江苏省扬州市仪征市2019-2020学年八年级上学期英语期末...

—I don't think so. It is ____useful tool when we talk with foreigners.

—Most of them are kind, but      is as good to me as Daniel.

—I'm even      . I'm afraid I have to see the doctor.

—Never      . Believe in yourself.

—Less than two hours. I often have much homework to do.

— I'm sorry for that. I _____ in the supermarket then.

—First of all, it's important to      and hide yourself in the corners of the room.

—Sorry. It's not the right      . I'm too tired.

—     . It tells a long and boring story.

    God puts dreams in our hearts. So, we must dream. We lose our 1 and heartaches(心 痛) in dreams. Some dreams are broken 2 some come true. Now, here's my own dream story:

    Eight years ago, my close friends, a young couple lost their baby 3 an accident. Since 4 had that accident, they felt empty. For a long time, they 5 that God had given them up. They cried and kept themselves away from family and friends. They travelled far and wide, spending all their resources(资源), seeing different doctors. But6worked.

    Though I have my down moments, I am a 7 girl. I stay active and thankful8I know there's a reason for every season. I truly love the world and trust God all the time. One day, I called them to say hello. The wife sounded like someone had 9. When I asked, she said, "I am fine. Nobody died. Just tired." It was time to share my one dream with her.

    "For eight years, I always had a(n) 10 dream. You were in it. You were always looking after a child. In the 11, there was always a celebration happening... and you were in it, with your husband by your side." She was silent. I also had to 12 her that she must never shake her faith (信仰). 13, she should keep on with each sunrise because God is Hope.

    God finally 14 the dream of my heart. This winter, this man and wife are expecting their child. When I got this great news, I was not 15. I do know one thing for sure: Dreams really do come true when you believe in your dreams, when you give God something to work with (doing your part), and when you believe in and trust God.

    What do you usually do in your free time? What are your favourite activities? Last week, I put these questions on my blog. Here are the answers of three students.

    "They have only one way to run away," whispered Holmes. "That is back through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have done what I asked you, Jones."

    "Yes, I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door."

    "Then we have closed all the holes. And now we must be silent and wait."

    What a long time it seemed! We waited for an hour and a quarter, but it seemed to me much longer. I was tired, but I was afraid to move my body. I could hear the gentle breathing of my guys. I looked at the floor. Suddenly I saw a light.

    At first it was only a small light on the stone floor. Then it became a yellow line, and then, without any sound, a hole opened and a hand appeared. For a minute or more the hand pointed up through the floor. Then it disappeared and all was dark again except the small light between the stones.

    Then there was a loud sound and one of the big, white stones turned over and left a square hole. A clean-cut, boyish face looked out of the hole. He climbed out and was soon standing at the side of the hole. He then helped his guy, a small man with lots of very red hair.

    "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you got everything? My god! Run away, Archie, run away."

    Sherlock Holmes jumped out and caught the man with the boyish face. The other jumped down the hole.

—Taken from The Red-Headed League

Swimming across the English Channel—the 21-mile-long channel between southern England and northern France— is not an easy thing. Besides the strong ocean currents(洋流), swimmers also have to face temperatures that can change from 18℃ to 6℃. However, don't tell that to Sarah Thomas. The 37-year-old American woman recently became the first person ever to swim the English Channel four times without stop.

    What makes Thomas even greater is that just a year ago, in 2018, she survived （幸存）serious illness. She said that fighting the strong currents was hard. "But even worse is dealing with the saltwater … it really hurts your throat(咽喉), your mouth and your tongue," she said.

    Thomas's journey began just past midnight on Sunday, September 15, 2019. The swim was about 80 miles at the beginning. However, strong currents add the total distance by about 50 miles. When Thomas came out from the water at 6: 30 am local time on Tuesday, September 17, 2019, she was in the water for 54 hours and 13 minutes and swam a total of 133 miles!

    There was a ship with GPS and computers to record wind, tides and currents with Thomas all the time. It guided her through the water. Her mother and husband were on the ship. During her swimming, Thomas took a rest every 30 to 60 minutes.

    As a report from the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization(联合国粮食和农业组织)says, 1.29 million square kilometres of forest, an area almost the same size of South Africa, have been lost from the Earth since 1990. Now the forest loses an area around the size of   Panama every year. As the forest becomes smaller, many animals lose their home. Luckily, there are still some people doing their best to save forest. A Brazilian (巴西人) Sebastiao Salgado and his wife Lelia Salgado have spent about 20 years planting forest.

    Sebastiao is one of the most famous Brazilian photographers. He traveled all over the world to take photos. When he finally came back home in Brazil in the 1990s, he was astonished - the forests were once full of wildlife. Now there are no trees here. So Sebastiao decided to do something about it. He believed that he could plant the forest together with his wife. And then his amazing dream began to come true. When they began to do that, all the birds and fish returned.

    The couple brought the forest back by planting 4 million young trees. During the following 20 years. Sebastiao and his wife took care of the planted forest. 293 kinds of plants, 172 kinds of birds and other animals came back there. Sebastiao's dream and hard work is a shining example of saving the nature. The couple show us how quickly the nature can recover(恢复) if we take action. As the saying goes, "The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago; the second best time is today."

    In the Amazon Rainforest, 72, 843 wildfires happened in 2019. The world worries about the forest. But why is the Amazon Rainforest so important?

    First, thousands of plants and great animals grow or live in the Amazon Rainforest. We can find them there. The rainforest helps to protect the nature. We think the rainforest is a DNA bank holding the secrets in many different areas of humans' lives.

    Second, the Amazon Rainforest works to make the world not too hot or too cold. It cools down the temperature in the whole world by 1 or 2℃ and helps to keep the humidity(湿度) and rain in several parts of the world, too.

    Last but not least, rainforests are often called the "lungs(肺) of the planet", and the Amazon Rainforest has the largest number of carbon(碳) (in forms of trees, leaves and roots) of the world. The Amazon Rainforest cleans dirty air through its trees and other plants. These plants take in CO₂and send O₂into the air while they keep the carbon and it helps them to grow.

    If there are no rainforests, the temperature around the world will be higher and higher, and weather may be possible to get even worse in the future.

    Old Mr. Laurence often went to see Mrs. March. The new friendship between the March family and the Laurence family b stronger and stronger.

    The young people went ice-skating and spent many pleasant evenings t. Laurie wanted to be with the girls and didn't go to his lessons. Mr. Brooke, his teacher, was worried about his s.

    Sometimes the girls visited the Laurences. Laurie was very happy w the girls.

    Beth knew that there was a big piano in the library and she wanted to play it. H, she was too afraid to go to the house. When he heard this, Mr. Laurence tried to find a way of solving this problem.

    One day while v Mrs. March, he started talking about music. Beth was sitting quietly in a corner.

    "Laurie isn't playing the p much these days," Mr. Laurence told Mrs. March. "This isn't good for it. Would your girls like to practice on it?"

Beth moved a little closer to him to l to the talk.

    "They don't need to see or speak to anyone," Mr. Laurence added.

Beth ran up to him and said shyly, "I'm Beth, l love m. I'd love to have a try." "Come and play when you like." he said gently.

    After that, Beth went to play the piano in the house n every day. Mr. Laurence loved listening to her with his study door open to hear the songs better, but Beth never knew that.

Wildlife Protection Society 在 China Daily 上发布了一个招募志愿者的公告。假如你是Mike，请你用英文给协会主席写一封信，申请成为志愿者，要点如下：

要 求：1）表达清楚，语法正确，上下文连贯；

2）必须包括…中所有要点内容，并适当发挥；

3）词数：100 词左右（开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数）；

4）不得使用真实姓名、校名和地名等。

Dear Chairperson,

    I would like to join the Wildlife Protection Society.

Yours sincerely,

Mike