浙江省嘉兴市秀洲2018年初中毕业生学业考试适应性练习英语卷...

    Have you heard of STEM education? STEM 1 Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. It means students can learn these 2subjects in one class. And they work on many projects to practice 3 they learn STEM education is very 4 in the US.

    Now more than 600 5 middle schools bring in STEM education, according to the paper, en. Beijing, Yuying School is one of them.

    The school 6 the course in May. It invited college teachers to teach more than 80 students programming, robotics and other interdisciplinary(跨学科}的) knowledge.

    The teaching style is quite 7, Once teachers finish teaching basie knowledge, studentes will practice it 8. For example, after learning about electrie circuits(电路),students are required to design one that could control three lights 9.They have many projects to improve their hands-on 10 as well. Once, they had a "smart home" model design project. All the students competed to design a 11 model and make it "smart" .Liu Tianyou, 12, with 12 teammates, used computer programs and sensors to finish it. "If you open the door of the house, the lights will 13 automatically, "he said. Their work won the third prize.

    The class, develops students' creativity as well. 14 Learning mechanies and programming in the class, Zhao Hngyi, 14, made a Lego robot himself in eight 15.From assembling(组装)to testing he finished it on his own. The robot can catch things and walk on certain tracks under orders. " It's cool to make my idea come to life," he said.

    Nearly 20 million shared bikes were put on the streets in China in 2017, and they may lead to about 300,000 tons of waste metal, almost the total weight of steel used in five aircraft carriers.

    Many discarded bikes are piling up in big cities like Shanghai. Some of them are not completely broken but are still taken out of use. It is said the life span(使用期限) of a shared bike should not be more than three years.

    "One size doesn't fit all. If a shared bike still works well after three years, it might be a big waste to throw it away," says Zhu Xiao, a professor at Renmin University.

    The huge number of shared bikes and their short life span raise the question of how to recycle the resulting waste metal, and some leading bike-sharing companies have already taken steps in bike recycling.

    Mobike signed a contract(合同;契约) with a resouree recycling company in May, 2017, to make full use of its bikes, while its competitor OFO also started a program for the recycling of spare bikes, which is not limited to its yellow bikes but open to all types of shared bikes.

    To solve the waste problem, local governments should make more rules on the management and recycling of shared bikes. Bike-sharing companies should also improve the quality of their bikes to reduce waste. The two sides need to work together to make cities more bike-friendly.

    The British government has started a￡10- million Mandarin(普通话) Excellence Program. The program will see over 5,000 British students towards fluency(流利) in Mandarin Chinese by 2020.

    The program is led by local schools and supported by University College London. So far, 14 schools have taken part in the program.

    Hundreds of secondary school pupils in England have been taking lessons in Mandarin Chinese. Over the next three years, they will spend eight hours studying Mandarin Chinese every week.

    Nick Gibb is an officer of the British government. He said a high level of fluency in Mandarin Chinese would become more and more important. "Language skills are important for jobs and life in the global(* B)race. Mandarin Chinese is the most widely-spoken language in the world. It is one of the languages that matters the most to our country's future development. If the United Kingdom wants to remain competitive on the world stage, we do need far more of our young people leaving school with a good command of Mandarin Chinese, "Gibb added. "We hope that our young people could be given the chance to study the language. We want them to be fluent in both spoken and written Mandarin. The Mandarin Excellence Program will help us do this. It will not only broaden the students' minds, but give them a great advantage when they enter the world of work as well."

    British kids, in fact, are not alone. In America, about 200,000 students have been studying Mandarin Chinese. It is supposed that 800, 000 more will join them over the next couple of years.

    The expression "lanshouxianggu" has been quite popular on Chinese social networking sites. You may have used it many times when chatting online. However, did you know that the "blue thin mushroom" was not just magic of Photoshop and was really there in nature?

    Well, let' s meet Entoloma hochstetteri (霍氏粉褶菌).This is a kind of naturally-blue fungus(真菌) The plant looks very small. Its sten' s diameter(梗的直径) measures only about 5 millimeters. Entoloma hochstetteri can be found widely in New Zealand, especially on the west coast. The Maori name for it is "werewere-kokako." It seems New zealand is very proud of producing this unusual species-the country prints the blue mushroom on its $50 notes.

    Athough the species is very unusual, little is known about it. Silas villas-boas is a scientist at the University of Auckland. He said he was very disappointed that nobody had ever tried to test the blue mushroom in the lab, "You can even count the number of scientific articles on it on one hand, he said. The scientist decided to be the first to study the plant. A group of researchers have been helping him with the study.

    In an early test, the researchers found alkaloids(生物碱) and Omega-3 fatty acids(w-3脂肪酸)in the blue mushroom. While the acids are helpful to health, alkaloids soetimes influence how the brain works. However, Villas-Boas said the substance was very common in plants. So far, the researchers have not found any toxins(毒素) in Entoloma hochstetteri, but they are not yet sure if it can be eaten. Villas-Boas said more testing would be required.

    If you are walking through Newyork's Central Park on a fine summer day, you might come across a group of children listening to a story. The storyteller will be sitting beside a statue of a kindly looking man holding an open book. Although this man never actually visited New York, his fame as a writer of fairy tales and children's stories has spread far beyond his homeland.

    Hans Christian Andersen is recognized as a key figure in 19^th-century romantic fiction. He is, without question, the best-known writer Denmark has ever produeed. His stories continue to delight children and adults the world over. Classic tales such as The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling, and The emperor's New Clothes are loved for their humor and imagination. They are loved for the simple but meaningful messages they often contain.

    Born on April 2, 1805, in Odense, Demark, Andersen was an imaginative child. His father, a poor shoemaker, died in 1816. With a mother who was unable to read or write, the boy received little education as a child. At 14, Andersen traveled to Copenhagen. He was lucky enough to spend some time with the Royal Theater, but when his voice changed, he had to leave. Luckily, one of the directors helped him by arranging his education.

    Andersen went to the University of Copenhagen in 1828, and his literary career began soon afterwards. He hoped to achieve success with poems and plays, and made too low an estimate(估计) of the kind of stories which have made him famous. Though not particularly fond of children, he had a gift for entertaining them. This led a friend to suggest he write down the stories he invented.

    Many of Andersen' s tales are based on folklore(民间故事), and many are products of his own imagination. All of them are told in a humorous and informal style that children loved from the start.

    Before his death in 1875, Andersen regularly traveled around Europe, and was warmly welcomed everywhere he went.

    Nowadays, of course, Hans Christian Andersen is a household name. Whether he would have liked or not, millions of children and adults will always be grateful for the magie his stories have brought to their lives. The young listeners in Central Park are proof of that.

Thoughts on a Tranquil Night

Before my bed a pool of light;

Oh, can it be frost on the (地面)?

Looking up, I find the moon bright;

Bowing, in homesickness i'm drowned.

(Translated- (由) Xu Yuanchong)

(在……中间) all of china' s classic poems 7 houghts on a Tranquil Night might be the most liked and recited.It (出现) in many classic books, (包括) Three Hundred Tang Poems. It has many different translated versions all over the world. It's  (也)a must-read poem in Chinese textbooks.

In this (短的) poem, there are not many words that are difficult to understand. With only 20 (文字), the poet was able to vividly (描写) the feeling of being homesick after seeing a bright moon. The poem （表达） real and strong feelings in clear and simple language.

    In ancient China, people didn't respect dogs, One reason is that most people were farmers at that time, Experts believe dogs were (little)important than horses and cows in helping people  their daily work.

    Compared with other animals, dogs depend more  human beings and often follow their owner's orders. This (make) them seem like they should be looked down upon.

    But today, with more Chinese people keeping dogs as pets, caring for dogs and  (share) pictures of them are part of the owner's lives.

    Many young people enjoy being (call) like a dog, such as in the phrase "single dog". They think their lives are a bit like dogs lives, which is a way to make fun of themselves.

    In (west) countries people see dogs very differently. They treat dogs as friends or even family members. Hunting (捕猎) was  important part of life in Europe and later became a popular form of entertainment. People would use dogs (find)and catch animals.

    Some (saying) in English show how dogs are respected: Love me, love my dog; as faithful as a dog; work like a dog.

    Jason Weiner is a cook in New York For the past four years, he has offered a "Meatless Monday" menu at his restaurant. The idea is to encourage people to eat more vegetables. To do this, he relies heavily on a vegetable everyone is familiar with: cauliflower.

    Over the years, his cauliflower dishes have enjoyed huge popularity.

    Weiner, in fact, isn't the only cook experimenting with the vegetable. Cauliflower used to be boring. It was something to buy only when there was nothing else on the shelf. Now, however, it's "taking on a starring role," says food writer Elena North-Kelly. Across the United States, sales of cauliflower have grown rapidly for two years. On the Internet, DIY cauliflower recipes(烹饪法) have been viewed thousands of times each.

    Cauliflower can be cooked in many different ways. It can be roasted-like a steak. It can be sliced into a sandwich along with other vegetables. The hottest recipe is cauliflower "rice.” The dish is made by mixing the flower part of cauliflower and then lightly cooking the pieces in oil. The "rice" is rich in vitamins C, K and B6, and very low in calories(卡路里). No doubt it has become very popular.

    Unlike other healthy foods, cauliflower is almost always in season. That's because it can be grown everywhere, throughout the year. The vegetable also sells at a low price.

注意：①短文必须包括表中所有内容，并适当增加；②词数：80-100；③短文首句仅供参考，不计入总词数。

Dear David,

    In your letter you want to know our physical education course. This year we have two new items to choose: volleyball and swimming.

How about your sports at school? Please write soon.

Yours,

Li Ping