浙江省金华市义乌市稠州中学教育集团2022-2023学年八年...

The Other Side of the Wall

There was a young woman who took great pride in her flower garden. She was raised by her grandmother who taught her to love and1for flowers. So her flower garden was the best.

One day, while she was looking through a flower list she often 2from, a picture of a plant caught her eyes. She had never 3blooms(花) on a flower like that before. "I must have it, " she said to herself, and she 4ordered it.

When it arrived, she already had a5 prepared to plant it. She planted it at the back of her yard. It grew well, with beautiful green leaves all over it, 6there were no blooms. Day after day she continued to water it, feed it, and she even talked to it trying to make it bloom. However, it was 7.

One morning weeks later, when standing before the vine(藤), she felt very8that her plant had not bloomed. She was thinking about 9 it down and planting something else in its place. Just at that moment, her neighbor, whose 10 joined hers, called over to her. "Thank you so much! You can't imagine how much I have 11 the blooms of that vine you planted. " The young woman walked 12 the gate into her neighbor's yard, and sure enough, she saw that on the other side of the wall the vine was 13  with blooms.

There were indeed the most beautiful blooms she had 14 seen. The vine had grown through the crevices(缝隙) and it had not flowered on 15 side of the wall, but it had flowered on the other side.

Sometimes one may not see the good result of his effort, but that doesn't mean it isn't successful.

Language students often think they have memory(记忆) problems. They worry because they can't remember words. In fact, the problem usually isn't with their memory. The problem is with how they study. In my opinion, using a right way is the most important.

To remember words better, you need to understand how memory works. There are two kinds of memory: short-term and long-term. When you see, hear or read something, it goes first into short-term memory. But short-term memory lasts for only a few seconds, that means we will forget things soon in short-term memory. You will only remember something longer if it goes into long-term memory. Your long-term memory is like a very big library with many, many books. And like a library, it's organized. When you put away(放好，储存) a book or memory, you can't just leave it anywhere. You have to choose a place where you can find it again.

How can you do this with vocabulary? The answer is to work with the word and think about the word in new ways. You can do this by writing new sentences with the word in it. Even better, you can invent a little story about the word, with people or places that you know. Another way is to make a picture in your mind with the word. For example, if the word is "height", you can think of the tallest person you know and try to guess his or her height. All of these activities are good ways to think about words. They make the meaning of words stronger in your long-term memory. And they give a way to find a word when you need it.

This is my idea about how to improve ways to remember words, and I hope it can help you.

I often dreamed about Pisa when I was a boy. I read about the famous building called the Leaning Tower of Pisa（比萨斜塔）. But when I read the word Pisa, I was thinking of pizza. I thought this tower was a place to buy pizza. It must be the best place to buy pizza in the world, I thought.

Many years later I finally saw the Leaning Tower of Pisa. I then knew that it was Pisa and not pizza. But there was still something special about it for me. The tower got its name because it really did lean to one side. Some people want to try to fix it. They are afraid it may fall down and they don't want it to lean over the city.

I do not think it's a good idea to try to fix it. The tower probably will not fall down. It is 600 years old. Why should anything happen to it now? And, if you ask me, I like what it looks like. Nothing is perfect. It seems to say.

And who cares? Why do people want things to be perfect? Imperfect things may be more interesting. ________ Why is it so famous? There are many other older, more beautiful towers in Italy. But the Leaning Tower of Pisa is the most famous. People come from all over the world to see it.

There are many colours in the world. Do you know that a colour has weight*? I'm not joking. If you don't believe it, you may do a small experiment.

First, put two things with the same weight into two boxes. Then cover the boxes. Third, wrap* one box with a red piece of paper, the other with a white piece of paper. OK. Now hold the boxes with your hand one by one. It is certain that you will think the red one is a little heavier. Why do you think so? A scientist found that different colours have different weights in a man's mind. So he did many tests and at last he got the result. That is to say, every colour has its weight in our mind. The heaviest colour is red, then blue, green, orange, yellow and white.

The scientist told us that colours also have smell*. Can you smell the colour? Of course not. Then why did the scientist say so? That is because every colour stands for* a kind of light with a certain wavelength*. It reaches our brain* through sense* organs*.

According to this, scientists say that people feel good with their favourite colours. Your body and mind will be healthy by using the colours you like. Or, being with the colour you dislike, you'll be anxious or even get ill. For example, if you don't like red but have to stay in a room with red windows, wallpapers and furniture for two hours, you'll feel you have been there for four hours. But if the room is blue which is your favourite colour, you'll feel you have been there for only an hour.

Everyone loves holidays because they give us the (机会) to get close to （大自然）, have some fun and relax ourselves. (然而), holidays aren't  always great. Follow these tips to have a much more （令人愉快的） holiday.

First, spend enough time （准备）yourself for the holiday. Don't  （忘记） to buy tickets earlier and remember to （预订） your hotel before you start to go.

Second, do some research. How much do you know about the place you're going to visit? How's the weather there? Will there be any showers? Anyway, I （建议） you to always take an umbrella with you.

Finally, try to be （提供帮助的）. Wherever we are, we should always try to give others a hand, （尤其） those who are in bad situations, though it's not easy.

The whole school was talking about the winter camp. And everyone was looking forward to it me because I thought I would get homesick. But it was the way we grew up.

When arriving at the camp, the coach (ask) us to ski(滑雪) down to field. I skied (careful), but I still hit a piece of ice and fell down.

"Ha! Ha!" Behind me, somebody started laughing. I looked back to see was laughing at me. To my surprise, I saw girl in the same embarrassing(尴尬的) position I was in. "I thought I'd be bad at this, but it seems (difficult) than I expected. " she said suddenly, I started laughing, too. After being so afraid of (fall), it was a comfort not to fear it anymore.

The next day, I didn't want to go ski jumping, I was chosen to do that first. But when my (foot) left the ground, I felt I was flying and it was wonderful.

Just do your best (meet) every challenge. You'll never imagine how much you will get.

Last month we asked some students about their free time activities. Our questions were about exercise, use of the Internet and watching TV. Here are the results.

We found that only fifteen percent of the students exercise every day. Forty-five percent exercise four to six times a week. Twenty percent exercise only one to three times a week. And twenty percent do not exercise at all.

We all know that many students often go online, but we were surprised that ninety percent of them use the Internet every day. The other ten percent use it at least three or four times a week. Most students use it for fun but not for homework.

The answers to our questions about watching TV were also interesting. Only two percent of the students watch TV one to three times a week. Thirteen percent watch it four to six times a week. And eighty-five percent watch it every day. Although many students like to watch sports, game shows are the most popular.

参考词汇及句型：be famous for, Why not..., How about..., It's a good idea to...

要求：1）文章必须包含以上主要内容，可以适当发挥。

2）文中不能出现真实的班名和人名。

3）90词左右，开头和结尾已经给出，不计入总词数。

4）内容合理，句子及篇章结构准确、连贯，书写规范。

Dear Tony,  

Welcome to Yiwu! I'm writing to give my advice about how to spend your days in my hometown.

I'm looking forward to your coming!