（浙江省）八年级上学期2024年开学启航·英语题型精训营：阅读理解（人与自然）

I am Wilson. My sister and I spent our summer vacation with our uncle this year. He is a scientist and he loves to collect(收集)stones. 

One day, he bought us two bags and asked us to go to the mountain with him. We walked all the time. Along the way, he put stones in our bags. To our surprise, he also took some stones out from our bags. We thought he had just found better stones. 

When we got back home, we were very tired. The bag were so heavy that we felt relaxed when we took them off. But our uncle's bag was half empty. 

"Why did you give us so many stones?" we asked. "I didn't. You did," he said. "You didn't know it but I gave you a little attitude test today. I listened to every word you said. Whenever you said bad words, I put a stone to your bags. Whenever you talked about something good, I took out a stone. And now look at your bags. "
Our bags were full of stones.

"Your bad feelings are just like stones. You put them in your mind just like those stones in your bags. The more sad feelings you have, the heavier your mind will be. " said our uncle.

With great love, our uncle taught us one of the most important lessons in life--the attitude toward our life. 

The four travelers see a beautiful green light in the sky in front of them.

"That's the Emerald （翡翠） City, "Dorothy says. "Come on!It isn't far now. "Soon they come to a big green wall. There's a gate in it. It's shining in the afternoon sun. Dorothy looks at it carefully. It's made of emeralds!She knocks on the gate. The gate opens and they all go inside. A little man in green clothes is standing there with a big box.

"What do you want in the Emerald City？"he says. "We want to see the Great Oz, "Dorothy answers. "It's important, "the Scarecrow says.

"I am the Keeper of the Gate, "the little man in green says. "I can take you to his Palace. But before you go there, you must put on these glasses. "He takes five pairs of glasses out of the box. The glass in the glasses is emerald green.

"Why？" Dorothy asks.

"Everyone in the Emerald City wears them, " the Keeper of the Gate says.

They put on the glasses. Then the Keeper takes out a big gold key and opens another gate. Dorothy is surprised. Everything is green--the houses and the streets. The sky is also green. Children are buying green juice with green money. Men in green clothes are driving green cars along the green streets. Everybody is smiling.

The Keeper of the Gate takes them to a big building in the middle of the city. Oz cannot see them today, so they must stay in the Palace for a few days.

A young girl takes them to their rooms. These rooms are beautiful and comfortable. They feel very tired now. . . .

一 Taken from The Wonderful Wizard of OZ

Once upon a time, there was a man who was elderly and educated.

One day while on a walk, he found that his shoes were starting to wear out. He knew he had to buy a new pair. But he didn't want to buy the wrong shoes. He got some books and spent a lot of time reading about how to buy a pair of right shoes for himself.

After reading the books, the man took a stick and measured his feet with it. He then went to the market. But he left the stick at home, which was far away from the shop.

When the man returned to the market, the shop was closed. And by that time, his shoes were too old to wear, so he had to returm home without shoes on.

The next morning, he walked back to the market, but someone had bought the shoes that he wanted.

The man told what had happened to the shopkeeper, who asked, "Why didn't you buy the shoes yesterday?”

The man answered, "Because I left the stick that I had used to measure my feet at home. And you have to have the right measurements of your feet before you can buy shoes. I didn't want to buy the wrong size. "

Even more confused, the shopkeeper asked, "But your feet are always with you. Why didn't you just try the shoes on?"

The man said, "All the books say shoes must be bought with the exact same measurements of our feet. "

Laughing, the shop owner said, "You don't need help from books to buy shoes. Sometimes life experience* is more important. You just need your feet, some money and some common sense of life.

A farmer had a cow. He looked after this cow very well and one day when it was ill, he was very worried.

He telephoned the vet "What's the problem?" The vet asked him when he arrived.

"My cow's ill," the farmer said. "I don't know what's the matter with her. She's lying down and won't eat. She's making a strange (奇怪的) noise. "

The vet looked over the cow. "She's certainly ill. " he said, "and she needs to take some very strong medicine. "

He took a bottle out of his box, put two pills into his hand and said, "Give her these. The pills should make her better. "

"How should I give them to her?" the farmer asked.

The vet gave him a tube (管子) and said, "Put this tube in her mouth, then put the pills in the tube and blow. That'll make it. "

The next day the vet came to the farm again. The farmer was sitting outside his house and looked more worried. "How's your cow?" the vet asked.

"No change," the farmer said, "and I'm feeling very strange myself."

"Oh?" the vet said, "Why?"

"I did what you said," the farmer answered. "I put the tube in the cow's mouth and then put two pills down it. "

"And?" the vet asked. "The cow blew first. " the farmer said.

There are many things we need to know that we do not learn at school. For example, if we want to use our money wisely, we need to shop carefully. We need to know how to compare the prices of things in different shops. We need to be able to compare the quality of different brands. We need to know how to make a sensible choice when we shop.

Knowing how to make such choices is a "life skill", and we need these skills if we want to live useful and happy lives.

Most life skills are about making choices. Every day we have to make many choices. For example, will I eat healthy food for lunch or will I cat junk food because it is tasty? Will I work hard in all my classes or will I waste time? We make choices like this every day.

Making the wrong choices can bring unhappiness. We have realized that the choices we make can affect the rest of our lives. Just as importantly, our choices can also affect other people. The next time you misbehave in class or fight with your brother or sister, think about this:who else does your choice affect?

Here are some ideas for learning English faster.

You are like a new baby. Babies learn their language slowly. First they learn to listen. Then they learn to talk. Finally, they can read and write.

Listen to English every day. Listen to English radio, watch English TV, go to see English movies or use online lessons. These are useful.

Read English stories. Start with children's storybooks. Try to read stories for English start learners. Try English Club.

Write down new words. Start a new word notebook. Write words in alphabetical order (A_B. . . C. ). Make some sentences. Try to use an English-English dictionary.

Keep an English diary. Start with one sentence. Like how do you feel? How is the weather? What did you do today? Write another sentence tomorrow.

Alex was a giraffe and lived in a zoo with his mom, dad and other giraffe friends. As Alex grew, he found his neck (脖子) was much shorter. He began to get worried. But his mother told him that he was special. She said it was OK how short or long his neck was.

Alex tried not to think about his short neck. But as his friends grew taller and taller, his neck stayed short. Sometimes the other giraffes laughed at(嘲笑) him, but his parents told him not to worry. They said that he should be happy with himself. He tried, but he could not even play in some giraffe sports. He was just too short.

One day, one of the zoo workers came and took Alex away. Alex was afraid. Would he have to leave the zoo just because he didn't have a long neck? The zoo worker smiled(微笑) at Alex and gave him some food. He felt better. Then he took Alex into another place in the zoo. There was a small door between the two places. Alex was the only giraffe that could come and go through it.

 Soon Alex's parents came to see him. "I told you that you were special, " his mother said. "The zoo has made a place just for you because so many people want to see how special you are！" She was right. Visitors watched him and shouted excitedly. They looked happy to see something so special at the zoo.

Along time ago, there lived a very wise king. He was so wise that he knew the ways of almost everything. One day, a tiny bee lost her way, and flew into the king's beautiful palace. The little bee begged the king." Please, let me live, and l will offer you help some other day."

The king was amused (被逗乐的)to think a tiny bee could one day help a powerful king like him. He let the bee go and said, "Go, be on your way for l need nothing more from you today."

Many days later, a queen was coming to visit from a far-away land.

"I hear you are wise." the queen aid to the king. "Would you be willing to put your intelligence to atilt?

The king agreed and the queen did her best, with puzzles, quizzes, and difficult questions. But the king soiled all the problems perfectly.

On the last day of her visit, the queen came up with another plan. She ordered the workers to produce ninety-nine fake flowers, but looking so real and natural. When finished, even he queen could not tell they were fake. She was sure the king would fake the same mistake. And from the Ying's garden, she took just one real flower and cleverly hid it among all the others.

The queen then challenged the king." My workers creaked many beautiful flowers. Ninety-nine are fake, but one is real somewhere. Can you find that one?"

The king accepted the challenge again. He smelled the flowers, but they were all so sweet, and all so beautiful. Now which one could the real flower be? The king became a bit nervous. Suddenly, he heard a buzzing: sound something was there flying around. I was the tiny little bee he saved many days before. "I am here to repay the kindness you gave me, Sir."

The little bee quickly flew over the flowers and stopped on the real one the king picked the flower and handed it to the queen. Finality, the queen had to give up and told everyone the king was truly the wisest man in the world.

It was 10：00 at night. Eight﹣year﹣old Alice opened her eyes. She got out of bed and walked to the kitchen. She opened the fridge, got a sandwich and ate it. Then, she went back to the bed and slept. The next morning, she woke up in bed and found some bread pieces on her sleepcoat. What happened? She had no idea. Later, her mom told her," Dear, don't worry. You sleepwalked last night. "

Sleepwalking is, in fact, very usual in children. Scientists say about 29% of children under 13 have this problem. They get better as they get older. Some adults （成年人） sleepwalk, too. Many sleep﹣walkers can't remember what they did. They often find out later from their families or roommates.

Why do people walk in their sleep? Scientists find people usually sleepwalk in deep （深的） sleep, during the first hours of the night. At that time, the brain （大脑） is sleeping, but the body is not. The sleepwalkers can walk around or do easy things. Some could even drive, study or paint.

But a sleepwalk lasts （持续） only some minutes.

▲Scientists say that we don't need to wake them up, because it is not dangerous. In fact, the best way is to take them back to bed. And remember to do it slowly and quietly. Let them sleep. Tell them what they did the next morning.

Shelby played Bella in the film A Dog's Way Home in 2019. She looked just like a dog star. However, the dog was not born a movie star. About ten months ago, she lived on the streets and spent days looking for food in trash (垃圾).

It was in April 2017 that someone found her on the street and took her to the animal center. Then the dog's life changed(改变). The workers at the center named her Baby Girl and put her picture on the Internet to help her find a home. Luckily, the filmmakers of A Dog's Way Home were looking for a dog just like Baby Girl. So when the dog trainer(训练师) Miller saw the photo, she was quite interested. "It was a really good picture, and she was smiling beautifully," said Miller.

Miller gave Baby Girl a new name—Shelby—and also some tests. To Miller's surprise, Shelby did all the tests well. And it took Miller only three months to train Shelby to be a Hollywood actress. Of course, Shelby did a good job in the movie A Dog's Way Home. After the movie ended, Shelby found a home in California. She is now working as a therapy dog(治疗犬), spending her days visiting hospitals and schools. As a therapy dog, Shelby also does her job very well. Her owner(主人) said, "She just knows what she needs to do when she needs to do it. Not all dogs have that."

But, hopefully, Shelby's story will make more people bring dogs and other pets from animal centers home.