备战2024年中考英语阅读话题训练二 人与社会 主题10 时代榜样

What can you achieve in five days? Learn a dance? Read a book? Or go on a road trip? What about winning four gold medals? You may think it is impossible, but a teenage girl has done just that!

Last October, at the 2022 ISSF World Championships in Cairo, Egypt, Pang Yuqian won four gold medals in the 50-meter rifle（步枪） events in five days. It was her first international competition, but Pang, an 18-year-old high school student from Sichuan, made quite a debut（首次亮相）. 

It is widely known that a lot of things are required of a player in shooting sports, and one of them is concentration. "She is little, thin and quiet, but she will put all her attention on the rifle as long as she holds it in her hands. "Pang's coach said. What's more, she is strict with herself and often asks her coach for advice even though she is a natural for the sport. Before winning the four medals, she practiced really hard. Now, thanks to years of training, Pang is already a world-class shooter. 

After winning the four gold medals, Pang kept telling her parents to keep a low profile（保持低调）and asked them not to post anything about her or her achievements on WeChat Moments, but her mom didn't listen. She shared the story of her daughter online anyway, but who can blame（责怪） her? After all, not everyone can achieve in a lifetime what Pang has already achieved as a teenager. 

Pang shot for the moon and got it. What a great role model to us! Come on, everyone, let's make big plans and dream big dreams . Even if we miss the moon, we'll still land among the stars!

An exhibition of paintings by autistic（患自闭症的）students was held in Futian District on April4th, the 16th World Autism Awareness Day. The works on the exhibition were created by students from the Shenzhen Employment Assistance Base for Autistic Spectrum Disorders.

The founder of the base, Su Ting, who is also an art teacher, said that the exhibition aimed to raise the autistic students' awareness so that they can create value and achieve their dreams. Painting is not just a skill but a key to open their minds and improve their quality of life.

Zhong Jiayu, one of the students, joined the base 10 years ago and focused on watching and drawing fish for hours each day. Zhong's mother tried to force her to change, but Su discovered her talent and helped her in drawing fish. "At the beginning, we provided her with different types of fish and let her watch the differences, which made her drawing skills better in such a relaxing environment. " Su said.

After a year, Zhong stopped drawing fish and started to draw things she saw, and her style became clean, clear, and simple. On the exhibition, Zhong created a few excellent pictures.

So far, the base has helped over 60 autistic students develop skills and talents for employment. The base also opened a charity shop a year ago to sell the works created by the students, with the income（收入）used for the creation and arts lessons for the students. Su said that if the students can find a job, they will be happy for them. If they cannot, they can help them through the base.

New trains run across rocky mountains and the Great Wall to the north of Beijing like bullets（子弹）. They run on a high-speed railway line between Beijing and Zhangjiakou. The opening was on Dec 30, 2019. 

The railway is an important support project for the 2022 Winter Olympics. The 174-km railway's trains move at a top speed of 350 km/h. This reduces the travel time between Beijing and Zhangjiakou, the Winter Games will be held there, from over three hours to only 47 minutes. It has 10 stops in total. It will help improve tourism. There are places of interest nearby. 

Some of the trains on this railway are smart trains that can run by themselves. With the help of the Beidou Navigation Satellite System, they can automatically（自动）start, run between stations, change their timing according to the time table, correctly stop at a station, and open and close their doors. Passengers can also watch live sports programmes during the Winter Olympics on the train, which is helped with 5G technology. 

Some people consider Zhan Tianyou as "the father of China's railways". Who is Zhan Tianyou? In 1872, the Qing government chose 30 young boys to be sent to the US to study. They were the first students in Chinese history to study abroad. Zhan Tianyou was one of them. After graduating from Yale University, Zhan came back to China. In 1905, the Qing government decided to build a railroad between Beijng and Zhangjiakou. Zhan, who studied engineering, led the project. The project is best-known for its Y-shaped switchback（人字形坡路）. There are many mountains along the Beijng-Zhangjiakou railway. It was difficult for trains to climb the mountains. 

He led construction（建设）on the old Beijing—Zhangjiakou railway, China's first independently—designed railway. It was not possible to build a railway without foreign help at that time. But Zhan, the head engineer of the railway project, insisted（坚持） that it could be done. Zhan came up with an idea to reduce the slope（坡度）: a Y-shaped switchback. Instead of going directly from A to B along a steep（陡的）slope, the train goes from A to C first and then from C to B. This makes the slope much less steep. 

After many difficulties, the Beijing—Zhangjiakou line went into operation in 1909. Its trains ran at 35 km/h. 

As President Xi Jinping said, the Beijing-Zhangjiakou railway stands for the development of China's railways over more than a century, as well as China's development in general. 

    Nelson Mandela, South Africa's first black president, died on Decembr5, 2013 at 95.

    Mandela was born on July 18, 1918. He grew up in a poor village in South Africa. At school, Mandela learned about African history and the fight against racism(种族歧视).He wanted to help his countrymen. Later Mandela studied law at a university. He also joined a group that fought against apartheid(种族隔离).At that time, in South Africa, blacks were not allowed to use the same public toilets or chairs as whites, and they couldn't travel on the same buses as whites, either. Mandela hated this and he traveled all over South Africa and fought to end apartheid. As a result, he was put into prison(监狱) and stayed about 27 years there.

    On February 10, 1990, South African President F.W. de Klerk released(释放)Mandela from prison, and the two worked together to end apartheid. Three years later, they won the Nobel Peace Prize,

    In1994, Mandela became President of South Africa. One year later, he created the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, a charity that helps poor South African children." Children are the future of our country," he said in an interview in2002. "They must be given love."

    Mandela served as President until 1999. He worked to improve housing and education for the country's large black population.

    On October5, Tu Youyou, 84, became the first Chinese to win a Nobel Prize in natural science. She is only the12th woman in history to be awarded the honor.

    Tu was born in Ningbo, Zhejiang, China on 30 December 1930. She once studied at Xiaoshi Middle School and Ningbo Middle School. Her teacher said that Tu liked reading books and she was very hard-working. From 1951 to 1955, she attended Beijing Medical College. Later Tu was trained for two and a half years in traditional Chinese medicine.

    Tu was given the award for her discovery of artemisinin(青蒿素), which has been developed to fight against malaria(疟疾). When Tu started her search in the late 1960s, over 240,000 compounds(化合物) around the world had already been tested, without any success. Her interest in traditional Chinese medicine drew her to ancient texts and finally found the sweet wormwood(青蒿),which had been used to treat malaria in China around 400 A.D. After more than190 failures, she invented the right drug in 1971.

    Tu Youyou doesn't have a Ph.D., neither has she ever studied or worked overseas. One former colleague, Liao Fuming, who has worked with Tu for more than 40 years, describes her as a "tough and stubborn(固执) woman."

    Tu is stubborn enough to spend many years putting ancient texts together and use them in modern scientific practices. The result is millions of lives saved.

    "She has done wonderful contribution to the world with her work, she really deserves it! It's a blessing for the Chinese people, as it is for the world!" Mats Wahlgren, member of the Nobel Assembly said.

Evans Wadongo was from a poor village of Africa.He had to do homework by the light of a kerosene lamp（煤油灯）.Evans' eyes hurt and this made studying difficult.

However，Evans was excellent enough to enter a university.But he continued to worry about the kerosene lamp.He realized it was not just bad for school children but for the whole family.First，it can cause illnesses such as coughs.Also，it can lead to fires.Lastly，kerosene is expensive

One day，he had an idea.He could use a small solar（太阳能） light.Sunlight is free and solar power is clean.Evans built his first solar lamp，and it worked.He began to build more lamps and sent them to local families.An organization heard about this and provided money for him to build more solar lamps.

Each lamp only cost ＄20.However，this was a lot of money to many villagers，so Evans made sure he kept the cost down.He used recycled materials and ask volunteers to build the lamps.Finally，so the lamps were usually free.

The solar lamps made a big difference to thousands of people.Julia，a mother of three，said，my children have light to read，and I have my own light to cook."

The Mogao Caves are a very special place in China, which are located in Dunhuang, Gansu Province. The Mogao Caves are thousands of years old and were listed as a world heritage(遗产)site by UNESCO in 1987.

Many people, including archaeologists(考古学家) and researchers, work hard to take care of the Mogao Caves and learn more about them. Fan Jinshi is one of them.

Fan was born in Beijing on July 9, 1938. Her father was a graduate of Tsinghua University and had a strong interest in Chinese classical art and culture.

Influenced by her father, Fan liked visiting museums when she was in middle school. With the great love of Chinese culture, she studied in the archaeology department in Peking University and graduated in 1963. Then she started working at Dunhuang and has worked there ever since. She spends almost 60 years taking care of Dunhuang. People call her the" Daughter of Dunhuang" .

On May 4, 2023, " Daughter of Dunhuang" Fan Jinshi returned to Peking University and brought back 10 million RMB donations to set up the Fan Jinshi Education Fund(基金) to  ▲ .

" Money made should be spent in the right way. People cannot only think of themselves," she said " Hopefully the setting of the Fund can help Dunhuang studies at the university, so it can rarse cultural confidence and strength."