Celebrating New Year’s Day is one of the oldest and most exciting traditions around the world. Since this festival marks the beginning of the year, New Year’s Day is thought of as a perfect time for a “clean start”. People in the world decide to act better in the year just beginning than the year just ended.

No day has ever been celebrated in so many different ways. All over the world, countries have their own special beliefs about what the New Year means to them.

In Scotland, the New Year is called Hogmanay. In the villages of Scotland, barrels of tar (沥青) are set on fire. It represents that the old year is burned up and the new one is allowed to enter.

New Year’s Day is also the Festival of Saint Basil in Canada. Children leave their shoes by the fireside on New Year’s Day with the hope that Saint Basil, who is famous for his kindness, will come and fill their shoes with gifts.

The Jewish New Year is called Rosh Hashanah. It is an important time when Jews promise to do better in the future. Special services are held in the church, children are given new clothes and New Year bread is cooked to remind people of harvest time.

On New Year’s Day in Japan, everyone gets dressed in their new clothes and homes are decorated (装饰) with bamboos—symbols of long life.

In European countries such as Germany, France and Belgium, families start the New Year by first attending church services. Afterwards, they visit friends and relatives. In France, boys and girls receive gifts of money on New Year’s Day.

New Year celebrations around the 1.

书面表达

请根据以下提示写一篇短文。要求：要点齐全，书写工整，不少于80个单词。

假如你是李峰， 是上海阳光中学一名八年级学生， 你的学校最近建立了一个保护野生动物俱乐部――Friend of Nature。请你写一封申请信，要求加入俱乐部。要点如下：

1、你的身份和你想成为俱乐部成员的愿望。

2、说明你的兴趣和爱好。

3、你对野生动物的热爱以及对保护它们的重要性的认识。(认识不少于两点。)

4、每个星期天上午9点到10点可以参加俱乐部活动。

5、联系方式：0523-83880945 E-mail: Li Feng@sina.com.cn.

Dear Sir/ Madam

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yours Sincerely

Li Feng

Dave’s mother found that her son had a problem. He ____shared(分享) anything with his friends. She also found children didn’t like to play with her son. They said Dave always made them______.

Then Dave’s mother told him the _____ of an ant(蚂蚁) and a dove(鸽子).

“One day, an ant fell into a ____ and tried to save herself. A dove got a leaf(树叶) and let it fall into the river close to the ant. The ant _____ onto it and went to the bank(岸). After a few minutes, a woman came and wanted to catch the dove. The ant stung(螫)_____ on the foot. The woman shouted and the sound made the dove fly away. It _____ us that if you are kind to others, others will help you in the same way.”

Dave remembered the story from then on. One day, he found his classmate Jack was not very good _____ maths and got bad grades. So Dave helped Jack with maths. He also helped Jack in other ways. After a few days, it was Dave’s turn to clean the classroom. It was _____ for him to finish the work himself ______ it was very dirty. So Jack helped Dave clean the classroom. It made Dave think of the story of the ant and the dove. From then on, Dave began to enjoy helping others and sharing things with his friends.

1.A. always B. never C. still D. just

2.A. relaxed B. lovely C. unhappy D. interested

3.A. gift B. home C. story D. photo

4.A. place B. forest C. river D. mountain

5.A. ran B. flew C. climbed D. jumped

6.A. it B. her C. him D. them

7.A. say B. tells C. stops D. speaks

8.A. at B. To C. with D. for

9.A. sad B. happy C. easy D. hard

10.A. because B. and C. but D. so

The city zoo bought a new kangaroo(袋鼠) from Australia. It was famous for jumping very high. A zoo keeper was worried that the kangaroo would run away. He built special walls around it. But the next morning, people found that the animal was playing around outside. So the zoo keeper made the height of the walls 5 metres. But the kangaroo got out again the following day. The zoo keeper felt very angry, so he made the walls as high as 10 metres, but the kangaroo still got out.

“How high do you think he’ll keep on building the walls?” a giraffe asked the kangaroo. “I don’t know,” said the kangaroo. “Maybe they’ll reach 300 metres. But it isn’t important to me. I can still go out of the zoo if the zoo keeper doesn’t remember to close the door.”

1.What was this new kangaroo good at?

A. Climbing. B. Jumping. C. Running. D. Walking.

2.How high did the zoo keeper make the walls for the second time?

A. 3 metres. B. 5 metres. C. 10 metres. D. 300 metres.

3.What do you think of the zoo keeper?

A. Smart. B. Friendly. C. Kind. D. Careless.

A RICH(富有的) man was trying to find his daughter a birthday gift when he saw a poor man with a beautiful white horse. He told the man that he would give him $500 for the horse.

The poor man answered, “Sir, it doesn’t look so good.” And he walked away.

The next day the rich man came back. He would give the poor man $1,000 for the horse.

The poor man said again, “Sir, it doesn’t look so good.”

On the third day, the rich man took out $2,000 for the horse. He said he wouldn’t take no for an answer. The poor man said OK, and the rich man took the horse home.

The rich man’s daughter loved her gift. She climbed onto the horse, but then the horse ran right into a tree. It turned out that the horse was blind.

The rich man ran to see the poor man. He asked for an explanation(解释).

The poor man said, “I told you. It doesn’t look so good.”

1.The rich man , so he wanted to buy the horse.

A. liked the horse very much

B. didn’t see the special colour of the horse before

C. wanted to help the poor man

D. wanted to buy his daughter a birthday gift

2.The poor man said “It doesn’t look so good.” times(次数).

A. 2 B. 3 C. 4 D. 5

3.The underlined word “blind” means there was something wrong with the of the horse.

A. ears B. head C. eyes D. feet

4.The poor man said the horse didn’t look so good again and again to .

A. keep the horse himself

B. tell the rich man not to buy

C. sell the horse at a high price

D. show the horse was not beautiful

Once there were two mice. They were friends. One mouse lived in the country; the other mouse lived in the city(城市). After many years, the Country mouse saw the City mouse, he said, “Do come and see me at my house in the country.” So the City mouse went. The City mouse said, “This food is not good, and your house is not good. Why do you live in a hole(洞) in the field? You should come and live in the city. You would live in a nice house made of stone(石头). You would have nice food to eat. You must come and see me at my house in the city.”

The Country mouse went to the house of the City mouse. It was a very good house. Nice food was set ready for them to eat. But just as they started to eat, they heard a great noise(噪音). The City mouse cried, “Run!Run!The cat is coming!” They ran away quickly and hid(躲藏).

After some time they came out. When they came out, the Country mouse said, “I do not like living in the city. I like living in my hole in the field. For it is nicer to be poor and happy than to be rich and afraid.”

1.The Country mouse lived in .

A. a good house in the city B. a hole in the field

C. a big house in the country D. a nice house made of stone

2.The Country mouse thought the City mouse had .

A. a bad house and bad food

B. a bad house but nice food

C. a good house and nice food

D. a good house but bad food

3.From the passage, we know that the City mouse .

A. was caught(被抓) by the cat

B. often made some noise

C. was afraid of the cat

D. lived a rich and happy life

4.We can infer(推断) that .

A. the City mouse will leave the city

B. the City mouse will still live in the city

C. the Country mouse will move to the city

D. the Country mouse will still live in the country

Once there was a little monkey living on a small island(岛). He was not happy because he was the only monkey on the island. There was not any other monkey to play with him. He felt quite lonely(孤单的).

One day, a fish told the monkey he found a new island somewhere, and there were many monkeys on it. “Come with me,” the fish said. “Let me take you there.”

How could the monkey get to the new island? He could swim but he did not like to get wet(湿的). A bird tried to teach him to fly, but that was too difficult for him. The monkey wanted to make a boat, but he could not find any big trees on the island.

At last, an old turtle(海龟) came to help. He took the monkey on his back and swam to the new island. The monkey was very happy because he found lots of monkeys there. He knew that he would never be lonely again.

1.The little monkey wasn’t happy at first because .

A. he had no food to eat

B. it was too hot on the island

C. his parents were angry with him

D. there wasn’t any other monkey on the island

2.The little monkey got to the new island .

A. by swimming B. by flying

C. on a turtle’s back D. in a boat

3.From the passage, we know that the little monkey at last.

A. could swim B. could fly

C. made a small boat D. made many friends

4.What’s the best title(题目) for the passage?

A. The Monkey Will Never Feel Lonely

B. A Fish and a Monkey

C. How to Live on an Island

D. How to Make New Friends

B)根据短文内容和所给中文提示，写出空白处各单词的正确形式。每空限填一词。

Hi, Jack. I’m Bob. I want to tell you about my trip. It was really great. The weather was 1.(暖和的) and the air was clean. I went to the countryside with some of my friends. We 2.(离开) early on Saturday morning and drove there. We saw some farms and 3.(村庄) along the way. We went fishing and swam in the day. We also learned a lot about farming. Everyone thought it was an exciting day.

How about you? How was your trip? Write back to me 4.(立刻；不久).

Hi, Bob. I had a trip, too. Five days 5.(以前), my parents took me to India. First, we took a long bus 6.(旅程) to the countryside. We put up our tent by a 7.(湖). On the8. (第一) night, we just sat under the moon and told each other stories. It was so 9.(舒适的). The next morning, I got a terrible surprise when I looked out of our tent. I saw a big snake sleeping outside. Slowly, it woke up and moved into the 10.(森林). How unforgettable!

根据汉语意思完成句子

1.我们的英语老师对我们非常严格。

Our English teacher is very ______ _________ us.

2.我擅长数学，而我的妹妹擅长英语。

I do well in maths, while my sister is _______ _______ English.

3.她匆忙走向小房子，并敲了敲门。

She_______towards the little house and _______on the door.

4.我碗里什么也没有了，而且我的椅子碎了。

There is _______ in my bowl and my chair is in _______.

5.故事通常以“从前”开始。

The stories usually _______ _______ “Once upon a time”.

语法填空

阅读下面短文，按照句子结构的语法性和上下文连贯的要求，在空格处填入一个适当的词或使用括号中词语的正确形式填空(每空不多于2个单词)。

Once upon a time, there was a rabbit living in a forest. One day, the rabbit felt thirsty(渴的) and went down to a river to drink some 1.. He saw himself in the river and said, “Look at my long beautiful ears. I’m so proud(骄傲的) of 2. . But my legs are too3. and they make me look silly(傻的).”

After the rabbit 4.(finish) drinking, he turned around and suddenly found a tiger in front of him. With his short legs, he began 5.(run) as fast as the wind. The tiger couldn’t catch up with(追上) him. “It’s safe now,” said the rabbit 6. (happy) when he 7. (stop) running. But the tiger appeared(出现) again after five8.(minute). Just at the moment, the rabbit wanted to run away, but it was 9. . The tiger caught(抓住) him by his 10. ears.