Young Heroes for the Planet

Nowadays, people around the world are working to help our planet. Check out how the four young adults made a difference.

Saving Pandas When Jack was 11, he started a group to teach kids about pandas. He also sold toy pandas to raise money to protect pandas in danger. “I hope to encourage more people to care about pandas,” Jack says.	Growing Right Kathy, 14, set up an organization to educate people growing right plants in right places. She also wrote a book to help people learn what plants are native(本土的) to their area.
Creating Energy At the age of 12, Linda invented a machine called SuperE. It collects heat from fields to make electricity(电), Linda says her invention creates electricity in a way that is less harmful to the environment.	Cleaning Up Patrick, 13, joined the Ocean Heroes Camp last year. He started a project and picked up plastic waste around nearby lakes with his friends. The goal of the project was to fight plastic.

1. Among the four adults, who didn’t work in a group to help our planet?

A．Jack.

B．Kathy.

C．Linda.

D．Patrick.

2. Which of the following is not mentioned in the table above?

A．New energy.

B．Plastic pollution.

C．Animal and plant.

D．Waste recycling.

3. Which of the following is not true according to the information in the table?

A．Jack hope to ask more people to join them.

B．Kathy wrote a book to help people grow plants.

C．Linda collects heat from fields to make electricity.

D．Patrick started the project to fight plastic pollution.

Group Activities for Your Teens (青少年) Keeping your children and their friends engaged (忙的) may not be easy. So, if you are planning a party or any other event, we have some group activities for teens that will interest them and teach them something new. 1. _______ If you are looking for a group activity for teens who don’t know each other that well, this one will fit the bill. ●Get teens to write down a few things about themselves. ●Read out the list and have the teens guess the writer. 2. Do a Dare      Teens sit in a circle. Spin (使快速旋转) a bottle and whoever the top of the bottle points at has to do something silly or funny as directed by the others. Task suggestions: ●Wear your socks on your hands for the next three rounds. ●Act like your favorite teacher for the next 30 seconds. 3. Chair Racing You do need space for this activity. Chair racing is fun as well as challenging. Divide the group into two teams. Now ask one member of the team to sit on a chair while the others carry it to the finish line!

4. Who is the passage written for?

A．Leaders.

B．Parents.

C．Teachers.

D．Students.

5. What is the most suitable for “_______”?

A．Who Am I?

B．Let’s Read

C．Be a Writer!

D．How Are You?

6. What may not be a good task for the second activity?

A．Dance like a chicken in the street.

B．Tell a story that you’ve read recently.

C．Eat a pear without using your hands.

D．Run around the room like a monkey.

7. Which of the following may be a picture of the third activity?

A．

B．

C．

D．

In the 1960s, a musical group composed a popular song titled Monday, Monday: “Every other day of the week is fine, yeah. But whenever Monday comes, you can find me crying all of the time.” When talking about days of the week, Monday gets little expectation. I surveyed friends, and the results were very clear. When asked which day of the week they like the least, 90 percent of my friends chose Monday. Not one person thought of Monday as his or her favorite day. But in fact, I think that Monday is actually the best day of the week.

First of all, consider all the good things that happen on Mondays. If you are a sports fan, you may get to watch Monday Night Football in the fall. Furthermore, quite a few public holidays, are celebrated on Mondays. That means that several times a year, a Monday provides a three-day weekend. And according to websites, Monday is the best day to do shopping because there aren’t as many people shopping on the first day of the workweek. Experts say that you can also get the best online deals on Mondays. This is especially true for electronics, such as computers, TVs, and video games.

To me, however, there’s something even more important about Mondays. Each Monday stands for a new beginning. For example, last week I got behind on my homework and had to spend the weekend catching up. But as soon as Monday arrived, I had a clean slate. Another week I forgot to do some of my chores, so I had to give up going to a movie with my friends on the weekend.

I also love Mondays because we usually start new lessons at school at the beginning of the week. While last week’s topics may have been boring, Monday can bring a new book to read, more experiments to do, or math problems to work out. Besides, I always become full of energy on Mondays after getting enough sleep at weekends.

I realize that I am probably not going to make everyone believe that Monday is the best day of the week, but hopefully I can encourage a few people to change. The next time a Monday comes, think about all the good things that could happen and look forward to the day instead of fearing it.

There’s no way to avoid Mondays, so join me in making the best of them. Who knows? You might even start liking the first day of the workweek.

8. Why did the song Monday, Monday become popular?

A．They enjoyed to be warmed up by the song.

B．The song encouraged them to like Mondays.

C．The song expressed how they disliked Mondays.

D．The song always made them cry all of the time.

9. What does the phrase “a clean slate” in Paragraph 3 mean?

A．a good rest

B．a sudden stop

C．a new lesson

D．a fresh start

10. What is the writer’s opinion?

A．It’s better to be energetic on Mondays.

B．Students behave best on Mondays at school.

C．A three-day holiday should be offered every week.

D．We should try our best to encourage most people.

11. What is the main idea of the passage?

A．To discover Mondays’ secrets	B．To make the best of Mondays
C．To turn Mondays into holidays	D．To improve yourself on Mondays

We can’t remember clearly since when we started to take our mobiles to a dinner table. This happens a lot, especially when we eat out. Once a dish comes, instead of lifting our chopsticks, we take out our mobiles and click. Later, we post the photos onto Weibo or WeChat, waiting to be “liked”. Then we check our mobiles from time to time during the meal, to see whether we get “liked” or not. We just cannot leave our mobiles for only a meal.

Does that sound familiar to you? Do you do that often? If not, how do you feel when others do that when having dinner with you?

A recent study suggests that what we are used to doing is not so good. Spending time taking photos of food makes the food less pleasant. To test this, some researchers did an experiment. Some people were asked to take photos before they could enjoy food. As a result, it showed that the more photos they took, the less delicious the food seemed to them. So, why not stop taking photos and just enjoy the food in front of you?

Besides the scientific result, there are also some other bad influences of taking photos of food before meals. After posting the photos onto the Internet, one will not be able to control himself and check his mobile many times. “Does everyone like my photos? I hope a lot of people like them!”

It seems that your mobile secretly calls your name all the time, even when you are with real people.

So, next time you go out to have dinner with your family or friends, how about not taking photos of food? Let the food be delicious as it is and share your life with people around you. Trust me, it will be a wonderful time.

12. From the passage, what happens a lot at the dinner table nowadays?

A．People talk about their Weibo or WeChat.

B．People learn from each other how to cook dishes.

C．People like taking photos with friends or families.

D．People take photos of food and post them before eating.

13. What does the fourth paragraph talk about?

A．The reasons for checking your mobiles.

B．The ways of posting the photos onto the Internet.

C．The tips (提示) of making others like your photos on the Weibo.

D．Some other bad influences of taking photos of food before meals.

14. Which of the following is the writer’s opinion?

A．We take out our mobiles and click when a dish comes.

B．We check our mobiles from time to time during the meal.

C．Spending time taking photos of food makes the food less pleasant.

D．Some people were asked to take photos before they could enjoy food.

15. What can we learn from the passage?

A．Take photos of food in order to have a wonderful life.

B．Take photos of delicious food and share them with others.

C．Remember to have dinner with our family and friends at home.

D．Enjoy the life with people around us instead of taking photos of food.

16. The guidebook is very h___________ to us.

17. When the teacher came into the classroom, the students became s_________ at once.

18. You should a________ driving after drink. It’s so dangerous.

19. U_________ you’ve tried it, you can’t imagine how pleasant the journey to Harbin is.

20. Food ________ (安全) is a hot topic nowadays.

21. Today is my grandmother’s __________ (80) birthday.

22. Before taking medicine, you’d better read the ____________ (说明书) first.

23. It’s a(n) _________ (遗憾) that you missed the opening ceremony of the Hangzhou Asian Games.

Living in different ages and nations, Tao Yuanming and Henry David Thoreau (梭罗) were poets. Besides, both of them showed their great love for nature that made them famous of their time.

Tired of the court life, Tao decided to return to nature instead of     24     (serve) as an official. Life was not easy, but Tao could find pleasure from nature. Different from Tao, Thoreau lived in the forest just because he wished to live     25     (simple). It was their choices that led them to create so many popular poems. In their works, Tao wrote about his peaceful life while Thoreau stressed to describe the     26     (nature) scenery in wild areas.

    27     refusing the easy and rich life is difficult, both of them did it and lived quietly. Even in the modern world, their ideas may lead us to achieve dreams and     28     (happy).

From Mike@123. com Subjects: New year resolutions Dear Li Hua, I’m glad that you write     29     (share) your memories of 2023. You know my family made some resolutions for 2023, and they helped us build a healthy and happy life. Now I’d like to share our memories of 2023. My mum learned that     30     (keep) indoor plants can make people feel more relaxed, so she decided to keep some plants at home and cared for them every day. Now not only do the plants grow well, but also the whole family feel good with them in the house. My dad decided to eat more     31     (healthy) and learn to cook from my mum. He can now cook several yummy dishes. Besides, he has kept a balanced diet and lost some weight. Just look at the photo. How fit he is now! Learning a new skill was my sister’s goal for 2023. She took up boxing. She also made some new friends with the same interest. As     32     me, I have kept a diary for a whole year. I recorded what I was     33     (thank) for every day during the year. You know what? I am not afraid of writing now! And I don’t get angry easily as I used to. Just a few minutes a day can make all the difference! It’s a new year again. We are going to make new year resolutions. What about you? Have you made one? Write to me! Yours, Mike

阅读短文，根据短文内容从方框中选择适当的词填空 (每空一词，其中两项多余)。

by; but; and; difficulties; carefully; made; went; crying; fighting

Once upon a time, there was a wise old man who had seven sons. But his sons were always fighting. It     34     some bad people happy because they wanted to cheat the brothers out of their father’s money.

One day, the father decided to help his sons stop     35    , so he brought them together. He tied seven chopsticks together, and said, “I will give all of my money to the one who can break this bundle (捆).”

The seven sons each tried to break the chopsticks, but it was too hard. They agreed that it was impossible.

“Oh, my sons,” said the father, “it’s actually easy to do.”

He untied (解开) the chopsticks and broke them one     36     one easily.

“Aha!” said his sons. “It’s easy to do that way. Anyone can do it.”

The father     37     on, “As it is with these chopsticks, so it is with you, my sons. If you stick together and help each other, you will do well, and nobody can harm you. But if you fight, you will be like these chopsticks, broken     38     weak.”

The seven sons listened     39     and promised to stick together. They kept their promise and faced     40     in life together, just as their wise father had taught them.

阅读下面的短文，按要求完成后面各题。

________ Chinese is one of the six official working languages of the United Nations(UN). Chinese Language Day has been celebrated since 2010. The UN holds colorful activities on this day. This helps spread Chinese. In a school, you may hear a student saying, “I’m quite interested in Chinese,” but you are not in China. You are in a foreign country. Like the student, many foreigners are learning Chinese. But it’s not easy. People have to memorize about 6, 000 Chinese characters before they can do basic (基础的) reading and writing. So, for foreigners, it's hard to memorize them. However, Chinese is more popular around the world today. The long history and colorful culture of China attract (吸引) many foreigners to learn Chinese. With the rapid development, China is staying ahead in many fields and is playing its role in the world. Chinese is becoming a global (全球的) language and its popularity has risen around the world. Many countries set up Chinese courses in their schools. For example, in the UK, schools encourage their students to study Chinese. The increase in popularity of Chinese has been surprising. Just like the foreigners do, we also learn foreign languages. Different languages carry different cultures. So exchanges are necessary. By learning a foreign language, we can have a useful tool of communication. More importantly, it will help us experience a new culture.

41. How does the UN celebrate Chinese Language Day? (no more than 5 words)
_______________________
42. Why is it difficult for foreigners to learn Chinese? (no more than 18 words)
_______________________
43. Which country encourages students to study Chinese according to the passage? (no more than 3 words)
_______________________
44. 将划线部分句子译成汉语。
_______________________
45. 给短文拟一个适当的英文标题。
_______________________

46. 初中三年即将过去，回顾这段时光，你是否有许多难忘的回忆，也有很多感慨？假定你是李华，你校英文报向初三学生征集稿件，题为“写给自己的一封信”，请你结合下表内容写一份稿件投稿。

注意：
1. 文中必须包含两项内容要点，可适当发挥；
2. 文中不得出现真实姓名、学校等信息；
3. 词数：80~100；稿件的开头与结尾已给出，不计入总词数。

A Letter to Myself

Dear myself,

How time flies! It’s time to say goodbye to your junior high school life.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Wish you all the best, my dear self.

Yours,

Li Hua