九年级英语第十三单元拓展阅读

（一）

Animals are unlike people. They can’t speak. They are not able to express themselves even if they feel pain or sadness. They need people’s help. Now, we can learn from Sophie Smith and be animals’ true friends— volunteers working for animals.

On Feb 3, 2014, a girl from Massachusetts, the US, said that circuses (马戏团) should no more use hooks (钩子) or chains on elephants. And the government should do something.

Some elephants are kept in chains. They can’t walk freely. And chains bring them great pain. Some people even use hooks when they train elephants. The hooks are sharp and bring elephants much more pain. Circus actors even push a hook into an elephant’s body to move it along during a show. “After some time, the elephant’s skin breaks down. It feels the pain, but it can’t say anything. It can’t say no to those cruel people,” Sophie told local newspaper Marblehead Reporter. She also said that it would be bad for children.

Sophie’s love toward animals started a long time ago. Back in 2011, as a sixth-grader, she searched for different animal protection groups online and helped them.

So when she spoke in front of 70 people at the state house, Sophie was not afraid. She was full of courage.

“Elephants aren’t treated with kindness. Since they cannot talk, I speak for them. I give them my voice and my love,” she said.

（二）

I will never forget that unusual day! I kept hearing a strange noise while I was driving down a mountain in my car, so I stopped on the dirty road to check. There was a little green head looking at me in my backpack.

“What are you doing there, little frog (青蛙)？” I said to myself. Well, you can imagine my surprise when I heard this frog answering me in the voice of a frog. “Madam, I love to travel so much that I just can't control myself when I see a backpack.”

I just looked at him with my mouth open and didn't know what to say.

“Oh, dear Madam，” continued the frog, “I am Mongy. Nice to meet you! ”

“Nice to meet you, too! You can call me Christa. How is it possible that I can hear you, Mongy？”

“You wanted to get to know nature and the living things in the world, and you started paying attention to nature. Most people never pay attention to nature, so they only listen when they are young. But you heard the voices of nature calling you. You went even further than that and you tried to get along well with nature. That's why you can hear me now.”

It was at this moment that my life changed and I suddenly knew what my destiny (命运) would be from that day on.

（三）

A large part of China experienced larger amounts of smog (雾霾) than usual and the air was badly polluted. The distance one could see was shorter than 1,000 meters in Beijing, Tianjin, and the provinces of Hebei, Henan, Shandong and Anhui. In some areas, it was down to 200 meters.

People usually set off firecrackers (爆竹) to celebrate the Spring Festival. But because of the smog, this year seemed very quiet. It was really different. A man called Zhang Wei said that his friends and he hadn't set off a single firecracker.

“We all suffered from last month's smog. If we don't call an end to the firecrackers, the environment will get worse and worse during the holiday.” Said Zhang Wei. He called on more people to set off fewer firecrackers during this year's Spring Festival holiday by putting up a notice in his neighborhood.

More Chinese looked forward to celebrating the holiday in a greener way. They decided not to set off firecrackers. They also decided not to waste food. They said that the new celebrations sounded fashionable.

We still have a lot to do to improve the air quality. For example, using public transportation as much as possible is not a hard thing for us to do, but it matters a lot.