北京市房山区2020年九年级英语综合练习一（一模）

— They are Mary's.

— No, you needn't.

— I        to my pen friend.

— Oh, yes. I bought it from a store online.

    I knew I was not supposed to be quite so excited. I was too old for that. At age eleven, the oldest and my mom's "grown up" girl, I had to keep calm. I was in middle school after all. But every chance I got, when I was alone, I 1 each present under the tree. I read every tag (标签) and felt every bag, guessing at the things within. I had examined each gift so often that I could tell which2went to which person without looking at the tags.
    It had been a hard year for my family. Whenever my mom looked over at the tree and presents, she would sigh (叹气) and warn us, "There won't be as much for Christmas this year. Try not to be 3." Christmas had been a time for my parents to spoil (宠爱) us. I had heard the phrase "giving is better than receiving", but getting presents was the whole point!

    On Christmas morning, we 4 waited in the hallway until Dad told us everything was ready. We rushed into the living room and had to wait and 5 while other family members opened their presents, but as the time passed we lost our self-control.
    "Here's another one for you," said Mom as she handed me a bag. I looked at it, confused. Having spent so much time examining the presents before Christmas, I 6 this one. It was for my mom!
    It was a blow dryer. While this may seem only a simple gift, to me it was so much more. But, in my world, where receiving was more important than giving, my mom's act of selflessness was difficult to 7. I thought in disbelief about how much my mom must love me to do that.
    I have always remembered that Christmas with love. As an adult with children, I can now see my mom was finding an even greater 8 in her Christmas because giving truly is better than receiving. To me, my mom's simple act meant the world.

    Teenagers have a lot of new ideas. Let's have a look at these teenage inventions that might change the world.

Plant Anything

    A good friend of mine, Miriam, was going away on a long trip during the autumn. I called her the day before she would leave for the trip to wish her have a good trip. She was completely behind on everything she needed to do. She was a little worried. "I bought some wonderful corms to plant for next spring. But now I have no time to deal with them," she said.

    I always plant many seeds (种子) in March and by June enjoy the sweet smell everywhere. I just can't bear the thought of a plant not getting a chance to grow. "I'll plant them for you," I told her.

    "Oh, would you?" Miriam was excited. She promised to put them out on the porch (走廊) for me.

    I arrived several days later and found a paper bag on the porch. After a lot of work, I planted all the corms in the perfect place.

    When Miriam got back a few months later, she and I went out for dinner to celebrate her return. While eating, she said, "You know, I still can't believe I forgot to put those corms out on the porch!"

I looked at her in surprise. "What do you mean? Of course, you put them out. They were sitting on the porch in a paper bag."

     "No," she said, "They're still sitting on the desk where I left them."

"So, what did I plant that morning?" I asked.

    She stopped as if to prepare me for her news. Then she slowly said, "That was cat poop (猫屎). You planted cat poop."

    Miriam looked at my face and did the best to keep from laughing. But I was too busy replaying the pictures of me picking these cat poop from a paper bag and planting them.

    Years have passed since then, and both our gardens and our friendship have continued to grow. I guess, I really will try to plant just about anything. 

    Two new studies suggest that modern running shoes could increase the risk of injuries (损伤) to runners.

    One study involved sixty-eight healthy young women and men who ran at least twenty-four kilometers a week. The runners were watched on a running machine. Sometimes they wore running shoes. Other times they ran barefoot (赤脚).

    Researchers from the University of Virginia and the University of Colorado did the study. They found that running shoes create more stress that could hurt knees, hips and ankle joints than running barefoot. They watched that the effect was even greater than the effect reported earlier for walking in high heels (高跟鞋). The study appeared in an official scientific magazine.

    The other study appeared in the journal Nature. It compared runners in the United States and Kenya. The researchers were from Harvard University, Moi University in Kenya and the University of Glasgow. They divided the runners into three groups. One group had always run shoeless. Another group had always run with shoes. And the third group had changed to shoeless running.

    Runners who wear shoes usually come down heel first. That puts great force on the back of the foot. But the study found that barefoot runners generally land on the front or middle of their foot. That way they feel relaxed when landing and avoid hitting their heel hard.

    Harvard's Daniel Lieberman led the study. He says the way most running shoes are designed may explain why those who wear them land on their heels. The heel of the shoe is bigger and heavier than other parts of the shoe, so it would seem more likely to come down first. Also, the heel generally has thick material under it to soften landings.

    But the researchers do not suggest that runners immediately start running barefoot. They say it takes some training. And there can be risks, like running when your feet are too cold to feel if you get injured.

    The study was partly supported by Vibram, which makes a kind of footwear that it says is like running barefoot. The findings have gotten a lot of attention. But the researchers say there are many problems. So they have tried to explain their findings on a Harvard Website.

    What makes humans smarter than other animals? We've got a bigger brain, of course. But when it comes to brains, is bigger always better?

    Traditionally, scientists have thought that humans' better intelligence (智慧) came mostly from the fact that our brains are three times bigger than those of our nearest living relatives, chimpanzees. People even used to believe that men are smarter than women because men have a little larger brains.

    This, however, is not the truth. Scientists at University College London in the UK have found that brain organization, and not brain size, is the key to the advantage of human intelligence, reported Live Science.

    Through millions of years of gradual development, our ancestors (祖先) were pushed to get smarter all the time so that they could meet the needs of new environments. However, holding this growing intelligence in increasingly large brains was not the best choice because bigger brains require more energy to power. "This is when reorganization may come into play," said Christophe Soligo, a member of the London research team.

    In the study, scientists looked at the brains of 17 kinds of primates (灵长目动物) , including monkeys, apes and humans. They found that in the process of gradual development, brains didn't keep growing as a whole. Certain parts of the brain grew more than others as needed, and in this way they could make the best use of their limited brain space.

    For example, when early humans were trying hard to live, the brain region (区域)  which is in charge of using tools and finding food grew in size more than other regions. But in modern times, the prefrontal cortex (前额皮质) — the region in charge of social cognition (认知), moral judgments and goal-directed planning — grew more than the rest of the brain.

    Think of the brain as a room. If a big room is poorly organized, it doesn't necessarily store more things than a smaller one.

Paul Manger, a professor, explains this using the example of whales. He told Scientific American: "Whales have big brains. But if you look at the actual structure (结构) of the brain, it's very simple. Brain size only matters if the rest of the brain is organized properly. "

Stay Home Studying

    17-year-old Liu Yu was a high school student in China. She planned to go back to school on Feb 17 to prepare for the 2020 college entrance examination (高考) . However, the Ministry of Education (教育部) told people in late January that the spring term for all schools would be put off because of the serious disease (疾病) in China. So Liu Yu, like all the others students, had to stay at home.
    However, Liu and her classmates didn't fell behind their plans and began studying full-time again – only from home. It may have become the largest online teaching experiment the country has ever seen.
    To go with students' new learning environment, a "cloud platform (云平台) " was started using on Feb 17. It provided students with education resources (资源)  covering all school subjects. But some students had difficulty going to the website or using smart phones. A TV channel by China Education Television started airing classes on Feb 17. So students could have classes and study online or on TV at home.
    But the online platform and TV channel don't just offer school knowledge. Students can also learn how to protect themselves from the disease and psychological (心理的) health during this period, according to the Ministry of Education.
    For some students, the chance to study from home has had some unexpected benefits. Yuan Siyi, who lives in Hubei province, used to get up before 6 am on school days, but since starting online courses, she got more hours of sleep every morning. "I like online teaching because I have more freedom at home," Yuan told TEENS. She began her all-day courses on Feb 3.
    However, online teaching and learning has its weaknesses compared to studying in a traditional classroom. "My motivation (动力) to study is stronger when my classmates are around me and all working very hard," Yuan said.

According to the Ministry of Education, online courses are just a short-time way of learning during the disease. When the new term begins, schools will no longer use online classes instead of classroom teaching.

题目①

假如你是李华，你们学校将要举办一次读书报告会，分享自己在延期开学期间读的好书和读书感受。你打算邀请你们班交换生Peter跟你一起参加。请用英语写一封电子邮件，告诉Peter活动的时间和地点，活动的内容，以及需要为此做什么准备。

提示词语： school hall, report, enjoy, read, share,

提示问题：● When and where will the reading meeting start?

● What will you do in the reading meeting?

● What do you advise Peter to prepare for it?

题目②

2020年的春节，人们没有走亲访友，没有聚会聚餐。大多数家庭因疫情的迅速蔓延“闭门守家话亲情”，抖音上多了不少家庭娱乐小视频，俨然成为了“严冬”里的一道暖流。某英文网站正在开展以“别让孝心迟到”为主题的征文活动。假如你是李华，请用英语写一篇短文投稿，谈谈在假期你为家人做了什么，这样做的原因以及你的感受。

提示词语：virtues（美德）, dutiful（孝顺的）, cook, busy, take care of, happy

提示问题：● What did you do during the holiday?

● Why did you do so?

● How did you feel?