Frank was a curious boy. The first time he saw an hourglass(沙漏),he wondered what it was.
His mother said,”An hourglass is made in the s      of 8. The sand is put in at one end,and runs through a small hole in the m . It takes the sand exactly an hour to run through.”
Frank w the little stream of sand. He was i   ,because it would not run faster. ‘Let me shake it,mother,” said he,”it is lazy,and will never get through.”
“It will,Son,” said his mother, “The sand moves little by little,but it moves all the time. When you look at the hands of the clock, you think they go very s    , but they never stop. While you are at play,the sand is   r    , grain by grain. The hands of the clock are moving,second by second. At night,the sand in the hourglass has run through twelve times. The hour hand of the clock has moved a its great face. That is because they keep working every minute. They do not stop to t   how much they have to do and how long it will take them to do it.”
Now, Frank’s mother wanted him to learn a little poem,but he said,‘Mother,I can never learn i    ,” His mother said,”Study all the time.N    stop to ask how long it will take to learn it.”
Frank followed his mother’s advice. He studied line after line,very busily; and in one and a half hours he knew the poem perfectly.