Unit 5 阅读限时练(Word版)-【勤径学升】2025-2026学年八年级下册英语全程时习测试卷（外研版·新教材）

阅读限时练

一、阅读理解。

A

（南京期末）

 

①Workers in Canada have made an exciting discovery. Machine operator Shawn Funk was digging through the earth when he noticed something much harder than the rock around it. “It was definitely nothing we had ever seen before,” said Funk.

②A local museum now displays Funk’s discovery. It looks like a piece of art, but it’s not. It’s a fossilized (石化的) dinosaur—one of the most amazing ever found!

③After 110 million years underground, it has turned to stone, from its snout (长鼻子) to its hips. Armor (硬壳) covers its neck and back. Two 50-centimeter spikes stick out from its shoulders. Fossilized skin and scales (鳞) cover its body. Caleb Brown, a researcher at the museum, is amazed by the quality of the fossil (化石).“We don’t just have a skeleton (骨架). We have a dinosaur as it would have been.”

④For paleontologists, a find like this is very rare. Usually, only the bones and teeth are preserved—softer parts like the skin and scales rarely get fossilized. The dinosaur is so well preserved (保护) it even has a little bit of its original color. But why is this dinosaur fossil so different? Scientists have a theory.

⑤They think that the dinosaur’s carcass was carried into a river by a flood. It reached the sea, and after a week or so, the carcass sank to the ocean floor. Mud covered it and entered its skin, armor, and bones. After millions of years, this made the creature’s body stonelike.

⑥Scientists have studied the fossil carefully, but it will take years to learn all its secrets. Its bones, for example, are under its skin and armor, and paleontologists need to find a way to reach them without destroying (毁坏) its body. In some ways, this dinosaur is almost too well

preserved!

1. Why does the writer say the dinosaur looks like a piece of art?

A. It is colorful. B. It is made of stone.

C. It is fossilized. D. It is well preserved.

2. What makes this discovery different from other dinosaur discoveries?

A. It is 110 million years old. B. It is discovered by accident.

C. Its skin and scales are fossilized. D. Its bones and teeth are preserved.

3. Where is the best place for the following sentence?

“It also ensured that the dinosaur kept its shape.”

A. At the end of Paragraph 3. B. At the end of Paragraph 4.

C. At the end of Paragraph 5. D. At the end of Paragraph 6.

4. Why will it take years to fully study the fossil?

A. Scientists don’t want to destroy it. B. Scientists don’t have enough tools.

C. Its armor is very tough. D. It is large and heavy.

B

Ever since she was a child growing up in England, Jane Goodall dreamed of working with wild animals.

When she was about eleven years old, she wanted to go to Africa to live and write about animals. In 1957, Jane Goodall traveled to Africa. ___5___. Later Louis asked her to study a group of chimpanzees living by a lake in Tanzania.

___6___. They were very shy and ran away when Goodall came near. She learned to watch them far away. Over time, she made friends with chimpanzees. She gave her chimpanzees the names such as David Graybeard, Flo and Fifi.

___7___. But she found them also eat meat. A few weeks later, she even saw chimpanzees

make and use tools to help them open the nuts. Jane Goodall, “the chimpanzee Lady”, is well-known for her 45 years’ study of chimpanzees in Tanzania.

Jane Goodall has spent her life trying to protect chimpanzees. ___8___. It tells us we need to save the animals in danger.

A. It was not easy work to stay with chimpanzees

B. She recently wrote a book about animals

C. She soon met the famous scientist Louis Leakey and began to work for him

D. Most of the chimpanzees make their homes in the trees

E. Chimpanzees love vegetables and fruits

二、完形填空。

新情境

Watermelons are one of the most popular fruits in China. It’s said that Chinese people eat ____9____ 70% of the watermelons on the earth. As we enjoy the sweet watermelons, we have to thank a great woman named Wu Mingzhu. This 92-year-old ____10____ has devoted (致力) her life to growing melons in China. Wu grew up in Wuhan. In the eyes of others, Wu should have worked as a teacher after finishing university in 1953, ____11____ she decided to go to Xinjiang. She thought Xinjiang was a good place for her to do ____12____ great. In 1955, Wu went to Xinjiang to study melons. ____13____ it was hard to live and work there at the time, she didn’t ____14____ She spent three years going around Xinjiang and found 44 kinds of melons. In the 1990s, Wu and her team cultivated (培育) “8424”, a great kind of watermelon in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. Then Wu ____15____ it to the north of China. Later, Wu went to more places to study melons. ____16____ her, most places in China grow melons now. The yield (产量) is high and the price is naturally ____17____, so people can eat melons as they wish. Wu’s work has made a great difference _____18_____ the growing of melons in China. ”My life is to grow a few melons and give the sweetness of melons to people,” Wu always says.

9. A. hardly B. nearly C. lately D. loudly

10. A. expert B. manager C. teacher D. coach

11. A. or B. for C. so D. but

12. A. nothing B. everything C. something D. anything