八年级英语学科第二学期阶段性诊断试卷（完卷时间：90分钟满分：100分）Part 2 Phonetics, Grammar and VocabularyⅡ. Choose the best answer. (12%)1. Which of the following underlined parts is different in pronunciation from the others?A. He has read a lot of books.B. Li Lan is always very busy because she has a lot of things to deal with.C. After the meal, I went out for a walk with my parents.D. The coach is pleased with the result.2. Could you tell me which is _______ of the two paths?A. the narrowerB. narrowerC. more narrowD. the narrowest3. Some people say the house price in Shanghai is ______ to become higher and higher in the coming years.A. hardlyB. likelyC. usuallyD. possibly4. ________ I don't agree with what you have said, I respect you very much.A. WhenB. WhileC. SinceD. Unless5. Which sentence is correct?A. Here are a letter and some flowers for you.B. I wonder why he refused helping me.C. Could you tell me which is the way to Shanghai Zoo?D. There are several hundreds of books in my study room.6. He said his father ______ Shanghai for about two weeks.A. has leftB. had been awayC. had been away fromD. had gone to7. _____ great progress Xiao Wu has made in this term!A. WhatB. What aC. How aD. How8. About ______ the students in our grade come from rich families.A. hundredB. hundreds ofC. two hundredD. two hundred of9. ______ Ben ______ Lucy is free. You don't have to go there alone.A. Both ... andB. Neither ... norC. Either ... orD. Not ... or10. The teacher came into the classroom with a book in one hand and a recorder in his ____ hand.A. anotherB. otherC. the otherD. one11. I remember the eggs the hen ______ were _____ in the fridge by my mum.A. lay, laidB. laid, lainC. lay, lainD. laid, laid12. -- I'm afraid French is too difficult for me. -- _____ You can do it!A. Don't give up.B. I'm sorry to hear that.C. So am I.D. It's too awful.Ⅲ. Complete the following passage with the words in the box. Each can only be used once. (5%)Wild ginseng is found in mountains hardwood forests and is more difficult to hunt. Wild ginseng roots which are found in their ___1___ environment are usually ten to thirty years old. Roots of over fifty years old are rare and very ___2___. Wild ginseng can still be found in the northeastern United States around 40 degrees north latitude, but the output is much less than that of cultivated ginseng.The quality of ginseng is mainly ___3___ by its age and its growing place. The color and wrinkles on ginseng roots are not related to quality. In general, the ___4___ ginseng plant, the better it is, so wild ginseng is better than cultivated ginseng. The age of ginseng root is ___5___ by adding two to the number of living scars appearing on the neck of the root. For example, a ten-year-old root will have eight living scars.Ⅳ. Fill in the blank with a proper word. (7%)1.Those _______ spoken Chinese amazed us a lot. (Germany)2.I think my father has a strong sense of _______. (responsible)3.I am writing a letter to make a _______ about their bad service. (complain)4.The old servant had served the family _______ for thirty years. (faith)5.Peter _______ to Lucy for not going to her party last night. (apology)6.We should learn to be _______ since we have grown up. (depend)7._______ the boy fell on the playground and broke one of his arms. (fortune)Ⅴ. Rewrite the sentence as required. (6%)1. You'd better not take the mobile phone to school. (改为反义疑问句)You'd better not take the mobile phone to school, _______ _______?2. The students wrote the compositions last Friday. (改为被动语态)The compositions _______ _______ by the students last Friday.3. We were very excited. We couldn't say a word when we got the prize. (两句合并一句)We were __________________ say a word when we got the prize.4. "Will you go home tomorrow?" The mother asked her son. (保持句意不变)The mother asked her son _______________________________ the next day.5. Tell me how many students were late this morning. (保持句意基本不变)Tell me ______________ the students who were late this morning.6. clear, a, is, to, fields, amazing, morning, past, it, drive, on (连词成句)________________________________________________________Part 3 Reading and WritingⅥ. Reading comprehension (30%)A. Read the passage and choose the best answer.(6%)It's almost the start of another maple (枫) syrup (糖浆) season, and in celebration here's a bit about some of New England's own sugar houses.Visitors to Old Sturbridge Village this weekend and next can see how families in the 1830s turned maple say(树液) in that perfect New England process known as "sugaring off". Local people in period costume will tap trees and boil the sap over open fires at village's outdoor sugar camp from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. The farmers will offer a free pancake breakfast with the price of admission on both Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. There will also be hearthside(围炉) cooking performances using maple products.In the early 1800s, homemade maple sugar was cheaper than cane sugar, which was from the West Indies, said Adam Halterman. "Sugaring off" refers to the final step of the process, when the syrup is totally reduced to cool into a "loaf" of sugar. While sugar maples have sweeter sap, red maples are more produced in the area, so the village uses both, Halterman said.Maple Days, March 16,17,22 and 23, 10 a.m. -- 2 p.m., Old Sturbridge Village.Adults $20 seniors $18, children ages 3-17 $6, under 3 free.Traditional harvest, a maple tree is tapped. The sap runs into a bucket, and is collected daily.Season: Generally February, March, and April.Interesting fact: A hole must be drilled(钻) in a new location each year because of the natural healing process of trees, also known as walling-off.1. A free pancake breakfast will be served on _________.A. SundaysB. SaturdaysC. weekdaysD. weekends2. Visitors can see how maple sap is turned into sugar at the village's outdoor sugar camp ______.A. just on this weekendB. on both weekendsC. on both Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.D. on weekdays3. At Maple Days, local people show visitors how maple syrup is made by the following steps: wearing costumes, tapping maple trees, boiling the sap and _______.A. cooking pancakesB. hearthside cookingC. sugaring offD. walling off4. Cane sugar was once _______.A. cheaper than maple sugarB. imported form IndiaC. imported from New EnglandD. less expensive than maple sugar5. Mark, a forty-year-old engineer wants to take his eight-year-old daughter to the Maple Days in Sturbridge Village. How much should he pay for the tickets?A. 26$B. 24$C. 20$D. 16$6. Homemade maple syrup consists of the material from _____.A. both the sugar maples and red maplesB. only the sugar maplesC. only the red maplesD. neither the sugar maples nor the red maplesB. Choose the words or phrases and complete the passage(6%)Many people would say the arts are nice, but not necessary. In school, students should ___7___ languages, math and science. Painting, drama and music are not so important. After graduation, listening to Mozart won't lead you to a better-paying job. Not everyone needs to experience Shakespeare or Picasso to have a good life. ___8___, who has time?In truth, spending time learning to appreciate the arts may be more worthwhile than you think.A recent British study examined the salaries and jobs of people who spent time enjoying the arts when ___9___. The researchers found those who enjoyed the arts from an early age had better jobs and higher salaries than those who didn't. It turns out that the arts help us develop many useful skills.Other studies have found that students studying the arts exercise their reasoning ability. This skill helps with problem-solving. Creative and critical-thinking abilities are also ___10___ through art study.The best kind of art stirs our imagination and makes us think. Painting aren't just pretty pictures. They tell stories about the lives of the subjects or about the expensive of the ___11___. Look at the world from Picasso's point of view, and you will see everyday life in new ways. In Shakespeare's plays you'll find lessons about some characters. Chinese poet Li Bai brings the wonder of nature's beauty to every reader.The arts help cultivate ability to see things from many different points of view. These things will help us better ___12___ and cooperate with other people.Creativity, persistence, understanding and empathy are all qualities of successful people. If you want to better yourself, go and enjoy the arts. Check out art gallery or a museum. Take in a play. You won't regret it, and it will do more good than you realize.7. A. focus on B. worry about C. carry out D. change into8. A. Maybe B. However C. Besides D. But9. A. bringing up B. growing up C. giving up D. taking up10. A. developed B. disappeared C. decided D. described11. A. painter B. writer C. poet D. musician12. A. realize B. communicate C. discuss D. remindC. Read the passage and fill in the blank with proper words.(7%)In a new study, 186 four-year-old kids were given regular carrots and, on other lunch days, they were given the same vegetables renamed X-ray Vision Carrots. On the latter days, they ate n___13___ twice as many.The study suggests the e___14___ of these names might persist. Children continued to eatabout 50 percent more carrots even on the days when they were no longer labeled as a___15___ special.The research, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, was presented at the annual meeting of the School Nutrition Association in Washington, D.C..“Cool names can make for cool foods,” said the lead author Brian Wansink of Cornell University. “Whether it be ‘power peas’ or ‘dinosaur broccoli trees’, g___16___ a food a fun name makes kids think it will be more fun to eat. And it seems to keep working — even the next day,” Wansink said.S___17___ results have been found with adults. A restaurant study showed that when the Seafood Filet was c___18___ to Romantic Hawaii, sales increased 28 percent and taste rating increased by 12 percent. “Same food, but different expectations, and a different experience,” said Wansink, author of “Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think.”The study was conducted in pre-schools, but the researchers believe the same naming t___19___ can work with children at home.“I've been using this with my kids,”said researcher Collin Payne, “Whatever sparks their imagination seems to spark their appetite.”D. Answer the questions. (11%)Not for the first time. Paul Mathis wants us to change. But this time he isn't trying to get us to go vegetarian. This time he's trying to get us to type differently.Paul Mathis, a restaurateur from Melbourne who owns a string of dining establishments, has designed the letter “Ћ”— representing the word “the”. Now he is pushing Apple to allow him to p romote his app, which features the new character, in its iTunes store.In a move to branch out of the food business, Paul has invested AUS $38,000 in the new app, but has so far been rejected by Apple. He is hoping he can change their mind, pointing out that re-ducing the word “the”— the most used word in the English language ----- to one character would be helpful for Twitter and swift typing."Is this important?" he said, in an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald. “No. Is this go ing to change the world? Not really. But is it something that might be useful for people? I think so, because it can save people lots of time on keyboard.”"The word,'and'is only the fifth-most used word in English and it has its own symbol ---- the ampersand '&', said Mr. Mathis. "Isn't it time we gave the same respect to 'the'?"The top five most commonly used words in the English language are said to be: the, be, to, of and "and". The ampersand "&" has at times been used as the 27th letter of the English alphabet.Paul has developed the typography ------- effectively an upper-case "T" and a lower-case "h" bunched together so they share the upright stem ----- and an app that puts it in everyone's hand by allowing users to download an entirely new electronic keyboard complete not just with his symbolbut also a row of keys of 15 most frequently typed words.So far, though, the take-up has been minimal. But that might change if he can get his innova -tion into Apple's app store. The problem is,the Californian tech giant has so far resisted his advan-ces. But who knows — maybe in 500 years' time people will be amazed that there was a time whe n we didn't use "Ћ".20. The word "and" doesn't have its own symbol, does it?21. What is Paul Mathis?22. Why does Paul design the new letter "Ћ" to represent the word "the"?23. What is the main difference between the new and the old electronic keyboard?24. How can Paul attract more people to download his new keyboard?25. Do you think Paul can get his innovation into Apple's app store in the future? Why or why not?Ⅶ. Translate the sentences into English(8%)1.50年后，或许世界上就不再有用鸬鹚捕鱼的渔民了。
