广东省广州市南沙区2021-2022学年八年级下学期英语期末试卷

Gu Ailing, also known as Eileen Gu, was born in San Francisco in 2003. Eileen Gu is an American-Chinese athlete,1her father is American and her mother is Chinese. In February 2022, at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, she became the first freestyle skier to win three medals at a single Games.

Since Gu was young, she2interested in skiing. Eileen was 3 years old3her mother took her ski for the first time. At the age of 13, she started competing in senior competitions. In 2019, she won her first World Cup in Seiser Alm, Italy. After that, she chose to play for her mother's birth country China and she had a dream of4Olympic Gold at the Beijing 2022 Winter Games.

When Gu was at school in San Francisco, she played many5sports, like horse riding and rock climbing. She was just as talented in the classroom as she was on her skis. In order to compete in the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, she decided to complete two years of schoolwork in 2020.6, she succeeded and became the first person in her school to graduate early. And then she spent all her time on the snow.

Besides being a great athlete, Eileen is also7excellent model. She8on different kinds of fashion shows on TV both in America as well as China. "It's a totally different world9skiing," she said. "I think it's really important10a colorful life, and to be able to do many different things and I enjoy doing it."

Volunteering and Charity

Everybody receives lots of presents on his or her birthday. Have you ever thought about what it would be like to give instead of1for your birthday? Kyle Breeden, 11, has done that ever since he was six years old. Every November, Kyle2his whole class to his birthday celebration. He asks each friend to bring a new toy to donate to Toys for Tots.

Toys for Tots, an American charity organization, always gives away Christmas toys to Children. Those children's parents are so3that they cannot afford toys for them. Kyle, a fifth grader, has donated more than 2,000 toys to the organization. He plans to continue4toys for other kids for years to come.

During a recent interview, Kyle said that his parents always took part in the events which help others. When he was five, Kyle asked his parents how he could help, too. He wondered if he could donate his birthday toys, so his5helped him get involved in Toys for Tots. Of his charitable acts, Kyle said, "Many people are still struggling for life. But I can help the community so that more children will have a6Christmas."

Kyle attends the annual Toys for Tots event held by John Minadakis. "I have never seen someone give so much at such a(n)7age," Minadakis said of Kyle. "His ability to put others8himself is a trait（品质）that will take him far in life."

Kyle hopes that through his example, other kids will also learn to treat others9. "It feels good just to be nice," he said. "Even the10toy can make a kid happy. That's great."

Stacie wanted to stay at a nice hotel for vacation. But her parents sent her to a terrible camp instead. For breakfast, Stacie liked fresh juice and chocolate milk, but she got water at the camp. In the afternoon she wanted to write poems, but she had to swim. The camp was near an airport with loud planes. Spider webs hung over her bed. To her, the kids' average behavior was very bad. No girl matched her personality. She hated it.

One day, they had a class. Mental exercise sounded good to Stacie. But it was a course on water safety. They learned how to be safe passengers on boat. Stacie didn't even plan to go on a boat.

The next day, they played a game. There were a red team and a blue team. Stacie was on the blue team. Each team had to try to remove the other team's flag from a pole. They also had to use water guns. "I am not much of an athlete," she said. But she still had to play.

Stacie took a water gun and looked for somewhere to hide. A boy said, "Stacie, you advance to the middle. I will go right, those two will go left."

Stacie still didn't want to play. She walked into the forest and saw a red team player coming. Stacie hid behind a tree and then jumped out and shot him. "This is fun!" Stacie thought.

Several minutes after advancing further, Stacie saw the red flag. A red team member was watching over it. She shot him with her water gun. Then she lowered the flag and ran back to her team. "I got it!" she yelled. The blue team won! Stacie was the hero.

For the rest of the week, Stacie had fun. She even made new friends.

Schools keep changing. Every year, new inventions and products appear. Some of them are very helpful for students and teachers. Which of them will schools use? No one is sure, but here are some possible developments. Do you believe they will come true?

Drowning is the second leading cause of accidental deaths of children, so a lot of parents are already signing them up for summer swim lessons.

Studies show they help save lives. According to USA Swimming, formal lessons reduce the possibility of drowning by nearly 90%.

Afton Kidman knows the dangers that come from water. "We shouldn't only want our kids to think water is fun," Kidman said. "They also need to know how to survive（存活）in it."

Kidman's son, Forrest, was in a drowning accident. He survived but suffered brain damage, and it's why Kidman decided to learn how to teach survival swimming and became a teacher at Children Swimming Center.

"I wanted to be able to help more kids," Kidman said. She's taught nearly 50 of them so far. Some babies are as young as six months. This summer, she has 30 more children coming for lessons. "Every parent should have your child learn how to swim," Kidman said, "it's a great gift to give them."

"Across the country, more than a million kids will learn to swim this summer," Ruth Comer, with YMCA of Greater Des Moines, said. "Kids who are disabled or have special needs, anyone can learn to swim. It's never too late."

"I think it's going to get a lot of kids that never would have had a chance to get swim lessons, that chance to get in a pool," Ethan Johnson, head coach of the Des Moines Swimming Federation, said. "If we save one life, it's all worth it."

"Hello, everyone! Welcome to Tiangong Class." With this greeting, a special lecture began on Tiangong space station about 400 kilometers above Earth on Dec 9, 2021. The space lecture lasted for about an hour. Three astronauts from the Shenzhou XIII - Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu, hosted the lecture, introducing how they lived and worked on the space station.

This is the second live space lecture in China. In 2013, Wang delivered the country's first live space lecture to over 60 million schoolchildren across China. Compared with the one eight years ago, this year's space lecture is greatly different.

More space to teach

The "classroom" is bigger. Instead of Tiangong Ⅰ experimental module（舱）, this year Wang delivered the space lecture in the Tianhe space core module, which is the biggest spacecraft developed by China.

Technological development

The quality of space to ground communication is also much improved. The first lecture sometimes faced the challenges of the video freezing and an unclear picture. With the help of China's Tianlian relay satellites, this year the transmission（传输）speed has been highly increased and the whole live broadcast has run smoothly.

More subjects

Along with the technological progress, this year's space lecture discussed more subjects. Eight years ago, Wang showed students the laws of physics and focused on something about weightlessness in space. But this year, biology was added. The astronauts compared the growth and shape of cells in artificial（人工的）gravity and zero gravity, so as to study their changing rules and mechanisms.

Though these space lectures showed different topics, the aim behind them has never changed. It is to spread knowledge about manned spaceflights and arouse interest for science among young people.

While studying a map of China, have you ever noticed the Mu Us Desert in the northwest? If you haven't, then you probably never will.

You might wonder: Why is this happening? Who is the "killer"? Well, this is not a murder story. It is the result of years of afforestation（造林）efforts.

The Mu Us used to be one of the largest deserts in China. Sandstorms were common in northern Shaanxi.

The fight against desertification began in the 1970s. The work has more than tiring. He Li'e led an afforestation team in Yulin, Shaanxi. They once spent an entire afternoon planting trees under a burning sun. Crying was useless. The next day, the team replanted all the trees.

One of them is Guo Chengwant. With encouragement from the government, in 1985, he started to plant trees in his village. Guo is now in his nineties. His children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren have continued the job. These trees have made a big difference. In Yulin, the number of sandy days has dropped from 100 in 2000 to 10 now. With thousands of people's efforts, the Mu Us Desert will be gone. Our motherland is becoming greener and lovelier.

Posture is the way a person stands, walks or sits. Because of the cultural differences in the world, the same posture may show d meanings to others.

In America, teachers often sit on the desks when teaching. But the Chinese students cannot a it because they think this will harm the dignity（庄重）of the teachers. It is c for the American students to communicate with their teachers just sitting in their chairs. While in China, the students must s up and answer the teacher questions. This is a way of showing their r. In Egypt, a man who leans on the chair with his feet pointing to others will be considered rude and impolite to the Muslim. Because of the cultural differences, one should be careful in the use of posture language in o not to make misunderstandings.