1 . Book Review Template (模板) for Middle School

Summary (概要) Write a summary of the book. 1st paragraph—Write about the setting (when and where the story takes place). Introduce the main character or characters in the story. Discuss what problems the main character faces in the story. You can also answer the questions of what and how. 2nd paragraph—Summarize what happens up until the high point of the story. (Don’t give away the ending. ) Use some of the connecting words below to help you write you review first, second, third, last, also, between, finally, after that, because, next, as a result, later, during, for example.

Opinion 3rd paragraph—Give your opinion on the book. Use these guidelines (准则). Write about why you like or dislike the book. Give details, for example: Is the book fun? Is it too easy to read or too hard? Is it believable? Do you like the ending? What is your favorite part? What connections do you make with your life or other books? Talk about the writer’s style of writing and give examples from the book.

Recommendation (推荐) In this last paragraph—Explain whether you will recommend this book to your classmates or not. Rate (分等级) the book from 1 star to 5 stars, and give reasons why you give it the stars. Examples should include a quote (引述) or quotes from the book or a summary of the part of the book that you like or don’t like.

1. According to the passage, your book review should include ________.

A．two paragraphs

B．three paragraphs

C．four paragraphs

D．five paragraphs

2. The wh-questions can help you write about the ________.

A．summary

B．characters

C．opinion

D．recommendation

3. In the Opinion part, you write about _________.

A．the problems of the characters	B．the ending of the story
C．some quotes from the book	D．your favorite part of the book

4. Which question could best help us find out the writer’s purpose?

A．Did the writer tell us advice on writing books?

B．Did the writer tell us ways about reading books?

C．Did the writer tell us how to write books reviews?

D．Did the writer tell us reasons why people like book reviews?

3 . Think back to when you were in a classroom, maybe a math classroom and the teacher set a difficult problem. Which is your answer?

A: Oh no, this is too hard for me. I’m not even going to try and work it out.

B: Ah, this is quite hard but I like to push myself. Even if I don’t get the answer right, maybe I’ll learn something in the process.

Carol Dweck, the psychologist(心理学家) of Stanford University, gave problems to a group of ten-year-olds. The problems were too hard for them. One group said positively that they loved challenges and understood their abilities could be developed. Professor Dweck said they had a “growth mindset” and focused on what they could achieve in the future. But another group felt that their intelligence (智力) was being judged and they had failed. They had a “fixed mindset” and were unable to imagine improving. To improve their self-esteem (自尊), these students even looked for someone who had done worse than them.

Professor Dweck believes that there is a problem in education at the moment. For years, children have been praised for their intelligence or talent, but it makes them afraid to face failure. They want to please by getting high grades, but they are not really interested in learning. According to Dweck, the solution is to praise the process of children making an effort, using learning strategies and improving. This way they will become interested in getting better and achieve more. She thinks that keeping working hard over time is the key to success.

Psychologists have been testing these theories. They taught students that if they left their comfort zone (区域) and learned something new and difficult, the neurons (神经元) in their brains would form stronger connections, making them more intelligent. In another study, some children who didn’t perform well made great progress after learning growth mindset skills for a year. They came top in tests, beating children from much more better schools. These children had felt before that making an effort was a sign of foolishness, but they came to see it as the key to learning.

So, back to our question in the beginning. If you answered B, well done! You already have a growth mindset. If A, don’t worry, everyone can be excellent with a little effort and self-awareness (自我意识).

1. Who did Carol Dweck give problems to?

A．Twenty-year-olds.

B．Fifteen-year-olds.

C．Ten-year-olds.

D．Five-year-olds.

2. Which of the following is a growth mindset person?

A．He doesn’t want to experience what he doesn’t know.

B．He faces challenges positively to help himself grow.

C．He looks for someone who did worse than him.

D．He focuses on what he has achieved at present.

3. What can we learn from Professor Dweck’s study?

A．A person with a fixed mindset can easily improve himself in his comfort zone.

B．Guiding students to focus on learning process can help them achieve more.

C．Praising children for their intelligence has a positive influence on learning.

D．Intelligence or talent is the key to people’s success.

4. What would the professor agree?

A．Practicing growth mindset skills helps students get improvement.

B．Staying in the comfort zone is a good way to be confident.

C．Keeping working hard makes people afraid to face failure.

D．Testing students can often make them more intelligent.

5. What is the best title for this passage?

A．Differences Between Growth and Fixed Mindset	B．A Scientific Experiment About Intelligence
C．The True Meaning of Success	D．Develop a Growth Mindset

4 . Do you like listening to music? Will all the sounds bring happiness to you? Do you know some sounds are noise? What is noise? Noise is a loud or unwanted sound. It is also a kind of pollution.

Where is noise from? Noise can be caused by many kinds of things, such as transportation, factories, machines and so on. To some people, rock music is also noise.

What will happen to people who live near noisy machines or use them for a period of time? Doctors find that noise can influence their health and behavior. It can cause high blood pressure, hearing loss, sleep problems and other harmful effects.

Scientists use a unit called the decibel (分贝) to measure the loudness of a sound. The sound of a quiet room, for example, measures 35 decibels. The sound of an ordinary talk measures between 40 and 65 decibels. The sound of the traffic and some rock music can measure over 120 decibels. The sound at this high level causes great hearing loss.

How do you reduce the damage? Turn down your music player and wear earplugs (耳塞) when you work in a noisy environment. Earplugs can protect your ears.

1. According to the text, noise is ________.

A．a beautiful sound	B．a soft sound
C．a sound that people can hear	D．a loud or unwanted sound

2. Which of the following is TRUE according to the text?

A．A decibel is also a kind of noise.

B．Noise pollution is good for people’s health.

C．Machines that make loud noise are called decibels.

D．The decibel is a unit that measures the loudness of a sound.

3. According to the text, loud noise can ________.

A．cause hearing loss	B．destroy machines
C．help people to sleep better	D．improve people’s hearing

4. We can infer from the text that ________.

A．noise is a pleasant sound	B．all sounds can hurt people
C．noise pollution is a serious problem	D．noisy rock music doesn’t belong to noise

5 . Famous Places around the World

The best time to visit …

China China is a huge country so it depends on where you go. The best time to visit is autumn. During that time, temperatures are pleasant wherever you are. If you don’t like the heat, don’t come in summer. In Beijing, the average temperature in summer is up to 30 degrees centigrade.

Greece The best time to visit Greece is from April to June. If you like snow, then go to the northwest of the country in winter. It’s great for skiing. If you just want to sit on a beach and see the sunshine every day, then August is the perfect month. But, be careful! Temperatures are really high. In the southeast of Greece, it might be 30-35 degrees centigrade.

Mexico The weather in Mexico is hot, wet and sticky for most of the year, except in Mexico City. February to April is the best time to visit. It can get very stormy at the end of August. From time to time, there are hurricanes and tornadoes (龙卷风).

South Africa South Africa has a pleasant climate, with lovely warm sunny days most of the year. The summer is from November to February, and the weather is really hot at this time. In August, it’s winter and the weather is usually warm, except at night. South Africa has the world’s highest daily hours of sunshine.

1. If you are interested in skiing, you can visit ________.

A．China

B．Mexico

C．Greece

D．South Africa

2. When South Africa is in summer, Beijing is in ________.

A．spring

B．summer

C．autumn

D．winter

3. In which part of a magazine can we read this passage?

A．Business.

B．Travel.

C．Sports.

D．Advertisement.

6 . There are two paths (路) in life: Should and Must. We arrive at these crossroads again and again. And each time, we have to choose.

Should is how others want us to show up in the world—what we should or shouldn’t do. When we choose Should, we’re choosing to live our life for someone or something other than ourselves. The journey to Should can be smooth, and the risk is small.

Must is who we are, what we believe, and what we do when we are alone with our truest self. Must is why Van Gogh painted his whole life without ever receiving public recognition (认可). Must is why Reyna Marder Gentin started to write for the first time after 23 years of being a lawyer.

Choosing Must sounds fantastic, right? To choose Must is to say yes to hard work and endless effort, to say yes to a journey without a road map or tour guides.

How can we actually choose Must?

Ask yourself, “What is my Must?” If you don’t know the answer, write down your biggest, most impossible dreams! Don’t worry! It’s just the first step.

Now, think about what’s actually in your way. Is it your parents? Maybe they’re just worried that you haven’t thought it through. Try to make a practical plan for what you want to do. Your parents may find it a good one. Is it money? Well, the best way to make money is to do what you love because it’s very likely that you will pay great attention to it. Choosing Must doesn’t mean we need to give up everything we already have. It’s about changing one small thing at a time.

If you believe that you have something special inside of you, it’s about time you give Must a try—today.

1. What happens if we choose the path of “Should”?

A．We have to live our life for ourselves.

B．We’ll have a clear picture of ourselves.

C．We have to give up what we have.

D．We don’t need to take great risks.

2. How does the writer develop his idea in Paragraph 3?

A．By comparing.	B．By giving examples.
C．By asking questions.	D．By listing numbers.

3. According to the writer, which of the following is suitable for the journey to Must?

A．Easy and educational.	B．Impossible and foolish.
C．Hard and challenging.	D．Smooth and exciting.

4. If we choose the path of “Must”, which of the following is NOT true?

A．We’d better change a lot at a time

B．We’d better make money by doing what we love.

C．We’d better make a practical plan.

D．We’d better make sure what our Musts are.

5. Why do you think the writer wrote this passage?

A．To tell us to do what others want us to do.

B．To tell us something about his choice.

C．To encourage us to be our truest self.

D．To take others’ advice.

7 . With the development of society, people pay more attention to environmental protection. In order to find out people’s attitude and ways of protecting the environment, 400 students in No. 5 High School were surveyed with the theme of “saving paper”.

Almost everyone agrees that it is necessary to save paper. However, only more than half of them know that the country’s forest resources are not enough. Even worse, nearly half pay little attention to the situation of China’s forest resources. The following two diagrams are about ways to deal with used paper and reasons for saving paper.

Diagram 1 Ways to deal with used paper

make other artworks 3%

print the other side 12%

use as draft paper 80%

throw away or sell it 5%

Diagram 2 Reasons for saving paper

                      15%                       27%                            58%

In conclusion, the forest resources in our country are facing a big crisis (危机). Luckily, most of the people have realized that and have their proper ways to save paper. But we still need to strengthen the action. As long as we start from the little things, we can make a big difference.

1. If the paper can be reused, what will most students do?

A．Use it to do something creative.	B．Use paper as draft paper.
C．Print the other side.	D．Sell it.

2. About how many students save paper to reduce environmental problem?

A．58.

B．60.

C．108.

D．232.

3. Where can we probably read the text in a newspaper?

A．The Only Earth.	B．School Life.
C．Sports World.	D．Science Study.

8 . It can be really awkward (尴尬的) if someone sees you talking to yourself. But don’t feel bad about it! Talking to yourself actually has a lot of benefits.

You probably know that thinking is good for the brain. It helps us do things like making plans and managing our feelings. Speaking out loud is like showing this quiet inner (内在的) speech. It can help us do better in different areas like school, sports and work.

When encouragement comes from oneself, it adds to self-confidence. A 2023 study invited 72 tennis players to take part in some matches. Researchers put the players into two groups: one group that said nothing while playing, and the other that talked to themselves while playing. They found that the self-talkers showed more confidence and played better than those in the silent group.

Talking to yourself, especially in the third person, can also help us manage bad feelings. “Referring to (指代) yourself in the third person leads people to think about themselves more similar to how they think about others,” said Jason Moser, a professor from Michigan State University, U. S. This can help us see things from a different point of view, especially when we’re feeling sad or angry.

Self-talk also helps improve memory. Researchers tested four different ways to memorize things: reading silently, reading aloud, listening to someone else reading and listening to a recording of oneself reading. Those who read out loud recalled the information the best, researchers said in their study published (发布) in the journal Memory. It’s because the information is likely to become a long-term memory if said out loud.

What can you say to yourself?

·What’s my plan for today?

·This task is so hard!

·I’ve got to stay focused and get this done!

·Wow, the sunset is so beautiful!

1. Which word is close to the underlined word “benefits”?

A．Activities.

B．Advantages.

C．Disadvantages.

D．Challenges.

2. Why is thinking good for us?

A．Because it helps us make plans.	B．Because it helps us join in matches.
C．Because it makes our life happy.	D．Because it makes us more confident.

3. What does paragraph 4 tell us?

A．We’d better think about others.

B．Jason is a famous professor.

C．We should see things from different points of view.

D．Talking to yourself helps manage bad feelings.

4. According to the passage, which way of memorizing things is the best?

A．Reading silently.	B．Reading aloud.
C．Listening to someone else reading.	D．Listening to a recording of oneself reading.

5. Which can be a proper title for the text?

A．Speaking Aloud is a Quiet Inner Speech	B．Encouraging Yourself Adds to Self-confidence
C．Speaking to Yourself Helps a Lot	D．Reading Silently Helps Improve Memory

9 . A special popular dance has attracted attention widely. There are two stories about the origin (起源) of “Subject Three”. One story connects the dance to a wedding in Wuzhou, where guests danced as part of the celebrations. The other story suggests Guangxi local people go through three tests in their life: singing folk songs (“Subject One”), slurping rice noodles (“Subject Two”), and dancing (“Subject Three”).

Why has “Subject Three” dance become so popular around the world? Some experts think the key to the success of “Subject Three” lies in its simplicity, which allows people to copy and take part. Its lasting joy is the secret to its popularity, satisfying people’s needs. While some others think openness leads to its popularity.

What’s more, “Subject Three” has gone beyond cultural differences and language barriers (障碍) to become an unusual form of expression in the digital age. From Psy’s “Gangnam Style” (South Korea) in 2013 to “Subject Three” in 2023, over the past ten years, some dance styles, songs and other performances have broken boundaries (边界) between different cultures.

“Subject Three” does not only belong to Guangxi alone, but it belongs to the world as well. China’s stories can be spread to the world even through simple, short videos of a dance. “Subject Three” provides the living conditions of the Chinese people for the international community. The works that are loved by the common Chinese are always attractive to the people around the world.

We often pay more attention to the word “good” to show high-brow (高雅的) Chinese culture to the world when it comes to telling China’s stories. But in 2023, the breakout success of “Subject Three” became a classic example of how to tell a good Chinese story. Hopefully, in the future, more stories like “Subject Three” will be heard by the world.

1. What are the two stories mentioned about the origin of “Subject Three”?

A．A party and a test.	B．A wedding and a tradition.
C．A concert and a custom.	D．A festival and a game.

2. What is the secret to the popularity of “Subject Three”?

A．Its special style.

B．Its difficulty.

C．Its lasting joy.

D．Its humorous.

3. What does the passage say about “Subject Three”?

A．It is only popular in China.	B．It has broken cultural boundaries.
C．It is not an expression of Chinese culture.	D．It is only suitable for young people.

10 . We often have a lot of stress (压力) in our life. Sometimes it’s useful. As the saying goes, “No stress, no power.” For example, stress can help us get good grades in tests. But if we are always under stress, it may be bad for our health. So, how can we deal with it?

Talk to others. When we are stressed out, we should go to our family or friends for good communication (交流). This can make the stress become less and help us find out the ways to relax. As a result, we will feel better.

Do something joyful. Find a quiet place and don’t think about anything. Read our favorite books, listen to our favorite music or sing our favorite songs. Of course, we can also go to the cinema to enjoy a wonderful movie. If someone likes staying inside, it will be a good idea to do some housework.

Do sports. Go outdoors to breathe the fresh air and do proper sports such as walking, swimming and mountain climbing. Sports are of great help to us. When we are stressed out, we also have the problems of muscle tension (肌肉紧张). Doing sports can make the muscles move a lot and return to normal.

I have a friend. She had a lot of stress every day. A doctor told her to jump rope when she was under a lot of stress. She followed the doctor’s advice. When she felt worried, she started to jump rope and kept practicing. A few months later, she felt much better. Now she is completely different from the past. She never feels worried again.

1. How many kinds of ways to deal with stress can we find in the text?

A．Three.

B．Four.

C．Five.

D．Six.

2. What can we know from the text?

A．Stress is always bad for us.

B．Thinking more can make us relaxed.

C．When we do sports, we will be stressed out.

D．After talking with others, we will feel better.

3. Which word is close to the underlined word “joyful”?

A．Sad.

B．Boring.

C．Happy.

D．Unhappy.

4. How does the writer support (支持) his opinion of “Do sports”?

A．By sending a message.	B．By asking questions.
C．By giving an example.	D．By showing numbers.

5. What’s the best title of the text?

A．What Is Stress?

B．How Can We Deal with Stress?

C．Why Should We Deal with Stress?

D．When Is the Best Time to Deal with Stress?