When I was 13, my only purpose was to become the star on our football team.

That meant beating out Miller King, who was the best ________________   at our school.

Football season started in September and all summer long I worked out. I carried my football everywhere for_____________. Just before September, Miller was hit by a car and lost his right________________. I went to see him after he came back from hospital. He looked very ________________,   but he didn’t cry. That season, I _________________ all of Miller’s records while he watched the home games from the bench. We went 10-1 and I was named most valuable player,_____________I often had crazy dreams in which I was to blame for (为   负责) Miller’s accident.

One afternoon, I was crossing the field and saw Miller stuck (卡在) going over a fence — which wasn’t ________________ to climb with both arms. I’m sure I was the last person in the world he wanted to________________ help from. But even that challenge he accepted. I helped him move slowly over the fence. When we were finally________________ on the other side, he said to me, “You know, I didn’t tell you this during the season,   but you did_________________Thank you for filling in for me.”

His words freed me from my bad dreams. I thought to myself, how even without an arm he was more of a leader. Damaged but not defeated, he was still ahead of me. I was right to have admired him. From that day on, I grew bigger and a little more real.

A habit is an action that we have acted so often that it becomes something we do almost without thinking. Some of them are not good habits. People spend many hours and dollars each year trying to give up ( 放 弃 ) these bad habits but often fail. Why? Change is hard work and there is no shortcut to get it. However, there is still some advice for you to follow.

First, look at why you do it. In other words, what’s the result of doing this thing? If your bad habit is shouting at people when you are unhappy or under pressure(压力), what do you get from it? It may make you feel a little better for the moment. Or maybe you have a bad habit of leaving your homework undone. The result could be that you get more time to spend on the Internet!

Next, take a look on the other hand. What are you losing because of your habit? Shouting at other people is a bad habit because it makes people around you feel bad and unhappy. Leaving your homework undone is a bad habit because you may be punished by your teacher. Having more Internet time means that you are losing the chance to learn the things you need to learn. When you think that way, you’ll find that it’s not wise to keep your bad habit! Now it is time to make a decision. What will you choose? I’m sure you will choose to do something that is more important.

England is the biggest of the four countries in the United Kingdom. Together with Scotland and Wales, these three countries make up the island of Great Britain. When you include Northern Ireland (the country in the northeastern part of Ireland) we call it the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK). Over 50 million people live in England. That’s around 80 percent of the UK’s total population. It is a multicultural (多元文化的) country where more than 250 languages are spoken in the capital city of London. Outside of the big cities, England is a very green country and has many beautiful rural areas, such as the Lake District in the north and the New Forest, a big area of forest in the southern part of the country.

Music

English people love music. In summer, there are music festivals all over the country. Glastonbury is a five-day festival of music, dance, comedy, theatre and circus (马戏). About 175,000 people go to it each year. People in England listen to all types of music, especially pop and rock. England has produced many international groups and singers like the Beatles, Coldplay, Ed Sheeran and Adele.

Sport

The most popular sports in England are football, rugby (橄榄球) and cricket (板球). Most towns have at least one field where teams can play. English football teams like Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool are world-famous. Cricket is a traditional sport played with a bat (球拍) and ball. It began in England and is now played all over the world.

Food

England is a very multicultural country and this has a big influence on the food people eat. Indian, Chinese and Italian cuisines are popular besides traditional English food like fish and chips, roast beef or sausage and mashed potatoes. Many English people drink several cups of tea each day, usually with milk.

Where did humans come from? An Australian researcher believes that she’s found the answer: river valley in the African country of Botswana (博瓦纳).

Professor Vanessa Hayes from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney said she and her team have traced (追踪) modern humans back to small group of people who lived in this valley, according to the BBC.

“It’s an extremely large area, it would have been very lush (苍翠繁茂的), and it would have actually provided a suitable habitat for modern humans,” she said. She and her team studied mitochondrial (线粒体的) DNA (mtDNA) from people who live in south Africa, such as the Khoisan people. This type of DNA is only passed down from mother to child. This makes it easier to trace one’s ancestry (祖先), according to Business Insider. By tracing mtDNA back through different generations, the team concluded that every person alive today is related to a woman who lived in Botswana.

However, some experts doubt Hayes’ findings, saying that studies like hers are no longer important or necessary. “The idea that we’re looking for a single origin [of modern humans] is out of fashion,” said John Hawks, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, US, in Popular Science.

There are many other locations around the world where humans could have gotten their start. It is likely that mankind appeared in many places at the same time. “I increasingly think that there probably wasn’t a single population in which modern humans evolved (进化). If that is the case, there is no ‘homeland’,” said Ryan Raaum, who researches African population genetics (遗传学) at Lehman College, US.

Nowadays, many people in China and Japan are racing against time. They put a lot of value in “being on time”. However, in some countries of the world, people have different opinions on “being on time”.

Germany

Thanks to its industrial past, in Germany you are expected to arrive at least ten minutes earlier for any planned meeting. In Germany, being on time is risky enough because your hosts will probably already be there waiting, wondering how on earth you could be so stupid. What will you do if anything unexpected happens, like heavy traffic or a sudden rain? So remember to arrive early in Germany.

Saudi Arabia

Some countries care little about time and Saudi Arabia is one of them. It’s because of their long history of desert living where time is not the first thing to think about. It could be that it’s too hot to do anything on time. So don’t expect them to be on time. Moreover, looking at your watch during an event is even considered as bad manners. So don’t get angry with them, either.

Ghana

Most meeting times can be changed, even if an exact time is given. Ghanaians are very easygoing. They think that if everyone is late, then no one is late. After all, what can’t be done today can get done tomorrow. If you find it difficult to deal with, prepare to be unhappy.

Russia

Patience is considered a very important quality in Russian culture but being on time is not. When doing business in Russia, do be on time. Otherwise, it will be considered disrespectful. But Russians won’t hold themselves to the same standard. So, again, patience can be key.

Life has changed quickly since COVID-19 broke out worldwide. Many people find themselves isolated (隔绝的) at home, bored and lonely. But if we look at history, we see many great people produced their best work when they were a    81    .

Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, and James Clerk Maxwell, three of the greatest physicists in history, worked by themselves most of the time. They learned from others not by working with them directly, but   b    82    reading their papers and books.

Here is another example. In 1606, when an epidemic (流行病) hit London, all the t    83     in the city were closed. At that time, English playwrighter William Shakespeare worked a    84     an actor at The King’s Men theater. After finding himself without a steady ( 固 定 ) job, but lots of s    85     time, Shakespeare began w    86    . He wrote King Lear,   Macbeth, and Antony and Cleopatra before the year was over.

Coming back to the present, do you know “the Reader in Fang Cang.”? The picture of   him reading in bed in the newly-built makeshift hospital in Wuhan really t    87     people. “When you feel worried, reading is a way to help you feel r    88     and comfortable. This picture of him reading in bed gives me strength and h    89    ” said one Weibo user.

2020 is a special year. People all around the world have to fight   a    90     Covid-19. This special period helps us think more deeply about ourselves and our environment, which leads to even greater creativity.

91. 八年级即将结束，你将代表本班参加学校的演讲比赛，谈谈自己在过去一年中的变化，请先根据表格内容完成一张流程图（流程图里只需填写短语不用写句子），再写一份 100 字左右的演讲稿，题目自拟。

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92. 八年级即将结束，你将代表本班参加学校的演讲比赛，谈谈自己在过去一年中的变化，请先根据表格内容完成一张流程图（流程图里只需填写短语不用写句子），再写一份 100 字左右的演讲稿，题目自拟。

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