浙江省外研版初中英语八年级上册期末复习（题型专练）：阅读理解

    Many Chinese students ask for advice on how to improve their English. There are three common questions.

    The first question is about real English. Li Gang said, "I want to learn real English. But I don't know what to do."

    Watching English films is a good way to learn real English. You can watch them when you are tired after studying for a long time. While watching them, you can relax and learn real English at the same time.

    The second question is about speaking. Chen Ming said, "I'm too shy to talk with foreigners."

    "How are you?" "Where are you from?" "What do you think of China?" These are good questions to start a conversation. Many people are shy when they speak English, so before you begin, take a deep breath(呼吸) and smile! Smiling always helps.

    The third question is about vocabulary. Li Jia said, "I want to remember all the new words. I write them down, but I forget them soon."

    Try to remember eight or ten words a day. Write them on a piece of paper and put it in your bedroom. Spell the words whenever you see them, and change them every day. And when you're shopping, how about counting the English words, or saying the English names for everything you see?

B

    London is such a wonderful city. It is very large. The River Thames runs through the city from west to east. The city has two parts—the South and the North. In the North there are important buildings, shops, big parks and interesting places.

    The weather in London is good. In winter it is not very cold and in summer it is not very hot because the city is near the sea. People say London is a foggy city and that it often rains. It is true.

    Last year, when I was in London I saw one of the thickest fogs in years. You could hardly see your hand in front of your face. Cars and buses moved along with their lights on.

    When evening fell, the weather grew even worse. The fog was as thick as milk, and all the buses and cars stopped. I had an important meeting on the other side of the town, but it was impossible to find a taxi. I had to get there on foot.

A

    Skin­diving is a new sport today. This sport takes you into a wonderful new world. It is like a visit to the moon. When you are under the water, it is easy for you to climb big rocks, because you are no longer heavy.

    Here, under the water, everything is blue and green. During the day, there is plenty of light. When fish swim nearby, you can catch them with your hands.

When you have tanks of oxygen on your back, you can stay in deep water for a long time. But you must be careful when you dive in deep water.

    To catch fish is one of the most interesting parts of this sport.

    What's more, there are more uses for skin­diving. You can clean ships without taking them out of water. You can get many things from the deep sea.

    Now you see that skin­diving is both useful and interesting.

B

B

      Country music is very old. It came from the United States, Canada, Ireland, and Great Britain. Country music is a mixture of music from all of these places.

　　In the American West, cowboys had to take care of the cattle.  They had to watch them all day and night because the cattle were nervous and sometimes ran away. A cowboy's life was lonely and dangerous. When he was alone in the desert with the cattle, he drank strong coffee with lots of caffeine to stay awake at night. He also sang music to the cattle to make them quiet. He sang about the stars and the moon, about his family and his friends. The cattle listened to the cowboy and went to sleep. They did not run away if he sang beautiful and peaceful music.

　　In the American South, many people came from Ireland, Scotland, and England. Other people came from France and Canada. They enjoyed their own kind of music. They used guitars, violins and harmonicas, too. They also added instruments from their homes, like bottles and spoons. When they visited their friends and families on holidays like Thanksgiving Day, they usually sang and played country music.

　　Country music describes life. It talks about love, jobs, home and money. It talks about friends and enemies, trucks and highways, farms and crops. People in many parts of the world like country music because everyone knows something about these ideas. Also, many country music fans wear Western clothes and dance together to country music. Many bands all over the world now perform country music.

A

    Many people think the camel stores water in its hump (驼峰), but it does not. Instead, the camel stores something else there—food. The camel's hump is really a hump of fat (脂肪). The camel is often called "a ship of the desert". When the camel is not travelling and is in a place where there is much food and water, it eats and drinks a lot. As it does so, its hump rises from the fat its body makes. Then, when the camel is travelling through the desert and when there is no food, it can live off the stored fat.

    A camel can go on for days or weeks with little food or water. However, when its hunger reaches the starvation (饿死)point, its hump shrinks (收缩) and may even slip off its back and hang down its side.

    Camels are not fussy (挑剔的) about what they eat. Thorny (多刺的) plants don't hurt their mouths, grass of any kind will do and so will hay, dry grain and cactuses (干草, 干粮, 仙人掌).

There are one­ hump camels and two­ hump camels. Camels with one hump are called Arabian camels. They come from North Africa. Camels with two humps are from Asia.

B

    Alice was now in a long dark room with doors all round the walls, and she could not see the white rabbit anywhere.

    She tried to open the doors, but they were all locked (上了锁的). "How will I get out again?" she thought sadly. Then she saw a little glass table with three legs, and on the top of it was a very small gold key. Alice quickly took the key and tried it in all the doors, but she couldn't open any.

    Then she saw another door.The door was only forty centimetres high. The little gold key unlocked this door easily, but Alice couldn't get through it—she was much too big. So she lay on the floor and looked through the open door into a beautiful garden with green trees and bright flowers.

    "I'd like to be out there—not in this dark room. Why can't I get smaller?" It was already a very strange day, and Alice was beginning to think that anything was possible.

    After a while she locked the door again, got up and went back to the glass table. She put the key down and then she saw a little bottle on the table. Round the neck of the bottle was a piece of paper with the words "DRINK ME" in large letters.

    "It can be dangerous to drink the liquid(液体) in the bottle," she said. "What will it do to me?" She drank a little bit very slowly. The taste was very nice and very soon Alice finished the bottle.

    "I think I'm getting smaller and smaller every second, " she said. "And now, " she said happily, "I can get through the little door into that beautiful garden."

    She ran at once to the door. Then she remembered that the little gold key was back on the glass table. She ran back to the table for it, but she was now much too small! The key was high above her, on the top of the table. She tried very hard to climb up the table leg, but she couldn't do it.

    At last, tired and unhappy, she got angry with herself. Soon she saw a little glass box near her on the floor. She opened it, and found a very small cake with the words "EAT ME" on it.

    Nothing could surprise Alice now.

    I' m ready to do my first jump 10 months after a skydiving (特技跳伞) accident. I can't wait! That accident almost killed (杀死) me and it made me stay in hospital for half a year. During the boring long days, I didn't feel good. "How could I live without my favourite sport?" I thought.

    It all started one evening after a nine-to-five day. I was sitting at home when an ad (广告)came on the television. "Try skydiving," it said. The next day, I went to the skydiving school in my town, At the end of the day's lessons, ] knew I found the right sport for me.

    I will never forget my first jump. Five of us walked to the runway and got into a plane. I was afraid, but the others were talking and smiling, and I started to feel a little relaxed. It was a beautiful, cloudless day and the sun was just going down. Soon it was time to jump. As I jumped from the plane, I shouted. But then everything became quiet (安静的). It was the most wonderful four minutes of my life.

    From the first jump, I was hooked. I started spending all my free time skydiving. It became my reason (理由) for living. Things were going really well. Then an accident happened on my 104th jump. I broke my both legs, right arm and nose. I stayed in hospital for six months, but I still couldn't forget skydiving.

    My mother couldn't understand why the only reason I wanted to get better was to go skydiving again. But for me, skydiving is life, and life is skydiving.

    Mike is in charge of (负责) a shopping centre. He is a little worried these days. because there is a new shopping centre nearby and many of his customers are now shopping there. Mike wants to do something to get them back. Before he starts, he gives out questionnaires (调查表 ) to shoppers. Here is one shopper, Miss Watson's questionnaire.

1. Age group:
（）10—12  （）13—15  （）16—18  （√）19 and over
2. What do you think is important for a shopping centre?
(Circle the number. 1 as the most important and 5 as the least important)

3. Name five kinds of shops that you think should be in a good shopping centre.
a) clothes shops             b) shoe shops          c) play areas for children
d) restaurants                e) movie theatres
4. On which of the following do you spend most of your money? (List 1, 2 and 3 with 1 as the most)
a) clothes （1）  b) shoes （）  c) books and CDs （2）
d) food （3）    e) others （）

    Thank you for taking the time to fill in (填写) the questionnaire!

Tui: Hi, Andrew. Isn't the snow great?

Andrew: Yes. New snow makes everything white and very beautiful.

Jane: Snow is nice at the start, but when it melts (融化), it becomes dirty water.

Tui: Maybe, but this is my first time to see snow. It's great.

Jane: Don't you have snow in Thailand?

Tui: No, never. It's too hot there.

Kate: Wow, it's special. It often snows here in America.

Andrew: So this must be fun for you.

Tui: Yes, very fun. I began to watch the snow fall when it started yesterday afternoon. I even went outside to play for about half an hour.

Jane: This morning the snow stopped. Now the sky (天空) is clear and the sun is shining (照耀) on the new snow. That is good to see too.

Tui: How long will the snow last before it melts?

Andrew: If the weather stays cold, the snow can be here for some days or a week.

Tui: Great. I want to play in it as much as possible. Do you want to go outside with me?

Jane: Sure, I can do that.

Andrew: Yes, that' 11 be something good to do.

Kate: Let's go!