A teacher began his class by holding up a glass with some water in it.  He held it up for all to see, and asked the students, " How much do you think this glass weighs?"

"50 g!" "100 g!" "125 g!" the students answered.

        "I really don't know unless I weigh it," said the teacher, "but my question is what would happen if I held it up like this for a few minutes?"

" Nothing! " the students said.

"OK. What would happen if I held it up like this for an hour?" the teacher asked.

"Your arm would begin to ache," said one of the students.

"You're right.  Now, what would happen if I held it for a day?"

"Your arm could go numb. Have to go to hospital for sure!" said another student. All the students laughed.

"Very good. But during all this, did the weight of the glass change?" asked the teacher.

"No." the students said.

"Then what caused the arm ache and the muscle (肌肉) stress?"

The students fell silent for a moment.

"Put the glass down!" said one of the students.

"Exactly!" said the teacher. "The problems of life are something like this. Hold them for a few minutes in your head, and it seems OK. Think of them for a long time and they begin to make you ache. Hold them even longer and you will not be able to do anything. It's important to think of the  challenges(挑战)  in your life, but it' s even more important to put them down at the end of every day before you go to sleep. That way, you are not stressed. You wake up fresh and strong and can deal with any challenge that comes your way!"

Remember to put the glass down today.

49. Why did the teacher hold up a glass in his class?

     A. Because he wanted to know how much the glass weighs.

     B. Because he wanted to ask some student to weigh the glass.

     C. Because he wanted to make his class more interesting.

     D. Because he wanted to ask his students a lot of questions.

50. In this passage, the underlined words "go numb" means_______.

     A．疼痛不止                  B．消瘦萎缩             C．松弛下垂    D．失去感觉

51. According to the passage, which of the following is TRUE?

     A. The teacher told his students to face the challenges bravely.

     B. The teacher taught his students how to deal with the problems.

     C. The teacher used to begin his class with a glass of water.

     D. The teacher usually begins his class by holding a glass of water.

To learn a foreign language well, you need to spend a lot of time on it. The ___46___ time you spend on the language, the faster you will learn. This does not ___47___ sitting in class looking out of the window, nor listening to other students who do not speak well. This means spending time enjoyably on the ___48___ you are learning.
Listen to the language you are learning on your MP3 player. Read ___49___ you are listening to. Listen to and read things that you like, things that you can mostly ___50___, or even partly understand. One hour of listening or reading is more effective（有效率）than many hours of class time. If you ___51___ listening and reading, you will improve yourself.
Build up your vocabulary lists, which you’ll need lots of. Start to notice words and how they come ___52___ as phrases. Learn these words and phrases ___53___ listening and reading. Read online, using online dictionaries, and make your own vocabulary lists. Do not ___54___ for someone else to show you the language, nor to tell you what to do, and you should discover the language by yourself, like a child growing up. Talk when you feel like it. ___55___ when you feel like. You are learning and improving. The language will become clearer in your mind. Just make sure you spend enough time on the language.

China is a large country of agriculture（农业）.We all know that there are more than 800 million 44  in China. China starts to  45  the science of agriculture much earlier than other countries in the world. While people in Europe and America were trying to shoot wild animals and birds for food, farmers in China were  46  the science of agriculture. For example, Jia Sixie, who lived in the Northern Wei period（386-534 AD）,was one of the farming pioneers. After he finished his work in government, he 47  home and spent his time on research into agriculture. He 48  information, did experiments and learnt from the experience of farmers. He wrote a book called Qi Min Yao Shu. The book 49  has 110000 words is about both farming and gardening. This book is 50  to be an important summary（概要）of the knowledge of farming.