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.

Imagine a perfect day: the weather is good and everything seems fine. When, suddenly, your cell phone loses its signal, the television has no programs, and you can't get online with your computer.

What has happened? These are just the types of problems a solar storm (太陽風(fēng)暴) might  cause. You may not think of storms as putting our society in danger.  But today, a solar storm is as serious as other bad events, such as earthquakes.

A solar storm is caused by solar flares (太陽耀斑): large explosions near the sun that can give off lots of energy. The strong energy can stop the satellite systems (衛(wèi)星系統(tǒng)) that operate our computers, telecom networks and so on. These storms can even cause the power to go out for weeks or months.

In the past few months, scientists have recorded some of the strongest sun flares in years. The most recent one happened around Valentine's Day, 2011. It caused radio and satellite signals to go down in some northern cities in China.

"Solar flare activity is going to be much worse than what we've seen in the past. We' re not talking about a few cities losing power. It could be half the country, maybe more," SolarStormWarning. com, a US website about space weather, warned.

Experts say that little can be done to predict (預(yù)測) such a storm. Governments around the world are trying to work together before the next storm, although they are not sure when that may happen.

46. Solar storms can cause many problems EXCEPT that_______.

A. TVs cannot be turned on           B. mobile phones have no signals

C. people cannot get online              D. the satellite system will be stopped

47. According to the article, what are solar flares?

A. Natural disasters like earthquakes.         B. Strong solar storms.

C. Large explosions near the sun.       D. A lot of energy around the sun.

 48. The writer wrote the article mainly to_______.

A. introduce to people what solar storms are

B. tell people how to solve the problems caused by solar storms

C. call for scientists to predict when the next storm will happen

D. ask people to work to prevent the solar storms from happening

Now a lot of families keep pets in their houses. Most pets are small animals, such as cats, dogs, fish, snakes, birds and so on.

Dogs are the favorite pets（寵物）. The second favorites are cats and the third favorites are birds. These small animals are very cute and friendly. People usually have them as their family members. They look after them very well, they let them wear beautiful clothes and their pets have nice names. They also afford their pets nice food to have. They buy food for their pets in pet shops. They keep them clean every day.

Pets are all very happy. Many pets have their houses and beds. They often go out to relax and take a walk with people in the park in the morning.

　 Some children like pets because they need a friend to play with at home. Many old people don’t live with their children, and they keep pets at home just because they often feel lonely（孤獨(dú)的）. They have them as their children and they love them very much. So pets are very important. I think every family needs pets.

（　　 ）46. Most people like to keep ________ animals at home.

A. small　　　　 B. white　　　　 C. big　　　　 D. black

（　　 ）47. People give their pets _______ and _________.

A. nice names, nice books　　　　　 　　　　B. pet shops, nice books

C. nice names, nice food　　　　 　　　　　　D. pet shops, nice food

（　　 ）48. Pets often _______ with people in the morning.

A. take a shower　 B. play soccer　 C. take a walk　 D. listen to music

（　　 ）49. Why are the pets happy?

A. Many of them have their houses and beds. B. They are children’s friends. 　

C. They often go out to relax and take a walk. D. Both A and C.

（　　 ）50. The writer thinks __________.

A. pets are dirty　　　　　　　　　　 　　　B. people don’t need pets at home

C. people don’t like animals　　　　　 　　　D. pets are very important

Homesick is a compound(復(fù)合的) word made up of HOME and SICK. You know what each   46   means on its own, of course. But do you know the meaning    47   they are used together? The definition(定義) of homesick is SICK FOR HOME. It means you miss your home.
Now think for a minute   48 SEASICK. If you change the word HOME in the definition to the word SEA, would the definition   49 SEASICK? Does seasick mean SICK FOR SEA? It means something quite   50 . Seasick means SICK BY THE MOVEMENT ON THE SEA. When you are    51   ,the only place you want to be is at home. When you are seasick,    52   you want to be is at sea.
Have you ever   53   a person being heartsick? Heartsick doesn’t mean that something is wrong with a person’s heart. People are heartsick when they are    54  deep inside as if their hearts are broken.
And we also have other compound words, such as handshake and    55  . Perhaps you may write definitions for them. It must be helpful to know some thing like this in your English study.