山东省青岛市2023年中考英语模拟预测卷

 —He gave me ____ iPad.  

—No, it isn't. ____ is in the desk.

 —I think it is one of ____ TV series I have ever seen in my life.  

—Yes. Just as President Xi says, "Happiness is achieved through hard work. "

 About six months ago, I got an unexpected package. The return address was a latitude (纬度) and a longitude (经度). Inside was an envelope (信封) that had a bunch of 1  paper towels. I had no idea what it was all about 2  I began to read the paper towels carefully, which all brought back my 3 .  

At 18, I went to college and got a part-time job in a laboratory. My coworkers were some guys who had been working for too long and felt 4 , so they came up with some jokes to make fun of me. But there was a lab assistant named Howie, who started protecting me 5 them. My dad had been in the army and taught me cryptograms (密码). So, I loved to send 6 messages to Howie on these paper towels. Now, he'd 7 them for 62 years.

How could I get in touch with him with this tricky address? After Googling it with great efforts, I 8 it! I sent a letter to him, and got a postcard back, saying, "Nicer than nice to hear from you. "

Then we started corresponding. We shared happiness and sadness in the past years. That's how he has gradually changed my life. I almost 9 after my husband and daughter died, but what he did has brought me 10 . He introduced to me a sweet passion to face my life and gave me back a sense of self-worth. Our friendship is magical to be refreshed after over six decades!

 Six months, five continents (大洲), forty-one countries, fifty-two thousand kilometers. At 19, Zara Rutherford has broken two Guinness World Records. She became the youngest female (女性) to fly alone around the world and the first woman to do so in a microlight aircraft (超轻型飞机).  

The Belgian-British teenager landed in Belgium on Jan 20. "It's just really crazy," she told the news reporter.

 With two pilot parents, Rutherford started learning to fly at 14 and got her first license in 2020. To realize her dream of flying around the world alone, she sold her car to pay for the trip. She also found some sponsors (赞助者). One of them is Shark Aero. The company provided her with a two-seat microlight.  

 In August 2021, when everything was ready, Rutherford set off. She planned to finish her trip in three months. Instead, it took nearly half a year because of bad weather and expired (过期的) travel documents (证件).  

The most difficult part of the trip was flying over Russia's Siberia (西伯利亚) region. "It was -35℃ on the ground and -20℃ in the air. . . If the engines were to stop, I'd be hours away from rescue (救援) and I don't know how long I could have lived," Rutherford said. She also faced storms, wildfires, typhoons and broken parts of her aircraft.

Rutherford hopes her flight will encourage more girls to choose careers (职业) in aviation (航空业). "If you don't try and see how high you can fly, then you'll never know," Rutherford told the news reporter.

Having good communication skills is important. However, maybe some of you have trouble communicating with others. With the help of the tips, you'll be able to be a fantastic communicator.

 Be confident in knowing that you can make contributions to a conversation. Take time each day to be aware of your opinions and feelings so you can completely express them to others. Be brave to share your ideas.  

 Practice.  

  Simple dialogues happen every day. New skills take time to develop, but each time you use your communication skills, you open yourself to more opportunities. Practice makes perfect.  

 Use gestures.  

 These include gestures with your hands and face. Make your whole body talk. Use smaller gestures for a person and small groups.  

 Develop good listening skills.  

Not only should one be able to speak well, one must listen to the other person's words carefully. It's a polite way to communicate with others.

 A. Have courage to say what you think.  

 B. The gestures should get larger as the groups become larger.  

 C. Wait for the other person to finish speaking before you talk.  

 D. When you have good communication skills, you can be successful.  

 E. Developing good communication skills begins with simple dialogues.  

 F. Fortunately, there are some tips to improve your communication skills.  

—So she is. She's got (准备) for it.

Sun Ruifeng, a mother in Beijing, changed some of her plans for her 8-year-old son's summer vacation. She looked for an English training course, but in the end, she changed it to a swimming training class.

"Due to the stricter regulations (on subject-training classes, many parents like me choose sports or other projects for developing interests instead, " Sun said.

Sun's choice is part of the result of the government's growing efforts to lighten the academic pressure on young students.

 On July 24, Chinese government introduced a guideline(意见) to ease the burden(负担) of excessive homework and off-campus training for primary and junior high school students. It lists requirements in areas such as reducing the amount and the difficulty of homework and improving the quality of education and after-class services provided by schools.  

 For example homework for children below the third grade is not allowed while homework for junior high school students should take no longer than 90 minutes to finish.  

 According to the guideline, training institutions(机构) cannot teach students content that is too advanced for the school curriculum. No training courses can be taught on weekends, national holidays or during winter and summer vacations.  

 According to Global Times, more than 75 percent of Chinese urban children, from Grade 1 to Grade 12, are enrolled in training programs. However, some training institutions take part in anxiety marketing, selling unnecessary programs that increase the burden on students.  

Many parents showed their support for the new moves. "Subject learning is enough at school and we hope to improve the children's overall quality of life during holidays, " a parent surnamed(姓) Zhou in Guangzhou told Xinhua.

 However, there are also some concerns. A parent surnamed Chen in Shanxi said that although she agreed on new moves, she worried about what her son would do after school if both parents have no time to be with him.  

 At present, nine cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang and Guangzhou, have been selected to carry out the guideline. It will later be rolled out nationwide.  

 In recent times, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted (破坏) the age-old habit of shaking hands. ①It is most widely used as a greeting, but when did shaking hands become the standard greeting? 

The handshake dates all the way back to the 9th century BC (公元前). King Shalmanesar III ruled over Assyria, an empire (帝国) of the ancient Middle East. Archaeologists (考古学家) found a throne base from that time. It shows two people holding hands. In the 5th century BC, this was a symbol of peace, showing that neither person carried a weapon (武器). The handshake also makes an appearance in Homer's (荷马的) ancient poem, the Iliad. In it, two characters shook each other's hands.

 However, these handshakes were not used as greetings. The earliest reference (谈及，提到) to a handshake greeting is in the 16th century novels by French writer Francois Rabelais, says Dutch sociologist Herman Roodenburg.  

 Even so, the most widely-accepted idea about the handshake is that it came from a group called the Quakers, who were committed (致力于) to equality and peace. As the movement spread, so did the handshake, eventually becoming a standard among the working class in the mid-1700s.  

However, this was not the case everywhere, according to Roodenburg. Some French people described it as a vulgar (平民) English greeting, so many kept "labise", the traditional peck (轻吻) on two cheeks. Because of the COVID-19, in many countries, people have started touching elbows to greet each other instead of shaking hands, as this is believed to be safer.

 要点包括： 

 要求：1. 行文流畅，句子结构合理，可适当进行补充。2. 字数在100词左右。 

 参考词汇：生活水平living stardard、农业agriculture、山区 a mountainous area、贫困补助poverty assitance 

 In recent years, anti-poverty project that held by our country for the romote areas has won the support of the people.