安徽省马鞍山市第二中学2023-2024学年高二下学期开学考试英语试题

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A

Grand Canyon National Park

Located in northern Arizona, the park covers 277 miles of the Colorado River and nearby uplands. One of the most awesome examples of erosion (侵蚀) in the world, Grand Canyon is unmatched in the incomparable view it offers to visitors.

Park Openings and Closings

The Village and Desert View on the South Rim are open all year and park entrances remain open 24 hours a day. North Rim facilities open mid-May and close mid-October. Park entrances remain open 24 hours a day during this time. Hours for visitor centers and businesses vary throughout the year.

Park Information

The park produces a Pocket Map with a North Rim and South Rim edition that contains a map and information about services, facilities, and park ranger programs. It is available in French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Chinese. A hiking brochure is available for those planning to hike one of the park's main trails down into Grand Canyon. Obtain publications at entrance stations, visitor centers, or atgo.nps.gov/136oil.

Accessibility

The terrain (地形) is rugged with narrow, rocky trails and steep cliffs. Visitors using wheelchairs or having visual disabilities may need assistance. For more information about accessibility in Grand Canyon National Park, see go.nps.gov/1rtxl2.

Park Entrance Fees

Admission to the park us $35 per private vehicle; $30 per motorcycle; and $20 per person entering the park through Grand Canyon Railway, park shuttle bus, walking, or riding a bicycle. The pass can be used for seven days and includes both rims. Pay fees at park entrance stations or at some businesses outside the park. Every year the National Park Service offers entrance fee free days. For complete fee information, please visitgo.nps.gov/y5uu6f.

Sustainability

Grand Canyon National Park involves sustainability in all aspects of its operations. Use your refillable water bottle to fill up on free Grand Canyon spring water at visitor centers and grocery stores. Recycling containers are conveniently located and as common as trash bins. Discover what else you can do to protect the environment while traveling here and beyond. at go.mos.gov/lb2rzt.

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B

I once met a young woman who had dreams of swimming for the U.S Olympic team. She had to get up every morning at 4 a.m. to swim for 3 hours before going to school. She did not party with her friends on Saturday night. She had to study and keep her grades up, just like everyone else. 

When I asked her what compelled her with such super-human ambition and sacrifice (牺牲). She simply said, "I do it for myself and the people I love. It's love that gets me over the hurdles and sacrifices."

A reason or a purpose is a combination of "wants" and "don't wants". When people ask me what my reason for wanting to be rich is, it is a combination of deep emotional "wants" and "don't wants".

I will list a few. First the "don't wants", for they create the "wants". I don't want to work all my life. I don't want what my parents aspired for, which was job security and a big house. I don't like being an employee. I hated it that my dad always missed my football games because he was so busy working on his career. I hated it when my dad worked hard all his life and the government took most of what he worked for at his death.

Now the "wants". I want to be free to travel the world and live in the lifestyle I love. I want to be young when I do this. I want control over my time and my life. I want money to work for me.

Those are my deep-seated, emotional reasons. What are yours? If they are not strong enough, the reality of the road ahead may be greater than your reasons. I have lost money and been set back many times, but it was the deep emotional reasons that kept me standing up and going forward. I wanted to be free by age 40, but it took me until I was 47 with many learning experiences along the way. 

I wish I could say it was easy. It wasn't, but it wasn't hard either. But without a strong reason or purpose anything in life is hard.

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C

Poetry is one of the important art forms of literature, and is an easy way to express your feelings. Moreover, everyone understands it in their own way. Some find relief in poems; some read them simply for peace; some read poems for simple artistic pleasure.

There are some special features of poetry, which make it quite different from other forms of literature. First of all, poems have rhythmic patterns. Generally, most parts of a poem follow the same form of rhythm. Poems may have rhyme, but they don't have to. The lines are neatly arranged together so that they express a particular feeling or emotion.

There can be various types of poems but according to the pattern or the form, there are mainly three types: 

Lyrics: The lyric mainly concentrates on human thoughts and emotions rather than a story. Lyrics always bear song-like appeal. These are mainly short poems. Popular lyric poem forms are the elegy, the ode and the sonnet. William Shakespeare, Edmund Waller and John Keats are some of the greatest lyric writers of all times.

Narrative poems: This type of poetry tells a story. Narrative poems are usually long poems. Epics and ballads fall under this type. Some of the greatest epic poets are John Milton, Dante, Edgar Allan Poe, Alexander Pope, William Shakespeare, etc.

Dramatic poems: Any drama that is written in verse is a dramatic poem. These poems generally tell a story. Black verse, dramatic monologues and closet drama belong to this type. William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson are some of the great dramatic poets.

Whatever the form is, one thing, which, cannot be denied, is that poetry is one of the most powerful tools to express our feelings.

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D

No one likes interruption. We are born to seek balance and order. No matter what it is that you are doing, being interrupted involves a forceful stop midway and then having to re-enter your previous state, sometimes with great difficulty.

Popular belief has it that interruption breaks the flow of your thinking and affects productivity negatively, and so it is advisable that you have an uninterrupted session of intensive work before your next break.

However, a Russian psychologist, Bluma Zeigarnik, might tell you otherwise.

The connection between interruption and memory came to her attention when she was dining in a restaurant. She noticed how the waitresses had an amazing memory of the detailed orders yet to be paid for but scarce memory of the orders that were already completed.

Back in her laboratory, she conducted studies in which subjects were required to complete various puzzles. Some of the subjects were interrupted during the tasks. All the subjects were then asked to describe what tasks they had done. It turns out that adults remembered the interrupted tasks 90% better than the completed tasks, and that children were even more likely to recall the uncompleted tasks. In other words, uncompleted tasks will stay on your mind until you finish them!

In comparison to tasks that were already finished and ones that we haven't even started, half-done projects are given the priority in the mental to-do list our brains sketch out for us. Zeigarnik described this finding in her doctoral thesis (论文) in the late 1920s, which was later called Zeigarnik effect.

One possible explanation is that with interrupted tasks, we are desperate for their closure to reclaim a sense of balance. Finishing them also means that we can finally clear up the mental backlog (积压的工作) and give the space to more upcoming tasks.

Zeigarnik's effect can be found everywhere, especially used in media and advertising. Have you ever wondered why cliffhangers work so well or why you just can't get yourself to stop watching that series on Netflix?

Ernest Hemingway once said about writing a novel, "It is the wait until the next day that is hard to get through." So next time, when you are interrupted, appreciate it and take advantage of it to promote your productivity.

/span>.根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。

Traffic Regulation and Accident Prevention

We live in a remarkable time, and many of the once fatal diseases can now be cured with modern medicine and surgery.  Expectations of life have greatly increased. But though the possibility of living a long and happy life is greater than ever before, every day we witness the incredible killing of men, women and children on the roads. Man fights against the motor-car. It is a never-ending battle which man is losing.  

Nothing can seriously increase your risk of potentially fatal car accidents other than speeding and failing to pay due attention to weather conditions. There is no doubt that the motor-car often brings out a man's very worst qualities. Usually quiet and pleasant people, when they are behind the steering wheel, will become unrecognizable. They are impolite, aggressive, self-willed like two-year-old, completely selfish. All their hidden frustrations, disappointments, and jealousy seem to be caused by driving.

It's all for his own convenience. Due to a serious tragedy, the city is almost uninhabitable and the huge parking lot makes the town ugly. The destruction of rural areas and the annual mass killings are just a statistic, easily forgotten. With regard to driving, the laws of some countries are not strict and even the strictest are not strict enough.

Traffic rules are for everyone to follow under any circumstances, and no one can make an exception unless you make a joke of your own life. Universally accepted standards can only have a significant beneficial on the incidence of accidents. Governments should develop safety codes for manufacturers.  These measures may sound cruel. However, if these measures result in a reduction in the loss of life every year, they should certainly not be considered serious. After all, the world belongs to humans, not cars.

A. There are five reasons for the accident and you are guilty.

B. Every year thousands of people are horribly killed, and we sit still and let it happen.

C. Surprisingly, society should smile at the driver and forgive him.

D. Someone has rightly said that when a person is sitting behind the steering wheel, his car becomes an extension of his personality.

E. All advertisements that emphasize power and performance should be banned.

F. It is time to develop a universal norm to reduce this senseless waste of human life.

G. It is almost certain that one day a cure will be found for the rest of the diseases.

 阅读下面短文，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项。

Actor Anthony Anderson has realized a dream 30 years in the making. The 51-year-old1 a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Howard University last week. "It was all a dream! Words fail to 2 the feeling I'm having right now," Anderson wrote on a social media platform. "My proudest moment is a sense of 3 — finishing what I started many years ago."

Anderson finished his junior year at Howard 30 years ago. 4  some financial difficulties, he had to ask for a 5  from school. He worked hard to make a 6 . Later he started a family and his career 7 . He played the starring roles in many films and became a

8 . The following years he was occupied in his work and didn't return to school. It was something he always felt 9 about — until his son, Nathan, gained 10 to Howard four years ago. That inspired his longing for university study, so he was 11 to go back and finish his degree.

"This spring I was 12 able to finish the work to graduate from Howard University," Anderson said. He marked it as a 13 by calling it "a full-circle moment" and 14 his fans, "It's never too late. Things happen when they're supposed to happen!" Anderson, now a father of two, plans to 15 his education and go to graduate school for a master's degree.

阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容(1个单词)或括号内单词的正确形式。

Morley Safer has worked in television news for 61 years. He's spent 46 of those years on his broadcast, longer than anyone else. As a (travel), he holds some sort of record, (take) planes, trains, boats, even bicycles to the ends of the Earth.

When he was 24, a door opened that would change his life. He was hired a television news writer at the CBC, Canada's premier broadcasting network. And soon enough, he was foreign correspondent(记者), the job he'd dreamed of. His passport filled up quickly. In late 1963, Morley caught the eye of the American network leaders, hired him to join the great CBS bureau in London. From his base in London, he covered shooting wars in Algeria and Cyprus.

By the time he was 35, he (cover) news in Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. It's fair (say) that nobody alive today has seen as much and reported on it as (brilliant) as Morley. Simply by example, he's made the rest of us better journalists. His writing (consider) the best in the business. His toughness and kindness and sense of humor are legendary.

In a business that's fast-moving and sometimes competitive, he survived and prospered, either outworking outliving everyone else, trying to get to the bottom of things.

 假定你是李华，请给你的外国朋友Jerry发一封邮件，介绍你校上周举办的拔河比赛(tug-of-war)。内容包括： 

1. 比赛目的及过程；

2. 你的感受。

注意： 

1. 词数80左右； 

2. 请在答题卡的相应位置作答。

 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。

John and Nancy were left with their grandmother Linda after their mom was hospitalized for illness. They were curious about when they could finally see their mom.

"The hospital won't allow her to leave until all of her medical bills are settled. I have given your mom all I could, but there's still a large amount that we need to pay off," Linda explained. John and Nancy missed their mom a lot and wanted her to come back home as soon as possible.

"What if we put up a lemonade stand (摊位) John?" Nancy asked her older brother.

"We can pick the lemons from the garden and make fresh juice out of them," she suggested. Her brother smiled, "That's a great idea, Nancy!" From then on, John and Nancy stayed outside the entire afternoon after school selling lemonade. A week went by, they only managed to earn ten dollars.

On Saturday morning, they sat on the side of the yard, looking worried. After a couple of seconds, their silent pondering (沉思) was interrupted by loud police sirens. "Hey, fellas!" one of the policemen greeted. "My colleague Jacob said that his neighbor had a lemonade stand in front of their yard." The two children nodded. "I'm sorry, officer. But I didn't think there would be anything wrong with that. Besides, we didn't earn a lot," John tried to explain.

"Don't worry. You're not in trouble. I bought a cup of it from you two the other day, remember? I asked why you were selling lemonade, and you told me it was to raise funds to get your mom out of the hospital," Jacob interrupted upon seeing John and Nancy looked nervous.

"I told my friends over here, and we decided we wanted to help. Come to the back of the police car, and we have something to show you," Jacob told the kids. They slowly made their way to the back of one of the police cars and saw a nicely-painted wooden lemonade stand. "That's beautiful!" Nancy said in surprise.

注意：

1.续写词数应为150左右；

2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。

"There's a big food festival downtown today, and we got you a stand." Jacob said. "Why not go there and give it a shot?"

There was a large crowd eager to buy lemonade.