新外研版英语九年级上课文

Module 1When I arrived, it was early morning and it was raining. I got out of the car, went through a gate and walked along a path. In the east, the sky was becoming light. I knew it was there, but there was nothing to see.After about a mile, a stranger appeared in front of me. “Am I going the right way?” I asked. He knew where I was going. “Yes,”he replied. “you’ll get there in five minutes.” Finally, I came to some rocks and stopped. I looked over them, but it was silent and there was no sign of it.Suddenly, the clouds cleared and the rain stopped. The sun rose behind me and beyond the rocks. I saw that the ground fell away and down to a river, far below me. I was looking across the Grand Canyon, one of the wonders of the natural world.I looked down to the Colorado River, from here a silver stream nearly one mile below me. If you put the two tallest buildings in the world on top of the each other at the bottom of the canyon, they still wouldn’t reach the top. Then I looked across to the other side of the canyon. How far is it? It’s about fifteen miles, maybe more. Finally, I looked to my left and to my right, and on both sides the canyon went far away, about 277 miles long. The Grand Canyon is not just big. It’s huge!I remained by the canyon for about half an hour, and I asked myself, “Is the Grand Canyon the greatest wonder anywhere in the natural world?”I certainly know the answer. But what do you think?Module 2Thanksgiving is an American festival. People give thanks for their food. It’s celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November and it’s a time for a special dinner among family and friends.We’ve celebrated the festival since the first pioneers from England arrived in America by ship in the seventeenth century. While they were crossing the Atlantic, many people died, and after they landed, their first winter was worse than any English winter. The local people, the Native Americans, taught the pioneers how to grow corn, catch fish and keep cows, sheep and hens. The following year they celebrated together by eating a dinner of the new food.We still celebrate Thanksgiving today with a traditional dinner. The kitchen is the most crowded room in our house because we all help to prepare the food there. We lay the table, then before we begin dinner, my father gives praise for the food, so we remember where the festival comes from. We usually eat too much, but it’s only once a year! We often listen to speeches and tell stories after dinner as well. When it’s all over everyone helps wash the dishes.The festival is a very busy time for travel when friends and families come together to celebrate. After we finish the Thanksgiving Day festival, there are plenty of other things to see and do. We live in New York City, and we go to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, along with thousands of people as it goes along several streets and finishes at the famous Macy’s Store. Thanksgiving is also the start of the Christmas season, and we start shopping for presents. Football is also important at Thanksgiving, with many teams playing games. Like many Americans, we usually watch the games on television and enjoy ourselves very much.Module 3My hero—Dr Norman BethuneNorman Bethune is one of China’s most famous heroes. He was Canadian, but he spent his life in China, living with the Chinese, helping them and dying for them. Norman Bethune was born in 1890. He became a doctor in 1916, and he went to Spain in 1936 to treat the wounded forces during the war there. He soon realized that many people were dying because they did not get to hospital quickly enough. Dr Bethune developed new ways of taking care of the sick, and invented special medical tools to use outside hospitals and close to the fighting so that doctors could treat the wounded more quickly. His discoveries saved many lives.In 1938 he came to China to treat the wounded in the mountains north of Yan’an. At the time, there were few doctors, so he had to work very hard on his own. His experience of treating people in Spain was useful in China, and he opened hospitals for local people as well. He also developed training courses for doctors and nurses, and wrote books so that doctors could learn about how he treated the sick.Dr Bethune worked very hard without resting or taking care of himself. Once, he worked for sixty-nine hours without stopping and managed to save 112 lives. Then, one day, he cut his finger during an operation, but he continued his work. In the end, he died of his wound.Dr Bethune’s work with the Chinese soldiers made him a hero in China. There are many books and films about him, and he is still remembered in both Canada and China.Module 4Imagine this situation: Your parents go away on business, but you have to stay at home alone. Will life be as easy as when your parents are around? Will you manage at home alone?When Zheng Chenyu’s parents left her alone, she was worried. “Although I often go shopping with my mother, I didn’t know what to buy or what to do with it.”The fifteen-year-old girl said that she knew hardly anything about cooking.“I can fill an empty stomach with tomato and egg soup, and make a cup of tea though that’s all. I think many of my classmates are the same. We teenagers don’t know how to look after ourselves,” said Zheng. “I’m so careless that I always forget something important. Two weeks ago I burnt the soup while I was watching television. And then I dropped the bowl.Although Zheng believes that basic life skills such as cooking and washing clothes are especially important, she doesn’t think young people get enough practice.“As soon as we leave home, we’ll learn to cook, but at the moment, we’re so lazy that our parents do almost everything for us.” she said.For most teenagers, their main task is to do their homework. They don’t learn any life skills until they go to college.However, Sima Yige doesn’t agree. His parents are going away next week.“I think I’ll be all right. I won’t just eat sandwiches or fruit. I know how to cook some dishes, although they’re quite simple,” the thirteen-year-old boy said. In his opinion,many young people depend too much on their parents, and there is much more to learn than cooking, like tidying up your room or even getting dressed”.For most school children, it’s no holiday when their parents are away. It’s more like real life in the future!Module 5Welcome to the most friendly museum in London. In most museums, there’s no shouting and no running, and you mustn’t touch anything. But the Science Museum is different… it’s noisy! People talk about what they can see and do here, and there are some very noisy machines as well. If you want answers to all your questions about science, this is the right place for you.On the ground floor is the Launchpad. This is my favourite room because there are lots of physics experiments. For example, if you want to fill a bag with sand, you have to control a kind of truck on wheels and move it into the correct place. You can also find out how we travel into space and back again.Upstairs is the Human and Nature Room. There you can compare the speed of different animals with your own. When you hear a noise you push a key. If you aren’t fast enough, the lion catches you! I’m faster than all my friends, but the lion still catches me.I also like to visit the other rooms on the second and third floors. You can learn about communication, environment as well as maths, physics and chemistry. For example, you can find out how X-ray let you see inside your body. And in one room they even explain how they dig coal from the ground and use it to create energy.The Science Museum is interesting for people of all ages, as long as you follow the rules. You cannot take photos, but if you want postcards, you can buy them in the shop. The museum is free to enter, so you go in for a few minutes or stay all day. It’s open every day from 10 am to 6 pm. So if you ever go to London, make sure you visit the Science Museum. It’s my favourite museum in the whole world.Module 6Dear Diana,Last week, my friend David came round with a new computer game and asked to play it on my father’s computer. I was worried, because I should ask my father before I use his computer. He uses it for his work and I can only use it for my homework. The reason is that he thinks it’ll go wrong if I play games on it.Well, while my dad was out, we decided to try out David’s game. We copied it to the computer, and at the end of the game, we took it off. However, when I started the computer again to check if everything was OK, some of my dad’s records were missing.Then, when my dad used the computer last night, he was really angry. He could no longer find the records anywhere! They were very important ones.I didn’t tell him about the computer game because I didn’t want him to be angry with me. Should I tell him about the computer game? Should I play to repair it?Yours,SteveDear Steve,Oh dear! You’ve made two mistakes. It’s bad enough that you used your dad’s computer when he told you no to. You should never do that. But it’s even worse that you didn’t tell him about it. If you tell him the truth now, he’ll be angry with you, but at least you’ll show how honest you are.Then you should pay the bill to repair it. But you shouldn’t use your pocket money—after all, your parents gave you that money. If you offer to do some jobs around the home, he’ll realise that you’re very sorry.Oh, and next time, play football with David!Best wishes,DianaModule 7My favourite great book is The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. Tom lives with his aunt Polly in St Petersburg, Missouri, the US, and is a lively and clever boy. Tom is the hero of the story, but there are other important people in the book. His good friend Huck Finn lives outside the community, and everyone is afraid of him. Joe is another friend of Tom’s. Becky is a lovely girl with fair hair, and Injun Joe is the bad man of the story.Tom has many adventures. In one part of the book, he runs away with his two friends, Huck Finn and Joe, to an island in the middle of the Mississippi River for several days. Another time, Tom goes with Huck to look for treasure. With Becky he gets lost in a dark place, and finally, they find a box full of money.My favourite part in the book is when everyone thinks Tom and Huck are dead. They decide to go to the church, and see their family and neighbours. They have come to remember them. Tom hides and watches for a time, and then suddenly he appears. At first everyone is surprised to see him, but then they’re just pleased to see him alive. The story is about growing up. It describes how strangers are seen in small towns of America. Finally, it talks about what it’s like to be free, law and order in society, and how bad people pay for their actions.Why do I think Tom Sawyer is a great book? It’s as American as apple pie, and although Mark Twain wrote it in 1876, it’s still read and loved by people all over the world today. It’s written in the everyday English of the southern states of America in the nineteenth century, and the dialogues sound especially real. Today it’s thought to be one of the greatest American stories. Go on—read it! I know you’ll enjoy it too. Module 8For Liu Xiang, life as a sports hero began in 2004. First, he was invited to competitions around the world. Then he was chosen for the Chinese team at the Olympic Games.But Liu Xiang was not a success immediately. He was born in Shanghai on 13th July, 1983 started training when he was very young. In Grade Four, he went to the Junior Sports School of Putuo District of Junior. Liu was encouraged at first to train for the high jump.Then, in 1998, Liu Xiang’s ability in hurdling (running and jumping)was noticed by his coach Sun Haiping. A special programme was set up in 2001 to help young sportsmen and sportswomen. LiuXiang’s races were recorded, and he was compared with the world’s best sports stars. Sun Haiping used the information to change his training methods for Liu Xiang.In 2002 Liu Xiang won his first international 110 hurdles race in Switzerland, and in the same year, a gold at the Asia Games. Then, in 2004, Liu won the first Olympic gold for China and in the same time as the world record. It was also the first time an Olympic gold for running or hurdling was hung round the neck of a sportsperson from any Asian country. Later Liu Xiang went on to win competitions in Europe and the Middle East.Liu Xiang trained very hard. In fact he trained so hard that he hurt his foot. From 2008 on he suffered a lot from his foot problem and was often absent from competitions.Although no one is sure about his future in sport, Liu Xiang is a symbol of courage and success, and we continue to have great pride in him.Module 91 Every morning my father buys a newspaper on his way to work. Every day I open my books in class and start my lessons. Every evening my mother looks through magazines at home. And every night I look at the photos of David Beckham and Yao Ming on my bedroom wall before I go to sleep. Can we imagine life without paper or print?2Paper was first created about 2,000 years ago in China and was made of silk, bamboo, grass and later, wood. People learnt to write words on paper to make a book. But in those days, books were only produced one at a time by hand. As a result, there weren’t many books, and they were expensive. So, few people learnt to read.3Then printing was invented in China. The first printed books were made by placing wood blocks against paper. An important development in printing in the Western world took place in the fifteenth century. They found a way to produce books more quickly and cheaply. As a result, a trade in books developed, and more people learnt to read. Knowledge and ideas spread quickly, and we can compare this change to the introduction of the Internet in the twentieth century.4 But will books be needed in the future? Today information is found online more easily than in books and is kept on CD-ROMs or machines such as MP3 players. These machines are smaller and lighter than books so that they are very easy to carry.5 computers are already used in classrooms, and newspapers and magazines are already read online. So what direction will traditional printing take in the future? Will computers be used more than printed books and photos in the future? No, I can only afford a Yao Ming photo on my bedroom wall, not a computer screen two metres high!Module 10Dear Mum and Dad,I’m writing this letter to you from the centre of Australia. At the moment we’re staying near Uluru. On the first day, we took a plane tour over the rock, and I was surprised at how big it was: 3.6 kilometres long and 348 metres high. During different periods of the day, the colours of the rock turn dark blue, purple, yellow and red. The Aborigines are the people that have lived in Australia from the earliest times, and their ancient stories describe the spirits that created the world. Uluru is a centre ofAboriginal culture.The Australians have a close relationship with the British. They have many British relatives and they’re like us in many ways. The food that Australians like most are ham and beef with lots of salad. They also grow grapes and other fruit. They love all sports, but the game that they like most is Australian football. Because most Australians live near the coast, they love going to the beach for swimming and surfing.Although it’s December, it’s summer over there. The sun is very bright, and near the coast the countryside is very green. There are lots of sheep in the fields and on the hills, but the middle of the country has no trees or grass, just rocks and sand… And kangaroos!Most Australians speak English, although they say “Gooday!”and “No worries.”They mean “Hello” and “Don’t worry about it. It’s not a problem!”The next day after we arrived in Uluru, we went up on a horse ride. The horse that I rode was sleepy. It just lay on the ground most of the time…Finally, later this evening, we’re taking the plane back to Sydney and coming home. It’s been a wonderful trip.Love,TonyModule 11We were very happy with our photo competition this year. Compared with other years, we received many more photos. Even though all of the photos are excellent, we can’t give prizes to everyone. There are four prizes, so read on to find out who the winners are…The person who won the prize for the subject Nature is fifteen-year-old Li Wei. Li Wei took a photo of the tallest hill in Xiangshan Park. His photo shows the different colours on the hill.The photo which we liked best in the City and People group was taken by Zhao Min. Zhao Ming is only twelve years old. Her photo is of a single person rushing across a street somewhere in northern China on a grey wearing blouse and skirt, who is holding her books over her head to protect herself against the showers.The best photo in the Music group was taken by He Zhong. His photo of the group Crazy Feet shows the singer, Beck Wang and the band playing at a concert in Shenzhen. He Zhong manages to show how this great new band moves and sounds, and the good time which their fans are having.A number of photos which Beijing and Cambridge in England have won the prize for the subject Home and Away. They show some of the experiences of a young visitor to our country, and some memories of his home. The winner is Tony Smith. Congratulations to our winners and thanks to everyone who entered the competition. Tonight we’re all having dinner together, and on the menu is traditional Beijing duck. We are very lucky that famous John Williams is in China to talk about his new book of photos, and will present the prizes to the winners.Module 12How to be greenBy Wang LingingHow green are you? Try these questions and see.●●Do you walk or ride a bike to school?●●Do you buy new clothes just because they are modern?●●Do you buy things produced locally and not made abroad?●●Do you take your own bag when shopping and not ask for a plastic bag?●●Do you buy drinks in bottles? And what do you do with the bottles when they’reempty?●Do you divide the waste into things to recycle and things to throw away?We all need a healthy environment, but we produce waste every day and it’s harmful to our environment. Repeat these three words every day: Reduce, reuse and recycle. ReduceReduce means “use less”. Don’t waste things. It saves money, causes less pollution , and less waste goes into the environment. Before we buy something new, think whether it is really necessary, because maybe the used one is just as good! When we do buy things, choose local products, and try not to buy too many things from abroad. ReuseReuse means “use again”. Use things for as long as possible. Look after them so that they will last. Repair them if possible. Don’t throw away and buy new ones. Don’t use us a paper cup or a paper bag. It’s better to use a china cup and a lunchbox because you can use them again.RecycleRecycle means “change things into something else to be reused”. Although it takes energy to change something into something else, it’s better than throwing things away or burning them. We throw tons of rubbish away each year, and we have to stop. Divide your rubbish into plastic, glass, paper and rubber. Develop a recycling policy for the whole community. Buy products such as recycled paper to help save trees.We cannot hope for raid change, but let’s take these simple steps today so that we’ll save the world for our grandsons and granddaughters tomorrow.。