A Letter from Mars
Dear Earthmen,
I have enjoyed my stay on your interesting planet.
I think I understand the life on the earth now and I would like to give my impressions(印象).
First of all, you live in boxes. Every morning you leave your big boxes and get into smaller boxes on wheels(轮子). All these small boxes run around and around, and finally stop to rest. You leave these boxes on wheels and go to very large tall boxes.
After resting all day, you get back in your little boxes and return to your big boxes. There you sit and look at every small glowing(闪闪发光的) boxes with moving pictures on the front.
There is only one thing I don’t understand. I went to a football game one day. A group of angry boys fought a little round ball. Everyone shouted but they kept fighting. They were angry, because they had been kept in boxes all day. I think.
Thank you earthmen for this chance to get to know you.
Yours,
The man from Mars
根据短文内容，完成下列表格中的句子。每空一词。
The description(描述) in the letter | Means |
| Your interesting planet | The |
| Big | Houses for people to live in |
| Smaller boxes on | Buses and cars |
| Very small glowing boxes with | TV sets |
| A group of angry boys fought a little round ball | A football |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Brooks White was born on July 11, 1899. He was the youngest child in his family. He had three sisters and two brothers. White’s brother, Stanley, taught him how to read before he even started going to school.
All the White children learned music. After dinner, the White children played music together. They also did their homework. Their parents had been too poor to stay in school. But they wanted their children to get a good education.
The Whites lived in Mount Vernon, New York. Today, Mount Vernon is a city. But when Brooks White lived there, it was a rural, or country, town. Wild animals lived in rural areas. Brooks loved animals. He always had a dog and lots of other pets. He kept birds, bunnies, lizards, snakes, and mice as pets.
Brooks loved to watch nature. He watched birds hatch from their eggs. He watched the sun rise in the sky. One day, Brooks’ father brought home some chicken eggs. The eggs soon hatched. Brooks was excited to see the first chick come out of its shell.
Brooks loved nature, but nature was not always good for him. He became allergic(过敏) to grass and flowers when he was six years old. His father thought it might help to live somewhere else. So the family went to Maine for the summers.
1. How many children were there in the White’s family?2. What did the White children do after dinner?
3. What did Brooks White see in Mount Vernon, New York?
4. How did Brooks feel when he saw the first chick come out of its shell?
5. What did Brooks White think of his childhood in Mount Vernon? Give your reasons.
Who lives farthest from the school?
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Jim Smith is a part of Green Primary School, in New York, USA. For 15 years, he has cleaned the halls of the school. Although he is deaf—he can’t hear, he never complains (抱怨). Instead, he says hello to every child and teacher with a smile. And he even teaches them sign language (手语) sometimes.
Teachers and children love him and call him Mr. Jim at school.
On the day Jim turned 60, the school gave him a very special surprise.
That day, when Jim walked into a classroom, a group of children started to sing “Happy birthday” in sign language. He got excited when he realized what was going on. A few teachers guided the kids through the whole song as Jim watched. A big smile was on his face. “He had his hands over his face. He felt so touched that tears (眼泪) came out from his eyes,” Bonnie Scott, a teacher of the school, said. The children were happy, too. They gave him high fives (举手击掌) in the halls.
The school shared the birthday video online and it was seen hundreds of times in a day. Anna Miller, one organizer of the surprise said, “Jim is fantastic and is always saying how much I put a smile on his face, but today he just surely put smiles on faces all around the world.”
1. Is Jim a teacher or a cleaner in Green Primary School?2. How old was Jim when the school gave him the special surprise?
3. What did the children do for Jim?
4. Why did tears come out from Jim’s eyes?
5. What do you think of Jim?
【推荐1】请阅读下面短文，根据短文内容，在方框内的缩写文章中，填入与短文意思最符合的单词，并将答案写在答题卡相应的位置上。每空一词。
If wearing Google Glass—a pair of smart glasses—on your face isn’t cool enough, you might want to take a look at Nokia’s new skirt. It’s made of 80 mobile phones! It’s believed to be the world’s first smart skirt and has been shown at London Fashion Week. The smart skirt was created by the mobile phone company, Nokia. It’s not easy to make a smart skirt. It took three months to complete it. The biggest challenge in making the skirt was getting all of the mobile phones on the skirt, and allowing all the mobile phones to work together.
The screens are all connected to a computer. As the skirt moves, the screens change color and the skirt looks like silk. That’s not the only trick. The mobile phones are also connected to a hidden camera in the wearer’s hat. The screens can show what the wearer is seeing.
Unsurprisingly, the skirt won’t be making its way to shops. Instead, it’s more of an art piece. Nokia said they wanted to find a way to connect the smart technology and fashion together. “We used drawings, 3D printing, and programming languages to ‘build’ the skirt,” explained Nokia.
Nokia created a smart skirt which is made of 80 mobile phones. It was shown at London Fashion Week as the world’s first The skirt looks like Nokia doesn’t want to sell the smart skirt. |
A small cloud moves slowly through the air in a operating room (手术室). In the room a patient with cancer, lies on a table. The cloud is all around the patient, covering her body and filling her lungs (肺). The cloud is not smoke. It is made of millions of nano-robots (纳米机器人). These tiny robots move from cell (细胞) to cell in the patient’s body, killing the cancer.
Fighting cancer with nano-robots is only an idea today, but scientists say that it could be possible in the future. Using nano-robots for good purposes such as fighting the illness or repairing the environment may be the way to many of today’s problems.
However, nano-robots could be a dangerous risk as well. Because nano-robots are so tiny, they will have to work in large teams of many thousands to many millions. For this reason, nano-robots will have to be programmed to build themselves. Scientists will not have the ability to build millions of nano-robots one by one.
This ability to re-produce is making some scientists worried. What will happen if something goes wrong in the programming? Quite a lot of crazy nano-robots would be far worse than any illness. Some people think that if they get out of control, nano-robots could make the earth gone.
What should be done? Should we continue researching nano-robots or should we search for other methods? This is one of the many difficult decisions that we have to make in the future.
1、2题完成句子；3题简略回答问题；4题找出并写下第三段的主题句；5题将文中画线句子译成汉语。
1.
2. Scientists say
3. What ability of nano-robots worries the scientists?
4.
5.
Many space-lovers dream of traveling into space, but it costs too much to make that dream come true. Luckily, here is a chance for people who love exploring space. An unusual new reality TV show called Space Hero is in the works.
Space Hero must be popular and attractive because it will be the world’s first reality show in space. It will send a lucky winner to the International Space Station ISS who can stay there for ten days. According to the show creators (创建者), a seat for the winner has already been booked with the NASA on spaceship.
How will the show work? The plan of the show is to first pick a group of space-lovers from around the world. The show is open to anyone who is older than 18. “We’re opening space to everyone, not only to astronauts and rich people”, one of the creators said. Twelve men and twelve women will be picked. And then the contestants (参赛者)will be taken to a “Space Village” to take part in hard space training for the final trip.
In the end, the people who watch the show can choose their favorite person to be sent to space. When the winner has been picked, the show will follow that lucky person’s journey and film during the whole time. The creators of Space Hero hope the show will encourage(鼓励)interest in space travel.
1. What is the world’s first reality show in space?2. How long can the lucky winner stay in ISS?
3. Is everyone open to the reality show?
4. Who will decide on the winner of the show finally?
5. Why do the creators of Space Hero make the reality show?
【推荐1】根据短文内容回答问题。 
Mobile Homes
What is a mobile home? A mobile home is a new kind of house that can move easily, such as a room that trucks can pull. Often, driving along, you can see some mobile homes high on the hill.
Some stand under trees along a river or a lake. They’re wonderful homes. Sometimes they’re about 40 feet long, with two to five rooms, and you can find many things you need in them. When you park your mobile home and connect water, electricity power and telephones, you can enjoy yourselves in it.
These homes can be moved. However, sometimes their owners stay for years in one place, plant gardens, build walls and so on. Mobile homes are quite expensive. They usually cost 20,000 dollars. Why does a family choose to live in such a home? Well, it’s comfortable, easy to keep warm and there is no need to paint. What’s more, the fast increase (增长) of mobile homes in numbers has something to do with the job uncertainty (不确定性). Nobody knows what will happen tomorrow. If a factory closes down, you will be very worried about the house you can’t sell. However, if you have a mobile home, you can move easily.
The greatest selling attraction (吸引) of these mobile homes is that they can be improved every year. If you are doing well, you may change a new mobile room just as you do with a car. There is a ready market for used ones, so the price of mobile homes is higher than that of cars.
Of course, there are some disadvantages (缺点) of mobile homes. The biggest one is that they will be cheaper and cheaper. If you have used your mobile home for many years, it will be very difficult to sell. Do you want to buy one mobile home?
1. What is a mobile home?2. When can you enjoy yourselves in a mobile home?
3. How much do mobile homes cost?
4. Do you want to live in a mobile home? Why or why not?
【推荐2】A young man was on a train. As the train turned a corner, it slowed down and then a small house came into sight. The house looked different from the big grey buildings of the city, so everybody on the train turned to look at it. Some passengers began to talk about it.
The young man was also interested in the house. He decided to get off at the next station and make his way to the house. The owner of the house told him that he was trying to sell the house, but no one would buy it. The young man decided to buy the house right then and there for $30,000. He used it for advertising (做广告), as the house faced the railway bend (弯道). The train had to slow down at the bend, giving the passengers plenty of time to look at the house.
The young man went to several big companies and explained the advantages (优点) of placing advertisements on the side of the house. Finally, one company agreed. The young man was paid $180,000 for three years of advertising.
In this world, turning disadvantages into advantages is the key to success.
1. Why did everybody on the train look at the small house? (不超过15个词)2. What did the owner want to do with the house? (不超过10个词)
3. What can we learn from this passage? (不超过10个词)
M: Hello. Rent-A-Home. My name's John. How can I help you?
W: Hi. I'd like some information about the flat in Park Street, please.
M: Of course. What would you like to know?
W: Er, firstly, is there any furniture?
M: Yes, there are some chairs. a sofa, beds-it's fully furnished. But, er, there isn't a TV.
W: Oh, that's OK. And the bedrooms -are they big?
M: Er, well, one bedroom's very big, but the other is, er, quite small. It's OK for a child.
W: That's OK. The flat's for me and my husband. We haven't got any children.
M: Right.
W: And the bathroom. Has it got a shower?
M: Yes, there is a shower and a bath. It's very nice.
W: OK. Now what else …Oh yes, what's in the kitchen?
M: There's a cooker, a fridge and a washing machine. And I think there are some chairs and a table.
W: Right. And are there any shops near the flat?
M: Yes, there are some shops only 5 minutes away. And it's near the station.
W: That's very good for £700 a month.
M: Actually, it's er, E800 a month.
W: But your advert says 700
M: I'm sorry, that's a mistake, it's 800. But it is a beautiful flat. Would you like to see it?
W: Er, yes…OK.
M: Great! What about this afternoon at 3?
1. What job does John probably do?
2. How many bedrooms are there in the flat?
3. How much is the rent for a month?
4. What will the woman probably do at 3 this afternoon？
5. Is the flat in a convenient neighbourhood？Why or why not？
Dear Mary,
Thank you for your last letter. I’m happy to know that you will spend your holiday in Hawaii（夏威夷）this summer. You said you wanted to know something about Hawaii.
Hawaii is always a magic（有魔力的）name to people who like traveling because of the scenery（景色）. People from allover the world dream of seeing the beautiful islands. It’s always one of their dreams to watch the sun going down. At weekends, my family and I often watch the sunset（ 日落 ）at the seaside. It’s really exciting.
Hawaii is a fun place to go. Long long ago, the first people went to Hawaii in a small boat. They found the place quite beautiful. But it was difficult for travelers to go to Hawaii at that time . And there were no big hotels like the ones today. Now things have changed. Lots of nice big hotels have been built in recent（最近的）years. However, the nice scenery in Hawaii hasn’t changed much. In the morning, many visitors often take a walk along the water in. At night, they get together to hold parties, chatting and dancing.
Now, you see Hawaii is really a good place to visit. I’m looking forward to seeing you soon.
Yours
Kate
1. When will Mary spend her holiday in Hawaii?2. Why is Hawaii a magic name to people who like travelling?
3. What do Kate and her family often do at the seaside at weekends?
4. How did the first people go to Hawaii long ago?
5. Who often gets together to hold parties, chatting and dancing at night?
【推荐2】Are you a bit bored with your daily life? Have a look at some exciting holidays to see what kind of trip you’d like.
◆Polar expeditions (极地探险)
Take a ship to the North or South Pole (极点), see a land of white natural beauty and wonderful wildlife. The experts will explain everything about the two poles. There’s no greater experience than traveling to the ends of the earth.
◆Cultural journeys
The cultural journeys will help you discover ancient culture: India, Thailand and Egypt. Just remember to bring your camera! Get to know local ways of life by going to markets, trying local foods and meeting local people.
◆Trekking (徒步) tours
We have trekking holidays to famous places such as Machu Picchu or the Qomolangma Base camp, as well as the Highlands of Scotland. If you’re quite healthy, you’ll have a great time enjoying nature with a group of new friends.
◆Wildlife holidays
We organize small-group tours to get closer to nature in Africa or Asia. Go on safari (游猎) in Africa and watch lions and giraffes. Look for tigers in India, or take an elephant safari in Sri Lanka. The most special part is this: you won’t sleep in hotels, but in tents or tree houses!
Title: | |
| Polar expeditions | You can go to the North or South Pole There’s no greater experience than traveling to the ends of the earth. |
Our cultural journeys will help you discover ancient culture. Get to know local ways of life by going to markets, trying local foods and meeting local people. | |
| Trekking tours | We have trekking holidays to famous places. |
| Wildlife holidays | We organize small-group tours to get closer to nature in Africa or Asia. |
My dear friends,
I’m writing to invite you to my new house in the country. You know, my family and I moved into our country house one month ago. The kids are planning to give a party at our new house. I hope all of you can come. The party will begin at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday. There will be lots of food and drinks.
Together with this letter is a map to our house. After you get off the train, take the road in front of the station. Follow it and you’ll see a chicken farm. Don’t make any turns. Keep going and you’ll see a bridge. Cross the bridge and there will be a big tree on your left. Walk past the tree, take the first right turn, and then walk for five more minutes. You’ll see several houses. My house is at the end of the road, next to the river.
Angelica
1. Who wrote this letter?2. Why did she invite her friends?
3. When will the party begin?
4. Where does she live, at P1, P2 or P3?
