Join the English Speech Contest（比赛）
Our school is organizing the English Speech Contest 2025. The topic this year is "Self-love". What do you love about yourself? How should you love yourself? Please give a 2-3 minute speech on this topic.
Contest timetable | ||
Application deadline （申请期限） | March 10,2025 | All students in grades 7 to 9 can apply to take part in the contest. |
Contest date | April 4,2025,14:00—16:30 | The contest will be held in Classroom 304. |
Requirements
◆The topic of your speech should be about" Self-love".
◆You should express yourself in English clearly and freely.
◆You should use proper body language in your speech.
Prizes
◆The three speakers with the highest scores will receive special gifts.
◆Each speaker will have the chance to have your speech published（出版）in the school' s magazine.
Practice your public speaking skills and build your self-confidence!
Click here to apply online!
On April 18 each year, people all over the world celebrate the International Day for Monuments and Sites（国际古迹遗址日）. In China, young people are realizing the importance of their history and culture. Many are even doing their best to show the respect（敬重）。
Finding new artifacts（文物）
XuDanyang,a29-year-old archaeologist, found an amazing bronze statue（铜像）at the Sanxingdui site in Sichuan. In 2021, he dug out this statue. In the beginning, his team thought it was a bird. But as they continued the digging, they had a surprise. It turned out to be a statue of a man, about 16cm high. It shows a man kneeling with his head turned, and it surprises everyone who sees it.
Making maps for protection
Wu Yunjie who was born in the 1990s found a new way——by making a special map to show the best cultural sites in China. He visits places in person and adds them to his map, making sure we all remember them. He marked almost 10,000 places like old temples, towers, bridges and houses.Each site with colorful marks showed how special and important they are.
Now, Wu asks for help from people online to make his map better and better. And he hopes to share this amazing map with everyone who respects history and culture soon.
Making explanations（解释）fun
Zhang Bin is a 31-year-old tour guide at Emperor Qinshihuang' s Mausoleum Site Museum in Xi' an, Shaanxi. He works to answer visitors' questions about the famous Terracotta Warriors（兵马俑）and shares all of his knowledge about them. Zhang often uses the traditional Chinese performance art of Xiangsheng to explain them. He is doing something meaningful for the site.
I remember that every Saturday night Mama would sit down by the kitchen table and count out the money Papa had brought home in the little envelope.
"For the rent（房租）."Mama would say, counting out the big silver pieces. "For the food." Another pile of coins.
My sister Christine, my brother Nels and I would watch with worry. At last, Papa would ask, "Is that all?" Mama would nod, look up and smile, "Good. We do not have to go to the Bank in the city." We were all so proud of Mama' s Bank Account（账户）. It gave us such a safe feeling. No one else we knew had money in a big bank downtown.
I remember when the Jensens were put out because they didn't have money to pay for their rent. We children watched the big strange men carry out the furniture（家具）, paying no attention to the tears of Mrs. Jensens." Might this, could this, happen to us?" I asked my parents.
"We have a Bank Account." Mama comforted me calmly, and suddenly I would feel safe. Whatever happened, we always knew we still had the Bank to depend upon.
That was twenty years ago. Last year I sold my first story. When the check（支票）came, I rushed over to Mama' s and put it on her lap. "For you," I said, "to put in your Bank Account." I noticed for the first time how old Mama and Papa looked. Papa seemed shorter, and Mama' s hair was silver now.
Mama fingered the check and looked at Papa. "Good," she said, and her eyes were pleased."Tomorrow," I told Mama, "you must take it to the Bank.""You will go with me, Katrina?But..." Mama stopped for a moment and looked at me.
"There is no account," she continued. "In all my life, I' ve never been inside a bank."
And when I didn' t-couldn' t-answer, Mama said seriously. "It is not good for little ones to be afraid to feel unsafe."
①That future is almost here. "I think it's going to happen. Definitely in ten years... and hopefully much, much faster," said Sebastian Thrun in 2021. At that time, his young company Kitty Hawk Corporation was working on developing a flying car known as eVTOL, or Electronic Vertical Take-Off and Landing vehicle（车辆）。
②Flying to work or school sounds unbelievable. Not only is it fun to fly, but "There would never be traffic again, because the sky is very, very large." says Thrun. He also thinks eVTOLs could be greener than common cars. "We go much faster, we go in a straight line, we fly on less energy." he says.
③So far, though, flying cars haven't taken off as a product. Will their day come? There are still many problems to solve. Their high price means most people won't be able to afford one. So, some companies are developing them as air taxis that people could pay to ride. The main problem with flying cars is safety. Accidents in the air are dangerous to both the passengers and anyone on the ground beneath. To make eVTOLs safer, many developers are aiming to make them self-flying——no human pilot needed.
④Another problem is space. Most aircraft need long runways to take off and land. Lifting straight up and down like a helicopter solves this problem. But eVTOLs still need special spaces, called vertiports, for take-off and landing. Finding places to put these could be tricky, especially in crowded cities. But maybe some could go on top of buildings.
⑤What do you think? Would you enjoy riding to school or to visit a friend in a self-flying taxi? Are flying cars a good idea, or should we find other ways to get around in the near future?
Having meals with friends or family is wonderful. _____ Is dining alone bad? Maybe not.
At dinner time, do you often spend a long time discussing with others what kind of food to eat, which restaurant to choose or when to meet? _____
Dinning alone can give you some time to yourself. You can use the time to organize your thoughts. _____ Both are fantastic.
By yourself, you can take as little or as much time as you want to eat your meal. _____ So you won't wait for anyone or feel rushed.
When you book a seat in a restaurant, it is usually easier to get a seat for one person. If there isn't a table, you can easily get a seat at the bar.
See, there are some good points of dinning alone. Why not try it sometime?
A. We can eat what we like. B. If you eat alone, you can decide all yours. C. However, some people often eat alone in a restaurant. D. You don't need to eat at the same pace（节奏）as others. E. You can also use the time to take a break from busy work. |
Do you like eating alone? Why or why not? _____
When I was a little girl, one of my favorite things was a shoebox. I 1 it with pieces of paper, envelopes, and leaflets that I had collected. I called the box my" Post Office". Every now and then, I would take it from under my bed and pour my "letters" 2 the floor. I3 to play "Post Office". I sorted（分类）the" letters" and then put them back into the 4 .
This led me to 5 a new hobby——writing letters to children I had never met. It was 6 to send my written pages to people I would 7 talk to in person. I made a lot of friends in this way such as Belarus and Alastair in central England.8 lived far away from me.
It was to Alastair that I first proudly declared（宣告）my dream of being a songwriter.9 ,I had never written a single song and I had no idea how to do so. It was difficult,10 I told myself that I had to realize this dream——well, I should never let my best friends down. I started to discover my favorite bands and thought about 11 I should write a song.
As I grew older, I had more people to write to. In my early teens, I wrote to 12 I had met on school trips and boys at other schools. The freedom to 13 myself in letters is one of my greatest memories of childhood.
On my journey into adulthood, my love for writing letters never 14 me. As I now create music, I always remember my childhood15 . Releasing new songs is similar to sending out handwritten letters. My" Post Office" is where I got started.
offer experience serious activity interest |
I am an English teacher at New Hope Primary School. Teaching in Zhejiang is an enjoyable _____. The job _____ a good work-life balance（平衡）, and I have improved a lot in my Chinese.
To my surprise, there are not many differences between teaching in Zhejiang and teaching in Canada. The students are _____ about English learning. It feels good to teach them. In order to make my class _____ , I do a lot of _____ with the students. I believe my class is relaxing for them.
There is an old people's home beside my house. Recently, I made a _____（决定）to go to look after the old people there with some volunteers. It's usually an _____ （极好的）experience for me. Sometimes we spend the _____ （全部的）day helping them clean their rooms and chat with them.
I have made a good friend named Mary there. Mary is kind and full of energy. She _____（种植）many vegetables for others in the yard. Her son has lived _____ （在国外）for three years, leaving her an empty house. So she would like to live in the old people's home instead of her. _____（自己的）house. Last week, I invited Mary to _____ （出席）an exhibition with my family. On the way, she told us a lot about her son and her two _____ （孙女）and she even remembered each conversation with them. At that time, I realised how strong their _____（关系）was. Next time, if I have a chance to meet her son, I will tell him," _____ （虽然）you are very far away, your mother always loves you."
In the end, everything went well and our trip was filled with joy.
Long ago, there was no man. The crow（乌鸦）was the most beautiful bird in the world. His wings were made of rainbow feathers（羽毛）, and his voice was the _____ (sweet).
Then one day, snow came to the forest for the first time. The animals _____ (think) little of it at first, but soon a little mouse was covered. They had to stop the snow _____ it covered everyone. Rainbow Crow offered _____ (fly) to the Great Sky Spirit and ask him for help. After three _____ (day), he reached the Great Sky Spirit and asked him to stop the snow. The Great One said he couldn't give what Rainbow Crow requested _____ the snow had its own spirit. Instead, he gave the gift of fire to warm _____earth. He gave the bird a burning stick to carry in his mouth back to the forest.
Rainbow Crow flew _____ (quick) toward Earth. On the first day, sparks（火花）from the stick burned its tail feathers, but he bravely flew on. The next day, he_____ (notice) his wing feathers were covered _____ something black. On the third day, Rainbow Crow could hardly breathe from the fire burning his throat, but he reached the woods just in time to save his friends.
To: Diana@mail.com Subject: Dub foreign films by using mobile apps! Hi Diana, I'm in trouble now. Yesterday I argued with my parents because they didn't allow me to dub foreign films by using mobile apps. They thought that it would have a bad influence on my study and sleep. I broke their hearts and made them angry. I'm sorry for that but I really think it helpful to learn English by dubbing the foreign films. Now, I'm feeling worried. What should I do? Looking forward to your reply! Yours, Li Ping |
注意：（1）文中不得出现真实的姓名、学校等信息。（2）词数：80~100.邮件开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。（3） dub V.配音
Hi Li Ping,
I'm sorry to hear that you had an argument with your parents.
Hope things work out!
Yours,
Diana