浙江省宁波市2023-2024学年九年级上学期期中模拟练习

There is an old English saying, "Laughter is the best medicine." One person certainly would have agreed with this is Norman Cousins.

Norman Cousins was the editor of a magazine called Saturday Review for almost forty years. He also 1 and spoke about world peace and anti-war issues(反战议题), traveling to many different countries to share his2

    In the 1960s, after returning to the United States from a busy and tiring trip toEurope. Mr. Cousins got3. He discovered he had a strange disease that caused great pain in his bones(骨头).

    In less than a week after he got back, he could not 4it. Every move that he made was painful. He was not able to5at night. The doctor told Mr. Cousins that they did not know how to cure (治疗)his problem and he might never 6the illness. Mr. Cousins, however , refused to give up hope .

    Mr. Cousins thought that the illness could be caused by7thoughts. He did not want to take 8to cure himself. Instead, he felt that happy thoughts or laughter might cure his illness.

    He began to experiment on himself while still in the hospital by watching comedy shows on televis ion. Mr. Cousins quickly found that ten minutes of9 laughter during the day gave him two hours of pain-free sleep at night.

Deciding that the10could not help him, Mr. Cousins left the hospital and checked into a hotel room where he could11his experiments with laughter. For eight days, Mr. Cousins12in the hotel room watching comedy shows on television, reading amusing books, and sleeping whenever he felt13. Within three weeks, he felt well enough to take a vacation to Puerto Rico where he began running on the beach for14.

    After a few months, Mr. Cousins was15to carry on his work. He had laughed himself back to health.

    An old woman walked into a clothes shop between a cinema and a bank. She asked the salesgirl to let her have a look at the new dress. However, the girl didn't say a word. She just stood there. The old woman asked the girl to show her the new dress again. But she said nothing. The old woman smiled. She looked at the girl and said to herself, "I am too old to see well. I don't know who is a model girl and who is a real girl." When the salesgirl heard that, she shouted at the old woman, "What? Did you call me a model girl?" The old woman was very surprised. She said "Oh, dear. What a surprise! The model can speak."

Everybody's house smells in some way.

You almost never even notice the way your own place smells. You notice the way everyone else's place smells as soon as you walk in. There are their cats, and the soap, and the new furniture they just got. And those all add up to the way their house smells,

But you can only smell your own house after you've been away for a while—like, a long while. Not just a workday, but like a week.

It has to do with sensory adaptation (感觉适应). That's the scientific way to say that you just get used to it. And it's more pronounced for our sense of smell than for any other sense, like our hearing, for example.

Researcher Pamela Dalton at the Monell Chemical Senses Center has done a lot of work on sensory adaptation. She and her learn say that adaptation means you respond less when a stimulus(刺激物) is repeated. So when you are at home, the smell of your house is all around you. It never goes away. It's not just repeated—you're swimming in it. So you become adapted to the way it smells.

The thing with smell, though, is that you adapt to smells really quickly. After "even a few breaths" of a smell, Dalton says, you begin to acclimate to it.

You start to experience dial as being less strong and finally take no note of it at all. That's why you can smell your friend's house when you walk in, but you don't really notice it all the time you're there.

Being able to detect (探测) smells is important. It might warn you of danger, like an approaching tiger or something gone bad in your drinks. Or it might mean something pleasant, like fresh bread or blooming flowers.

Your nose can stay on the lookout for new smells that are dangerous or delicious. It might be a simple housekeeping thing, like a dishwasher in the kitchen or a towel in the bathroom that needs to be cleaned.

Then, if you still want to change the way your house smells, many things might do the trick, like candles, fresh fruits, or a bottle of perfume（香水）.

John is interested in talking with different people and he's good at writing. He hopes to be a newspaperman.

Helen lost her handbag on her way to work.

Mrs. Brown's birthday is coming. Her husband plans to invite her to enjoy dinner in a nice place.

The Greens have just moved to London and need to have a place to live in. Betty is an active girl. She likes sports, singing and dancing. She's not married yet. She wants to find a nice man as her boyfriend.

    How can we students keep ourselves safe? Here are some tips.

    On your way home or to school: Wait for the  traffic light, and look left and right before you cross the road. If you see a car coming, don't cross until it really  . Dress in bright colors, so the drivers can  you clearly.

    At school: When students around you begin to push, try to hold onto（抓住） something, or stay in a safer corner. you fall down in a crowded place, cover your head both hands.

    When there's a fire: Stay calm and leave quickly. Use a piece of wet cloth to cover your mouth and nose so that you don't breathe in smoke. If your catch fire, drop them to the ground and roll from side to side to  out the fire.

    For eating: Wash  like apples or pears carefully before you eat them. Check the expiration dates（保质期） and if your food looks or smells , don't eat it.

    For taking the escalator（自动扶梯）: Hold onto the handrails（扶手） and stand on the right side because right arms are stronger. It is  to run up and down on them. You may fall down and hurt yourself.

Cindy is blind and she (live) with her family. During the day, she helps to feed the chickens, clean the room and collect water. She really likes helping her Mom chores. Cindy's mother teaches her at home because she doesn't go to school. Cindy said," I want to go to school and enjoy (be) there with some friends. But if I can't go, I'll learn from my mom at home. When I grow up. I'd like to be a doctor (look) after myself and help people."

Millions of (数百万的) (child) in the world can't go to school because they are blind. Some people are working hard to help them lo have a chance to go to school.