浙江省外研版初中英语九年级上学期期末模拟试卷（5）

　　 The computer was one of the most important inventions in our life. The first computer was as large as a room.

Now some computers are as   1    as television sets. Some computers can even be smaller than a book. About 20 years ago, the computer was a strange machine in China. Not many people   2    it and said yes to it.

         Today much of that is   3 . In 1984, when Deng Xiaoping  4   two pupils working on the computers in Shanghai, he said that computer lessons     5 start from children. So there was the first computer book for middle school students. Now in Shanghai   6    all middle schools have classrooms for computer courses(课程). Some of the students now have their   7  computers at home. With the help of the Internet, they can send and    8   messages and e-mails. They can learn about the world more quickly.

Now people are 9 using computers in banks, factories, airports and so on. The computer is coming into everyone's life, so it is important to learn 10 to use a computer freely.

    Four years ago when I was a boy of 11, I got into the biggest trouble as a kid. It was a Saturday morning. Both my parents were out, leaving me and my 10 一 month 一 old sister home alone, Anyway, my sister was still asleep in her room. In fact I had the house to myself. I decided to do some drawing. Soon I gave up. Nothing was on TV, so I felt bored and touched the candles on the shelf ... I had an idea! What would happen if I set fire to some kitchen paper? Well, of course it went on fire, but it wasn't the tiny flame I'd expected, and I couldn't blow it out. I threw it on the floor, and then I got my dad's boots (靴子) and stamped it out.

    But there was a huge hole left on the floor. When my mum came home later, she smelt the smoke immediately. She dropped the shopping bag, luckily for me, over the hole. I thought this meant she would never see it. However, after running round the house checking for a fire, she of course picked up the bag and saw the hole. Next I was grounded (关禁闭) for months. Even worse though, the hole was still there, reminding me of what I did.

    Australia is one of the largest island countries in the world It is a little smaller than China. It is in the south of the earth Australia is big, but its population is small. The population of Australia is nearly as large as that of Shanghai.

    Enough laws have been made to fight against pollution. The cities in Australia have got little air or water pollution. The sky is blue and the water is clean. You can clearly see fish swimming in the rivers. Plants grow very well too.

    Last month we visited Perth, the biggest city in Western Australia, and went to a wild flower exhibition. There we saw a large number of wild flowers we had never seen before we had a wonderful time, Perth is famous for its beautiful wild flowers. In spring, Perth has the wild flower exhibition. After visiting Perth, we spent a day in the countryside. We sat down and had a rest near a path at the foot of a hill. It was quiet and we enjoyed ourselves. Suddenly we heard bells ringing at the top of the hill. What we saw made us pick up all our things and run back to the car as quickly as we could. There were about three hundred sheep coming towards us down the path.

    Australia is famous for its sheep and kangaroos. After a short drive from any town, you will find yourself in the middle of the white sheep. Sheep, sheep, everywhere are sheep.

    It has been more than two thousand years we began to use an umbrella on rainy days. However, people often felt it not convenient to hold an umbrella while working. Then the rubber raincoat was invented by an Englishman named

Macintosh in 1823.

    In 1492, Columbus, a well-known Italian voyager, discovered the New World--the America. He brought a lot of things to Europe from South America. Rubber was one of them, but people didn't know the use of rubber at that time. In 1770, people found that the rubber could be used as erasers.

    Macintosh was a worker in an eraser factory in Scotland. One day he spilled (泼出；洒落) the rubber liquid over his clothes carelessly when making erasers. He was too busy to clean it and wend back home wearing the dirty clothes. On the way home, it rained heavily. Having no umbrella, Macintosh had to run home quickly. When he got home, he took off the wet clothes. To his surprise, the area of the clothes with rubber wasn't wet. "Why not make a robber raincoat?" Macintosh thought. The next day he brushed the rubber liquid all over a coat. He wore the "rubber coat" on rainy days and took a walk in the field to test if it could really keep off the rain. Surprisingly, the clothes inside the "rubber coat" weren't wet at all. The rubber raincoat was created in this way by chance.

    The rubber raincoats soon appeared on the market. However, they were sticky(粘的) in summer and hardened in winter. Year after year, people kept on improving the raincoats. Today raincoats are widely used in our daily life.

      Do you still get free plastic bags from the supermarkets? Things have changed.

      China has banned（禁止）free plastic bags at shops and supermarkets, and people have to pay for using plastic bags. The rule started on June 1, 2008. It came because our country tried to make litter less. Making super-thin（超薄）plastic bags has also been banned.

      The Chinese once used about 3,000,000,000 plastic shopping bags a day, and they have caused pollution of the environment (环境污染). The bags have become a main cause of plastic pollution because they are easy to break and people throw them away here and there. So the Chinese people are encouraged to bring their own bags for shopping.

      What kind of shopping bag is the best to bring? Some students in Chongqing have a good idea. They make their own shopping bags. They use old clothes to make cloth bags（布袋）, and send them to their parent s as presents. They also ask their parents and friends to use cloth bags instead of plastic ones. They think it is their duty to protect（保护）the environment.

    "Green" is more than just a colour. It means that you should live to protect the environment 一 the water, the land, the air and so on. You can be a green kid bythese steps.

    Reduce it.

    When you useof something, you do a good thing for the earth. For example, a shorter shower means you use less water. Turn off the tap when you areyour teeth.

    Reduce it.

    Many times, even if you don't need something, someone else might just need it.For example,if your younger sister doesn't playthe toy bear any more, you can give it to your neighbour. Try to change books, toys, even, clothes with friends.

    Enjoy it.

It's true that pollution is a great problem now. but the earth is still a beautiful and interesting place to explore (探索). Go for a hike, visit gardens, climb mountains and take a boat trip on the rivers ... Outdoorare good for you. You can also plant tree. collect reusable things... Being a green kid is so easy.

    A city without cars would be strange right? But Venice is such a city.

Venice is in the northeast of Italy. It wasn't built on land Beijing or Shanghai, but on more than 110 (island). Seawater is everywhere around the city.

    Even so, travel isn't that difficult. The waterways have always been the best way to get around. There are 117 waterways and more than 400 bridges can guide you where you want to go. People in Venice move from place to place by (boat).

    Water makes the city special, it is also a big problem. Sometimes tourists will have such strange (experience): One moment they walk across the Rialto Bridge, and there is nothing special. But when they come back to the bridge an hour later, it's underwater and everyone is wearing rain shoes.

    Once people used too much underground water. This made the city get (low) little by little. Now the city has gone down by 23 centimetres. Another problem is the rising seawater. The temperature (rise) over the years. This has made ice of the Arctic Ocean(北冰洋) melt. Every year, high waters hit the city autumn and winter. When a lot of water comes， more than half of the city is underwater.

    Scientists are trying different ways (stop) the city from getting even lower. The Italian government has asked some of Italy s biggest companies to build the MOST project, which was planned to be built under the seawater to stop the rising water. Anyway, this project is helping solve the problem.

Protect the air