The Most Unusual Jobs
Pet Food Tester .
Yes, it's a thing and yes it's totally  gross(恶心的). But Mark Gooley ---the  owner of a pet food company, eats dog  food for a living. He eats everything from doggie treats and chewy bones to liver mixture.
Teddy Bear repair Engineer
When your favorite toy loses an arm, or suffers a bad injury, it is upsetting. But now you can get help in the Build-A-Bear Workshops, the teddy bear repair engineers repair your favorite teddy bears and get them back to themselves.
Water slide Tester
Monday morning surely seems more enjoyable if you spend your working week slipping down water                      slides in a theme park, especially in summer.
You might also spend your lunch break on a  roller coaster, eating a hot dog for lunch.
Working holiday, am I right?
Paint Watcher
You may have heard some people say they'd "rather watch paint dry" than do something they don't want to do. Well, if they really mean it, the chance is there---- studying the drying time and effects(效果)of paint as a full-time job for a paint company.
【小题1】What is Mark Gooley's job?

The Spring  Festival  is the biggest  festival  for Chinese people all around the world.. The  celebration  usually lasts for 15 days. There is a lot to do.
On the eve of the Spring Festival, family members get together and have big meals. Their favourite dish on this day is dumplings.
Days before the Spring Festival, families will clean their homes. People think cleaning sweeps away bad luck. It makes the house ready for good luck.
The colour red is everywhere during the Spring Festival. People think red is a happy colour and will bring them a bright future. People wear red, too. They decorate (装饰) their homes with pieces of red paper. Kids get a lot of “hong bao”. It is a red paper bag with money in it. Usually, older people give younger ones hong bao. They think it brings good luck.
The Spring Festival is the time to make everybody happy. So don’t say any bad words or do anything that will bring unhappiness to other people.
For instance, you’d better not say any bad words like “death”. Don’t break anything. People think that it means your luck is running out.
Also, don’t borrow or lend money on these days. If you have borrowed money, return it before the Spring Festival.
根据短文，选择最佳答案：
【小题1】What do most people do on the eve of the Spring Festival?

More than anything else in the world, Lion liked being King of the jungle. He walked around, showing off his power and pride.
Each day Lion took a long lazy sleep under the shade of his favourite tree. He always dreamed of weaker animals bowing(鞠躬) before him.
One day Mouse ran through the jungle and tripped over Lion’s huge paws. Lion woke up with a start.“How dare you wake me up!”he shouted angrily.  Lion grabbed(抓住)  Mouse with one paw.“On the second thought, I’m in the mood for the snack, and you’ll make a delicious meal.”he said.
Mouse cried out,“King Lion, please spare（饶恕） me! If you let me live, I’ll always remember your kindness. And, some day, I might be able to help you.”
“How could such a powerless little mouse ever help me?”That thought made Lion laugh so much that he decided to let Mouse go. A week later, Lion was walking through the jungle on the way to his favourite tree when he stepped onto a hunter’s net. The net scooped him up. No matter how he twisted (扭动) and turned, he couldn’t escape.
When Mouse heard Lion’s frightened shouts, he raced to help. Mouse quickly chewed（咬）through the ropes to make a hole in the net. Soon, Lion moved out and was free. Lion looked down at the little mouse.“Thank you for saving my life,”said Lion, smiling his widest smile.  “I was mistaken. You are not a powerless little mouse. You are a great friend!”
【小题1】What did Lion do each day?

Important Ages in the UK

Studying in groups is becoming more and more popular in class. It has many advantages. For example, we can not only save time but also encourage each other when we study in groups. I still remember when I was in Grade 8, my physics was very poor, I had a really hard time with it. Once in class, the teachers asked us to discuss it with each other, but I was very shy, I could not do it like what they told me. My physics teacher encouraged me to face others and talk with someone else bravely, then I studied with some classmates together. When I did not understand any questions, they could give me some advice, I could quickly find out the ways to deal with the problems.
After that, I felt very relaxed and asked my classmates a lot of questions about physics. I did not feel stressed out at all. At last, I finished my homework by myself for the first time. How excited I was!
Because of studying in groups, I am not worried about physics any more. With my classmates’ help, I get more confidence. It also gives me more chances to improve myself in many ways. So let’s study more in groups.
Choose the best choice from A, B or C according to what you read.
【小题1】What subject was poor for the writer in Grade 8?
A. English.   B. Physics.     C. Math.
【小题2】we can __________each other when we study in groups.
A. save time
B. encourage each other
C.A和B
【小题3】________encouraged me to face others and talk with someone else bravely.
A. My mother
B. My physics teacher
C. No one
【小题4】Which of the following is WRONG in this article?
A.I felt relaxed after studying in groups.
B. With my classmates’ help, I get more confidence.
C. I am still worrying about physics because of studying with my classmates.
【小题5】What is the best title of the article?
A.To study in groups.
B. To do homework in groups.
C. To study alone.

According to a recent survey, British teenagers are damaging（伤害） their health by not getting enough sleep because they are prevented from doing so by electronic gadgets (电子设备) in their bedrooms.
According to the Sleep Council, "junk sleep" could compete with eating unhealthy junk food as a main worrying lifestyle for parents of teenage children.
Among the l, 000 students aged 12 t0 16 who were tested in the survey, 30 percent just slept for 4 to 7 hours a day. Almost a quarter said they fell asleep, more than once a week, while watching TV, listening to music or using other electronic gadgets.
"This is a quite worrying trend（潮流）”， said Dr Chris Idzikowski of the Edinburgh Sleep Centre. "What we are seeing is the appearance of terrible junk sleep - sleep that is of neither the length（长度） nor the quality it should be."
Nearly each of the teenagers had a phone, music system or TV in his or her bedroom, with around two-thirds owning all three. Almost one in five of the teenage boys said the quality of their sleep had been influenced by leaving their TVs or computers on. The survey also found that 40 percent of youngsters felt tired each day, with girls aged 15 to 16 feeling the worst.
"Teenagers need to wake up to the fact that to perform（表现） well. They need to do something about their sleep. I'm shocked（震惊） that so few teenagers have noticed the close connection," said Idzikowski.
【小题1】Among the students tested in the survey, about_______ of them fell asleep while using their electronic gadgets.

Britain’s smallest school was closed down because its only pupil failed to turn up for class, a famous British newspaper reported in May. The newspaper said the six-year-old girl’s parents were unhappy with a teacher who just got the new job to teach the only pupil.
The school had been closed for the last nine months after its former (前任的) teacher retired（退休）and the only other pupil moved on to a secondary school. The new teacher, Ms Puckey, was to start teaching the girl and reopen the school. But the girl’s mother is keeping her daughter at home. “I was not pleased with the new teacher,” the mother said, “I had told the old teacher as far back as last September that if Ms Puckey got the job, my children would not be going to school.” The school lies on an island off the northeast coast of Scotland. Although there was only one pupil, the school is very good in many ways and has a headmaster, three computers, a television and an art room as well as a school house with three bedrooms.
【小题1】The reading is about_________.

Reading newspapers has become an important part of our life. Many people begin their day by reading the papers. In this way they learn what is going on in the world. Sometimes, however, they do not have time to read the news carefully, so they just take a quick look at the front  page; at other times they may be in such a hurry that they have time only to look at the headlines.
There are newspapers to meet the needs of （满足…的需求）every reader. In big cities there are many kinds of papers. In small towns there are fewer newspapers. In some places the paper comes out once a week.
Today, as a group, English language newspapers enjoy the largest number of readers. With the development（发展）of the world, some new newspapers will come out in the years to come.

【小题1】Many people ______ as the first thing every morning.

We can see waste everywhere in the school. Some students ask for more food than they can eat and others often forget to turn off the lights when they leave the classroom. They say they can afford these things. But I don't agree with them.
Waste can bring a lot of problems. Although China is rich in some resources（资源）, we are short of others, for example, fresh water. It is reported that we will have no coal（煤） or oil to use in 100 years. So if we go on wasting our resources, what can we use in the future and where can we move? Think about it. I think we should say no to the students who waste things every day. Everybody should stop wasting as soon as possible.
In our everyday life, we can do many things to prevent waste from happening, for example, turn off the water taps when we finish washing, turn off the lights when we leave the classroom, try not to order more food than we need and so on. Little by little, we will change everything. We can stop waste one day, if we do our best.
【小题1】From the passage we know that some students often _______ in the school.

In the sea there are many islands. In its warm waters there are some little ones. We call them “coral Islands” (珊瑚岛).
A coral island is very nice to look at. It looks like a ring of land(一圈陆地) with trees, grass, and flowers on it. One part of the ring is open to the water. There is a little round lake inside the island.
If you look into this lake, you will see beautiful coral. You may think they are flowers. If you look at a piece of coral, you will see many little holes in it. In each of these holes a very small sea animal lives. These sea animals make the coral.
They began to build under the water. Year after year, the coral grew higher and higher. At last it grew out of the water.
Then the sea brought it small trees and something else. After some years, these things changed into earth. Sometimes the wind brought seeds(种子) to this earth. Sometimes birds flew over it and brought seeds to the island.
The little seeds grew. In a few years there were plants all over the island. In a few more years there were trees growing there.
So you see, these islands were built little by little. The workers were very small. Do they not teach us a lesson? Can you think what the lesson is?
【小题1】In the sea _____.