牛津版八年级下期中英语阅读训练10篇
1
Joanne Rowling was born in
Bristol in England. Joanne always wanted to write and she wrote her first story
when she was only five or six. At school her favorite subject was English and
she used to make up stories with her friends. When she left school, she went to
a university and studied French. While there she studied in Paris for a year,
and after leaving university, she had many different jobs. However, most of
all, she wanted to write! One day, during a long train journey, she got the
idea of writing about a boy who is a wizard(男巫), but doesn’t know it.
In 1992, she left
England to go to Portugal to teach English. While she was there she got married
to a Portuguese journalist and she had a daughter, Jessica. The marriage ended
in divorce and Joanne went back to live in Edinburgh in Scotland. She had very
little money and she lived in a very small house, which was often cold. She
could not afford the heating(供热). It was there that she finished her first book about Harry Potter, a
young boy who is a wizard. At first, no one wanted to publish(出版) it. Then, one day, in 1997, she
found a publisher. She was very excited and happy!
Much to her surprise,
her book was a great success! It sold in millions! It won many prizes! It made
Joanne very rich and it made her very famous. Everybody wanted to read about
Harry Potter. Adults and children now read her books. Her stories have been put
into many languages, and they can now be read all over the world. Her first
several novels have been made into films. Joanne Rowling has written more books
about Harry Potter and all of them have sold millions of copies. Some of these
later books are also being made into films.
1. When did Joanne study in Paris?
2. Why was her house small and cold When Joanne lived in Edinburgh?
3. When she finished her first book about Harry Potter, was the book published
at once?
4. Are her books about Harry Potter very popular all over the world?
5. When did she write her first story?
2
One day, I happened to meet an
Englishman in the street and soon we began to talk. As I was talking about how
I was studying English, the foreigner seemed to be very surprised, gently
shaking his head and saying, "You don't say! You don't say!" I was
puzzled (困惑的), and I thought,
"Perhaps this is not a right thing to talk about." So I said to him,
"Well, shall we talk about the Great Wall? Have you ever been there?"
"Certainly, everyone back home will laugh at me if I leave here without
seeing it. The Great Wall is "wonderful!" "Yes, it is one of the
wonders in the world. And people of many countries have come to visit it."
As I went on telling him more about it, he stopped me again, "You don't
say!"
I couldn't help asking, "Why do you ask me not to talk about it?"
"Well, I didn't ask you to do so," he answered, greatly surprised.
"Didn't you say 'You don't say!' ?" I asked
again.
Hearing this, the foreigner laughed loudly. He began to explain, " 'You
don't say!' means 'Really?' . Perhaps you know little about English idioms (惯用语)."
Wow! How foolish I was! Since then I have been careful with English
idioms.
1. What did the writer and the Englishman talk about at first?
2. When did they begin to talk about the Great Wall?
3. What made the foreigner laugh?
4. When the foreigner used the idiom "You don't say!", what did he mean?
5. Why was the writer puzzled?
3
International Classmates,
Hi there. I'm Liu Wei. I'm a Chinese teacher at an international school in Beijing. We have kids from all over the world here. In some ways our school is a little different from other schools in China. For example, the pupils don't wear uniforms. Let me tell you about my favorite junior high school students.
Matt comes from New York. He loves rap music. When he walk between classes he always wears headphones. His c1assmates are afraid of him because he's big for his age and he's really noisy! In his free time he watches action films and practices Kung Fu. Today he's entering a' Kung Fu competition. Good luck, Matt!
Brad is one of Matt's classmates. He is a very quiet boy. He was born in Sydney, but his parents are from Poland. He likes speaking Polish and English when he's at home. Brad gets very angry when people can't understand him! Brad's favorite sport is swimming. He wakes up early and trains every day before school.
Lucy is another of my favorite students. She's a tall, beautiful girl from London. She's a good student and she's always studying. Sometimes she can't sleep because she thinks too much about her lessons! Lucy loves Beijing, but she doesn't 1ike the summer. She says it's too hot! She wants to study medicine when she leaves school. I hope she's successful!
1.How are Matt and Brad different in character(性格)?
Matt is ______, but Brad is _________.
2. What problem does Lucy have?
She can't _________ and doesn't like the __________.
3. Where are the four people mentioned in the passage from?
Liu Wei is from ________. Matt is from _______. Brad is from _______. And Lucy is from _________.
4
Mike: Hello, Mary! May I have a talk with you?
Mary: Sure.
Mike: What’s your father’s job?
Mary: He’s a doctor.
Mike: Where does he work?
Mary: He works in a hospital.
Mike: Can you tell me something about your father’s hospital?
Mary: I don’t know much about his work. I just know he is very busy every day.
He works five days a week, from Monday to Friday. Sometimes he works on
Saturday or Sundays. He gets up early in the morning. He cooks breakfast for my
family. After breakfast he goes to work at 7:10. He has lunch at his workplace.
He comes back home at about 6:30. My mother cooks dinner. After dinner my
father does the washing. Then he goes out for a walk. Before he goes to bed, he
often reads some newspaper or watches TV. He goes to sleep very late.
Mike: Thank you, Mary. I’d like to write something about your father, and I
want to put it in our school newspaper. Do you think it’s OK?
Mary: I think so.
Fill in each blank with one word according to the passage:
1. Mary’s father is a ________.
2. Mary says her father works in a ________.
3. We know Mary’s father is very _____ because he works five days a week and
does some housework every day.
4. Mary’s father has lunch at his ________.
5. Mary’s father often reads some newspapers or ______ TV before he goes to
bed.
5
Fill in the blanks with the first given letters:
In the United States, children start school when they are five years old. In some states they must stay in school u___1____ they are sixteen. Most students are seventeen or eighteen years old when they l___2___ secondary schools. There are two kinds of schools in the United States: public schools and private schools. Most children go to public schools. Their parents do not have to p___3__ for their education. Those schools get money from the g____4___. If a child goes to a private school, his parents have to get enough money for his schooling. Some parents still prefer private schools, though they are much more e___5______. Today about a half of the high school students go on to universities after they f___6___ the secondary school. A student at a state university does not have to pay very much if his parents l___7___ in that state.
But many students look for p____8____ jobs while they are studying at universities. In this way they f___9___ good working habits and live by their o___10__ hands.
Key:
1. 1. When she left school.
2. Because she had very little money.
3. No, it wasn’t.
4. Yes, they are.
5. When she was only five or six.
2. 1. About how the writer was studying English.
2. When the Englishman said, “You don’t say!”
3. When he heard the writer’s puzzle about “You don’t say!”.
4. He meant “really”.
5. Because he thought the Englishman asked him not to say anything.
3. 1. noisy, very quiet 2. sleep, the summer
3. Beijing, New York, Sydney, London
4. 1. doctor 2. hospital 3. busy 4. workplace 5. watches
5. 1. until/ unless 2. leave 3. pay 4. government 5. expensive
6. finish 7. live 8. part-time 9. form 10. own
6
Last week, 169 Junior 1 students at No. 35 Middle School of Shenyang took their first no-teacher exam. After the teacher handed out the exam paper, he left the room and never came back. A student collected the papers when the exam ended.
"That test was not only a test of knowledge, but also a test of moral (道德). We wanted to show students how important honesty is," said Cai Wenguo , the school's headmaster. The school says no cheating(作弊) happened in the test. Next year, it wants 80% of its exams to be without teachers. But students have different ideas.
"I was happy and excited during the exam because my teachers trusted me," said Lang Yudan, a 13-year-old girl in Class 11.
"Schools must trust students a lot not to use invigilators (监考人). But I think it is too early. Some students will cheat if there are no invigilators. And the students will not be able to ask for help when needed.” 99 said Hua Sha.
"I don' t like having invigilators in exams. When they walk around the classroom, they make me nervous. I would get higher marks without them in the room because I would feel more relaxed," Liu Qingxi said.
"I think it's very important to have invigilators in exams. Many students want to check their answers with each other after they have finished papers. And they can also keep the classroom in order when something unusual happens. They may make me nervous, but I still think we need them," Shangguan Yuan said.
Not using invigilators may be a good idea. But before using it, schools must tell students the importance of honesty and try to find ways to solve something unusual in exams.
1. What does the passage mainly talk about?
2. Why did No. 35 Middle School of Shenyang hold a no-teacher exam?
3. Does Liu Qingxi like to have invigilators in the classroom? Why?
4. What does Hua Sha think about no-teacher exams?
5. In the sentence "And they can also keep the classroom in order when something unusual happens", what does "they" refer to?
7
Young people can have problems with their minds. Some students become
worried because they have to study very hard. Others have trouble getting on
well with people like their parents and classmates.
Liu Wei, a Junior 2 student from Hefei, could not understand his teacher and
was doing badly in his lessons. He became so worried about it that he
started to cut his finger with a knife..
Another student, 14-year-old Yan Fang from Guang zhou, was afraid of exams. She
got very worried in one, and when she looked at the exam paper. She couldn’t
think of anything to write.
A recent report from Jiefang Daily says about 18% of Shanghai teenagers have
mental(心理的，精神的) problems. Their
troubles include being worried and very unhappy, and having problems in
learning and getting on with people. Many students who have problems won’t go
for advice or help. Some think they will look stupid if they go to see a
doctor. Others don’t want to talk about their secret.
Liang Yuezhu, an expert on teenagers from Beijing Anding Hospital has the
following advice for teenagers:
*Talk to your parents or teachers often
* Take part in group activities and play sports
*Go to see a doctor if you feel unhappy or unwell
Decide the following statements are true or false:
1. The students will have a headache if they often become worried or have
trouble getting on with others.
2. Liu Wei is good at his lessons.
3. Yan Fang’s problems happen when she takes an
exam.
4. Students won’t ask others for help because they don’t want to look
stupid.
5. One piece of advice from the expert is not to see the doctor if one feels
unhappy.
8
Television has taken the place of schools as the main educator(教育者) in America. There are several reasons for this. First, there is the number of hours. While Americans spend about 13,000 hours in schools, they spend 15,000 to 16,000 hours in front of a TV set. Second is the age at which viewers(观看者) start watching TV. People start watching and understanding TV at about the age of 3, which is several years before they start to do school work. Finally, there is the number of viewers. About 90,000,000 young people are attending school, but most of the Americans watch TV every day. It seems, then, that TV shows are taking the place of teachers and professors as the educators in America.
1. The main idea of this passage is ___________.
A.TV is more important than school
B. fewer and fewer children go to school
C. There is not a school which has no TV set in America
D.TV plays a great part in American people’s life
2. How many reasons why television has become the main educator are mentioned in the passage?
A. Two B. Three C. Four D. Five
3. The first reason shows ____________.
A. now children go to school less often than their parents did
B. in his life an American spends more time watching TV than at school
C .a TV program usually gives lessons of 15,000--16,000 hours
D. parents think 13,000 hours of school is not enough
4. In American, a child starts going to school _________.
A. when he is 3 B. when he is about 6 or 7
C. when he is able to understand TV D. after he starts to do school work
5. Every day in America ______________.
A. teachers and professors watch TV
B.90,000,000 young people watch TV
C. not only young people watch TV
D.15,000--16,000 people each hour watch TV
9
Fill in the blanks with the first given letters:
In England, weather is a common s 1 of conversation. “Isn’t it a nice day?” “Do you think it will rain?” “I think it’s going to snow.” People often b 2 a conversation with these words.
Many people think they can t 3 what the weather is going to be. But they hardly ever a 4 with each other.
Listen, there are two men talking about the weather. One man says, “Do you see it is cloudy in the east? It’s going to rain tomorrow.” The other will say, “No, the weather is going to c 5 up very quickly. We are going to have a fine day tomorrow.”
People often want the weather to be as what they like. When a farmer needs w 6 , he wishes somebody could tell him: “It’s going to rain.” He won’t b 7 anyone else.
When friends have a trip, they are so s 8 the weather is going to be sunny so that they sit eating their lunch at an interesting place.
Almost everyone hears what the w 9 will say. But he doesn’t always tell us what we want and sometimes he makes mistakes. Still he usually comes closer to being c 10 than anyone else.
10
The snow went on falling, and they could see only a few meters in front of them.
“We should go back.” Said Judy. She was afraid.
“But where is the path?”
Everything was covered with snow. The sky was grey. “What’s the time?” asked Paul. Judy looked at her watch. “Nearly 5 o’clock. It gets dark in an hour.”
“We must start walking and hope we find the path. I think the snow’s stopping.” Said Paul. But it wasn’t stopping. The wind was strong. It blew around them cold and wet.
“Just keep going downhill.” Said Judy. “We can’t go wrong.”
Then Paul fell on some rocks. He shouted, “Judy! I’ve hurt my leg.” He couldn’t stand up. His leg hurt too much.
“I’ll have to phone for help.” Said Judy, “I hope the mobile phone works up here!”
Luckily it did. They phoned the mountain service. “Don’t move. Stay where you are. We are sending a team there.” Shouted the man on the phone.
They were not far from the path, so the team found them easily. They were lucky! People often get into trouble when they climb the mountains. You must always tell someone where you are going, and take a mobile phone with you. Mountain is a dangerous place to be if things go wrong!
Decide the following statements are true or false:
1. It was rainy and windy that day.
2. In the story, Judy and Paul were climbing the mountain.
3. The man in the mountain service fell down and got hurt.
4. The path was near the climbers.
5. If you are in the mountain, the most important thing is to get in touch with the outside world.
A 1. Exams without invigilators.
2. They wanted to show the students how important honesty is.
3. No, he doesn’t. Because invigilators make him nervous when they walk around the classroom.
4. It is still too early to have this kind of exam.
5. “They” refer to the invigilators.
6. 1. F 2. F 3. T 4. T 5. F
7. 1. D 2. B 3. B 4. B 5. C
8. 1. subject 2. begin 3. tell 4. agree 5. clear
9. water 7. believe 8. sure 9. weatherman 10. correct
10. 1. F 2. T 3. F 4. T 5. T