河北保定竞秀区2015-2016学年八年级下学期英语期中考试试卷

-- Good idea. But I don't have ______ soccer ball.

— ______ my dad _______ my mom likes it. They both prefer classical music.

— That's a good idea.

    Elephants are the largest living animals on land. More than 500 1 kinds of elephants were found on the earth over the last 55 million years. Only 2 kinds are still alive today: the African elephant and the Asian (or Indian) elephant. These elephants can only be found in 3 places. However, the older kinds lived in cold places a long time4. An example is the mammoth (猛犸象) — the largest hairy elephant.

    The mammoth was the largest living elephant, which was about seven tons. 5 the elephants today, mammoths had black or dark brown hairs 6their bodies. All the mammoths had tusks (长牙).

    Scientists found most of the extinct (灭绝的) animals by 7 the fossils, 8 their bones and teeth that could be found. However, mammoths are quite different. During the Ice Age, mammoths died and were covered 9 in the ice. The ice kept them very well. So scientists could find the 10 body of the mammoth.

    Many people are surprised when they find that the Internet was set up in the 1960s. At that time, computers were large and expensive. Computer networks didn't work well. If one computer in the network broke down, then the whole network stopped. So a few network system had to be set up. It should be good enough to be used by many different computers. If part of the network was not working, information could be sent through another part. In this way computer network system would keep on working all the time.

    At first the Internet was only used by the government, but in the early 1970s, universities, hospitals and banks were allowed to use it, too. However, computers were still very expensive and the Internet was difficult to use. By the start of 1990s, computers became cheaper and easier to use. Scientists had also developed software that made "surfing" the Internet easier.

    Today it is easy to get online and it is said that millions of people use the Internet every day. Sending e-mails is more and more popular among young people. The Internet has now become one of the most important parts of people's life.

    When the weather is hot, you go to a lake or an ocean. When you are near a lake or an ocean, you feel cool. Why? The sun makes the earth hot, but it can not make the water hot. Though the air over the earth becomes hot, the air over the water stays cool. The hot air over the earth goes up, then the cool air over the water moves in and takes the place of the hot air. When you are near a lake or an ocean, you feel the cool air when it moves in. You feel the wind and the wind makes you cool.

    Of course, scientists cannot answer all of our questions. If we ask "Why is the ocean full of salt?" scientists will say that the salt comes from rocks. When a rock gets very hot or very cool, it cracks (崩裂), and rain falls into the cracks. The rain then carries the salt into the earth and the rivers. The rivers carry the salt into the ocean. But then we ask "What happens to the salt in the ocean? The ocean does not get saltier every year." scientists are not sure about the answer to the question.

    We know a lot about our world. But there are still many answers that we do not have, and we are curious(好奇的).

    Once upon a time, there was an old woman who lived in a small house. She planted a lot of beautiful tulips (郁金香) in her garden.

    One night, the sounds of sweet singing and of babies laughing woke her up. She looked out of the window. The sounds seemed to come from the tulips, but she could see nothing.

    The next morning she walked among her flowers, but there were no signs of anyone having been there the night before.

    On the following night she was again wakened (弄醒) by the sounds of sweet singing and babies laughing. She got out of bed and walked softly into her garden. The old woman looked closely and she noticed that a fairy (精灵) mother was singing softly, and that in each tulip-cup was a little fairy baby, laughing and playing.

    The old woman went back to her house quietly. From then on, she never picked a tulip. She didn't allow her neighbours to pick the flowers, either. When the old woman died, all the tulips disappeared overnight. But her grave (坟墓) looked beautiful, because the fairies sang above it and kept it green.

提示：1. How do you think of the Internet? Good or Bad? 2. Why? 3. How can we use the Internet properly?

The Internet—Good or Bad?