【外研版】八年级英语上册 Module11 reading

（1）
In China, there is a 12-year cycle for every year. There is an animal for every year. Here are the animals: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig. Everyone has an animal sign. 2006 is the year of Dog.
Do you know? Michael Jackson (迈克尔-杰克逊) and Madonna (麦当娜) were both born in the year of Dog. Dogs are very honest and friendly. They protect people they love. So some say people born in the year of Dog are very hard-working, brave, responsible (负责任的), friendly, and honest. They love justice (正义), and people respect them. In love relationships (亲戚), they do not change easily. They are willing to suffer. They do not want to make other people suffer. They do not like to do something bad.
Dogs are sometimes narrow-minded or stubborn (顽固的). At these times they are not easy to be calm.
Of course, we all know some of these things are not true. We hope the good ones are true about us. We hope the bad ones are not true.
You can buy many things with these signs. For example, you can get cups, cards, notebooks, or other decorations. These things have a picture of your animal. What is your animal year? Do you own something with a picture of your animal? Or do you want to create something with your animal sign?
根据短文内容，在空白处填上合适的单词，使句意完整。

1. If a baby is born this year, his animal sign will be _____.
2. Dogs are very _____ and _____ to people and they protect people they love.
3. Sometimes dogs are _____ and ______. They are not easy to be calm.
4. There are all kinds of things with _____ _____.
5. We all have our own _____ _____. We can create something with your animal sign.
(2)
We use energy to do everything. Energy lights our cities and powers our cars, trains, planes and rockets. It warms our homes, cooks our food, plays our music and makes the pictures on our televisions. It powers the machines in factories and the tractors (拖拉机) on farms.
And energy comes from many places. For example, energy from the sun’s light dries our clothes. That energy also helps plants to grow. Plants keep some of that energy inside of them. When a deer eats a plant, it gets that energy. It uses that energy to live. If a tiger eats that deer, the tiger will get some of that same energy.
Many different kinds of energy come from different places, but there are two main groups we can put energy into: renewable (可再生的) and nonrenewable.
Renewable energy can be used over and over again. It comes from things like sunlight, wind, plants, moving water and the Earth’s heat. We can use these things to make electricity, and we don’t have to worry about running out of them. There will always be sunlight, there will always be wind, and the Earth will always be hot inside. If we use those sources for energy, we’ll never run out.
But we have energy problems now because we get most of our energy from nonrenewable sources. We say they are nonrenewable because we are using them more quickly than they can be made. Most of these are fossil fuels (化石燃料) like oil, natural gas and coal. It has taken the earth millions of years to make fossil fuels from dead plants and animals as old as dinosaurs. There is no fast way to make fossil fuels, but we are using them very quickly.
Another kind of energy from nonrenewable sources is atomic energy (原子能). Scientists can break apart atoms of uranium (铀) or plutonium (钚) to get energy. But there is not much uranium or plutonium on earth.
( ) 1.Which of the followings is renewable?
A. moving water
B. coal
C. oil
D. natural gas
( ) 2. The underlined wo rd “power” has the closest meaning to “______”.
A. break
B. turn
C. drive
D. repair
( ) 3. According to the story, the energy problem we are facing now is that ______.
A. there is not much uranium on the earth
B. we are using our nonrenewable energy sources too quickly
C. there is too little sunlight
D. the earth is not hot enough inside
( ) 4. Which of the following statements is true according to the story?
A. We can make energy by breaking up anything.
B. Tigers eat deer to get natural gas.
C. Nonrenewable energy is used more quickly than it is made.
D. Sunlight can only be used to dry up clothes.
( ) 5. This passage mainly talks about _______.
A. ways to save energy
B. different kinds of energy
C. ways to make energy
D. how important energy is for us
Key: (1)
1. dog
2. honest, friendly
3. narrow-minded, stubborn
4. these signs
5. animal year
(2) 1-5 AC B C B。