Meet Thomas Wilson. Thomas is famous all over the World. He holds the world record for sleeping in(睡过头). One weekend, Thomas slept in for two days, three hours and fourteen minutes. It was unbelievable. No one in history had ever slept in for so long before.

Thomas was very proud of his world record. His friends were proud of him, too. Whenever Thomas walked down the street, people always came up to him and shook his hand. Thomas was a star.

The only person who wasn’t proud of Thomas’s world record was his father. Dad didn’t like it when Thomas slept in. He complained that whenever Thomas slept in, the lawns didn’t get mowed. He was worried about how high the grass was getting. Every weekend, it seemed to get higher and higher. “It’s like a jungle there.” Dad moaned(抱怨) to Thomas one day. But Thomas wasn’t worried about the grass getting higher. He had more important things on his mind—— like sleeping in.

One morning, Thomas was woken from a deep sleep by a loud roaring noise. It sounded like a wild animal pacing about under his bedroom window.

Thomas rushed over to the window and pulled the curtains back. His eyes bulged like basketballs. “What on earth…？” He gasped. There, in the middle of the backyard, was a lion! “Awesome!” cried Thomas. Suddenly, a giraffe poked its head through the window. It munched the leaves from a plant sitting by Thomas’s bed. Next, an elephant walked past the swimming pool and squirted(喷出) water all over Dad’s car! “Cool!” cheered Thomas. “Now I don’t have to wash Dad’s car today.”…(选自《新理念英语阅读》)

1.What is Thomas famous for?

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2.How long did Thomas sleep in one weekend?

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3.Was Thomas’s father proud of his son’s world record?

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4.Why did Thomas say he didn’t have to Wash Dad’s car?(no more than ten words)

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5.What do you think of Thomas’s world record for sleeping in?(no more than three words)

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A mouse was surprised to discover that the farmer and his wife had a mousetrap(老鼠夹)in the house. It felt so frightened that it ran to warn everyone, "There is a mousetrap in the house!" and wanted to get some help from them.The hen raised its head and said, "Mr Mouse, this mousetrap is only for you. I won't be worried about it." The mouse turned to the pig. "I am sorry, Mr Mouse, but the mousetrap has nothing to do with me either! " the pig said. Then the mouse turned to the cow. "It sounds like you have a problem, not me, " the cow said. The mouse returned to the house with head down and it was very sad.

That night the farmer's wife heard aloud sound and she rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness she could not see that it was a snake. The snake bit(咬)the farmer's wife. The wife caught a bad fever and the farmer thought the best way to treat a fever was chicken soup. So the farmer killed the hen for the soup. The wife got worse and her friends came to visit her. The farmer had to kill the pig to feed them. But the wife didn't get better and died. Her friends came and the farmer had to kill the cow to feed all of them.

1.How did the mouse feel when it discovered the mousetrap?

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2.Why was the mouse very sad?

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3.Will you help the mouse if it comes to you? Why or why not?

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Ever feel like no one really understands you well? “ Pepper” could be about to change all that. Pepper is the first robot to read human feelings. Using its emotion recognition functions(情感识别功能), Pepper can react to people when it is near them－making jokes, dancing and even singing in Japanese.

The man-like robot looks like a small girl. It is four-feet tall with a tablet computer（平板电脑） set to its chest. It has human-like hands, a girl-like body and baby-like voice. It was shown to curious people in Tokyo stores on Friday by Softbank, a Japanese robotics company.

Pepper can examine facial expressions(面部表情)，human voice and signs, then make an answer. Pepper is designed to be a family robot, but it isn’t like Rosie who can do housework on the cartoon. Pepper is used at the home or the store, where we provide fun and entertainment.

Pepper gets power from love inside a family. Not only is he making jokes, makingthem laugh, it can also help people when they are in trouble. In a natural accident, it can help make those people who are sad or lonely feel relaxed, encourage them or make them laugh.

Pepper goes on sale in Japan for around $2,000 in February 2015. For now, several Peppers are at Softbank stores in Tokyo for people to visit. The creators say before selling Peppers, they want the robots to store more knowledge, to do better in gettingalong with human.

1.What kind of robot is Pepper?

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2.How can Pepper help humans in a natural accident?

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3.Which robot do you want to have, Pepper or Rosie? Why?

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More and more people have phones today. Phone calls and messages help us easily keep in touch with others. It means that we seldom write letters now, but a TV show----Letters Alive(见字如面), is bringing back this old habit.

Letters Alive got its idea from a UK program with a similar name. Both shows invite famous actors and actresses, but there are no funny jokes or different competitions. Instead, it’s just one person walking up to a microphone and reading a letter.

The letters were written by people from different times in history. For example, in one episode(一集) they read a letter written by famous writer Xiao Hong to her younger brother in 1941. The letter shows that Xiao Hong missed her brother so much and had great hopes for his future.

Since its first episode on Dec 5, 2016, Letters Alive has been widely welcomed. Many audience members said that it has provided a breath of fresh air to today’s TV shows.

Apart from Letters Alive, some other cultural TV shows have also been well received by Chinese audiences. They include Chinese Poetry Conference (中国诗词大会), a classical Chinese poetry competition, and Readers(朗读者), a program that invites people to read poems and articles they like or wrote.

“This means that our audiences are not only looking for entertainment like gossip(八卦) and eye-catching games,” reported China Youth Daily. “Cultural values and true feelings are the keys to winning praise.”

回答下面5个问题，每题答案不超过5个词。

1.What does the old habit mean in the first paragraph?

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2.Who does the show invite to read letters?

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3.When was the first episode of Letters Alive broadcast?

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4.What do many audience members think Letters Alive provide to today’s TV shows?

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5.What are important to be popular?

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These days shared bikes are becoming the center of attention in my We Chat friend circle. Many of my friends are sharing photos of themselves riding bikes, especially during the weekend in natural parks, and I can see people logging in (登录) and out of shared bike apps.

I’m very happy that there are shared bikes on the road. They have saved us a lot of time during special situations, and on beautiful, clear days, people enjoy riding them outside the city.

I tried shared bikes last week, and I didn’t like them very much. I think the first shared bikes without baskets are designed for athletes. They are very hard to ride, and the seats are not comfortable. It makes me wonder whether people really like riding shared bikes or are just saying this to agree with others.

A friend secretly told me she tried the bikes to fit in. She doesn’t like bikes and finds Beijing’s roads too hard for bike riding. But recently, the only way to hang out with her friends is riding out of town together. To join in social activities, she had to pick up bike riding again.

Another friend admitted that he started talking about and sharing photos on shared bikes to appear modern and fashionable to friends. He started paying attention when shared bikes first came into use.

These views will give me something new to think about when I ride these bikes again.

回答下面五个问题，每题答案不超过六个词。

1.Where are shared bikes put?

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2.Who does the writer think the first shared bikes are made for?

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3.How does one of his friends hang out with his friends?

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4.When does his another friend begin paying attention to shared bikes?

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5.What did the writer think of shared bikes at the beginning?

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Monarch butterflies from eastern Canada make the most amazing journey in the insect world. Each year, this butterfly travels about 3000 miles to its winter home in central Mexico(墨西哥). How can it fly so far and why does it make this long and dangerous trip. Scientists still don’t have an answer.

For many years, people in Mexico wondered where the orange-and-black butterflies came from every winter. Then, in 1937, a scientist started to follow and study the butterflies. For the next 20 years, he discovered that one butterfly started its journey in Canada. Four months later, it arrived in Mexico.

The length of the butterflies’ trip is only one part of the mystery. Another amazing thing is that the butterflies always return to the same area in central Mexico.

How do the butterflies find their way back to the same place. This is an interesting question because only every fourth generation (代) makes the trip south. In other words, the butterfly that travels to Mexico this year is the great-great-grandchild of the butterfly that traveled there last year.

Each year, four generations of a Monarch butterfly family are born. Each generations of the family has a very different life. The first generation is born in the south in late April. It slowly moves north, reproduces(繁衍) , and then die. Each of these generations of butterflies lives for generations are born, reproduces, and die. Each of these generations of butterflies lives for only two or five weeks. In the autumn, the fourth generation of butterflies is born. This generation has a much longer life. It lives for about eight months. This generation of butterflies makes the amazing journey back to the winter there, and in the spring they reproduce and then die. Their offspring will be the first generation of the next circle of life.

Today, people are still studying the Monarch butterfly. But they are not clear about everything.

1.How long did it take the scientist to find out the Monarch butterflies came from Canada?

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2.Which generation of Monarch butterflies travel back to central Mexico?

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3.Does each generation of the family have the same life?

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4.Try to translate the word “ offspring” into Chinese according to the passage.

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5.The best title of the passage can be __________.

A. Family of Monarch butterflies B. Mystery of Monarch butterflies

C. Monarch butterflies’ birthplace D. Monarch butterflies’ winter home

We cannot remember clearly since when we have started to take our mobiles to a dinner table. This happens a lot, especially when we eat out. Once a dish comes, instead of lifting our chopsticks, we take out our mobiles and click. Later, we post the photos onto microblog or WeChat, “waiting to be liked”. Then we check our mobiles from time to time during the meal to see whether we get “liked” or not. We just cannot leave our mobiles for only a meal.

Does that sound familiar to you? Do you do that often? If not, how do you feel when others do that when having dinner with you?

A recent study shows what we are used to doing is not so good. Spending time taking photos of food makes the food less satisfying. To test this, some researchers did an experiment. (Some people, before, were, take, asked, could, to, photos, enjoy food, they). It proved that the more photos they took, the less delicious the food seemed to them. So, why not stop taking photos and just enjoy the food in front of you?

Besides the scientific result, there are also some other bad influences of taking photos of food before meals. After posting the photos onto the Internet, one will involuntarily (不自觉地) check his mobile many times. “Does everyone like my photos? I hope a lot of people like them!” It seems that your mobile secretly calls your name all the time, even when you are with real people.

So, next time you go out to have dinner with your family or friends, how about not taking photos of food? Let the food be delicious as it is and share your life with people around you. Trust me. It will be a wonderful time.

1.What happens a lot at the dinner table nowadays?

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2.What does the recent study tell us about taking photos of food?

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3.将文中括号内的单词连成一个句子，使短文意思通顺、完整。

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4.What does the fourth paragraph mainly talk about?

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5.What does the writer advise us to do while we’re having dinner with others?

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THE HISTORY OF LIVING IN SPACE

Space travel is nothing new. The first spacecraft with a human on board blasted into space In 1961. since then, people have not only been travelling to space, but many of them have also lived there for extended periods.

Food

All the meals on space stations are put together on Earth and sent to the space station, along with the astronauts, by space shuttle. Because the food has to last a long time (sometimes up to three months), a lot of it has to be preserved by dehydration or canning.

The space station does not have a freezer to preserve food, but It does have a cool room to keep fruit and vegetables fresh.

Astronauts also eat many other foods such as cereals, cereal bars, nuts and dried fruit that do not need any special preparation.

Eating

Astronauts have a set timetable each day. This tells them when to do everything, including when to have their meals. At meal preparation time, they start getting their food ready, which often includes adding water to re-hydrate the dehydrated foods.

Without the help of gravity, sitting down to eat can be tricky. Astronauts sometimes have to strap themselves and their food into place. Because of lack of gravity, astronauts cannot use ground salt and pepper, and all drinks must be taken from bottles. They also have to be careful that crumbs do not fly off and get stuck in vents and instrument panels.（选自《九年级下册新理念英语阅读》）

1.What does the space station have to keep fruit and vegetables fresh? (Fewer than 7 words)

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2.How do people send the food to the space station ?

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3.What tells astronauts when to do everything about eating?

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4.Astronauts can use ground salt and pepper, can’t they?

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5.Why should astronauts be extremely careful while they’re eating ?

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The Venice Historical Regatta

Every year, on the first Sunday of September, the Historical Regatta takes place in Venice. It has been one of the most important festivals in Venice since 1315. In the beginning, the event was organized to celebrate the return of Catherine Carnaro, the queen of Cyprus. Today, it is a celebration of joy and friendship.

The Historical Regatta · is made up of two parts : a parade and a rowing boat competition. The celebration starts with a parade of boats on water. The boats in the parade are colourful, and many of them have golden painting on both sides. People on these ancient-style boats wear clothes from the sixteenth century.

After the parade, there is a competition on the Grand Canal. It is watched by thousands of people. The Regatta is the most important event for every rower. For them, winning on that day means to become part of the history of this sport and of Venice. So rowers all over Venice look forward to joining in and winning this competition.

Traditionally, the 1st place winner was awarded a red flag, while the 2nd, 3rd and 4th place winners received white, green and blue flags. Some other awards were given along with the flags. One of them was a little living pig. But since some animal protection organizations object to this, the pig award has been cancelled.

When the Regatta is finished, the city is full of people celebrating among all the noise.

There are exciting performances in the important squares of Venice.

1.When does the Historical Regatta take place every year?

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2.What is the Historical Regatta made up of? (In no more than seven words)

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3.How many people is the competition on the Grand Canal watched by? (In no more than three words)

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4.What was the 1st place winner awarded? (In no more than three words)

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5.Why has the pig award been cancelled?

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Blood donation, is a wonderful thing to do. It is an easy and direct way to help social work. It helps those people in need of blood.

You are able to give or donate blood every three or four months. Blood donation is not a big problem, but you need to keep a few points in mind.

Before donating blood, you should have a healthy diet. Do not go for it on an empty stomach. After having a balanced diet, you will feel strong and comfortable to donate blood. Then you will not feel sick or weak.

For a good blood flow in your body, you’d better drink at least 6 glasses of water every day. Completely avoid taking alcohol (酒) and smoking a day before and after giving blood.

When you are going for blood donation, be relaxed. During the blood donation activity, take a deep breath and try to calm yourself. Don’t join in some other activities.

After donating blood, the following tips can help you. Take a rest for 15 minutes after the donation. It helps you to feel relaxed. Eat something and drink juice before leaving the blood donation centre.

Finally, be proud of yourself because you have done a great thing to save other’s life.

回答下面五个问题，每题答案不超过六个词。

1.How often can you donate blood?

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2.What should you have before donating blood?

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3.How much water do you need to drink every day?

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4.What should you avoid before and after the donation?

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5.How long should you take a rest after the donation?

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