辽宁省沈阳市2021-2022学年八年级下学期英语培优竞赛题（四）

—Oh, I      some cooking in the kitchen and didn't hear it.

—Sure, we learnt about Zheng He and his voyages.

—Yes, Our IT teacher     it. It took him about an hour.

—________

One day a little boy asked his father, "What does the word 'great' mean? Who are great people and1do they become great?"

The father asked his son to bring two plants and then told him to plant one of them inside the house and2outside the house. The boy did as his father said.

The father asked his son, "Which of the two plants do you think will be bigger and3?"

The boy replied, "The plant inside the house will be safer,4it will grow bigger, while the plant outside the house faces trouble. No one will be there to5it. It may be eaten by animals. "

The father smiled and said, "Let's wait6. We will know the answer. "

Then the boy left home for study and after four years he7to his house. He said to his father, "Look,8happens to this plant inside the house and it grows well."

When the boy went outside, he was very9to see a big tree. The boy couldn't believe his eyes. He couldn't10how the plant outside was able to grow much bigger than the plant inside the house.

"The plant outside the house faced every11and many difficulties!" the father12to his son why the plant outside was bigger, "The plant inside was safe, it didn't face weather changes, and it didn't get13sunlight, so it didn't become big."

Here is the14to the question about being great: To become a great person, one must have failed many times, experienced many difficulties and15those difficulties.

Only after that he is able to become great.

"I feel great!" said Wang Yaping when she came out of the Tiangong space station, waving (招手) back to Earth.

On Nov 7, the 41-year-old woman made history. She became China's first female (女性) spacewalker! Wang, together with astronaut Zhai Zhigang, completed a 6. 5-hour spacewalk. They adjusted (调整) the station's robotic arm. They also tested the safety of their spacesuits. These spacesuits were made by China.

 Since 1984, only 16 women (including Wang) around the world have ever done spacewalks, according to Global Times. But female spacewalkers are very important to

space exploration (探索), said Yang Yuguang, vice chair(副主席) of the Space

Transportation Committee of the International Astronautical Federation.

Yang said that humans may live on other planets someday. If we don't let women take part in this, our efforts would be incomplete (不完整的). We need to study how female bodies adjust to(适应) the space environment. That's why Wang's spacewalk is important, Yang told Global Times.

If you have to describe yourself to someone else, what will you say?It can be difficult to see yourself from the outside, but knowing who you are, namely self-awareness, can help you understand feelings and make friendships closer.

Self-awareness means having a good understanding of our own character, that is, having the ability to see ourselves clearly. If you're self-aware, you may know that you love playing an instrument because you do well in it, and music makes you happy, or that you prefer watching TV on your own because it helps you relax.

Knowing what you like and dislike, what you do well in and what you find difficult allows you to make better decisions about friendships, schoolwork and so on. You learn to trust your own feelings more, which builds confidence. The World Health Organization says self-awareness is one of ten important life skills that help young people live happier and healthier lives. Being self-aware doesn't mean only thinking of yourself. By understanding your own feelings, you will better understand other people too.

How do you learn to be self-aware? It's a good way to ask questions. But ask yourself questions that start with "What" instead of "Why". So, if you don't understand why you keep arguing with a friend, ask yourself what you disagree on instead of why you're arguing.

Learning to be more self-aware is a skill, which means you learn it as you grow. So be bold and try out new things, like playing a new sport or listening to different kinds of music. Don't be afraid to dislike something—discovering what you find difficult is a key part of learning more about yourself.

The world's population is still going up and (science) are worried that there will not be enough food for everybody in the middle of this century. One plant from Madagascar(马达加斯加)，the Kalanchoe fedtschenkoi, may help. It absorbs(吸收) carbon dioxide at night and it needs 10 times(little) water than corn and similar plants. This means it can grow in the desert.

It is dangerous (eat) this plant, but scientists can study two things: how it absorbs carbon dioxide at night when other plants only do this during the day, and why it is so good at living in the desert. There (be) less land for growing food in the future. Deserts are growing as Earth's climate gets warmer. Growing food in deserts will be more and more important.

There are two possible (direct) for further research. Growing a desert plant to eat will be difficult, but it isn't (possible). One way is to use the genes(基因)from this plant and put them into plants we eat, like beans or cereals(谷物). The other possible one is to grow this type of plant for fuel. At the moment, people are asking why good land (use) to grow plants for fuel and not for food. If we use desert land, this problem can be (slow) solved.

The world's climate is changing and the population is still increasing, but one strange plant could be an answer to our future food or energy needs.

I walked into a wild third-grade classroom. Loud music was playing, kids were throwing a football, and students were dancing wherever they could find space. I was a mid-year replacement(替补). The previous(之前的)teacher said he could no longer teach these children and left the job during the holiday break. (A)As soon as I walked into the room, I understood why he left.

I sat down quietly in my chair and began reading their names softly. ① I then put up a mirror on the wall next to the blackboard and began writing my name and a reading task on the blackboard.

I then asked the children to come up one by one, tell me their names and what they wanted to learn about. It was a difficult task, (B)    only two children said they wanted to learn anything!

(C)我为教室制定规则and talked to the students' parents in the hope that I could fix this rowdy(吵闹的)bunch of kids. ②But it was the mirror that saved the day—no, the year!

The mirror allowed me to see my students' every move while I was writing on the blackboard. They soon became puzzled about how I knew who was misbehaving while I looked at the blackboard. When one student finally asked me, I told him I had a special teacher's eye in the back of my head that my hair covered. At (D)    , they did not believe me. But they did begin to behave better, especially while I wrote on the blackboard. They were starting to believe that I had magical vision(视力). ③Why mess up(搞砸)a good thing?