牛津版（深圳•广州）初中英语九年级上学期期末模拟试卷（6）

Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden, is a country in Northern Europe. Sweden borders (与......接壤) Norway and Finland, and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel. At 450,295 square kilometers, Sweden is the third-largest country in the European Union by area, with a total population of about 9.6 million. Sweden has a low population density (密度) of 21 persons per square kilometer with the population mostly living in the southern half of the country. Southern Sweden is mainly agricultural, while the north is heavily forested.

      Sweden was discovered as an independent country during the Middle Ages. In the 17th century, the country became bigger to form the Swedish Empire. The empire grew to be one of the great powers of Europe in the 17th and early 18th centuries. The eastern half of Sweden, present-day Finland, was lost to Russia in 1809. The last war in Sweden was in 1814. Since then, Sweden has been at peace, remaining a largely neutral (中立的) nation. The country played a good role during World Wars I and II, taking in refugees (难民) from German occupied Europe. With the ending of the Cold War, Sweden joined the European Union.

    Teenagers who listen to the same music often have a common look. One hot style in music and fashion is hip-hop. Hip-hop is a type of urban music with a heavy beat. Typical (典型的) hip-hop fashions are loose-fitting street clothes. The style includes baggy (宽松的) pants, sweatshirts, hiking boots, baseball caps (usually worn backward), jackets with sports logos, and expensive athletic shoes. In the hip-hop style, boys and girls often dress the same way.

    African-American kids in Detroit and Chicago first made hip-hop fashions trendy (时髦的) more than 20 years ago. They wore baggy street clothes to dance clubs. Then North American and European bands also began wearing like this. Thanks to the popularity of music videos and movies, hip-hop soon became an international fashion.

   Teens around the world, from Britain to South Africa to Japan, now wear hip-hop clothing. Seventeen- year- old Melanie Borrow, of Manchester, England, said, "My pride and joy in life are my Levi's jeans." In the United States, teens spend a lot of money on hip-hop fashions. David Bowen, 17, of Evanston, Illinois, has five pairs of hiking boots, each costing around $ 100. David said, "They are popular because a lot of hip-hop performers wear them."

       Doctor Seuss was born in 1904. By the middle 1950s, he had become one of the best-loved and most successful children's book writers in the world. His books are very popular with young readers. They enjoy the invented words and the pictures of unusual funny animals and plants.

In l954, Life Magazine published(刊登) a report about school children who could not read. The report said many children's books were not interesting. Doctor Seuss strongly hoped to help children and decided to write books that were interesting and easy to read. He used words with the same ending sound, like fish and wish. He did not receive training in art. Yet, he drew the pictures for most of his books.

    In l957, Doctor Seuss wrote The Cat in the Hat. He used less than 230 words to write the book and even a six-year-old should be able to read it. It was a fun stow and easy to read. Children loved it. Their parents loved it, too. Today it is still one of his stories they like best. In l 960, he wrote a book using less than fifty words. The book is called Green Eggs and Ham.

    In l984, Doctor Seuss won a Pulitzer Prize(普利策奖). He was honored for the education and enjoyment his books provided American children and their parents.

    He died at the age of 87, but his influence remains. Millions of his books have been sold worldwide. People say his books helped change the way American children learned to read. Yet, his books are loved by people of all ages.

—So he can't ________ to live in a big flat.