是使用動名詞會讓該句子更生動，因為字面上就強調行為（doing）。

2. ... my grades weren't in the top percentage needed to win a lot of scholarship.= 我的成績不在同班同學的前面位置，所以得不到太多的獎學金（通常名校給全額獎學金時的標準會有申請人需名列同班同學前百分之五的要求，這也是為何有些學校的成績單會註明該生是否在前百分之五，這裡所說的the top percentage應是指這個百分比）。

Q.1 improve your language skills by practice = improve your language skills by practising?

by practice ≠ by practising
最大的差別在於其後的寫法不同，尤其是by practising 不能獨立存在，practising 是動名詞，形式上是名詞，但具有動詞的作用，必須要有受詞，也就是practising 的對象，例如，practising basketball
1.) improve your language skills by practice (rather studying books of grammar).
improve your language skills by practice of listening and speaking English in real-life situations.

2.) improve your language skills by practising English in everyday situations

Q.2 My middle-class family wasn’t able to qualify for need-based programs, and my grades weren’t in the top percentage needed to win a lot of scholarships.
我的中等家境不符合清貧補助資格，我的成績也非頂尖到能爭取高額的獎學金

[補充]
有人舉 cambridge dictinoary 的例子反駁。事實上，語言太廣，你絕對可以找出一個例子反駁我。但是我要說的是，在 cambridge dictinoary中的解釋，除了當 "執業"解釋外。我看不到一個例子沒有受詞。(注意:省略受詞，不表示沒有受詞，而是不須囉嗦重複。
例如 Get into the habit of tuning your guitar every day before you practise (it).

也許有人要說 practise on a flight simulator 不是受詞，不管你想說 on a flight simulator 文法標簽是什麼，請問如果你省去 on a flight simulator，語意還完整嗎? 此外，practise on a flight simulator 難到不是 practise (flying) on a flight simulator

及物不及物，如此 self-serving 的文法詞彙，卻可用來箝制人們聰明的腦袋言論的表達。
How long have you been practising as a dentist?
這個 practising 是 practising dentistry 的意思，但既然有as a dentist，dentistry 就不需重複了。
如果你說 How long have you been practising? ，在沒有前後文的情況下，請問是 practising law 還是practising medicine?

[牢騷]
未改版之前，文法問題我都略過懶得理會，因為我沒興趣，也不想浪費時間在這些無意義的爭論上。改版後，除了文法問題，也少有像樣的問題。如果我剛好有10 分鐘空閒，我就批判。你不需認同我的論點，我從來就不是什麼大師，批判就是我學習成長的方式。你該問的是，你的論點，是否站的住腳。
台灣的文法論述，還不夠荒謬? 舉個例子
discovery of America 為什麼不能翻成 "美洲的發現"，而要翻成 "發現美洲" (discovering America)，由前往後翻還是由後往前翻是問題所在嗎? 還是台灣教育習慣用曲解的公式化法則，誤導學生。