江苏省南京市建邺区2024-2025学年七年级上学期期末考试英语试题

Saving money for a rainy day in Germany

Germans are known for their beers and soccer. But do you know they also like to save money?

Saving has1 long history in Germany. The world's first savings bank opened in 1778 in Hamburg, a city in northern Germany. By 1836, there were more than 300 of these savings banks in the country. Germans think that saving money2 them the top savers in the world. German families have saved more than 8 per cent of3 money over the last 20 years, according to OECD data.

What is the reason Germans save money? According to the Financial Times, being smart4 money is part of the image that Germans have of themselves. They strongly believe that saving money is like being honest or kind. What's more, Germans think that saving money is important for their country. If every German5 dropping coins into money boxes, Germany will become richer and stronger.

备注：OECD stands for Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development 经济合作与发展组织

Throughout the year, there are many events at school. One of the most meaningful of the year is the food collection. It takes place in May and it is held in November again every year. Each school does its food collection1. However, most of the time, it is set up in a similar style.

In my school, it usually2 for a few weeks every time. Students bring their food3 home. The food should be kept long, such as canned food and pastas. We also hold something more4 the school. Some students go door to door and ask people to5 them some food. Some set up boxes in malls and6 areas such as stores or cinemas.

The students all work hard and the members of the neighborhood are very warm-hearted. After that time is over, we bring the collected food to our local Community Table. The poor families in our community can get some food if they need to. Usually, a group of students go with one7 to send the food. I sent food with our English teacher last year. And I was8 to see so many families under the problem of hunger.

I was pleased that our school could help out all of those families. We do this9 each year. What a great event! Sure, we can't change the world,10 we can do our best to make our world a better place.

Eggs are the enemy

Many people believe that egg yolks are bad for their heart. But this is only partly true. Though eggs contain a small amount of saturated fat（饱和脂肪）, they provide us with 13 types of natural vitamins（维生素）and minerals（矿物质）. You might not get some of these nutrients（营养物质）from other foods. So instead of avoiding eggs completely, it's a good idea to keep them in your diet.

Carbohydrates make you fat

When people think about carbohydrates, they think white bread, rice and pasta are fattening. However, there are also "good-carbs", such as beans, pumpkins, sweet potatoes and bananas. We need carbohydrates to give us energy.

"Low-fat" is always better

Like carbohydrates, some fats are good for you and others are not. Without good fats, the human body cannot get enough nutrients. The problem with low-fat products is that they are low in all fats including the good ones.   

Drink eight glasses of water every day

Eight glasses is not always the right amount of water to drink for everyone because different people need different amounts of water. In addition, some people forget there is also water in food like fruits and vegetables. This means you really don't need to only drink water to stay hydrated（含水的）. Drinking water is important, but taking in too much water can be harmful. In serious cases, it can lead to water poisoning.

"Dopamine dressing" was from the book Dress Your Best Life. American fashion psychologist (心理学家), Dawnn Karen wrote this book in 2020. In the book, "dopamine dressing" is about wearing colourful clothes to get more dopamine.

Dopamine is something in our brain. It makes people feel good. Our brain gives it out when we eat delicious food, play with our pets, listen to our favourite songs, after we exercise or when we win a game.

In Science Focus Magazine, some studies showed a relationship (关系) between the colours of the clothes we wear and how we act and feel. One study found that wearing red can make it easier to take action. It also showed bright colors can make people feel active. One more study showed that wearing green can make people feel relaxed because it is the colour of nature. Yellow, the color of summer, can bring people happiness. But there are some problems with these studies because people from different cultures have different ideas about dressing and colours.

In a word, "dopamine dressing" shows that we can wear colourful clothes to get more dopamine and feel good. Dressing is more than just a fashion. It's also a way of showing ourselves.

What Dennis didn't realize is that staying awake at night is hard when your body needs to sleep. He tried everything he could think of to stop himself from falling asleep. He tried counting wolves（if counting sheep makes you sleepy, then counting wolves must surely do the opposite）, but unfortunately it made him even more tired. He started to suspect that it was the counting, and not the choice of animal, that made people sleepy.

Dennis was just about ready to give up when he heard a squeak（吱吱叫）from his hamster（仓鼠）Charlie. He went over to Charlie's cage, but it was empty. Dennis followed the sounds of squeaking until he found Charlie on the floor, looking behind the door. Dennis noticed that something back there was throwing things at Charlie! Coins, balls of paper, and even some stones were flying in Charlie's direction, as he squeaked.

"What's there, Charlie?" Dennis asked as he picked up the hamster and walked towards the door.

What he saw made him wonder if he had actually fallen asleep and not realized it.

"It's a…it's a rabbit!" he said. No bigger than Charlie（and no smaller）, the rabbit wore a yellow shirt, a tiny pair of green pants, and a hat.

"Why are you throwing things at my hamster, rabbit?" asked Dennis.

"Why do you keep a vicious（凶猛的）hamster as a pet, human?" asked the rabbit. "Charlie is not vicious! More importantly, why are you in my room, rabbit?" asked Dennis. "That is an interesting question, human."

"My name is not ‘human', it's Dennis." Dennis said angrily. "I already know your name. And rabbits have names too!"

Dennis didn't say anything for a moment, and neither did the rabbit. It was an awkward（尴尬的）silence for everyone except Charlie who, as usual, had fallen asleep shortly after Dennis picked him up.

"Well, what is your name then?" asked Dennis.

—Look! He (lie) on the grass.

The Sisters' Meals Festival is an important festival of China's Miao people.

It's a of love and spring. It's the oldest "Valentine Day" of China.

Miao girls begin to it a few days before the celebration. They collect fresh wild flowers and leaves from mountains to. After that, they dye some rice blue, pink, yellow and white. These colours stand for spring, summer, autumn and winter.

For the festival, Miao girls pretty ethnic clothes. They also wear beautiful silvers head and neck rings. In Miao culture, silver stands for light and.

Learning is .

To make sure I get enough sleep, I .

Qipao are usually made of silk and they .

Onions are .

Players wear baseball caps, and they are also a kind of fashion.

Chinese people like the red colour a lot. Even now, Chinese people like to refer to ourselves as Chizi, meaning the red descendant (子孙).

Red represents the motherland and authority. Official uniforms of the Tang Dynasty were red. In the Qing Dynasty, red was used on official caps to show different rankings. As we know, the Five-starred Red Flag was first raised on October 1st, 1949. Even nowadays, headlines of official documents (文件) are painted in red. This is why they are called red-head documents.

For ordinary people, red stands for happiness. For example, the word "double happiness" used for weddings is red. The bride (新娘) wears red clothes which are different from the white gowns of the west. During the Chinese Spring Festival, people will give red packets with money inside to the children as good wishes. Couplets (对联) hanging on both sides of the doors are written in red. The word red equals prettiness. The expression "hongyan" meaning red colour is a synonym of a beautiful girl. Red is also one of the most popular words used in the names of Chinese women. But in traffic lights red means stop driving. This is how the westerners like to use the red colour. It is because red is very bright, and is good for warning purposes. But it doesn't really have any negative meanings.

Li Ziqi is back! After a break of more than three years, one of China's most p influencers (网红) finally returned on Nov 12th.

Li comes back with two new v. One tells how she c a shed (牛棚) into a cloakroom (衣帽间), and the other shows how she uses the intangible cultural heritage (非物质文化遗产) of Chinese lacquerware techniques (漆器工艺) to make doors, which helps s Chinese culture.

Fans from around the world have shown their excitement for her return. "I've missed you and your grandma. So glad you come back, so happy," wrote one fan on YouTube. Why do people s like her so much even though she was a for over three years?" Today, everyone is busy and there's no time for rest. But she slows down, and learns only one thing," said one fan.

"I went to more than 200 cities and visited over 100 intangible cultural heritage inheritors (继承人)," Li told Xinhua about the past three years. She talked with them, studied their s and learned the s behind their work. Now, she wants to share those with the world t her works.

According to Southern Weekly, people like Li because they want to live a simple and slow life. This hope is timeless, just like people's love for Henry David Thoreau's book Walden (《瓦尔登湖》), which also talks about 1 peacefully in nature.

Dear Leo,

You said the Spring Festival was coming soon in your last email. I'm so excited for you!

I want to know how you will celebrate it. Are there any special things you always do? What kind of clothes will you wear for that big day? What colour(s) will you choose to wear and why? You told me you would get red packets with money. What will you do with that money?

Please write back as soon as possible.

Best wishes,

Chilam

注意：

1. 词数不少于70，回信的开头已为你写好，不计入总词数；

2. 回信中必须包括所有内容要点，可适当发挥，使其连贯、通顺；

3. 文章中不得出现真实的人名、地名、校名等相关信息。

Dear Chilam,

I'm glad that you write to me. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

All the best,

Leo