（浙江）外研版初中英语八年级上册期中复习（题型专练）：阅读理解

    Huang Yuxiang is a young musician from Taiwan, China. Yuxiang is blind(瞎的)，but he tried his best to become an excellent pianist. He became well- known after he starred(担任主演) in a film called Touch of the Light. The film tells the story of his life.

    Yuxiang found music when he was only two years old. He heard his cousin playing a children's song on the piano. Yuxiang sat at the piano and copied the melody. He started to have music lessons a year after that. Today he plays in piano concerts, and he is a member of the group Baba Band.

    Yuxiang doesn't just perform. He also writes music for Chinese films and for fun. For Yuxiang, music isn't only about making money. It is one of the most important parts of his life.

    Can dolphins talk? Maybe they can't talk with words, but they talk with sounds. They show their feelings with sounds. Dolphins travel in a group. We call a group of fish “a school(一群).” They don't study, but they travel together. Dolphins are mammals(哺乳动物)，not fish, but they swim together like fish in a school.

    Dolphins talk to the other dolphins in the school. They give information. They tell when they are happy or sad or afraid. They say” welcome” when a dolphin comes back to the school. They talk when they play. They make a few sounds above water. They make many more sounds under water. People cannot hear these sounds because they are very, very high. Scientists make tapes of the sounds and study them.

    Sometimes people catch a dolphin for a large aquarium(水族馆). People can watch the dolphins in a show. Dolphins don't like to be away from their school in an aquarium. They are sad and lonely. There are many stories about dolphins. They help people. Sometimes they save somebody's life. Dolphins' meat is good, but people don't like to kill them. They say that dolphins bring good luck. Many people believe this.

    Long long ago，the youngest daughter of Emperor Yan went boating on the Eastern Sea. At first she had a good time，but later on she was too tired to swim when a strong wind rose on the sea and turned her boat upside down. She was thus drowned, but her spirit turned into a beautiful bird crying sadly in the sound “Jingwei, Jingwei”.

    Because she wanted to see her beloved father again and hated the sea so much，she put some stones into the sea day after day, without a rest, in order to change the sea into the land. From this story comes the saying “The bird Jingwei trying to fill the sea”. The story was a little sad. But it tells us something important. When we do anything, we have to work hard. Learning English is difficult but if you study hard, you can learn it well.

    One of the easiest ways to keep fit is to do jogging. Jogging is the name for a very gentle(舒缓的) running-it is just a little faster than walking.

    Start slow joging 20 meters, then walk 20 meters. Little by little, if you are not feeling very tired, you may do more jogging and less walking. Finally, jog the whole way. It will be easy for you to start jogging for 15 minutes twice a week , slowly, increase this to 20—30 minutes every day .The longer you join in jogging , the more you enjoy it and the healthier you will become. Some people like jogging alone, and others enjoy doing it with friends. Jogging in groups makes more people keener(热心的), because you just can not stay in bed while there is a group of friends waiting outside.

    If you want to start jogging, prepare a pair of comfortable shoes and a determined mind.

C

　　　　There was once a young mouse that lived in a hole of a wall. One day, the young mouse woke up (醒来) and looked out of the hole. As he looked out, a fantastic smell came to his nose. “Cheese!” the mouse said happily to himself. “I'll go and get it now and have it for breakfast.”

　　　But then he remembered his parents' words. His parents were clever mice and often said to their son. “Always wait before you go for a piece of cheese.”

　　　So the young mouse waited quietly. Then he heard a quiet “Miaow” and he knew the cat was there. He stayed in the hole and said to himself, “I'm glad I listened to my parents and learned to wait.”

　　　The next day, he looked out again. He put his nose out of the hole, and got the beautiful smell of cheese. It was only a few centimeters (厘米) away. But he sat still and waited quietly. This time he did not hear any cat noises. Instead he heard a very quiet “woof, woof.”

　　　“ It's a dog!” he thought. “If the dog is there, the cat won't be there. I expect (料想) the dog has chased (追赶) the cat away, so I'm safe.” The mouse ran out of the hole and saw the cat. The cat caught him and ate him.

　　　When the cat finished her meal, she said to herself, “I'm glad I listened to my parents and learned a second language.”

C

        How did you spend your summer holiday last month? I'd like to tell you what happened to me during my holiday.

        My parents planned a relaxing trip. We didn't need to worry about our work and studies. On the first day, before we started out for Shanghai, we saw on TV that the traffic was heavy. So we decided not to drive our car but to take the bullet train (高速列车) to get there. It was my first time to ride on the bullet train.

        On the way, an American girl sat next to me and I talked to her. She told me that she came here for a short stay — her father came to China on business. In one year he would go back to his company in the US.

        “How are you getting along here?” I asked. 

        “Pretty well. I enjoy the life here and the people are friendly,” she said.

        With new friends around, she still missed (想念) her friends in the US very much. “It doesn't matter. We could always write letters, send emails or make phone­calls to each other,” she said with a sweet smile.

        I really envied (羡慕) her for her chance to go through life in different cultures.

B

　　　In the universe, as we know, there is the Sun, the moon, the Earth and a good many stars. Through our geography lessons, we know the Earth goes round the Sun, and the moon goes round the Earth. We have day and night because the Earth keeps turning all the time. When our part of the Earth turns to the Sun, it is day. When our part of the Earth turns away from the Sun, it is night.

　　 Just because the moon is closer to the Earth than the Sun, it looks much bigger than the Sun. Big things will look smaller when they are farther, and small things also look bigger when they are nearer.

　　The Sun is bright enough to give out very strong light. The moon can't give any light at all, but it looks quite bright, too. Why? In fact, the light from the moon comes from the Sun. The moon looks much bigger and brighter than the stars. But actually (事实上) the stars are much bigger and brighter than the moon. They look smaller than the moon also because they are farther away from the Earth.

　　There are still many other planets in the universe. But of all these planets, only on Earth there are living things and people can only live on Earth, too. But at 9∶00 am on October 15th 2003,Chinese astronaut Yang Liwei was set up to space. He stayed there for 21 hours. It was the first time for Chinese to get into space.

      “Visitors tothe 2010 World Expo（世博会） in Shanghai will be able to gosightseeing in super cool cars with no drivers,” Shanghai city governmentspeaker said recently（近期）.   When the six-seat car was shown to the public（公众）, itinterested many people. “The car will help visitors feel what high technology（技术）is and helpthem enjoy the tour of the World Expo site,” said a teacher from TongjiUniversity. The car, 4.5 meters long, 1.7 meters wide（宽）, and 1.6meters tall, runs along a white line. The car costs around 300,000 >yuan to build and can reach a top speedof 50 kilometers per hour.   According to the researches（调查）, visitorswill be able to drive the car anywhere in the World Expo site by pressing abutton（按钮）. If they want to get off or stop the car, all they need to dois just to press the button again.   “People can rent （租赁）one of thesecars for a whole day or just take a ride in it from one place to another,” theteacher said. About 400 to 500 of these cars will be made for the Expo in 2010.the cars will have a radar（雷达）to help themget around. They will mainly use solar（太阳能）batteries. Andthey have no need of drivers and oil（汽油）, these carswill help save energy and human work, and cause no pollution to the environment.

A

    We all know that Taiwan is considered as the Treasure Island of China. It is very beautiful. Recently we have been closely connected. Several months ago, a group of 19 Taiwanese children flew to Chengdu in order to begin a tour to study pandas. The middle school children were from Chiayi County in southwest Taiwan and were chosen because of their excellent performances at school. During the visit, the children saw pandas up close. They were very excited to see so many pandas at the same time. The children also traveled to the Mount E'mei scenic area and met local school children. At last, they said, “The pandas are very cute, and we are all happy.” They also said the children in Chengdu were very friendly to them, and they all liked there. They hoped to visit Sichuan again.

B

    A school busis a kind of bus designed (设计) for student transport: carrying children and teenagers to and from school. So safety(安全) is very important. We should have the same logo (标志) on the school bus and color it yellow so that people can see it far away. People design everything on the bus to keep the students safe, such as, we can pushthe windows easily, the computer can ask the student to wear the seatbelt when the students sit on the seat. There is at least one teacher to look after the students on the bus. When the students get on or get off the bus, the driver should use the traffic lights to tell other cars, then the other cars can wait until the students are safe. When a school bus is on the way, we can know where it is and what it happens on the computer. In a word, we must find ways to make sure the traffic safety is first.