广东省汕尾市陆丰市2022-2023学年八年级下学期学期英语阶段考二

A: Dad, do you know anything about China?

B: Yes, Anna.  It has the largest population in the world.

A: Is it one of the oldest countries in the world?

B: Yes, it is. 

A: Are there any beautiful mountains in the country?

B: Yes. Some are very famous, such as Mount Tai, Mount Hua and Mount Emei.

A: 

B: There are many rivers in China. The Yangtze River is the longest and the second longest is the Yellow River. 

A: Amazing! Anything else?

B:  If you want to learn more, you can buy a book about the country. 

A: Sounds like a good idea!

Pei Aimin comes from a village in Gansu. In her hometown, girls used to leave school and get married at1 early age. Then they were busy with farm work and housework every day. 

Pei was different from 2 . She was interested in reading and 3 . After she got married, she still took time to write 4 . She often sat under a tree, writing something quietly. After reading and writing for years, Pei5 everyone in September, 2022. Her book named Diary of Aunt Vole came out. She hoped6 with the outside world in this way. 

The book 7 beautiful views (景色) and shows many interesting things in the village. The book touches thousands of people. "We finally read a book about farmers' life written by a farmer!" one reader says 8 the Internet.

"In the past, many villagers didn't think books were useful to women,9 they have changed their opinions now," Pei says. "I'm glad to see that. And I'll try my10 to help them make more changes in the future."

Jennie lived in a small house in the forest with her mother. One day, she went to the market to buy some eggs. 

Deep in the forest, Jennie was1 to find a huge wolf （狼）standing under a tree and crying (叫喊)! "Please don't 2 ," the wolf said. "Could you help me? 3 would like to help me." The wolf showed his foot to Jennie. A large thorn (刺) was deep in the foot.

Jennie was scared. "But I heard stories about wolves4 people," she said.

"Wolves don't eat people anymore. My brothers and I like to eat eggs!" the wolf cried again and looked at his foot.

5 she was afraid, Jennie decided to help. She removed the thorn6 . "Thank you. I will not forget your7 !" the wolf promised and then disappeared into the forest.

Later, on her way home, a group of hungry wolves stopped Jennie. "Let her go!" said a8 behind them. It was the wolf Jennie met earlier. He was trying to9 her! The other wolves moved away. Jennie thanked her new friend and ran home happily.

Jennie told her mother it was her10 day. "Help others and they will help you. This is what I learned," she said.

Several years ago, Ed's teacher asked him to take part in a volunteer activity.It brought normal children and disabled children together.Each week Ed spent an hour in the special school helping the disabled children with their schoolwork, eating and playing games with them.Ed's mother was a teacher, so he often met a lot of children.At first, Ed thought it would be scary to be with children who were so different, but later he found there was something special with those children.

Every Wednesday, Tom, Susan and Anna couldn't wait to see Ed.Tom had to sit on the wheelchair（轮椅）.He was only able to say some simple words like yes or no.Susan, a deaf girl, always welcomed Ed with a big smile.As for Anna, she was born with an illness, and it made her really small for her age.In a normal classroom, it would be common to stop children playing with something, speaking loudly or making noises.However, in that school, the teachers didn't mind noises.They were signs of the children's feelings.

Working with those children made Ed learn to notice others' needs.One of Ed's teachers said, "We should be part of something bigger than ourselves."Ed never understood that until he worked with those children.

Chinese people like bamboo. They love the spirit of bamboo. Many stories about bamboo are popular in Chinese culture. "Madames Xiang Bamboo (湘妃竹)" is one of .

Once upon a time, there were nine huge  on Mount Jiuyi in Hunan. They liked to play in the Xiang River. Then it caused floods (洪水). People there couldn't grow food and they their homes because of the floods. Seeing so many homeless people, Shun, the leader of the tribe (部落), decided to  the dragons for them and then he left home.

Shun two wives. They were called the "Madames Xiang". They for their husband day and night. Years later, there was still news of Shun, so they decided to look for him.

When they finally came to Mount Jiuyi, they got to know that Shun died after he killed the dragons. They were so sad that they cried for nine days front of Shun's tomb (坟墓). Finally, their tears sprinkled (眼泪溅落) on the bamboo, the bamboo had purple, white and blood-colored spots (斑点). That was why the bamboo got the of "Madames Xiang Bamboo".

Do you know the documentary(纪录片）Biodiversityon Earth-Zhuonai Lake? It is very popular, and now people can watch it online.

The documentary is 57 minutes long. It is made byfour scientists from Yunnan University and the Kunming Institute of Zoology named Luo Jie, Zhang Zhigang. WuJun and Zhang Chenghao. They started working on it in early 2020 and spent 18 months shooting the beautiful scenes and a activities. After that, they spent another 6 months making the documentary. 

Zhuonai Lake is in Qinghai Province. Few people travel to the no-man's land of the lake, so the area has become a shelter(庇护所) forwildlife(野生动物). It is also an important place for scientific research.

The altitude(海拔）of Zhuonai Lake reaches almost 5,000 meters. So the scientists faced a lot of challenges. Sometimes they had to work the temperatures of-30℃ and below. And they used pressure cookers to make meals.

"Though it is exciting to meet wild animals, we must be careful not to change the animals' normal life in the area,"Luo Jie said."Most people may think wolves(狼）are dangerous, but in fact they are scared of humans"

The documentary tells us many unknown stories about wild animals. The scientists hope more people can do something to protect wild animals.

你一定读过不少中外名著、民间故事或童话吧?请你就此话题写一篇80词左右的文章,内容包括:1.你最喜欢的一个中外故事;2.简要介绍这个故事的内容;3.你阅读故事后的感想。

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