湖北省鄂州市2023年中考英语真题（音频暂未更新）

— ____!

— Oh, he is out.

— By high-speed train. It ____ me only 20 minutes to get there.

— That's a good ____.

— No, she isn't. She's ____ than me.

— Most people speak German, but many can speak English, too.

— Sorry, you can't. It's not allowed in the museum.

— It ____ a lot since we started to build Huahu Airport.

— It was great. We ____ our tents on the top of the mountain and enjoyed ourselves.

— Sure. There's a restaurant down the street.

We can't remember clearly since when we started to take our mobiles to a dinner table. This happens a lot, especially 1 we go out to have dinner. Once a dish comes, instead of lifting our chopsticks, we take out our 2 and click. Later, we post the photos onto Weibo or Wechat, waiting to be "liked". Then we check our mobiles from time to time during the meal, to see 3 we get "liked" or not. We just cannot leave our mobiles for only a meal.

Does that sound 4  to you? Do you do that often? If not, how do you 5  when others do that when having dinner with you?

A recent study suggests that what we are 6  to doing is not so good. Spending time taking photos of 7  makes the food less pleasant. To test this, some researchers did an experiment. Some people were asked to take photos before they could enjoy food. As a result, it showed that the more photos they 8 , the less delicious the food seemed to them. So, why not stop taking photos and just enjoy the food in front of you?

Besides the scientific result, there are also some other 9 influences of taking photos of food before meals. After 10 the photos onto the Internet, one will not be able to control himself and check his mobile many times. "Does everyone like my photos? I hope a lot of people like 11 !" It seems that your mobile secretly calls your name all the time, even when you are 12 real people.

So, next time you 13  with your family or friends, how about not taking photos of food? Let the food be delicious as it is, and 14  your life with people around you. Trust me, it will be a 15  time.

 ( Li Fang is the first prize winner of the Third English Speech Contest for Junior High Students. 

A journalist of the China Students' Post is interviewing her. )

Journalist: Congratulations on your success!

Li Fang: Thanks. It's really a great honor for me.

Journalist: Please tell us what you've done to develop your English skills.

Li Fang: Well, my way is to keep practicing. You know practice makes perfect. It's very important to take every opportunity to practice speaking English in and out of class.

Journalist: I guess you keep an English diary, don't you?

Li Fang: Yes, I do. I keep it in order to develop my writing skills.

Journalist: How do you improve your listening and reading skills?

Li Fang: I often listen to English broadcasts and watch English TV programs in my spare time. And I like to read English stories and newspapers. I read either the China Students' Post or the 21 st Century before I go to bed.

Journalist: You're a very good language learner indeed. What do you want to be when you grow up, Li Fang?

Li Fang: My dream is either to be a diplomat or to be a teacher of English.

Journalist: Good for you! I hope your dream will come true. Nice talking to you.

Li Fang: Thank you, and I enjoyed talking to you, too.

When the other models appeared on the stage, the audience (观众) cheered and clapped. Then it was Niu's turn. The audience suddenly became silent. However, after four or five seconds, Niu clearly heard someone next to the stage say in admiration, "So cool!"

Niu Yu, 24, became a shining star at Shanghai Fashion Week for her confidence, even though she was wearing a prosthetic leg. When Niu was only 11, she unluckily lost her right leg during the Wenchuan Earthquake.

Niu has won lots of praise. This gives those who have prejudice (偏见) against the disabled a hit on the nose. "I was touched by something they said. They said the traditional view was that sports were for people with healthy legs, but sports should be a kind of spirit. Even though I have lost a leg, I still deeply love sports and will do so forever," Niu said. Actually, Niu first drew the public's attention when she completed a marathon-a 42.195-kilometer race in 2018, which was held in Wenchuan to mark the tenth anniversary (周年纪念) of the earthquake.

Now, Niu works as a photographer and has more than 960,000 followers on social platforms, such as Douyin. "I feel I have a social responsibility to bridge the disabled and the public. Showing my life to the public can allow them to better understand our group and can also tell other disabled people that our society is more tolerant (宽容) than they imagined," she explained.

Hongze Lake is in the west of Jiangsu Province. It is the fourth largest freshwater lake in China.

 It was a small group of shallow (浅的) lakes in the past, and known as Fuling Lake. In the Tang Dynasty, it got the name Hongze Lake. As time went by, the small lakes finally turned into Hongze Lake.

There are many kinds of fishes in Hongze Lake.  Reeds (芦苇) almost cover the whole lake. And the large-area reeds may even prevent boats from getting through.

In the northwest of Hongze Lake, there is a nature reserve. It is Hongze Lake Wetland National Nature Reserve. It was first built on July 1, 1985. The reserve has an area of 49,365 hectares (公顷). It is home to many birds. There are swans, cranes and other national first and second-class rare and protected birds here.  Every year, a lot of tourists come here to watch these birds and many wildlife lovers come to take photos.

It is 8:30 a.m. at the Chengdu Research Base. Panda keepers are preparing milk for the baby pandas' breakfast. At 9:00 a.m., they find that most of the babies are already awake and hungry. When the babies see the keepers, they run over to them with excitement and some of the young pandas even walk into their friends and fall over!

Lin Wei, one of the panda keepers, says, "They're so cute and lovely. I take care of them like they're my own babies. I wash, feed and play with them every day. They're very special to me." In fact, many people around the world love these black and white animals. Pandas have become so popular that they are now a symbol of China.

Scientists say there are now fewer than 2,000 pandas living in the forests. Another 300 or so live in zoos or research centers in China and other countries. Pandas do not have many babies, maybe only one every two years. The babies often die from sicknesses and do not live very long. Adult pandas spend more than 12 hours a day eating about 10 kilos of bamboo. Many years ago, there were a lot more bamboo forests and pandas in China, but then humans started to cut down these forests. As the forests get smaller and other human activities cause more problems, pandas cannot find enough to eat and they are having fewer babies.

An education program in Chengdu teaches children about pandas and other endangered wild animals. They send people to schools to tell children about the importance of saving these animals. And the Chinese government is trying hard to help save the pandas. Scientists are doing research to better understand the habits of pandas. We all hope that in the future there will be a lot more pandas.

Motuo lies in the south of the Himalayas in Tibet. It ( be ) known as the " Natural Museum of Tibet". It is home to all kinds of mountains, rivers, waterfalls, plants and animals. Its ( special ) geographic location (地理位置) makes it a beautiful place. It was one of the ( hard ) places to reach and was the last city in China without a highway.

The construction (施工) of the first highway to Motuo  ( start ) in the 1960s. However, it was not completed until over 50 years later. In 2014, the construction of  ( its ) second highway-the Paimo Highway started. In October 2022, the construction of the main body of the highway was completed.

They are great engineering projects. In this area, earthquakes and heavy rains happened very  ( often ). There could be falling rocks or even landslides (滑坡). People must build many walls and nets to protect the two highways. Another  ( challenge ) was the snow. Large amounts of snow sometimes destroyed rocks and roads. As a result, the construction of the highways to Motuo was stopped several times.  ( solve ) this problem, people built a tunnel (隧道) that goes through the mountain area.

The two highways stand for the Chinese ( spirit ) of "never giving up". They are ways to connect Motuo to the outside world and show how China ( care ) about people in the far areas.

写作要点：
1. What sports do you do in your school?
2. What sports do you like?
3. Why do you like the sport (s)?

写作要求：
1. 文中不得出现真实校名和师生姓名。
2. 文章必须包括上述写作要点，可适当发挥。
3. 词数80左右。

Doing Sports