The Chinese have used a method called acupuncture to help perform operations for about 4,000 years without putting the patient to sleep. This involves inserting（插入）flexible needles （针）into certain parts of the body. The needles used are available in a number of stores in China and everyone may buy them.
To learn how to use needle takes about one month of training. But to be skillful requires greater time. The person who performs the acupuncture knows how to insert the needles so the needles themselves are not painful. This person also knows where to place the needles so the patient feels no pain in the area where the operation is to be performed. The needles are not necessarily inserted near the place where the pain is to be prevented. In the past, a particular operation might require 25 or more needles placed in various parts of the body. But now this operation requires only 3 or 4 needles.
Today the Chinese doctors are trying to learn more about acupuncture. They are trying to develop a convincing theory to explain how the needles work in preventing pain, or, why a needle in the wrist（手腕）, for example, would prevent the pain in the area of the mouth.
A patient who needs an operation is given a choice between having acupuncture or having one of the chemicals used for putting him to sleep. It has been estimated that over half of the patients choose acupuncture because there is no sickness after the operation whereas（然而，反之） the chemical may make the patient sick for a few hours or a day.
1．Acupuncture is a kind of _______.
A. medical needles B. medical equipment
C. medical technique D. medical examination
2. To perform the acupuncture skillfully, one _______.
A. has to learn how to insert the needles accurately in the right place
B. should insert the needles where the pain is to be prevented
C. needs to be trained for a short period of time
D. must use fewer needles than in the past
3. According to the 3rd paragraph, we can infer _______.
A. people must insert a needle in the wrist to prevent the pain in the mouth
B. people come to realize the shortcomings of the acupuncture
C. people are convinced to use the acupuncture to cure diseases
D. people need to make deeper research into the acupuncture
4.Nowadays, more and more people prefer having acupuncture because _______.
A. acupuncture has no side effects after the operation
B. acupuncture costs them less than having chemicals
C. chemicals usually cause many more deaths
D. they want to protect the traditional Chinese medicine
5. The author of the passage tends to be ________ acupuncture.
A. strongly against B. in favor of C. doubtful about D. uninterested in
