（浙江）初中英语2022-2023九年级上学期期中专项复习：阅读理解②（新目标版）

The local government killed more than 34, 000 stray dogs(流浪狗) several months ago because they were afraid that the dogs would spread rabies (狂犬病).

This caused a discussion across the country. Some people said that it was very cruel to kill dogs. There might be a better way to avoid the disease.

In the future, killing stray dogs might be seen as a crime. The Chinese government published a draft(草案) of animal rights law. It says that a person who kills a stray dog without good reasons will be put in prison(监狱). The draft also says that people who treat animals badly will be considered crimes under the criminal law.

The government published the draft so that the public could read it and discuss their thoughts. People share different opinions. Some think the law is good. They say other countries like Britain and Japan have similar laws. They say we will do better at protecting animals if there is one. But others say it's not necessary to fight animal abuse with a new law.

Some people also say that the draft doesn't deal with the biggest matters facing the country's development. The country should make progress to give all people equal (平等的) rights, they say, before turning attention to animals. Another part of the draft is causing discussion. It says that people should not force animals into do something dangerous, like jumping through a ring of fire. But many people enjoy watching this kind of performance at the circus, especially kids. They say that if the animal does it properly, it will not get hurt.

2021 is the year of the ox(牛). In March, a set of stamps about the famous Tang Dynasty painting, Five Oxen, came out. It allows more people to know better the great art of ancient China, as well as the importance of agriculture(农业) in history.

Han Huang (723-787) was the painter of Five Oxen. He worked as a government official in the Tang Dynasty. His paintings were loved by many because the animals he painted were so alive. Unluckily, Five Oxen is probably his only painting left.

Five Oxen is one of the best animal paintings in China's art history. In the painting, the five oxen are in a line. They are of different colors and shapes. And each has a different appearance, walking or standing, holding their heads high or low. With lively expressions and bright eyes, the oxen show the spirit of doing hard work without complaints(抱怨). As the name suggests,  ▲ . It makes people focus on the oxen themselves.

The painting was missing in 1900. Luckily, it returned to China during the early 1950s. However, it was terribly broken with many holes in it. Great efforts were made to save it. Now Five Oxen, probably the oldest Chinese painting on paper, is kept with care in the Palace Museum in Beijing.

Alan Smith is blind. He teaches blind children in his country. To show the world that the blind can also do something amazing, he walked across the world's largest salt desert, Salar de Uyuni, only with the help of a GPS.

Walking across the desert is not easy for an able-bodied person, let alone (更不用说) a blind man. Before setting off, Alan spent three years training for the journey. He studied everything he could find about the place and asked for advice from other travelers. During his journey, he only took water, food and sleeping bags. He walked about 20 kilometers a day. He showed great perseverance (毅力) and finished the 140 -kilometer journey in just seven days.

The brave teacher thought his week-long journey was wonderful. He said, "The journey was quite good. There were snow storms and winds, but luckily I made it."

Editor's note: Three Chinese astronauts entered China's space station core module (核心舱) Tianhe, hours after the Shenzhou XIII spaceship was successfully launched on Saturday, Oct. 16th.

The crew (全体人员) - Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping, and Ye Guangfu - are expected to live and work in China's Tianhe space station core module for six months, setting a new record for China's crewed space mission (载人航天任务) duration. Wang Yaping, the mother of a 5-year-old girl, has attracted (吸引) worldwide attention, for she will be the first Chinese woman to carry out a spacewalk.

While hailing (赞颂) the remarkable accomplishments(成就) of China's space industry, readers show their respect and gratitude toward those working hard to make this happen, as well as their best wishes for the three astronauts.

Here are two of them:

David

Brilliant(非常棒的) work of our astronauts and a variety of scientific researchers. Warm-hearted congratulations to the heroes of our country. Salute (致敬) to the people who created and are creating the history!

Lindsay

Wang Yaping's zero-gravity (零重力的) hair style is amazing. It is great to have the first Chinese woman to carry out a spacewalk. Good luck with the mission, Wang! You're going to be the role model for the next generation(代) of female taikonauts (中国航天人). I'm looking forward to your spacewalk. Wishing you a safe and joyful journey ahead.

If you lose 12 times, will you just give up? Dale Carnegie, a pioneer in public speaking and self-development, kept trying. And he became famous by showing people how to be successful.

Carnegie was born in 1888 to a poor farming family in the central United States. The boy didn't see a train until he was 12 years old. In his teens, he had to get up at 4 am every day to milk the cows in his family.

When Carnegie first entered college, he felt hopeless because of his clothes and ordinary looks. His mother encouraged him, "Why not try to be better in other things instead of just dress and good looks?"

Carnegie tried to be more active in college. He joined the debate(辩论) team. But one after another, he lost 12 times. The young man was very upset. Ha said later that he thought of killing himself after so many failures.

But soon Carnegie was seen practicing public speaking on the riverside. His hard work paid off at last. In 1906, Carnegie won a famous speech contest and became widely known.

The young man made his own words come true, "Believe that you will succeed, and you will". In order to share his success, Carnegie opened schools and wrote books. His best-sellers include How to Win Friends and Influence People and How to Stop Worming and Start Living. More than 50 million copies of his books have been printed in 38languages. They are still helping people on the road

When it comes to Germany, music lovers might immediately think of Bach's or Beethoven's classical works, and soccer fans would call the Bundesliga one of their must-see events.

But how much do Germans know about China and Chinese culture? Three learners at the China Cultural Centre in Berlin recently shared with us their stories of learning Chinese and

Chinese culture.

Andreas Pietsch is a history professor at the University of Münster. While learning Chinese at the centre, Pietsch, a music lover, was gradually drawn to traditional Chinese instruments. Two years ago, he began to learn to play guzheng. Having travelled to China several times, Pietsch said he planned to visit all the six sites on the Renminbi notes. So far he has visited five, except the Potala Palace in Tibet.

"My interest in Chinese started during my second trip to China," said Alexander Straβmeir, president of State Office for Refugee Affairs. " Chinese has the most beautiful characters in the world. I chose to practise Chinese calligraphy because it shows the beauty of Chinese culture. "Though he finds the tonal system in Chinese really challenging, Straßmeir says he enjoys learning the language as it is like a mirror in which he could see a different way of thinking behind the language itself.

Keno Budde is an undergraduate* student at the Free University of Berlin. Asked why he's learning Chinese, Budde answered, "I made the decision after l saw clearly what would happen in the future." Budde is impressed with some of the latest technologies coming from China, such as the high-speed trains, mobile payment and Huawei's leading position in the 5G race. ＂Learning a language gives you the insight into a country's culture. Learning Chinese can give us more chances in the future as China will go on growing," Budde explained.

When I was in the middle school, I hardly raised my hands to answer questions in class. And I found lots of my classmates were just like me. When the teacher asked a question, I always lowered my head because I was afraid that the teacher saw me.

One day, in a foreign language class, Mr. Black gave us a lesson. He wanted us to be active in class, so he asked us some questions, but no one answered. "At the beginning of the class, let me tell you a story." He said.

"When I came to the United States to study, the university often invited famous people to make speeches. Before the beginning of every speech, I found an interesting thing. The students around me always took a cardboard folded in half, wrote their names in bold(粗体) with the most eye-catching color, and then placed the cardboard on the seat. So when the speaker needed the answers from the students, he could see and call a listener's name directly."

"I couldn't understand that. My classmates told me the speakers were all top people who meant chances. When your answer was to their surprise, it meant they might give you more chances. In fact, I really saw a few students got great chances because of that."

After listening to the story, I understood that the chance will not find you itself. You must show yourself all the time so that you can find a chance and then catch it.

By the Youth

Wang Damin is a fisherman. Although he is over 65, he is very fit and still enjoys working.

Damin uses cormorants to catch fish. Cormorants are large black birds. They are good at catching fish because they can swim well. They can dive* down and stay under the water for up to two minutes.

Damin usually starts in the late afternoon and gets the cormorants ready for work. First，he ties* a piece of grass around their necks to stop them from eating big fish. Then when Damin's boat reaches the right place in the river, he pushes them into the river. Damin uses several ways to make more fish come. During the day, he jumps up and down on his boat. After dark, he puts a light on a post at the front of the boat. The cormorants bring the fish back to the boat. Then Damin takes the fish and throw them into a big basket. In this way, Damin can catch fish without nets.

Cormorant fishing was once used in lots of places in South-East China, and there were many fishermen in the area. But today, few young people are interested in it. In 50 years, perhaps there will be no more cormorant fishermen in the world.

Have you ever taken a flight from Beijing Daxing International Airport (BDIA)? After opening on Sept.25, BDIA drew attention not just for its design, but also for its many high-tech facilities (设施) and services.

The new airport, seated in the southernmost part of Beijing is made up of a main terminal (航站楼), a supporting service building and a parking lot. Together, they cover an area of about 1.4 million square meters, which is equal to(等同于) 63 Tian'anmen Square, according to Beijing Review.

The new airport is expected to handle 45 million passenger trips a year by 2022 and 72 million by 2025, China Daily reported. With more runways (飞机跑道) planned, the new airport will eventually handle more than 100 million passengers each year. That's around the total population of the UK and Canada combined.

The airport has many new technologies that make it smarter and more efficient (有效率的). It is the world's first airport with a double-deck departure and arrival (双进双出) design for its terminal building. "It's more efficient for passengers than any other larger airport terminal of the same size in the world," Guo Yanchi, the chief engineer in charge of (主管) construction (建造), told China Daily.

According to the civil Aviation Administration of China, 86 percent of check-ins can be done through self-service check-in kiosks (自助值机一体机) and 76 percent of luggage can be checked automatically (自动地) with the help of self-service bag-drop machines. Other technologies, such as a facial recognition system(人脸识别系统), allow passengers to have a quicker check-in and boarding process.

The airport will also use a robot-operated (机器人操作的) parking system. Drivers just need to park their cars in given areas. Robots will then carry them to an empty space. When collecting their cars, drivers simply need to scan (扫描) a parking ticket to find out where to collect their cars.