44. A. prohibited B. welcomed C. ignored D. repeated

45. A. Lastly B. Thus C. Instead D. However

46. A. required B. caused C. allowed D. expected

47. A. easy B. popular C. quick D. new

五、语法填空（共10小题；每小题1.5分，满分15分）

　　According to a research in 2008, about 40 million people were studying Chinese as ___48___ second language around the world. And nowadays, the estimated number is over 100 million.

　　___49__ you are one of them or not, you might agree that Chinese, as a foreign language, is indeed difficult for ___50____(learn). But what makes it so difficult?

　　Chinese people talk so fast!

　　As a beginner learning Chinese, ___51__ might seem to you that Chinese people talk so fast. By the time you translated one word, they could have ___52___ (say) 10 more!

　　I can never remember all the Chinese characters...

　　There are apparently over 80,000 Chinese characters, and 3500 of them are ___53___ (common) used in standard Chinese. It won't be ___54___ (possibility) to recognize all the Chinese characters!

　　Tonal language? What is that?

　　Modern Chinese is a tonal language ____55__has four tones (level, rising, rising and falling, falling). Words mean differently based on not only ___56___ (pronounce) but also tones. The meaning of a word or a sentence can ___57___ (change) entirely by changing the tone.