八年级英语每周阅读(2016.10.10-10.14)

Telling Europe’s story

The wolves in the documentary Seasons.

大师级纪录片《地球四季》呼唤人类关注自然。

Do you enjoy documentaries? A French one is

showing in Chinese cinemas now. It’s called Seasons

(《地球四季》) and is directed (执导) by French

filmmakers Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud. The documentary tells the natural history of Europe from the end of the Ice Age until today. Animals like wolves and deer are in it. It’s filled with breath-taking shots (镜头).

It’s not an easy job to make a documentary. “Each one takes three to five years on average,” Jacques said in a speech in Beijing on Sept 27. Take Seasons for example, it took five years. The team traveled to over 100 places across eight countries.

They faced challenges in shooting as well. To catch the scene of fast-running animals, they made an electronic gadget (装置). The gadget could follow animals closely in forests and other wild areas. It was silent and didn’t bother the ani mals when it recorded.

In fact, they thought about a lot of things to help them not bother the animals. Before shooting, they invited animal experts to help them learn about each animal’s living habits. Some animals are shy. So they set up invisible (隐形的) tents.

Jacques and his team hope to make people protect animals through their works. “We want people to pay more attention to animals and learn how to get along well with them,” he said in the lecture.

Sweden full of surprises

Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, has amazing street

view. 瑞典竟然在方方面面都这么牛！

If you are looking for your next place to holiday,

Sweden, this year’s most reputable (声誉好的)

country, is a good place to go.

Sweden takes up an area of 450,295 square

kilometers. It is almost the same size as Gansu

province in China. But surprisingly, it is quite

advanced in many different areas.

You may not think that a small country is very strong in military technologies (军事科技). But Sweden was the first country to make a stealth warship (隐形战舰). Visby Class Corvette (维斯比级巡逻舰) is such kind of ship. It is hard to find by radar (雷达). And it was also the first to make an AIP engine (不依赖空气推进的引擎). With this engine, submarines (潜艇) can get power just under the water.

Sweden also has one of the world’s best car br ands (品牌) V olvo. You can see them a lot in some places in China.

Some of you may know IKEA, the world’s largest furniture retailer (家具零售商). Yes, it is Swedish too. In China, you can find IKEA in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu and Shenzhen.

When you want to listen to music, you may open QQ music. But many US teens prefer the Swedish one called Spotify. As of June 2016, Spotify had more than 100 million users.

How can such a small country do well in so many fields? Rich resources (资源) like iron and wood (木材) may be one of the reasons. They give the country a strong economy (经济). More importantly, Sweden has a good welfare system (福利制度). It allows people to live in a safe, equal (平等的) and comfortable place. And their free education, from kindergarten until university, focuses on science and innovation (创新). This provides the country with many talented people. Did you know?

The famous Nobel Prize is named after Swedish chemist (化学家) and engineer Alfred Bernhard Nobel. He was most well-known for finding dynamite (炸药).

Sweden lies close to the North Pole. So the longest daytime can be 18 hours during summer. And the shortest daytime is just five hours in winter.

World’s first ice hotel, called Icehotel, opened in 1990 in Sweden. It is known as the bigges t hotel of ice and snow in the world. It takes up over 6,000 square meters.

The most popular Swedish dish is Kottbullar (Swedish meatball). You can find it in IKEA stores in China.

You can find Santa Clause’s reindeer (驯鹿) here. In Kiruna (基律纳), Sweden’s northernmost city, tour companies offer short trips to track reindeer.

Fast facts:

Capital: Stockholm Area: 450,295 square kilometers

Population: about 9,800,000 Official language: Swedish

Choose the answer:

1. Which is NOT true about Sweden?

A. Sweden is a good place for tourism.

B. Sweden won this year’s most reputable country.

C. Sweden is as large as Gansu province in China.

D. Sweden never makes military weapons.

2. Which of the following is a name for Swedish car brands?

A. AIP engine.

B. V olvo.

C. IKEA.

D. Spotify.

3. Sweden can be advanced in so many fields because of ______.

a. its rich resources

b. its good welfare system

c. its strong military weapons

d. its good education system

A. abc

B. abd

C. acd

D. bcd

4. With this story, the writer tries to tell ______.

A. why Sweden can be the most reputable country

B. how a small country develops its military weapons

C. that Sweden is the first choice for holiday