初中英语阅读材料节选doc.docx

1、初中英语阅读材料节选doc1Greg Dunham has built a big motorcycle. It is so big that when people see it for the first time, they sometimes think that they have shrunk（使收缩）! Officials from the Guinness Book of World Records say that Dunhams motorcycle is the biggest one in the world. It took Dunham three years to

2、 build it. It is 15 feet tall and 25 feet long. It weighs about 6,500 pounds. He steers the motorcycle from a special cage below the handlebars（把手）.Greg Dunham built the monster（巨大的） motorcycle because his friends said it was impossible. He wanted to prove that he could do it. It was a giant project

3、, but he accomplished it. He enjoys the way people react when they see his motorcycle. “Fifteen guys came to see it. One of the guys said, Build me one!” Greg reports. “People love it!” he says.Dunham would like to take the motorcycle on a tour of the country so that more people can see it. However,

4、 he would need a corporate sponsor（赞助商）to help pay for the tour.2 QQ chats on netJean is a bright young woman who comes from a rich and famous family. She goes to a good university and has everything that money can buy. Well, almost everything. The problem is that the people in Jeans family are so b

5、usy that they can hardly find time to be with her. In fact, Jean is quite lonely. So Jean spends a lot of time on her QQ. She likes being anonymous(匿名), talking to people who do not know about her famous family and her rich life. She uses the name Linda on QQ and has made a lot of friends who she ke

6、eps in touch with quite often. Last year Jean made a very special friend on QQ. His name was David and lived in San Francisco. David was full of stories and jokes. He and Jean had a common(共同的) interest in rock music and modern dance. So it always took them hours to talk happily on QQ and sometimes

7、they even forgot their time. Of course, they wanted to know more about each other. David sent a picture of himself: He was a tall, good-looking young man with a big, happy smile. As time went by, they became good friends and often sent cards and small things to each other. When Jeans father told her

8、 that he was going on a business trip to San Francisco, she asked him to let her go with him so that she could give David a surprise for his birthday. She would take him the latest DVD of their favorite rock singer. But when she knocked on Davids door in San Francisco, she found that her special fri

9、end was a twelve-year-old boy named Jim!Thinking： After reading the story, do you have anything to say?3The History of the First CarsLambert and Duryea are not your average household names. But most likely youve heard the names Ford and Benz (as in Mercedes-Benz). All of these names are related to o

10、ne of the most important inventions of all time, the automobile. Though Henry Ford is well known in American history for making the automobile affordable to the average person in the early 1900s, he was not the first producer of the automobile. By 1860, the gasoline engine（汽油发动机） had been invented i

11、n Europe and in 1885, Karl Benz had introduced the first gasoline powered automobile. His car ran on 3 wheels and looked like a very big tricycle（三轮车）that had no pedals and could hold two people. In America, the first gasoline-powered auto to grace the rough horse and buggy roads was in 1891. The ma

12、n to build this car was John W. Lambert. When one man saw this contraption（奇异的机械）coming down the road for the first time, he thought to himself “where in heavens name is the horse?” The idea of the “horseless carriage” caught on quickly. By 1893, two brothers, Charles and Frank Duryea built their ow

13、n gasoline powered car. It had a one-cylinder engine with a three-speed transmission. The first run of their car went about 7.5 miles per hour and they were able to get it to go 200 feet until a mound of dirt in the road got in its way and stopped it! This was a far cry from the distance that Benz w

14、as able to get his car to go (about 65 miles). The Duryea brothers did not give up. In fact, they considered their 200 feet ride a huge success. Frank Duryea built the next car by himself. After two years of fine-tuning the car, the Duryea brothers gathered enough interest from investors（投资者）to star

15、t the Duryea Motor Wagon Company. In 1896, they built 13 almost identical（同一的）models of the Duryea Motor Wagon. Although this sounds like a very small number of cars to produce, it was actually a significant number because it was the first time anyone ever tried to mass produce automobiles. Unfortun

16、ately, this mass production company didnt last long. At a cost of $1,000 to $2,000 a car, the average American couldnt afford a Duryea Motor Wagon. After 13 were built, the brothers sold their company. The Duryea brothers paved the way for men like Henry Ford to mass produce and sell automobiles at

17、a price that everyone could afford. Lets give them the credit they deserve for a job well done!4 Teens and bloggingLately, everyone is blogging and that includes teens. For teens, blogging is a way to express themselves. They can also keep in touch with friends, and share their interests with others

18、 by blogging. Teens will find that blogging is also a creative outlet (发泄方式). This article will explore the following aspects of teen blogging:1. How teens express themselves with blogsBlogs can be used in a number of ways by teens. Most teens have their hobbies like music, skate-boarding, computer

19、games, etc. Teens can choose one of their interests to blog about. They may find that they can meet others who have the same hobby and share their knowledge with them.Otherwise, teens can also choose to blog about their lives and what happens each day, using their blog like a journal. This can be a

20、good way for them to stay in touch with friends who are far away, and gives them a resource to look back to. 2. Blogging keeps teens away from dangersMost teens find that during their adolescent years they are faced with temptations (诱惑物). They may be addicted to computer games, TV or hanging out wi

21、th friends all the time. Teens can best focus on something that is not only interesting but also beneficial to helping them learn and develop. For teens who like to write, blogging is such an interesting thing.During adolescent years, teens may do something ridiculous out of impulse (冲动), such as sn

22、eaking out of the house because they are mad at their parents. Actually they can just blog about it instead! If they have a place to release their pressure like the blog, they may be less likely to get angry and violent so easily.3. Be careful when youre bloggingWhat you do need to remember about bl

23、ogging as a teen is that anything youve written is in public view on the Internet. Even if you are not on purpose, you may offend or hurt someone. Your blog may also decide how your friends look at you. Just be careful about what you blog about. ( )Thinking：Do you have a blog, do you often renew you

24、r blog? Do you think blog is the same as diary? 4 Happy Boxing Day!Boxing Day is the day after Christmas, a public holiday in most countries in the Commonwealth. It originated as a day for giving gifts to employees and poor people.Boxing Day, also known as the Feast of St. Stephen, originated in Eng

25、land in the middle of the nineteenth century. It originated as a holiday for members of the merchant class to give boxes containing food, fruits, clothing or money to employees or servants. The gifts were an expression of gratitude, similar to the bonuses (奖金，红利) for the employees today. Because the

26、se gifts are usually placed in boxes, people give the holiday its name “Boxing Day”.Also related to the origin of Boxing Day is the tradition of opening the alms (施舍，救济物) boxes placed in churches over the Christmas season. The contents of these boxes were given out among the poor the day after Chris

27、tmas.Today, Boxing Day is a holiday in the United Kingdom, Canada and many other Commonwealth nations. It is a time for family and friends to get together. Outdoor sports such as soccer, horse racing and hunting are popular on the holiday. Shopping is a popular Boxing Day activity, and the malls are

28、 usually filled with people taking advantage of after-Christmas bargains.Throughout the Christmas season, many organizations keep the original tradition of Boxing Day alive by donating their time, energy and money to fill the food bank and providing gifts for the poor. From: http:/www.calendar-True

29、or False:1. Boxing Day falls on the first Sunday after Christmas. 2. Boxing Day is a day on which to show your love, to go shopping and to be with your family members.6 Worlds youngest successful singerCleopatra Stratan is a truly extraordinary girl. The 8-year-old performer is the youngest person t

30、o ever achieve commercial (商业的) success with an album recorded when she was just 3. She is also the youngest artist who performed live concert for two hours in front of a large audience. Apart from these she is the youngest person to win an MTV award and to score a No.1 hit (热门歌曲) in a country!The M

31、oldovan (摩尔多瓦共和国) singers music career started quite accidentally. While hanging out at the recording studio of her singer father, Paval Stratan, she picked up the microphone and started to sing along with him. She sounded so good that everybody was surprised. So they ended up recording the song wit

32、h Cleopatra, and suggested that as she is so young she should be included in the Guinness Book of World Records (吉尼斯世界纪录). She would be the youngest talent ever to perform on stage and record her own album. Then the studio decided to record an entire album with just her songs. Within four months, the 3-year-old girl had sold 150,000 copies and made her way into the Guinness Book of World Records! In her album Cleopatra made her biggest hit a song called “Ghi”. In the MV of the song, Cleopatra was so lovely that she carried a huge suitcase on