湖北省襄阳市南漳县（八校联考）2022-2023学年九年级下学期期中考试

— It's OK. They're just playing games and having fun.

— Yes. She says that she ____________ for home in two days.

— By writing letters.

— No. I ____________ do that because the screen is too small.

— Yes. Several high-speed trains were ____________ because of it.

— I think they'd better ask their teachers for help.

— ____________!

— That's why he's so popular among the students.

    What might life be like if you looked very different from others? Most of us are 1 to be born with "normal" faces. But the movie Wonder2us that there is no such thing as being normal and that beauty is more than skin-deep(表面的).

    Based on a bestselling novel, the movie is3boy named Auggie. He has a facial deformity (面部畸形). He has spent most of his life being home-schooled. 4as he enters middle school, his parents decide to send him to a private school. There, Auggie must 5 judgmental(爱评头论足的)classmates and learn to accept 6 as he is.

    In the United States, most kids are taught that it is7to be different. People don't look down upon being unique(独特的). They celebrate it.

    But some kids have 8accepting uniqueness. It is easy to pick on someone who is different,9 if you have your own problems to deal with. This is 10 central theme(主题) from the movie -- even the kids who pick on Auggie have their own personal struggles.

    As Auggie's classmates get to know him 11 , they come to 12 that he's a nice kid with a great 13 of humor. They start to change their attitude toward him. In real life, it may 14 longer to see such changes happen. But 15we give people a chance, their hearts and minds may change in the end.

    There is a nine-year-old kid sitting at his desk and all of a sudden, there is water between his feet and his pants are wet. He thinks his heart is going to stop. It's never happened before, and he knows that when the boys find out he will never hear the end of it. When the girls find out, they'll never speak to him again.

    The boy puts his head down and prays, "Dear God, this is an exception! I need help now! I'm over." He looks up from his prayer and here comes the teacher with a look in her eyes that says he has been discovered.

    As the teacher is walking toward him, a classmate named Susie is carrying a goldfish bowl that is filled with water. Susie trips(绊倒)in front of the teacher and throws the bowl of water on the boy's legs.

The boy seems to be angry, but all the while is saying to himself, "Thank you, Lord! Thank you, Lord!" All of a sudden, the ridicule(嘲笑)that should have been his goes to someone else—Susie. She tries to help. But they tell her to get out. The teacher gives him gym shorts to put on while his pants are dried out. All the other children are on their hands and knees cleaning up around his desk.

    Finally, at the end of the day, as they are waiting for the bus, the boy walks over to Susie and whispers, "You did that on purpose(故意), didn't you?" Susie whispers back, "I wet my pants once too."

    As time goes by, are you still the same person you used to be? Many of you would think you are. But according to a new study, your personality can change greatly. You could be a completely different person at 77, compared to when you were a 14-year-old, reported The Huffington Post.

    Psychologists(心理学家) at the UK's University of Edinburgh did the study on a group of Scottish people. The research found that almost everyone's personality changed when they grow old. The findings are published in a journal called Psychology and Aging.

    The research is based on a study that began in 1950. A group of teachers gave more than1, 200 14-year-old students personality tests. They tested six basic personality traits(个性特点): self-confidence, sense of responsibility, perseverance (耐性), strong wishes to win, creativity and moods.

    In 2012, researchers successfully found 174 of those 1, 200 students, who were 77 years old on average at the time. They agreed to take a personality test similar to the one they had completed 63 years earlier.

    Researchers then compared the then-and-now test results. They were surprised to find great changes to all six personality traits of these people. Moods and sense of responsibility had changed less. But there were still not too many similarities between the two results.

The younger and older self seemed to be totally different for each person. It was "as if the second tests had been given to different people," the study's authors noted.

    In the past, personality was widely believed to be stable(稳定的). William James, the father of American psychology, said that personality is "set like plaster(石膏板) ." This new study may bring some fresh ideas to the theory(理论).

    Rachel Carson(1907-1964) was a pioneer of the world's environmental movement through her writing about the protection of the natural world. Her 1962 book Silent Spring made her well known by many people. It describes the harmful changes in the environment of using toxic chemicals (有毒化学物质) on farmland.

    Carson first worked as a biologist in the US Bureau of Fisheries. In 1951, her first book The Sea Around Us came out. It became a bestseller. It made her rich enough to leave her job and spend all her life in writing. She was a talented writer. Her next two books were also about the oceans and both on the top of the book sales lists.

    Carson's book Silent Spring completely changed the way Americans thought about nature. It painted a bleak(荒凉的) future for the whole natural world. It led to a nationwide ban(禁止) on the use of a deadly chemical called DDT, and other toxic pesticides(农药) that farmers used for their crops. Many people say the book led to the creation of America's Environmental Protection Agency.

    Since her death, Carson's name has continued to be connected with protecting the environment. There is now a yearly Rachel Carson Book Prize. Norway gives the Rachel Carson Prize to women who have done a lot on environmental protection. In 1980, 16 years after her death, she was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honour in America.

The women in the Watson family all- like ballet. These days, Alice Watson gives ballet lessons, but for many years, she was a dancer at the National Ballet Company. Her mother, Hannah, also had a full-time-job there, making clothes for the dancers.

 Alice's daughter Demi started learning ballet shortly after she could walk. "I never taught her," says Alice," because she never let me. "Now at the age of 16, Demi dances at the National Ballet Company.

"When Demi started dancing, the house was too small for her and Alice to practice in so I made the garage(车库)into a dancing room. Now the living room is nice and quiet when I'm watching TV!" says Jack, Alice's husband.

Last month, Demi was invited to dance in the ballet Swan Lake. Of course, Alice, Jack and Hannah all went to watch her. That was special for Demi. Jack. says, "I'm not that interested in ballet myself but it's fantastic seeing Demi taking her first steps with Alice's old company!" Demi was wearing a dress that Hannah made for Alice many years before.

"It was very exciting for all of us," says Hannah. "Demi's way of dancing is very like Alice's. I know I'm her grandmother, "but I think she has a great future!"

What do you think you'll do when you're 90 years old? Few people want to take up new challenges at that age.

At the age of 93, he acted in The Old Barber(《剃头匠》), a movie about the life of an old barber. He needed to remember all his lines(台词), and live with the other actors for weeks.

His name is Jing Kui. He took up the challenge. He finished the film, and even won a special acting prize. Mr. Jing was a barber all his life. Born in 1913, he started to learn how to cut hair at age 15. Five years later, he had his own barbershop. When he was 88, he was still working. The only difference was that he began to travel from home to home to serve the people. Most of them were very old. His story moved people around him, as well as the film director. He decided to make a film about him.

At age 93.the old barber got up early to remember his lines each day. He worked hard at it for he didn't want to disappoint the director. The movie director was worried because he didn't know if Mr. Jing could keep it going until the filming was done. But Mr. Jing did better than the director had thought.

A: Hi, Mark. You look so sad.

B: l didn't pass the English test, Bert. I can't learn English well and I'm always worried about it.

A: I'm sorry to hear that.

B: I know you're good at English.

A: l study with a group. It's better than to study alone.

B: I agree.

A: Certainly. We can learn from each other.

B: Great! When can I join you?

A:

B: That's very kind of you.

注意：⑴短文必须包括表中所有内容，可适当增加细节；

⑵你的观点至少两条；

⑶词数：80—100；

⑷短文首句仅供选择使用，不计人总词数。

参考词汇：尊重respect

    I have recently done a survey about how a teenager can have a successful life. …