Have you heard of the air taxi? An air taxi can carry people from place to place by air. It looks like a helicopter (直升机). It doesn’t need a long runway to take off or land. It can go straight up. and down.
On February 27, an air taxi finished its first test flight (飞行) in Guangdong. The flight started from the Shekou Cruise Homeport in Shenzhen to Jiuzhou Port in Zhuhai. The 60-kilometer trip took about 20 minutes. By car, the same trip takes two or three hours.
The air taxi is powered (驱动) by electricity (电). It has a top speed of 200 kilometers per hour and can carry up to five people. On one charge (充电), it can travel 250 kilometers. If everything goes well, it hopes to start carrying passengers in 2026.
1. What does an air taxi look like?2. How long did the air taxi fly for its first test flight?
3. What's the top speed of an air taxi?
4. How many people can an air taxi carry up to?
5. How far can an air taxi travel on one charge?
The flu easily spreads from one person to another. If you are weak, you probably catch the flu easily. Do you know how you can avoid the flu? Here are four suggestions:
First, you can eat everything you want but make sure that your diet is healthy. The healthier you are, the better it is for you to avoid (避免) any type of illness around. Most doctors suggest drinking lots of fresh fruit juice and water is helpful to avoid the flu.
Second, if a member of a family or a friend has the flu, stay away from him or her until he or she is well. The flu is very communicable (可传染的). If you stay with the person with the flu, you can catch the flu easily. Wear a mask (口罩) and avoid using things that the person with the flu used.
Third, exercising will make you stronger, which means a stronger immune system (免疫系统), too. Exercise often so that your body will keep healthy. It doesn’t matter what kind of exercise it is.
Finally, happy people are healthy people. Their life isn't stressed out, so they may be safe from illness. If you are unhappy, you will easily get sick.
Follow the suggestions above and you can avoid the flu easily.
| |
| | Eat |
| Stay away from him or her when a person has the flu. Wear a mask and avoid using things that the person | |
| Exercise often to | |
| Be a happy person to be safe from illness. | |
Our school is beautiful all around the year.
In spring, plants turn green and the grass comes out. Some students often fly kites on the playground. While I like playing football with my friends on the grassland.
In summer, it is hot. All sorts of flowers can be seen everywhere. There is a spring (喷泉) behind the teaching building. My classmates sit around it and chat with each other.
In autumn, my friend Mary always takes photos of leaves. They are of different colors. The road with leaves looks like a colorful blanket. All kinds of fruit trees are my favorite.
In winter, when our school is covered (覆盖) by snow and it is white here and there, it looks attractive. Although it is cold, we all like playing with snow outside.
| Four | |
| Spring | Plants turn green and the grass Students often fly kites on the playground but I like playing football. |
| Summer | We can see all kinds of Classmates sit around the spring , chatting with each other. |
| Autumn | My friend Mary always takes photos of I like all kinds of fruits . |
| Winter | Our school is covered by white snow. It is white We like playing with snow outside. |
4 . Most people drink tea in the world. But tea does not mean the same thing to different people. In different countries, people have different ideas about drinking tea.
In China, for example, tea is often offered when people get together. Chinese people drink it at home or in tea houses at any time of the day. They often use hot water to boil（煮沸）tea leaves.
Tea is also important in other Asian countries. People in these countries have a special way of offering tea. They hold a tea ceremony（仪式）in their houses when important guests come. It is very old and full of meaning. Everything must be done in a special way in the ceremony. There is even a special room for it in their houses.
In the United States,people usually drink tea at breakfast or they drink it after meals. Americans usually use tea bags to make tea. This way is faster and easier than the way of making tea in the teapots. In summer, most Americans drink iced tea. They like to put some ice in their tea.
1. What do Chinese people often use to boil tea leaves?（根据短文内容，简要回答问题）
2. Chinese people drink it at home
（根据短文内容，填入恰当的词）
3. In the United States, people have a special way of offering tea.(判断正误T/F)
4. Translate the underlined sentence into Chinese.（请把文中画线句子译成汉语）
5. Give a proper title to the passage.（请给短文拟一个恰当的标题）
5 . Count your blessings（祝福）, we’re told, but it’s just not in our nature. We’d rather count our problems. We’re so used to focusing on bad news that we tend to pay no attention to what’s going well. As soon as we solve one problem, we take the progress for granted and find a new cause for alarm. Every now and again it doesn’t hurt to think how good we have it. Start counting:
Free time
As much as we complain about being busy, the typical American has more free time than ever—more than five hours per day. If you feel too busy, it’s probably only because you’re doing so many other things than work. Experts say there’ll be even more free time in the future.
Peace
Wars and terrorist attacks will always make headlines, but it’s remarkable how many of the world’s 6.7 billion people now live in peace. In recent decades, though the population has been growing, the number of wars around the world has declined. In some earlier generations, a quarter of the male population died violent deaths. Over the past century, even counting the world wars, a person’s chance of dying from war was less than 2 percent.
American dream
While some people are struggling to keep their homes, the vast majority of Americans still have plenty to be thankful for when they walk through the front door. In 1950 the typical new American house had one floor with 1,000 square feet, two bedrooms, and one bathroom—and even that bungalow was beyond many people’s means. Today, more than two thirds of Americans own their homes, and the typical new house has two floors, at least three bedrooms, two and a half baths, and more than 2,200 square feet of space for the family.
The reader’s revolution
In 1970 barely half the people in the world were literate, and many of them could afford only a few books. Today, more than 80 percent of the world’s people can read, and 22 percent have access to the greatest library in history. The Web provides classic books and reference works free of charge.
More wilderness
Once you travel beyond the cities, you’ll find plenty of open space and peaceful forests. Many of the woodlands cleared by settlers have returned now that the land is no longer needed for agriculture.
The modern cars
Cars give off greenhouse gases and create maddening traffic jams, but consider what else they do. Compared with the models on the road in 1970, today’s cars burn less gasoline per mile and emit 98 percent fewer pollutants. That’s why, despite the doubling of the number of cars, there’s much less smog in the air. The basic car today offers more comforts and safety than the luxury（豪华）cars of old.
阅读短文，填表格，每空一词。
| Title | Six reasons to be thankful |
| Problems | We tend to focus on our problems and ignore what’s going well. Even with problems solved immediately, we still |
| The blessings we should count | Today Americans have more free time than ever. |
| The number of people dying of wars has declined despite the | |
| Owing a two-floor house with at least 3 bedrooms has been within the | |
| More reading materials are available to readers and more than 80% can read. | |
| More land for agriculture has made | |
| The basic cars are much |
6 . I am Tony. I am happy to tell you my school and my life. Every day my father drives me to school. It takes us fifteen minutes to go to school. My school is big and beautiful. I like my school very much. The desks and chairs are new. There are lots of pictures on the walls. You can also see some flowers on the teachers’ desk. We clean the classroom every day.
I don’t go to school on Saturday and Sunday. I get up at six on Saturday. I play basketball with my father in the park near my home for half an hour. Then I eat my breakfast. I help my mother water the trees and flowers in the garden. At eight I begin to do my homework. My parents and I have lunch in the KFC. In the afternoon, I have Art lessons. Sometimes I chat with my friends on the Internet in the evening.
Tony’s school and life. | ||
School | It’s | |
Life on weekdays | He goes to school five days a week and his father | |
Life at weekends | Morning | He has breakfast before |
Afternoon | He | |
Evening | Sometimes he | |
Mr. and Mrs. Smile come from Sydney (悉尼). They teach English in a middle school there. They like their work very much. They have two children, Jim and Sue. They are both in Beijing now. Mr. Smile can speak Chinese. Now he works in Beijing with his wife.
Mr. Smile likes swimming and reading. And Mrs. Smile likes swimming and reading, too. They often go swimming in the afternoon and read in the evening. Jim and Sue like playing games and swimming with their Chinese friends.
Jim’s uncle, John Smile, works on a farm near Sydney. He likes swimming, too. He wants to work in Beijing. But he can’t speak Chinese at all. So he is still there and goes to Chinese classes every week.
1. Don’t Mr. and Mrs. Smile teach English in a middle school?
2. Where are Jim and Sue from?
3. What does Mrs. Smile like?
4. Where does Jim’s uncle work?
5. Jim’s uncle isn’t working in a middle school, is he?
根据材料内容完成下列任务。
任务一、判断正（T）误（F）。
1. Four people(人) are in Dave’s family.
2. Jack is Kate’s big brother.
任务二、回答下列问题。
3. What’s Gina’s favorite color?
4. Who does Kate like going to the library with?
任务三、将划线部分的句子翻译成汉语。
5.
9 . Many kinds of birds live in the United States, but the number of the birds is becoming smaller every year. One of the leading reasons is the growing number of pet cats. By keeping your pet cats in your home, you can help give birds a better possible chance to live.
Of the 90 million pet cats in this country, about two-thirds are allowed to go outside. It is said that these cats kill hundreds of millions of birds each year, as well as billions of small animals such as rabbits and field mice.
They can also bring illness to the animals that live in people’s yard(院子), further weakening the health of the natural populations.
Allowing pet cats to go outside is not just bad for birds and wildlife, it’s also bad for the cats themselves. Outdoor cats can get sick very easily. They are in danger from traffic and attacks(攻击) from other animals. In fact, outdoor cats usually don’t live past the age of five, while indoor cats often live to be 17 or older.
Keep your pet cat inside! If you raise a young cat, it’s your duty to let it play inside.
| Problem | The number of birds is becoming |
| Reason for the problem | Pet cats are |
| What to do | People who |
