This year is the Year of the Cock. Just like other Chinese zodiacs(生肖), the cock means a lot. Do you want to know more about it? Read on.
★Cock in Chinese culture
In ancient times, there were no clocks. The cock told people it was time to get up and start to work. So hard-working ancient Chinese people were big fans of the cock.
Traditionally, people thought the cock was a bird that could avoid evil (邪恶的) things. The story says once cocks make their morning calls, all the evil things at night will leave.
The cock is popular with people for its courage. In ancient China, a lot of people liked to watch cockfighting(斗鸡) because the game was exciting.
The pronunciation of “cock” in Putonghua is the same as that of “chance” and “good luck”.
★ What it means to be a cock
Those who are born in the Year of the Cock are said to be active. “They like to be the center of attention and always look beautiful,” the China Highlight website noted.
★ Big events in the Year of the Cock
☆On January 20, Donald Trump became the 45th president of the United States.
☆ In the first half of 2017, China launched (发射) its first cargo spacecraft(货运飞船) Tianzhou-1, to dock(对接) with Tiangong-2.
☆On July 1, 1997, Hong Kong returned to China. 2017 marks the 20th year of its return.
☆ At the end of 2017, China will launch its fifth lunar probe (月球探测器), Chang’e-5.
1. The cock could ________ people in ancient times.| A．wake up | B．lift up | C．fight with | D．talk with |
| A．two | B．three | C．four | D．five |
| A．shy | B．quiet | C．brave | D．active |
| A．Tiangong-2 was launched | B．China will launch Chang’e-5 |
| C．Hong Kong returned to China | D．Trump became the new president of the UK |
| A．The Culture of the Cock | B．Big Events in the Year of the Cock |
| C．Talk about Cocks in the Year of the Cock | D．Different Zodiacs, Different People |
2 . Although “no” is a very little word, it is not always easy to say it, and not doing so often causes trouble.
When we are asked to stay away from school, and waste time and be naughty（淘气的）when we should be studying, we should say “no” at once.
When we are tempted（试图） to use angry words or swear（诅咒） when nobody is around us, we should say “no”.
When we have done something wrong, and are tempted to cover it with lies, we should say, “No, I cannot tell a lie. It is wrong.”
If we are asked to do things that are not helpful to us, we should think about what is right for us at that time.
Learn to say “no” to requests that don’t meet your needs. And once you do that, you’ll find how easy it actually is. You’ll get more time for yourself, your study and things that are the most important to you.
Saying “no” in these situations can be difficult at first. If you are not sure how to say “no”, you can find some simple ways to say “no” a polite manner.
1. When we are tempted to use angry words or swear when __________, should say “no”.| A．nobody is around us | B．somebody is around us |
| C．everybody isn’t around us | D．everybody is around us |
| A．保护 | B．掩盖 | C．把……放在……上 | D．覆盖 |
| A．yourself | B．your study | C．important things | D．your friends |
| A．To say “no” is easy although it is a very little word |
| B．To say “no” in some situations can be difficult at first. |
| C．To say “no” is often good for us when we don’t want to be in trouble |
| D．To say “no” is a good way when we do something wrong and try to cover it with lies |
| A．How to Say “No” | B．When to Say “No” | C．Where to Say “No” | D．Who to Say “No” to |
3 . Manners are very important for our daily life. There are many different customs and habits among different countries. We must find out and follow their customs. Here are examples of the things that a person with good education should do.
If you visit a family in China, you should knock at the door first. When the door opens, you will not move before the host says “Come in, please.” After you enter the room, you should not sit down until the host asks you to take a seat. When a cup of tea is sent to your hand, you should say “thank you” and receive it with two hands. Before entering a house in Japan, it is good manners to take off your shoes. In England, a visitor always finishes the food to show that he has enjoyed it. The host will be pleased with that.
You have to give your present in public in the Middle East. But it’s good manners to give your present in private(非公开地) in Asia
“Come any time” means “I want you to visit me” in India. If you don’t suggest a time at once, the Indians will think you are refusing the invitation. But if an Englishman says “Come any time”, they will think you are impolite if you start fixing a date.
1. If you visit a(n) __________ family, you should knock at the door first.| A．Japanese | B．British | C．Indian | D．Chinese |
| A．with two hands | B．with one hand |
| C．without your two hands | D．without your one hand |
| A．Asia | B．the Middle East | C．England | D．Japan |
| A．Three | B．Four. | C．Six | D．Seven. |
| A．presents | B．manners | C．invitations | D．education |
There are lots of things to do online. You must use the Internet safely. This passage will show you how to be safe. You need a password（密码）to use some websites. A password is a secret word. A password should be easy for you to remember. It should be hard for others to guess.
(A)Teachers or parents can help you make passwords which should have both letters and numbers. That makes them hard to guess. Do not share your passwords. Keep your passwords secret! It is not safe to share your passwords.
A friend might ask to share passwords. Do not share your passwords with friends. (B)They may promise to keep them secret. They might not keep that promise. Some people steal others’ passwords. They can do this if a password is easy to guess. This could cause you trouble if it happens. Strangers can log in（登陆）with your password. They can pretend（假装）they are you. They can see private facts about you. They can use those facts to hurt you. (C)Tell someone right away if your password is stolen. Tell a parent or teacher. He will know what to do. You will need to make a new password. A trusted adult can help you do this. Do not share our new password. You can be safe and have fun online.
1. 把(A)处画线句子翻译成汉语。2. 把(C)处画线句子翻译成汉语。
3. 写出(B)处画线单词指代的内容。
4. 在文中找出描 password(s)的两个形容词。
5. 用词或短语写出作者想要表达的主题。
5 . Healthy eating doesn’t just mean what you eat, but how you eat. Here is some advice on healthy eating.
◆ Eat with others. It can help you to see others’ healthy eating habits. If you usually eat with your parents, you will find that the food you eat is more delicious.
◆ Listen to your body. Ask yourself if you are really hungry. Have a glass of water to see if you are thirsty-sometimes you are just thirsty, you need no food. Stop eating before you feel full.
◆ Eat breakfast. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. After you don’t eat for the past ten hours, your body needs food to get you going. You will be smarter after eating breakfast.
◆ Eat healthy snacks like fruit, yogurt or cheese. We all need snacks sometimes. In fact, it’s a good idea to eat two healthy snacks between your three meals. This doesn’t mean that you can eat a bag of chips instead of a meal.
◆ Don’t eat dinner late. With our busy life, we always put off eating supper until the last minute. Try to eat supper at least 3 hours before you go to bed. This will give your body a chance to digest more of the food before you rest for the next 8-10 hours.
1. The writer gives us ________ pieces of advice on healthy eating.
| A．five | B．six | C．seven | D．eight |
| A．Have some chips. | B．Have some fruit. |
| C．Have a glass of yogurt. | D．Have a glass of water. |
| A．Dinner | B．Breakfast | C．Lunch | D．Supper |
| A．存储 | B．循环 | C．消化 | D．享用 |
| A．how to eat | B．what to cook |
| C．why to eat | D．when to cook |
6 . California is one of the richest states in America. It has a large amount of land. And it also has more people than any other states. It has plenty of natural resources (资源), too. But everything (A) _______ not perfect there. California has two major problems: earthquakes and forest fires.
The San Andreas Fault runs through California. (B) As a result of it, the state gets many earthquakes. (C)其中一些地震非常强烈For example, there was a strong earthquake in San Francisco in 1906. It destroyed many buildings. And it started a large number of fires. (D) More than 3,000 people died after it. There have also been many other strong earthquakes. Some people fear that the “big (E) one” will hit someday. They think an earthquake will cause a huge amount of damage (破坏).
During summer and autumn, much of California is dry. So forest fires, or wildfires, often start. Those fires can spread (F) rapidly. They burn many forest. But they can also burn people’s homes and buildings. They often kill people.(G) _______ firefighters can put them out.
1. 在文中(A)和(G)的空白处填入合适的单词:2. 写出文中划线部分(B)和(F)的同义词语或近义词语:
3. 将文中划线部分(C)译成英语:
4. 将文中划线部分(D)改写为:
5. 文中划线部分(E)指代的是:
7 . Children with no shoes on do better at school than those with shoes on, a study suggests.
For over 10 years, researchers from universities observed (观察) children in 100 schools from 25 countries. They found that classrooms were quieter when children took off their shoes. It provided a quieter environment where pupils were more willing to focus on study than those with shoes on.
“Children are much more willing to sit on the floor and relax if they have no shoes on,” said professor Stephen Heppel, a lead researcher.
“The last place a child would sit to read is an upright chair. And we’ve found that 95% of them really don’t read on a chair at home,” Heppel added. “When they go on holidays, they read lying down.” Professor Heppel hopes to bring the “shoeless policy” to all U.K. schools. He says relaxing conditions at school make children feel as if they’re at home. He believes all the teachers will be glad to adopt the habit.
1. The best title to describe the main idea of the passage is “__________”.| A．Suggestions on shoeless children. |
| B．Suggestions on children with shoes on. |
| C．Shoeless children do better at school. |
| D．Shoeless children looks cool at school. |
2. According to the passage, we know that the study was made by __________.
| A．some university students | B．children from 25 countries |
| C．teachers in 1000 schools | D．researchers from university |
| A．A | B．B | C．C | D．D |
| A．quiet activities | B．relaxing conditions |
| C．some upright chairs | D．a safe environment |
| A．accept | B．refuse | C．change | D．throw |
After getting some information about dinosaurs from the encyclopedia (百科全书), Mary got interested in these animals. She surfed the Internet and found a lot more about dinosaurs. Here’s what she wrote in her notebook.
General information
Millions of years ago, long before there were any people, there were dinosaurs. They existed (存在) on earth for about 165 million years and suddenly died out (灭绝) 65 million years ago.
Fun facts
Size
◆The largest dinosaurs were more than 30 meters long and up to 15 meters tall.
◆The smallest dinosaurs were about the size of a chicken and had very long tails. They ate insects (昆虫).
Egg
◆Most dinosaurs were hatched (孵化) from eggs.
◆The biggest dinosaur egg ever found was the size of a football.
◆There were egg-eating dinosaurs that stole eggs from other dinosaurs’ nests (巢穴).
Brain
◆A lot of dinosaurs have big heads, but they didn’t have much brain inside. Most of the space was taken up with muscle (肌肉) and bones instead.
Tail
◆Dinosaurs that used their tails to beat their enemies had four feet and ate plants.
◆Dinosaurs that used their tails for balance (平衡) had two feet and two small arms, and they were often meat-eaters.
Discovery
◆From looking at bones, scientists can figure out (弄清楚) the shape of the dinosaur’s body.
◆There were more than 800 different kinds of dinosaurs.
Conclusion
We can only know about the lives of dinosaurs from the fossil (化石), eggs and footprints they left behind. But we still don’t know how they sounded, how they behaved, what colors they were and so on.
Oh, my God! Dinosaurs are the most mysterious animals in the world!
Mary’s notebook | |
| General information | Dinosaurs lived on earth for about 165 million years and suddenly |
| Fun facts | Size: The smallest dinosaurs were as Eggs: Some dinosaurs stole and ate other dinosaurs’ eggs. Brain: The dinosaur’s big Tail: Some tails were used to beat their enemies and some to |
| Discovery | Scientists can figure out the shape of the dinosaur’s body from looking at the bones. |
| Conclusion | There are still many things we don't know about dinosaurs. |
When you think about inventions that have changed human’s lives, what comes to mind? The car, the compass(指南针), or the computer? We hardly think about those more common things. But without them, our life will be much worse, for example, eyeglasses. Imagine a world without glasses, many of us would walk into things. So who invented glasses, and how were they first made?
The truth is that nobody knows who invented eyeglasses. What we do know is that the earliest lenses (镜片) were made from quartz (石英). As soon as people worked out how to make glass without bubbles (气泡), they started making lenses out of glass.
Glasses spread quickly all over Europe and Asia. But early glasses were squeezed(夹)onto the bridge of the nose. It was painful for the wearers. So there was still one big problem: how to keep them on the wearer’s face. It took nearly 400 years for people to come up with the way we wear glasses today.
We should be thankful to Benjamin Franklin, who invented bifocals (双焦点眼镜) in the 1780s. He liked to read or watch sceneries (景色) far away while traveling. But he hated to change glasses all the time. Then Franklin cut his glasses in half and put them together with his distance(远距离的) glasses. Now they are still popular.
1. Which invention is more common, the compass or the glasses?______________________________________________________________
2. What were the earliest lenses made from?
______________________________________________________________
3. Where were glasses popular after they were invented?
______________________________________________________________
4. How long did it take people to think of the way we wear glasses today?
______________________________________________________________
5. When were the bifocals invented?
______________________________________________________________
In recent years, mobile phones and e-readers have become more common. Some people worry that the days of paper books will be gone. So we did a survey about paper books. Here is what we have got.
In the UK, sales of e-books are dropping while sales of paper books are rising. More surprisingly, it’s young people who are buying the most paper books. Another survey of university students from the United States, Japan and Germany also showed that 92 percent of them preferred paper books.
The most popular reason was: “I like to hold the product.” It’s true that paper books bring a very different reading experience. Some students said that they liked the smell of paper books. Other students said that they got a sense of accomplishment(成就感) when they finished reading a paper book and they enjoyed seeing it on the bookshelf.
Paper books can also be very personal objects to readers. Many people like to sign their names on the inside cover. If the cover gets bent (弯曲的) or there’s a stain(污点) made from coffee or food, it will make the book even more personal. It’s more like the readers’ old friends.
This “friendship” between people and books isn’t just sentimental (情感的). Studies have shown that readers remember more information from paper books. People also more easily have sore eyes while reading e-books.
It seems that paper books still have an attraction (吸引力). So why not pick up a book and start reading?
A survey about | |
| Facts | ☆The ☆Most young people like paper books better. |
| Reasons | ☆Readers were brought a different ☆Readers think paper books are ☆Readers can remember more information and they are better for |
| Conclusion | Paper books still have an attraction. |
