2018年初中英语牛津版（深圳·广州）八年级下册期末模拟试卷（2）

-- We should keep working without rest.

    Although it was only autumn, everything outside was covered in white. Unexpectedly, we were hit with a big 1 storm and no one was prepared.

    We have two apple trees in our backyard. Prana, our dog, loves 2. When she goes outside, she usually grabs a dirty apple from the ground to eat later on. Prana knows that when she brings her treasure into the house. I am not always 3, so she tries to hide it from me. It is our little game.     

    On the day that it snowed too 4 in the season, Prana went outside and I 5 her from the window. I noticed that she was 6 lots of holes and bringing out the apples buried beneath the snow. She seemed to be  7 to dig up as many apples as she could.

    But when she came back inside, she brought back only one. About five minutes later. I looked outside. The yard was completely 8 with birds. Prana had dug up all those apples for her bird friends to eat. She knew that they hadn't prepared 9 food for the early winter!

    This beautiful act of unconditional love from a(an)  10  taught me what real kindness was.

    Life is full of surprises and you never know how things will turn out.

Sir John Gurdon is a good example of this. As a boy, he was told he was hopeless at science and finished bottom of his class. Now, aged 79, the very same Gurdon shared the 2012 Nobel Prize in Medicine with Japanese stem cell(干细胞) researcher Shinya Yamanaka.

Like so many scientists, Gurdon shows us where the power of curiosity and perseverance(坚持不懈) can lead.

At the age of 15 in 1948, Gurdon ranked last out of the 250 boys at his high school in biology and every other science subject. Gurdon's high school science teacher even said that his dream of becoming a scientist was "quite ridiculous".

In spite of his teacher's criticisms, Gurdon followed his curiosity and kept working hard. He went to the lab early and left later than anyone else. He experienced thousands of failures.

    "My own belief is that we will, in the end, understand everything about how cells actually work." Gurdon said.

    In 1962, Gurdon took a cell from an adult frog and moved its genetic(基因的) information into an egg cell. The egg cell then grew into a clone(克隆) of the adult frog. This technique later helped to create Dolly the sheep in 1996, the first cloned mammal(哺乳动物) in the world.

    In 2006, Gurdon's work was developed by Yamanaka to show that a sample(样本) of a person's skin can be used to create stem cells. Using this technique, doctors can repair a patient's heart after a heart attack.

    "Luck favors the prepared mind, "Gurdon told the Nobel Prize Organization." Ninety percent of the time things don't work, but when they do, you have to seize(抓住) the chance. "

    Many of us have ever loved the two toy bears-a brown Teddy bear and a yellow Winnie-the-Pooh bear. The two toy bears come from real stories in life.

    In 1902, Theodore Roosevelt, President of the USA, went on hunting. The hunting dogs found an old bear in the forest near Washington DC and the guide asked the president to shoot(射杀) it. But President Roosevelt disagreed. A cartoonist(漫画家) drew a cartoon showing that the president refused to shoot the bear. Soon, the bear began to appear in other newspapers. People named the bear Teddy which was Theodore's nickname(昵称).

    In 1913, a captain named Harry Colebourn paid 20 dollars for a black bear which was born in the Canadian countryside. The captain's hometown, Winnipeg, was the origin(起源) of the bear's name. In Winnipeg, Winnie served as the mascot(吉祥物). When World War I began, the captain went to France. Winnie was sent to London Zoo which many kids often visited. Because of its lovely look, the bear became popular with children.

    In England, some food companies across the whole country have been told to carry out urgent(紧急的) tests on all beef products. Do you know why? That's because some food companies used horsemeat to make beef products.

    There are some examples about the horsemeat matter. In January, 2013, in a number of UK supermarkets, frozen hamburgers were found to have traces of horsemeat in them. Some frozen beef products made by food company Findus were found to contain horsemeat. All of the beef products made by this company have been removed from sale.

    The government said that there's nothing to suggest any health risk from the products. Food minister David Heath said people should not throw away frozen meat products and carry on eating meat. The government will tell people not to eat meat if the meat is not safe.

    Food safety has been an important matter all over the world. More and more countries plan to take some useful measures to ensure the safety of food.

    In nature, you may see many insects(昆虫) and animals of different colors. Have you ever wondered why?

    Locusts are super delicious food for birds, but it is not always an easy job for birds to catch them. It is neither because locusts are good jumpers or runners nor because they are smarter than their enemies. The reason is that the colors, of locusts change with the colors of crops(庄稼). When crops are young, locusts look green. But when autumn comes, locusts change to the yellow and brown color as crops do.

    Brown bears, tigers and other animals move quietly through forests. They can't be seen easily by their enemies. This is because they have colors similar to the trees. For the same reason, polar bears that live on a land of snow and ice are white. Butterflies and bees living among the flowers are colorful like flowers. Soil insects are mostly dark colored and they live under the soil(土壤)in a dark and wet environment. However, insects with colors different from plants can easily be found and eaten by others. So in order to survive, they have to hide themselves in the daytime and appear only at night.

    Have you ever noticed some even stranger acts? The ink fish in the sea can send out some very black ink when it faces danger. As the ink spreads over, its enemies will find themselves suddenly in a dark world. At the same time the ink fish immediately swims away. That is how it keeps itself safe though it is not strong at all.

A: What are you going to do tonight, Ben?

B: I don't know.

A: What about going to watch a football match? Shenhua team will be there.

B:Which team will play against the Shenhua team?

A:

B: It must be a wonderful match.They will play quite well. Do you think so?

A:Well, what time shall we meet?

B:

A: OK. See you then.

B: See you.

    A lot of people in cities keep pets now. Keeping pets nearly becomes a common habit of modern people. But not all the people in cities like that. Why do they think so? What are the advantages and disadvantages of keeping pets?