（浙江）新目标（Go for it）版初中英语八年级上册期末...

    Dear Andrew, I write this letter to tell you something exciting. We had a sports meeting in our school last Friday!

    At about 8: 00 am, all the students arrived at the playground. I took part in the first event-the 100-metre race. Steve got first place. My classmate David took part in the long jump and Lisa took part in the high jump.

    The tug-of-war(拔河) between Class Three and Class One was the most interesting event in the morning. It was at 11: 00 am. And Class Three won it. The events in the afternoon were the 400-metre race, bicycle race, basketball game and tennis game. My classmate Maria took part in the 400-metre race. But she fell down and could not move. Frank is the best basketball player in our school. He helped his team win the basketball game.

    The sports meeting ended at 5: 00 pa/8All of the students were excited. We looked forward to the next sports meeting in our school.

Jerry

    Today is December 15, 2030. Influenced by the launch of the first manned mission to Mars next month, you will most likely get a gift card for a space trip.

    The interest in trips, 100km above the surface of the Earth, has grown steadily since such a trip began. However, the market has grown much larger this year since the official announcement of the Mars mission. More low - cost spacelines have entered the market and you can now find flights for such a trip for as low as $3,495.It's very reasonable.

    Space tourism( 旅游业，观光业) is one of the markets that have developed fast during the last decade, with the opening of the Starbright Hotel on the moon as well as the low orbital hotels that started accepting guests. However, accommodation in space is still expensive for the average household, so the suborbital (亚轨道的) flights with thirty - minute weightlessness during the three - hour flight will for some time be the most popular trip.

    However, the spacelines might in the future face fierce competition between space elevators (太空升降舱), like the one that is projected to start construction within two years. Once it is fully functional, it will start to ship cargo to space. But it will accept passengers as soon as possible to get back the large investment. Even if the elevator becomes successful, it will take several years before there are more elevators in the world to get in the competition for space traffic with the spacelines.

    Those who are looking for a little bit of adventure and have extra money to spend may want to consider a suborbital flight in space. While a suborbital flight may not be the space mission that you have always dreamed of, it will give you the rare opportunity to see what our planet looks like in a high - altitude flight outside our atmosl3here. So before you enjoy a trip by elevator to space, enjoy a suborbital flight first.

    When you are learning English, you shouldn't put an English sentence, word for word, into your own language. Take the sentence "How do you do?'! As an example. If you look up each word in the dictionary, one at a time, what is your translation? It will be an incorrect sentence in your own language.

    Languages do not just have different sounds, but they are different in many ways. It is important to master the rules for word order in the study of English, too. If the speaker puts words in the wrong order, the listener can't understand the speaker's sentence easily. Sometimes when the order of the words in an English sentence is changed, the meaning of the sentence changed, but sometimes if the order is changed, the meaning of the sentence doesn't change. Let's see the difference between the two pairs of sentences. "She only likes apples." "Only she likes apples." "I have seen the film already." "I have already seen the film."

    When you are learning English, you must do your best to get the spirit of the language and use it as the English speaker does.

    New York is a very large city with 8 million people. How do so many people move on their way to work and school? So, we should know something about its transport.

    In New York you can travel around the city by subway, by bus, by taxi and by car. The subway runs on the railroad lines under the city. It crosses the city at different points and goes to all parts of the city. Travelling by subway is the fastest way to get around the city. The second way to travel around the city is by bus. It's a slower way to travel. This is because the bus moves in road traffic which is often heavy. You can also travel around the city by taxi. This is the most expensive way, but the taxi will take you to the very place you want to go to. If the traffic is heavy, the taxi will be slow. During the mornings and afternoons, there is the rush hour. This is the time when the traffic is very heavy with people going to and from work.

    The last way to get around New York is using your own car. However, it's not easy for you to drive, especially when you are driving in the rush hour. If there is an accident on the road, you will have to wait for a long time. The best time to travel around the city is from 9：00 am to 4：00 pm. This is the time after the morning rush hour and before the evening rush hour. Traffic will be less crowded because most people are already at school or at work.

    There are millions of different animals in the world, but some are in danger, and some may soon die out. People can never see them again. Mark and David wanted to find some of these rare animals, so they climbed mountains, crossed rivers, and walked through rainforests.

    A Bat, a Cat or a Squirrel?

    Mark and David found the aye-aye. The aye-aye has bright eyes. It has ears like a bat, a body like a cat and a tail(尾巴) like a squirrel. Some people think the aye-aye brings bad luck. They killed(杀死) many of them, and cut down a lot of trees where the aye-aye lives as well.

    A Strange Parrot

    Mark and David found the biggest parrot in the world that cannot fly. Many years ago, some animals came to the place the parrots lived in, and killed many of them. Now there are only a few left.

    Another Special Animal

    Mark and David went looking for a manatee. A manatee looks like a seal and a hippo. In some places where manatees live, the water in the river gets low. Then the manatee swims to the place where there is more water. Many get stranded(搁浅), and some are killed by other animals and people, too.

    After Mark and David returned, they made a film about these animals. They want to show the world these strange but interesting animals. They want the world to know there are not many of them left, and they all have a place in our world.

    As we know, there are differences between Western culture and Chinese culture. We can see differences when we pay attention to the way words are used. Let's look at the words about animals and plants. Most expressions in Chinese are about the dog, for example, "a homeless dog" "a mad dog" "a running dog" and "a dog catching a mouse", having negative meanings. But in Western countries, dogs are thought to be honest and good friends of humans. In English, people use the dog to describe positive things. For example, "you are a lucky dog" means "you are a lucky person". And "every dog has its day" means "each person has good luck some time". To describe a person's serious illness, they say "sick as a dog". The word "dog-tired" means very tired. However, Chinese love cats very much. But in Western culture, "cat" is often used to describe a woman who is cruel(无情的) .

    The rose is a symbol of love in both China and some Western countries. People think the rose means love, peace, courage and friendship. And the rose is a kind of important flowers in England, America and many other countries.

    The words about plants and animals are used in positive or negative ways in different cultures. We can learn about many differences in culture by comparing how some words are used.

    Long long ago，the youngest daughter of Emperor Yan went boating on the Eastern Sea. At first she had a good time，but later on she was too tired to swim when a strong wind rose on the sea and turned her boat upside down. She was thus drowned, but her spirit turned into a beautiful bird crying sadly in the sound “Jingwei, Jingwei”.

    Because she wanted to see her beloved father again and hated the sea so much，she put some stones into the sea day after day, without a rest, in order to change the sea into the land. From this story comes the saying “The bird Jingwei trying to fill the sea”. The story was a little sad. But it tells us something important. When we do anything, we have to work hard. Learning English is difficult but if you study hard, you can learn it well.

    We often face the following situations in our daily life：

    The woman next door plays her piano after 12 o'clock at night.

    The family across the street never cleans up their yard. The rubbish blows into your yard.

    The man next door always parks his car in front of your drive.

Have things like this ever happened to you? If so, you may ask yourself, "Who are these people? Why are they doing these things to me?"

    These days, many people don't know their neighbors. Sometimes we share a friendly smile or say hello, but lots of people don't even know their neighbor's names! When you don't know someone, it's easy to be angry when something has happened that you think is unfair. You think, "Maybe they like to make me angry," or "Maybe they do it on purpose." Believe it or not, your neighbors probably don't mean to irritate(激怒)you. Often, they don't even know that they're making you feel angry. So before you take unusual steps to fix the problem, you should discuss it with them first.

    When you move towards your neighbors, you should talk to them in a friendly manner. Praise their children to make them feel good. Then explain the situation. And if you can think of a simple way to solve the problem, suggest it.

    If talking doesn't work, ask another person to help. This person can listen to both sides of the story and help you and your neighbor solve the situation.

    Finally, sometimes it's a good idea to avoid the problem. Depending on the problem, it might be best to just stay out of your neighbor's way.