北京市海淀区2019届九年级下学期英语期末练习（二模）试卷

—It's     the fourth floor.

—On foot.

—OK. I can't wait to see the Great Wall.

—Thanks. My aunt     it for me when she travelled in Hangzhou.

—I usually exercise three times a week.

    Have you ever blown dandelion seeds to make a wish? Me too. Have you ever eaten a dandelion (蒲公英)? Me neither.

    "Time to go, Athena," Mama said from the sidewalk. She 1 open the car door waiting for me. I stepped in the car with my hook. "She knew I didn't eat dandelions. Why did I have to pick them with my family every spring?" I thought.

    My father and grandmother smiled from the front seats of the car. I turned and2 to Brigid, the girl who had just moved in. She stood across the street and watched. I was glad she didn't ask where we were going.

    We rode into the 3 , not too far from our house just outside Chicago. I set down my book feeling the warm breeze. I told the wind, "I hope we are not there yet."

    I had never seen anyone in the field with us, but I was always 4 that someone would notice us picking dandelions. People in America pulled dandelions from their yards. What would the new neighbors think if they found out our family ate weeds (杂草)?

    We drove west until the houses stopped. Then we stopped. We walked through a large field. Hundreds of yellow flowers 5 over the soft earth. I looked for a place to hide.

    "What's the matter with you, Athena?" Granny asked. "Nothing," I said. "But why do we eat dandelions? No one else does." "The best 6in the world." Granny answered.

    It seemed to take hours to fill the bags. By the time we were ready to leave, we had enough dandelions. On the way home, Mama and Granny talked about hosting a dinner party for the new neighbors.

    The night of the party, Brigid arrived with her parents. Mama served octopus with onions, peppers stuffed with lamb and rice, and horta made of dandelions. Our guests ate everything. Brigid tastedthe octopus and the lamb. Then she put her fork on the horta. "Wait!" I said. Too late. "You ate the dandelions!" I told her 7"Not bad," she said and ate another bite. We both laughed.

    After dinner, Brigid and I went to the backyard. The stars reminded me of dandelions in the softfield. I closed my eyes and made a 8 to be as open-minded as my family and my new friends.

    Should More Cities Make It Illegal (不合法)to Text While Crossing the Street?

Hawaii, the U.S., recently passed a law making it illegal to text or look down at mobile phones while crossing the street. It is the first major U.S. city with a law like this. Do you think more places should pass such a law? Here are some ideas.

    "All right, everyone, listen up!" said Rey." I have something important to say."

    Rey had always had something important to say since the first day of primary school. "This is really a big project," said Rey. "Trust me. As long as I'm in charge, we'll have the most wonderful project ever!"

    "It seems like Rey is always in charge," murmured(小声说)Jake.

    It was true. Rey always seemed to be in charge of everything. He wanted everything to be as perfect as possible, and he just believed that he was the only person who could make that happen.

    This time, Rey decided to do a play about the Wright brothers and the first airplane flight. He announced that he would be the director, and he had also decided on the role that everyone would play. He would play the part of Orville Wright. He even had made the costumes, which Hannah would like to do.

    The next day, Rey announced he was going to play Wilbur Wright.

    "How can you play both of the Wright brothers?" asked Hannah.

    "I'll just put on different hats for each one," said Rey.

    The next afternoon, no one showed up at the rehearsal (排练) except Rey. An hour had passed, and he still hadn't heard from others.

    Finally, Rey called Stephen. "I quit the play," said Stephen. "In fact, we all quit. We're going to do something else."

    Rey spent the rest of the afternoon working on the play. Moving the set himself took too long, and running around to change costumes left him out of breath. Worst of all, half the airplane dragged on the ground as Rey pulled it across the stage. Rey felt upset and confused.

    He knew now that he couldn't do the play alone. He needed his friends' help if it was going to work at all.

    The next day at school, Rey had a talk with his friends, "I'm going to change. I promise I will listen to you. What do you want to do?

    "Hannah thought the play should he shorter and Jake wanted to make a new airplane that would be easier to handle. Stephen thought everyone should get a chance to play a real part like Wilbur Wright. Fern wanted to be able to act her part the way she wanted.

    "You are probably right," Rey said. "Let's try it your way.

    "Everyone smiled.

    On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon. The space suit Armstrong wore on his lunar mission has come to symbolize courage and human achievement. In 1971, the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum(NASM), in Washington, D.C., acquired (获得) Armstrong's suit. It stood proudly on display for visitors to admire, until there were changes in the suit's appearance. "Over time, the suit started to show signs of deterioration," Lisa Young said. Young is an objects conservator (文物修复员) at NASM. It is her job to preserve(维护)historical and cultural objects.

    "Plastics are tricky to conserve," Young says. They tend to degrade (降解)over time. Neoprene is one type of plastic in Armstrong's suit. The material can turn brittle and break into tiny pieces. This would ruin the space suit. NASM, seeking ways to preserve this historical treasure, removed it from display in 2006.

    What causes plastic to degrade in the first place? "Many things," Odile Madden says. Madden is a scientist in California. She explains that sunlight, water, humidity, and dust can cause plastics to degrade. "Some plastics will break down no matter what we do," Madden says.

    Yet history can still be saved. Scientists have found that storing plastics in cooler temperatures, with lower humidity levels, can slow degradation. Young says Armstrong's suit is currently in storage at a temperature of 63°F and a lower relative humidity of 30%. These conditions will be maintained when Armstrong's suit returns to a museum display case in time for the 50^th anniversary of the moon landing.

    Plastic degradation affects art, too. Artist Claes Oldenburg created False Food Selection in 1966.It consists of plastic food displayed in a wooden box. The plastic food used to look real. Now, some of it has flattened and yellowed. Georgina Rayner is a conservation scientist at Harvard Art Museums, in Cambridge. She says the artwork's wooden box produces an acidic (酸的) gas that eats away at the plastic. This speeds up the degradation process. But Rayner is motivated to conserve this artwork and others like it. "Plastics are a part of our history," she says. "It's important to preserve them so that future generations can understand the journey we've taken."

    During this age of technology, life moves fast and people only focus on what comes next, rather than living in the present. Often their daydreaming is centered on the "next" rather than the "now."

    Technology is all about what's next-the next innovation (创新),the next platform or the next device. This is most obvious with the iPhone. The iPhone X has just released, but businessmen and customers are already thinking about the next, newest iPhone. I am already counting the days until I can upgrade my iPhone.

    Throughout my adolescence (青春期), almost every single one of my peers have been too wrapped up with the next "great" thing and put too much stress on themselves while losing sense of what is going on now or what they have achieved; it drives me totally crazy. Upon entering high school, I was excited to spend the next four years with my closest friends. Sadly, once I hit my sophomore year (高二), I began to worry about getting into a good college and what I needed to do for that to happen. By concentrating on what's next, I seem to be missing what's great about high school.

    Most students in high school look at education as a means to an end; something that will set them up for the next step. Due to this, they pay close attention to the teacher in class, not to enrich their knowledge, but to score high on the test, making them stronger candidates (候选人) for college. What is even more annoying is that universities are now forcing high school students to have a clear idea of what they want to do in life. Most colleges have specialized schools, such as business, nursing and education; in most cases, it is very difficult to switch out of or into one of the specialized schools. Therefore, high schoolers do actually have to focus on what's next.

    When I go to college, all I am thinking about is still what comes next; that is, how to land a great job out of college. Everyone around seems to be like me. Actually, I truly hope that people who are in this very similar situation can figure out a way to make the "now" as important, if not more important, than the "next" in life.

    Taking all of this into consideration, the concept of what comes next is far too ingrained (根深蒂固的) into important things of life, such as technology and education. If people keep racing from one thing to the next, life will pass them by and in a hurry; no one will be able to look back on what they have experienced or achieved, because life will have become a blur (模糊).

    Todd Bol is the founder of the non-profit Little Free Libraries. Bol built thefirst little library in 2009 to honor his mom, who was a book lover and teacher. Bol wanted to share his mother's love for reading with others. He decided to build a wood box and fill it with books. He made it look like a tiny red schoolhouse. He placed the box of books on a post in his front yard with a sign that read "Free Books." This was the beginning of the Little Free Library.

    Soon Bol's neighbors noticed this tiny model of a schoolhouse. They began taking the books and replacing them with books of their own. The tiny library was always open. A library card was not needed. The books could be read and returned whenever. It offered people an easy way to read. This library didn't just provide books. It also helped build friendships among community. members. As more and more people visited Bol's little library, they began talking with one another. Everyone loved the little library. They shared thoughts, ideas, and s tories. They got to know one another. After all, as Bol said, "It's a magic box with books.

    "Bol's friends and neighbors wanted little libraries of their own. Bol built several and gave them away. One of his friends, Rick Brooks, noticed that the libraries encouraged people to read. He believed that Bol's little libraries could benefit more than just local friends and neighbors. With this in mind, Boland Brookes came up with a plan to build more than 2,500 Little Free Libraries around the world. To achieve this goal, they created a website. People can get information about the Little Free Libraries and how they can set up little libraries of their own.

    Thanks to Bol and Brooks, the Little Free Libraries are encouraging people to read more and to be friendlier. Today there are more than 75, 00 0 Little Free Libraries around the world, and they can be found on almost every continent.