（浙江省）2022-2023学年初中英语八年级上学期期末专项...

Kathy could still remember the night she had to leave her home in Hungary. It was the beginning of World War(战争) II and her family had to leave their county as soon as possible. She quickly filled a bag with a few pieces of clothing, her diary, and her treasure ——a beautiful silk scarf. Kathy and her best friend, Monica, had asked their parents to buy them matching scarves. They each would wear the scarves as a symbol of their friendship. Kathy had no idea that she was going to America that night and would not be returning.

Kathy kept that special silk scarf for many years. One day she decided to give it to her granddaughter, Eliza, to wear to her firs job interview for good luck. And with the scarf, Eliza kissed her grandmother and left for the interview (采访).

That afternoon Eliza left the interview, feeling sure that she had got the job. So she decided to celebrate (庆祝) by going to a restaurant. As she was sitting at her table, she felt someone looking at her. Sitting next to her was an old woman, who could not take her eyes away from her.

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" Enza asked.

"I'm sorry, dear, but you make me think of - someone I once knew, " the old woman replied. "My best friend looked like you and used to wear a scarf just like the one you're wearing around your neck.

 "Eliza listened carefully with her eyes and mouth wide open. She had heard stories of her grandmother's best friend and knew the meaning of the scarf.

"My name's Monica, dear. I lived in Hungary as a child, but my family had to leave when I was fourteen years old. I've been living here in California from then on. " said the old woman.

Eliza could not believe her ears …

Sports can be a lot of fun. They are also a great way to get exercise and stay healthy. But it's important to stay safe. Here are several ways for you to remember while playing sports.

Move and stretch

Before playing sports, it's good to warm up. Learn the right ways to stretch. This will help you get less hurt.

Listen up!

People make rules not only to keep games fair but also to keep you safe. Listen to your coach. He or she will keep you and your playmates safe in the game.

Drink water

The body needs water. When you sweat, your body loses water. That's why it's a good idea to keep a water bottle nearby during play. Take a break and drink up!

A farmer had a cow. He looked after this cow very well and one day when it was ill, he was very worried.

He telephoned the vet "What's the problem?" The vet asked him when he arrived.

"My cow's ill," the farmer said. "I don't know what's the matter with her. She's lying down and won't eat. She's making a strange (奇怪的) noise. "

The vet looked over the cow. "She's certainly ill. " he said, "and she needs to take some very strong medicine. "

He took a bottle out of his box, put two pills into his hand and said, "Give her these. The pills should make her better. "

"How should I give them to her?" the farmer asked.

The vet gave him a tube (管子) and said, "Put this tube in her mouth, then put the pills in the tube and blow. That'll make it. "

The next day the vet came to the farm again. The farmer was sitting outside his house and looked more worried. "How's your cow?" the vet asked.

"No change," the farmer said, "and I'm feeling very strange myself."

"Oh?" the vet said, "Why?"

"I did what you said," the farmer answered. "I put the tube in the cow's mouth and then put two pills down it. "

"And?" the vet asked. "The cow blew first. " the farmer said.

Here are some ideas for learning English faster.

You are like a new baby. Babies learn their language slowly. First they learn to listen. Then they learn to talk. Finally, they can read and write.

Listen to English every day. Listen to English radio, watch English TV, go to see English movies or use online lessons. These are useful.

Read English stories. Start with children's storybooks. Try to read stories for English start learners. Try English Club.

Write down new words. Start a new word notebook. Write words in alphabetical order (A_B. . . C. ). Make some sentences. Try to use an English-English dictionary.

Keep an English diary. Start with one sentence. Like how do you feel? How is the weather? What did you do today? Write another sentence tomorrow.

Alex was a giraffe and lived in a zoo with his mom, dad and other giraffe friends. As Alex grew, he found his neck (脖子) was much shorter. He began to get worried. But his mother told him that he was special. She said it was OK how short or long his neck was.

Alex tried not to think about his short neck. But as his friends grew taller and taller, his neck stayed short. Sometimes the other giraffes laughed at(嘲笑) him, but his parents told him not to worry. They said that he should be happy with himself. He tried, but he could not even play in some giraffe sports. He was just too short.

One day, one of the zoo workers came and took Alex away. Alex was afraid. Would he have to leave the zoo just because he didn't have a long neck? The zoo worker smiled(微笑) at Alex and gave him some food. He felt better. Then he took Alex into another place in the zoo. There was a small door between the two places. Alex was the only giraffe that could come and go through it.

 Soon Alex's parents came to see him. "I told you that you were special, " his mother said. "The zoo has made a place just for you because so many people want to see how special you are！" She was right. Visitors watched him and shouted excitedly. They looked happy to see something so special at the zoo.

Yellowstone National Park, in Wyoming, USA, is a popular vacation place. But in the summer of 1998, it was a danger to visitors. Why? The place visited for its beautiful sights was on fire. The park soon closed to the visitors. Fires burned(燃烧) for almost four months. Lots of plants and animals died in the fire. By the end, about 45% of the park had burned. 

Although wildfires can be bad for the environment, they are also an important part of the ecosystems(生态系统)。Some forests can get crowded for other trees that not much sunlight reaches the forest floor. This makes it hard for other plants to grow. Fires can make these forests less crowded so that trees, seedlings, and wildflowers can grow. 

Wildfires also help forests by burning leaves and plants on the ground. It will add nutrients（养分）to the soil, which helps plants grow. 

Wildfires help forests in another way, too. Some evergreen trees can release（释放）their seeds in a forest fire！The fire reaches to even the top of the highest trees. After the fire, new trees start to come out. 

A forest is a busy place after a wildfire. New plants begin to grow. The soil is rich with nutrients, and more sunlight reaches the ground. This helps the new plants grow quickly. When plants come back to a forest, animals are not far behind. New flowers bring insects, birds, and other animals. The animals use the plants for food. They also help spread the plants' seeds. This helps the forest grow back even faster. Many animals make their homes in trees after a fire. The forest quickly becomes full of life again. 

STUDY BOOKS

How do we know the time? A clock, a watch or a mobile phone can help us. However, many years ago, there were no clocks and knowing the time was not so easy. Over the centuries people have developed different ways of telling the time.

About 5,500 years ago, the Egyptians invented the sun clock. This was a tall stone building. Its shadow showed the movement of the sun. So people were able to know midday. The Egyptians made a sundial about 3,500 years ago. It was smaller than the sun clock and could let people know the time for half a day, but on cloudy days or at night it wasimpossible to tell the time with a sun clock or a sundial. Water clocks were the first clocks not to use the sun. The idea is simple. Water flows from one bottle to another. When the water reaches a certain level, it shows the hours. The Egyptians used water clocks about 3,400 years ago. These clocks were popular in the Middle East and China but they could not make people know the exact time.

In the 13th century, the mechanical clock was invented. This was more exact, but it was expensive to make one. Over the next few centuries it was developed. For example, springs (发条) were used around 1500. A nd people could get the exact time. In 1927, the first quartz clock was developed. Clocks became cheaper to make. In 1956 came the digital clock. And nowadays, we can know the exact time from the mobile phone.

There has been a lot of progress in timekeeping. Clocks are always changing but some things never change. Many of us still have trouble getting out of bed on time and not being late for school or work.

Shelby played Bella in the film A Dog's Way Home in 2019. She looked just like a dog star. However, the dog was not born a movie star. About ten months ago, she lived on the streets and spent days looking for food in trash (垃圾).

It was in April 2017 that someone found her on the street and took her to the animal center. Then the dog's life changed(改变). The workers at the center named her Baby Girl and put her picture on the Internet to help her find a home. Luckily, the filmmakers of A Dog's Way Home were looking for a dog just like Baby Girl. So when the dog trainer(训练师) Miller saw the photo, she was quite interested. "It was a really good picture, and she was smiling beautifully," said Miller.

Miller gave Baby Girl a new name—Shelby—and also some tests. To Miller's surprise, Shelby did all the tests well. And it took Miller only three months to train Shelby to be a Hollywood actress. Of course, Shelby did a good job in the movie A Dog's Way Home. After the movie ended, Shelby found a home in California. She is now working as a therapy dog(治疗犬), spending her days visiting hospitals and schools. As a therapy dog, Shelby also does her job very well. Her owner(主人) said, "She just knows what she needs to do when she needs to do it. Not all dogs have that."

But, hopefully, Shelby's story will make more people bring dogs and other pets from animal centers home.

In 1997, 12-year-old American girl Caitlin and 14-year-old Zimbabwean Martin became pen friends through their schools. They didn't know at that time how their handwritten letters would change their lives.

It all began as a school task. Everyone in Caitlin's class should choose a pen friend from another country. All the other kids picked countries like France or Germany, but Caitlin chose Zimbabwe because the name sounded cool.

Martin lived with his family in one of Zimbabwe's worst place where they shared one room with another family. And a bed was their only piece of furniture.

When Caitlin's first letters arrived at Martin, they were simple and common. The two kids wrote about their favorite music and what they liked to do. But as Martin wrote more about his life and his letters were written on pieces of rubbish, Caitlin found how badly Martin lived. Without telling her parents, she began sending money with her letters—$ 20 at a time. While the money was not much to Caitlin, it meant more food for Martin's family and helping him pay his school fees.

It lasted six years from their first exchange of letters to Martin's arrival in the United States. With the help of the money from Caitlin's parents later on, Martin finished his university and got his MBA from Duke University.

Today, Caitlin and Martin aren't only best friends, but they also share their story in a book called I Will Always Write Back. They want to tell readers to do something kind for others as well as looking beyond their own lives, which might make their lives change a lot.