浙江省温州市第二中学2023-2024学年九年级上学期开学...

My sister Diana is a runner. She used to be a pretty good sprinter*, but one day, all of that changed because of a 1  she made. 

She went to 2 early in the morning. After she took off her shoes, she realized she had left her running shoes home, which are 3 because they' re small, light and have spikes on the bottom.

When her coach found out the fact, he got 4  , so he ordered her to run around the track as a punishment. Off she went. Soon, she was running 5  other students who were on the long-distance* practice runs. 

The runners were moving 6  . It surprised the long-distance coach to see that this girl could keep up. He walked up to the sprinting coach to 7  about the girl. The two coaches were even more amazed to see that as the group of runners were coming around the final corner, my sister was in the 8  ! Another girl was close to my sister for a while, 9  because of her sprinting ability, my sister seemed to just pull away from that girl. 

It was her 10 time to run a long-distance race and she came first! The two coaches went to my sister to congratulate her on her 11 job. They were much more shocked when they looked down and realized Diana wasn't 12 any shoes!

"You told me to run and I thought you meant right away, so I 13 and started, " she explained.

"I can' t believe how comfortable it is to run without my 14 filled inside those little

sprinting shoes. "

From that moment on, Diana's sprinting days 15 . She's a natural long-distance runner. She works hard and hopes that she can go to the Olympics one day.

Our lives would not be the same without bees. Bees help plants grow. Many of these plants provide us with food. What would happen if there were no bees? Some fruits and vegetables that we enjoy could not grow. Bees are wonderful creatures. 

But now the number of bees is getting lower and lower. Scientists worry that bees may die off. How can we solve it? One answer is to make our gardens friendly to bees. 

Making our gardens bee-friendly can increase the number of bees. Planting a bee garden is a great idea. These gardens provide bees with nectar. A successful bee garden would have flowers from spring to fall. The garden would have all kinds of plants that are closely grouped together. Many people believe that all bees live in hives. In fact, some bees dig into the ground. There they build nests and lay eggs. People lay wood pieces or other things on the ground. Bees can not dig nests when these materials cover the ground. Here is another good way to help bees. When you are working outside, leave loose dirt in flower beds and gardens. 

Some bees' nests are in old pieces of wood while others' in holes, in buildings or in trees. Gardens can provide spaces like these for bees. Trees or walls that stop wind are a good idea. And cool areas also can help bees get away from the hot sun. Bee gardens also provide bees with water. Bees need water just like people do

Making a garden friendly for bees is far from a useless task. The results are worth the efforts. A bee-friendly garden is beautiful and colorful. Most importantly, it helps to keep bees healthy and happy. 

NASA has been trying hard to explore the space. The recent developments include, the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, the successful asteroid hit by the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spaceship, and the launch of the most powerful rocket ever built for the Artemis mission. The James Webb Space Telescope is the biggest and most powerful telescope ever built. It can see through dust in the universe and find new stars hiding inside those clouds. Even more exciting, it will try to find signs of Life on planets far away!

The telescope has been working for more than a year and has caught some amazing images and data. One example is an image of a huge star called Wolf-Rayet 124, which weighs about 10

times heavier than our sun, reported the Space website. 

DART spaceship is another breakthrough for NASA. It will be used to keep Earth safe from asteroids. In September 2022, NASA tested it by hitting an asteroid called Dimorphos. The goal was to change its orbit

Finally, we have the Mega Moon Rocket! This rocket is the most powerful one ever made and it's being used to help us get closer to Mars. NASA successfully launched it on Nov 16, 2022, and it had a 26-day trip around the moon. This is the first step of NASA's Artemis mission, which plans to set up a base on the moon for people to use in the future.

Despite the program's high cost, NASA believes that the Artemis project is worth it as it will be a key next step in the story of human exploration. As NASA administrator Bill Nelson told the BBC, "This time we' re going to learn how to live in that bad environment for long periods of time all with the purpose of one day going to Mars. "

My son Laurie came home at the first lunchtime from the kindergarten* and shouted, "Isn't anybody here? " "How was school today? " I asked. "All right, " he said. "Did you learn anything? " his father asked. Laurie answered

coldly, "I didn't learn nothing. "

"But the teacher spanked a boy, " Laurie said, "For being fresh, " he added, with his mouth full. "What did he do? " I asked. "Who was it? " Laurie thought. "It was Charles. " he said.

The next day, as soon as he sat down at lunch, "Well, Charles was bad again today. He said. "Today Charles hit the teacher The next few days, Laurie still came home with tons of bad stories about Charles.

During the third and fourth weeks it looked like a change in Charles. Laurie reported kindlessly, "Charles was so good today the teacher gave him an apple. " "What? " I said, and my husband added unbelievably, "You mean Charles? " "Charles, Laurie said. "He gave the crayons

around and picked up the books and the teacher said he was her helper. "

"Can this be true, about Charles? " I asked my husband. "Can something like this happen? ""Wait and see, " my husband said cynically. Within a week, everything was back to normal and Charles was his usual, terrible self.

"The Parent meeting's next week, " I told my husband one evening. "I' m going to find Charles's mother there. " "Ask her what happened to Charles, " my husband said. "I' d like to know. " "I' d like to know myself" I said.

At the meeting, I looked over the faces of all the other mothers. None of them looked unhappy enough to be the mother of Charles. No one stood up and apologised for the way her son

had been acting. 

After the meeting, I found Laurie's teacher. "I' ve been wanting to meet you, " I said. "I' m Laurie's mother. " "Oh, yes, " she said. "We' re all so interested in Laurie. " "He certainly likes kindergarten" I said. "He talks about it all the time. " "He's had some trouble getting used to school, " she said. "But I think he' ll be all right. " "Laurie usually fits in quickly, I said. "l suppose his trouble might be from Charles' influence. " "Charles? the teacher said. "Yes, I said, laughing . "You must have your hands full with Charles. " "Charles? " she said. "We don't have any Charles in kindergarten. "

Cell phones have been increasingly (流行的) in China these days. Many college students even high school students, have cell phones. Some even can't live without them.

Chongqing Three Gorges University held an activity (命名) "Cell Phone Ninja" They would like the students not to use cell phones for 21 days. It was really a challenge for most students. But many of them wanted to face it as (勇敢地) as they could because it was so meaningful.

The activity started on ( 四月)12th Each student who took part in it got a bracelet. Whether the students used cell phones or not, there would be a photo on the (屏幕) of the bracelet. After the last class of each day, the students sent the photos to the school's (公众)WeChat.

According to the teachers in the university, the students who (完成) the task successfully would get a present. In fact, the activity was not a competition (在……中间) students. It depended on students themselves to make the (决定) . The teacher hoped that this activity could not only help students from better study habits but also become one of (他们的) most unforgettable experiences. 

Do you know Stonehenge? It' s one of Britain' s most famous historical (place). Every year more than 750, 000 people enjoy (they) here. People like to go to this place as they want to see the sun rising on ( long) day of the year, especially June.

Different people have different ideas about Stonehenge. Some historians believe Stonehenge was a temple, but historian Paul Stoker thinks this can' t be true because Stonehenge was built many centuries ago. Other people believe the stones were used to make people (health). No one is sure Stonehenge was used for, but most agree that the position of the stones must be for a special purpose. People might build it (remember) ancestors*.

Stonehenge was built (slow) over a long period of time. Most historians believe it  (be) almost 5, 000 years old so far The stones are so big and heavy  no one knows how it was built, but we do know the builders must have been hardworking and great planners. 

Say thanks to