广东省佛山市南海区2020-2021学八年级上学期英语期末阅...

People say laughter is the best medicine, but sometimes too much of a good thing may not be so good.

Last night I was alone at home. When I1a funny movie, I suddenly started laughing and couldn't stop myself. At first, I was feeling 2.

But after about 5 minutes, I came to know I wasn't going to stop at all. I began to feel a little worried.

It was time for bed. But I couldn't sleep 3 I kept laughing. So I got up and started doing some house work. I 4 my flat, laughing hard. I washed all the dishes from dinner, still laughing crazily. I tried to hold my cat in 5 arms, but it ran away from me in fear. I thought I might stop laughing soon. However, I was laughing even 6. In fact, I spent the night in front of my computer, of course, still laughing.

7 time finally came to get ready for work, I realized(意识) that I just couldn't go to the office like that. I decided to call my boss for leave, but laughing was the only thing I could do 8 the phone.

After listening to my "lovely" laughter for a few minutes, my boss shouted angrily," Are you mad? You're fired (解雇)!". I could do nothing 9 laughing.

Suddenly I woke up. Thank God! I just had 10 dream.

An idiom(习语) is a phrase that we can't understand from the meaning of each word. For example, if an American boy1his mom what's for dinner tomorrow, she may say "I'll play by ear". That means she doesn't have plans for dinner and will2later.

At first, "Play it by ear" meant playing music without using the sheet music, but now people often use it when they're not3music!

There are many idioms in English.4you learn to use them, your English will be much more colorful.

Do you know the idiom "He bought the farm"? It means he died. Do you know5it became popular? It was first used in World War I. When a soldier died, the government gave his family enough6to buy a farm.

And don't be7if your English friend says this to you, "Break a leg in your game!" He is wishing you good luck! Hundreds of years ago， people believed in sprites(小妖精). Sprites enjoyed causing trouble. If the sprites heard you8something, they would make the opposite happen. Tell someone to "break a leg" and the sprites would make something9happen.

Aren't English idioms interesting? And break a10in your next football match!

When I was about 14, I had a friend. She liked to1me my shortcomings (缺点). For example: I was very short. I wasn't a top student and talked too much. I was too proud and so on. I became so angry that I couldn't stand(容忍)2at last. I ran to my3with tears in my eyes.

He4me quietly and asked, "Are the things she says true or not? Jane, didn't you ever think of what you're really like? Go and make a list of5she said. Write "Yes" beside the points that are6. Pay no attention to the other things she said. l did as he told me. To my great surprise, I found that about half of the things were true. Some I couldn't'7, like being very short. But many I could and I wanted to change. For the first time, I had a better understanding of myself.

I showed the list back to Daddy,8he didn't want to read it. That's just for you," he said," You know9than any other person about yourself. When people say something about you, listen to them all, but only hear the truth and do what you know. It is the right thing to do."

I always remember Daddy's words at many important moments. In my life, that's the best 10 for me.

A new report from a university says 80% of the world's teens don't get enough exercise every day. The report comes from a research done with about 2 million students aged from 11 to 17 around the world. The report says activity standards(活动标准) are different in different countries and they are also different between boys and girls. In China for example only 20%. of the boys are active(活跃) enough, compared to 11% of the girls.

Why don't teens go out for exercise? One main reason is that they always have technology products in their hands or around them. They spend too much time on smart phones, computers and TVs in their free time. Many teens find it very hard to null themselves away from these devices. The report says that young people need to do less in the digital(电子的)world but more in the real world. It advises kids to get at least an hour of exercise such as running biking, playing sports, or many other outdoor activities every day.

More and more research shows that doing sports not only helps the body, but also helps the brain(大脑). It also helps kids to make friends. Mark a sports fan, started to play football when he was six years old. He was shy and weak, but now he has become taller and stronger. He gets to know the importance of communicating with his teammates and how to learn from mistakes. And he has made lots of friends with the same interest. They often have football training on the playground. They have more to talk about and enjoy the happiness after training.

A lot of animals travel from one place to another. We call this migration.

In Africa, large animals, like elephants and zebras, migrate to find food and water. They usually follow the same ways every year.

A lot of birds migrate to find food and better weather, too. They are usually birds that eat insects(昆虫). They spend the summer in northern Europe, because there are lots of insects there. In the winter there aren't any insects so the birds fly south to southern Europe and Africa.

Some insects migrate, too. In North America, millions of monarch butterflies fly south spend the winter in Mexico, California and Florida, where it's warmer. They travel 50-65 km each day and they travel about 1,125 km.

Some fish migrate to breed(繁殖). Salmon (鲑鱼) can swim over 20,000 km in their life. They are born in rivers in Ireland, Scotland and other places in northern Europe. The young fish swim down the river to the sea and into the Atlantic Ocean. They live in the ocean until they are grown-ups. Then they return to the river where they were born. They lay their eggs in the river and then they usually die. Salmon do this, because their eggs are safer in the river. Other fish can't eat them.

Arctic terns(北极燕鸥) travel the furthest when they migrate. They spend the summer in the Arctic, but when winter comes they fly to the Antarctic, because it's summer there. The next year they fly back to the Arctic again. In one year these small birds travel 36,000km from one end of the earth to the other and back again. Nobody knows how they do it.

The world itself is becoming much smaller by using modern traffic and communication means(方法). Life today is much easier than it was hundreds of years ago, but it has brought new problems. One of the biggest problems is pollution. The pollute means to make things dirty. Pollution comes in many ways. We see it, smell it, drink it and even hear it.

Man has been polluting the Earth. The more people, the more pollution. Many years ago, the problem was not so serious because there were not so many people. When people used up the land or the river was dirty in one place, man moved to another place. But this is no longer true. Man is now slowly polluting the whole world.

Air pollution is pollution is still the most serious. It's bad for all living things in the world, but it is not the only kind of pollution. Water pollution kills our fish and pollutes our drinking water. Noise pollution makes us angry more easily.

Many countries are making rules to fight pollution. They stop people from burning coal(烧煤) in houses and factories in the city, and from putting dirty smoke into the air. Pollution by SO₂ is now the most dangerous kind of air pollution. Heavy traffic causes this. We are sure that if there are fewer people driving, there will be less air pollution.

The Earth is our home. We must take care of it. That means keeping the land, water and air clean. And we must take care of the increase in population at the same time.

Some people say life is like crossing a river;

I think our life is much like climbing a mountain. Each year we have a new mountain to climb. To reach our goals(目标), we work hard to make progress(进步) day after day. We can complain (抱怨) about how unfair it is to climb a new mountain every day. Or, we can just make ourselves busy.

Sometimes, we fall over. Here we also have another choice. Or, we can stand on our feet and begin climbing that mountain again.

If we reach the goal for this year, we start from zero to reach the goal for next year. We shouldn't spend the rest of our lives looking at where we were in the past.

Many people will waste time worrying, "Can I reach my final goal?" or "Should l do it"? The question is, "Can I take the next step in the right direction?"

Take one step at a time, and pay attention to tomorrow's step today.