八年级上册英语课文

Look it upHere are two articles from an encyclopediaDa Vinci, LeonardoLeonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519), was an Italian painter, inventor, musician, engineer and scientist.Da Vinci was born in the countryside. Form an early age, heshowed great intelligence and artistic ability. As he grew older,he learned to do many different things. His paintings are veryfamous. And once, the Mona Lisa is perhaps the most famouspainting in the world. He also had many inventions, for example,his notebooks include some interesting drawings of flying machines.DinosaursDinosaurs lived on Earth for more than 60million years beforehuman beings. They lived everywhere on Earth. Some dinosaurswere as small as chickens; others were as big as ten elephants.Some could even fly.Many dinosaurs ate plants. However, some dinosaurs liked toeat meat.Dinosaurs lived on Earth for more than 150 million years. Then suddenly, they all died out. Nobody knows why. However, wecan learn about them form their fossils.The king and the riceA long time ago, there was a king in India. The king favouritegame was chess.king the to palaces and day, a wiseold man came OneIf“challenged him to a game. Theking promised the old man,”you win the game, you can have any prize.d like one grain of the 'The old man said, “If I win the game, Ithe second, for the first square of the chessboard, two for ricethe double the amount for each of for four the third, and then”rest squares.silver gold or“Wouldn't you like king that “Is all?”asked the”instead? Replied the old man.”“No, just rice.time. a long game old The king and the man played the for Finally, the old man won. So the kingordered his men to collecta bag of rice. He put one grain of the rice on the first square, twoon the second, and so on. The king quickly realized a problem.have he the rice all Even with the in country, would still notenough rice to put on all the square! Computer factsSmaller and BetterIn the 1940s, the first computers were bigger than cars. Nowcomputers are becoming smaller and better.Some computers are tiny. You may be unaware of them. There is probably one inside your TV or washing machines. You dependon computers more than you realize. What can we do with computers? We can use computer to calculate. They can calculate at a fasterspeed than we can and almost never give wrong answers. Wecan also type and draw things with computer. In addition,computers can do important things like operating railways andflying planes and spaceship.Is a computer cleverer than me?The answer is “No”. Your brain can produce new idea butcomputers cannot. However, one day computers may be able todo a better job than human beings. For example, they may bebetter than doctor at doing their jobs. What will happen to us if computer can do all our jobs? Will wehave nothing to do? Computers may chances our lives, but willthey make them better?Great inventionsGreat inventions change the world. They help people live abetter life. The following are there of the most importantinventions in historyThe WheelThe wheel is perhaps the most important inventions in history.After its invention, travelling became faster and more comfortable. A few thousands years ago, people started to usewheel on carriages. In the19thcentury, the first train started to carry passengers. At the start of the 20th century, cars becamemore and more popular. Without the wheel, we could not havethese inventions.TelephoneAlexander Graham Bell invented one of the first practicaltelephones in 1876. Since then, People have been able to speakto each other over long distances. Today millions of peopleacross the world own mobile phone. They allow people to keepin touch with each other anytime, anywhere.The light bulbThomas Edison developed the first practical light bulb in 1879.Before the inventions of the light bulb, people had to us oilbulb,light With night. see at to candles or gas lamps lamps,people can do as many things in the evenings as they can in the daytime.Can you imagine living without them? An exchange visiting is educational and interestingA group of British students from Woodpark School in Londonare visiting Xinhua Junior High School in Beijing on an educational exchange.“Ｉwas very nervous at first”, says Sarah. “However, my hostfamily are really friendly. I am glad to be a guest in their home. Ihave learnt to use chopsticks. And they are teaching me a little Chinese.”The students spend the weekdays studying with Chinese students. At weekend, they tour around and visit some places of interest in Beijing with their host family.“It is been a fantastic experience so far,”says Eric. “I havelearned a bit of t'ai chi and I really enjoy it. We have alreadylearned a lot about the Chinese culture and history. The teachers have introduced us to Chinese painting as well. We have alsotried to paint some pictures ourselves!I haven't had muchsuccess yet, but I will keep trying.”I am planning to“says Sarah, ”I have made many new friends,“keep in touch with them when I return home. We will see oneanother because they will come over to the UK for the secondpart of the exchange next month. I can't wait!”The Trojan horseThe captain stood on the high wall of the city of Troy. “TheGreeks have gone and we have won,”he said. “They have triedto capture our city for ten years. Now they have given up and”sailed away.There have left a huge “But looked over there!” a solder said, “”wooden horse!not The big, Greeks did “It is too said “Ah, yes,”the captain,the it into Get some help and pull them. want to take it with”city.Trojans the city, all the night, in the main square of Thathorse, and made the celebrated.They sang and danced aroundt laughed like this since Ihaven'jokes about the stupid Greeks. “The captain said. After the party,they locked all my childhood.”the gates of the city and then all went to sleep.huge for a expect the By midnight, main square was empty,horse. Suddenly, a secret door opened on the side of the wooden soldersThe solders! Greek the of full was horse The horse.quietly climbed out of the horse one by one.The solders opened the main gates. The Greek army entered.For ten years, the Greeks could not capture the city by fighting.In one night, however, they succeed in capturing it through aclever trick.Henry, Paula and Millie write for the school newspaper. Theyhave written the short articles below to help students improvetheir memoryRosie Bridge School, 27 March Memory CornerHenryA great way to help you remember something is to imagine apicture of it in your mind. If you make the picture big, strangeand silly, you will remember it better. For example, if you wantto remember the world “smiles”, you can imagine there is a“mile”between the first letter and the last latter. This makes itthe longest word in the world. Remember: a picture is worth a thousand words.PaulaA good method for remembering thespelling of a word is tomake a short sentence with each letter of the word. For example,if you want to know how to spell the word “because”, you canmake the sentence, “Big elephants can always understand small elephants.”MillieYou will forget thing very quickly unless you remember it well.For example, you may have trouble remembering the list of thesteps in the water cycle. However, it is easier to remember these steps if you understandhow the water cycle works.Rosie Bridge School, 18 May English: fun for lifeEnglish week at Rosie Bridge School Last week, students at Rosie BridgeSchool worked hard tomake their English Week a big success.There was an English book fair in the library and treasure hunt.Some students put on an English play. Other students took partin an English singing competition. There was also an English speaking competition. The studentshad to speak on a topic in English for two minutes.We spoke to the winner, Henry. “I am so happy that I won”, heI advice people to spoke slowly. If they want to be good“said,public speakers, they had better speak clearly, slowly and confidently.”We also spoke to severalother students about English Week. One of them was Amy.“I really enjoy in English Week. It gave me a chance to learnnew words. In my opinion, every school should have an English Week. It is well worth doing.”she said.On the last day of the English Week, the head teacher gave aspeech to whole school. He gave students some suggestions onhow to improve their English. “You should communicate withyour friends in English whenever you can. You should readsome English books and magazines and watch Englishtelevision programmes. Above all, you should enjoy English.”he said.。