浙江省杭州市2019-2020学年八年级下学期英语期中测试卷（人教版）（含听力音频）

    Journal(日志) writing can be a lot of fun. You can write about your feelings and things that are important to you. You can describe interesting, happy, and even sad experiences. Your journal will be full of memories (记忆) that you can read again and again.

    To make your journal special, make it yourself! Here are some directions (说明) for making your own journal and the covers that will protect it. Follow the steps in order. Soon, you'll have a journal that s made by yourself and tells all about you.

    ①Place a sheet of paper on each piece of cardboard.

    ②With a pencil, draw straight lines around the paper's edges.

    ③Cut along the lines. These pieces of cardboard will become the covers of your journal.

    ④With a pencil, draw an unclear, straight line along the left edge of the cover.

    ⑤Put the paper for the journal pages between the two cardboard covers. Use binder clips to hold the paper together orderly.

    ⑥Staple along the pencil line. This will hold your journal together.

    ⑦Now it's time to be creative! Decorate (装饰) the front and back covers of your journal. Use markers, crayons, paints, or colored pencils to add pictures or words to your covers. Choose decorations that are special to you. Now your journal is ready.

    Tired of solving a problem? Sleep on it! A study by a group of German scientists shows that getting enough sleep makes people better problem solvers. They found that people who sleep for at least eight hours each night are better at solving problems and thinking creatively. For their study, the scientists divided (分开) 106 people into groups. The group that got eight hours of sleep was more than twice as likely to find a shortcut for solving a math problem as the group that stayed awake all night.

    Being short of sleep has become a bad habit for many American kids. According to a survey by the National Sleep Foundation, 51% of kids aged 10 to 18 go to bed at 10 p.m. or later on school nights. The foundation reported that nearly 60% of 7- to 12-year-olds agreed that they felt tired during the day.

    This is important information for parents and kids. Getting enough sleep can improve a kid's performance (表现) at school.

    In the 1930s, Dan West was farming in Spain. It was wartime, and people were getting very hungry. As he handed out cups of milk to children, an idea hit him. "These children don't need a cup. They need a cow." This was the start of Heifer International.

    Send Some Cows

    Do you think a nice gift is a bike or a CD? Heifer International gives different kinds of presents. Its presents might say "quack" or "moo." Dan West asked friends in the United States to give gifts of heifers (小母牛), or young cows. Since then, Heifer International has given animals to four million families. It gives people the chance to feed themselves.

    ______________

    Heifer International wants the people they help to help others. For one project, the group sent chickens to some children in Asia. The children looked forward to the day when they could help others. Nine-year-old Julie said, "I want other girls like me to take care of chickens and their families. I want to share and give many away." Julie knew she had to tend to her chickens well so they would make new eggs and healthy chicks. She took good care of them, and they gave birth to strong, healthy chicks. Julie then passed on the gift of chicks to other families.

    Let Children L earn

    Because of Heifer International, children can spend their days in a schoolhouse instead of working in the fields. They can use the money they get from their animals to pay for school. Heifer International has changed many people's lives for many years, thanks to a kindhearted farmer named Dan West.

    Tara worked in a hospital as a nurse. One evening there was a big dance party at the hospital. Most of the doctors and nurses would be there, but it was Tara's turn to look after the sick children. She liked dancing very much, so she felt very sorry.

    She went to each sick child one after another and said good-night, until she came to one little boy, Dennis. He was eleven years old, but he was already able to talk like an adult (成人). Poor Dennis had a very serious illness, and now he was hardly able to move any part of his body except his hands. Tara knew he would never get any better, but he was always happy and always thinking about other people instead of thinking about himself.

    Dennis knew that Tara loved dancing, so now when she came to say good-night to him, he greeted her with the words, "I'm very sorry that you have to miss the dance because of us. But we are going to have a party for you. If you look in my drawer (抽屉), you'll find a piece of cake. I saved it from my supper today, so it's quite fresh. And there is also a dollar there. You can buy something to drink with that. And I'd get up and dance with you myself if I was able to," he added.

    Suddenly the hospital dance party seemed very far away and not at all important to Tara.

    You probably know some basic facts about deserts (沙漠). For example, most people know that deserts are dry places where more water evaporates (蒸发) each year than falls even with heavy rain. However, there are many facts about deserts that you may not know. Reading the following may help you find out more about these unusual areas.

    Most deserts have less than 10 inches of rain each year. However, in some deserts of South American, it is true that rain almost never falls. In one desert in Chile, no rain has fallen for 45 years in a row! All the rain falls within a single month!

Temperatures in deserts can reach above 37.8℃ during the day, but can fall below zero at night. Areas that are too cold for anything to grow are called "frigid deserts." Other deserts are cold for long periods. The Gobi in Asia has icy temperatures for as long as six months at a time.

    Although deserts can be low and flat, some have rocky hills and even mountains. Some also have lakes and plains covered with small rocks. Sand makes up only about 2 percent of North American deserts, 10 percent of the Sahara in northern Africa, and 30 percent of the Arabian Desert.

    To survive in a dry desert environment, plants and animals, including humans, must make some adaptation. Desert plants cannot grow too close together because each plant would not get enough water. Other animals stay in holes underground or rest in the shade during the heat of the day.

    Deserts cover about one fifth of Earth's land area. The largest desert in the world is the Sahara. The Sahara stretches from the Atlantic Ocean eastward to the Red Sea, spreading across parts of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Sudan, Chad, Niger, Mali, and Mauritania. It covers an area about the size of the United States.

    When a fire alarm goes off, you know it! The sound makes you realize the1. What if you were deaf? How would you know if an alarm2, or if someone knocked on your door? If you took a walk3a busy street, you wouldn't hear the sound of a car coming at you. A signal dog could help you with all of these things!

    Signal dogs are also called hearing ear dogs. They help people who are deaf by acting4their owners' "ears". They know5to do when they hear certain sounds. These dogs can learn up to eight sounds,6sounds from sirens, doorbells, and crying babies.

    Babies cry at night for many reasons. They might be hungry,7, or wet. When they cry, the sound is pitiful! Even very sleepy parents will wake up quickly to help. But what if a mom and dad can't hear? That's when a signal dog can help. The dog can8wake his owner up. He might9him with his nose, or pull at his night clothes. When his10wakes up, the dog runs to the baby. The dog may sit down near the baby's bed. If his owner doesn't11, the dog does it again. The dog will run back and forth12his owner takes action. A signal dog does different things for each sound it knows.

    People can train many13and kinds of hearing ear dogs. They look different and may not all move with beauty and grace, but all signal dogs are smart! Large dogs are14in public places because they won't get stepped on. Small dogs, however, can jump on your lap. Why is that important? Because signal dogs are more than just "ears". They are also15.

    Beatrice Biira is from Uganda, Africa. To get a good education is (important) goal a person can have. Even when she was only little girl, she saw how important it was to get a good education. A sheep named Mugsia helped her achieve, or reach that goal.

    After (accept) Mugisa from a charity group, Beatrice's family took care of the sheep and its kids. the money they made from selling milk and one of the kids, the family were able to buy (thing) they needed. But Beatrice wanted more. She (real) wanted to go to school.

     ten-year-old Beatrice had to start first grade with much younger students, she worked much harder. Soon she (catch) up with her friends. Beatrice's good grades made possible for her to go to school in the United States. Even though it was hard for Beatrice (live) so far away from her family, it has been making a big difference to her life to get a good education.

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Dear Leo,

Yours,

Lin Tao