One night, I wondered what it would be like if I only asked questions. I decided that no matter what anyone said to me the next day, I would reply only with   36 .
I loved to read about scientists and their discoveries, and I knew that scientists always started their research with a question. I hoped that I could become a scientist. Maybe by asking questions, I could train my mind to be   37 .
I survived the morning easily. “Is there any egg?” I answered when my mother asked what I wanted for breakfast. “Is this seat taken?” I asked when my friend Mike asked where he was going to   38  on the bus.
In the classroom, Mr. Black spoke slowly and clearly while I listened carefully. The problem had been part of my homework the night before. I wrote the answer on the board, “Could the answer be 361?”
Mr. Black smiled and nodded. I thought,“How did I   39  to get through that?” I almost laughed because asking questions really was starting to become a   40 .
I thought I had made it safely through the whole day,   41  what I had come to consider my experiment blew up at the dinner table when my dad asked me about my day. “What do I always do?” I replied.
My parents looked at each other. My father   42  again. “Well, I hope you went to school,” he said.
“Uhhh … why would you think otherwise?” I asked. My parents exchanged another   43   
and were becoming annoyed.
“Do you think questions are a good way to train your mind to be active?” I asked.
“It   44  the question,” said my father. “Some questions are asked for   45  information. Those are good mind-training questions. Sometimes, people use questions to get the other person to say something. Sometimes people ask questions to get someone to agree with them. Those questions don’t really achieve anything.”
“I guess my experiment didn’t work,” I said, and I told my father about my   46 .
“I think it worked   47 !” my father said. “You made a discovery, didn’t you? What matters is that you have put your idea into practice.”                              

One of the things to be learnt in a foreign language is guessing all the time what kind of thing to come when listening to someone talking. People do this all the time in their own language, so it is necessary to do this in a foreign language, too. Here are some examples.
1.” What’s the matter?” “I went to a party last night, so I…”
2.”I feel so tired these days.” “I think you’d better…”
3.”Of course, she never stops talking. She is one of the most…”
You can see from the above three examples that the context helps a lot in understanding what is being talked about. So “guessing” is very important in understanding English, especially spoken English.
【小题1】This passage tells us mainly about ________.