广西南宁市第二中学2023-2024学年高一下学期开学考试英语试题

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A

FAMOUS CHINESE PAINTINGS, ARTISTIC TREASURES

With thousands of years of continuous history, China is one of the most culturally unique nations. Over many centuries, Chinese artists have created paintings that are now in the hearts of more than a billion people.

Nymph of the Luo River—Gu Kaizhi

The legend has it that Cao Zhi, a prince of the state of Cao Wei, fell in love with the governor's daughter. However, she married his brother, Cao Pi, and the prince became upset. Later, he composed an emotional poem about the love between the goddess and common people. In the 4th century, Gu Kaizhi, a Chinese artist, was moved by the story and illustrated the poem.

Court Ladies Adorning Their Hair with Flowers—Zhou Fang

During the Tang Dynasty, China had a prosperous economy and flourishing culture. In this period, the genre of "beautiful women painting" enjoyed popularity. Coming from a noble background, Zhou Fang, a Chinese artist, created artworks in this genre. In his painting, the ladies stand as though they are fashion models, but one of them is entertaining herself by teasing a cute dog.

Along the River During the Qingming Festival—Zhang Zeduan

Zhang Zeduan depicted the landscape in his work Along the River During the Qingming Festival. However, instead of concentrating on the vastness of nature, he captured the daily life of the people of Bianjing, present-day Kaifeng. His work shows much about life in the Northern Song Dynasty.

A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains—Wang Ximeng

Not only did officials and scholars enjoy listening to music, but they also found pleasure in depicting nature. One such painter was Wang Ximeng. He was a prodigy. Wang Ximeng painted A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains when he was only seventeen years old. He died several years later, but he left one of the largest and most beautiful paintings in Chinese history.

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B

I still remember that busy autumn evening as I hurried with my eldest daughter, Athena, to get to her classroom on time for the parent-teacher night. We walked in and all eyes were on me. A few adults quickly quieted their kids' whispers. A classmate yelled to my daughter, "What's wrong with your mom's face?" Shocked, I started to explain my condition, but my six-year-old daughter looked at him and said, "It's my mom's birthmark! Don't be rude!" I was extremely proud of how she handled that situation.

I was quite young when I realized I looked different because of my large facial birthmark. I always thought I would be alone because of it. Being compared to Batman's evil Two-Face made me believe I could never find love. But I was lucky enough to meet my husband, who saw me for who I am inside. When I had my first daughter, I was overjoyed, but I began to worry if the world would judge my children. I always worried I might pass my condition onto my children; I didn't want them to grow up feeling judged. Unfortunately, my facial difference has impacted my children. My daughters get disinvited from birthday parties or sleepovers, or I learn certain kids are no longer friends with mine after their parents saw me at school.

When my kids were young, I explained how my special purple skin was rare and we talked about acceptance and never judging others on how they look. When my girls kiss my purple-skinned cheek, I feel "normal" around them and their unconditional love. With time going by, both my daughters have become my strongest supporters. Thanks to them, I've begun to feel more self-confident as I try to be a good role model.

Their worldviews are similar to mine. We see the world a little differently and with a kinder, more accepting heart. As the saying goes, your daughters will grow up to be your best friends. I know that will be the case for me!

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C

A new outdoor fabric (织物) stores energy by day and then lights up at night. Being tested in a city park, this totally "cool" fabric has attracted interest for its many urban uses.

This is the invention of Anai Green, an industrial and product designer based in Tel Aviv, Israel. She designed a fabric that includes organic and solar photovoltaic cells (光伏电池). The cells capture sunlight and store the energy in strips with LEDs. This allows the fabric to shade public space by day. When night falls, these strips light up. Green said, "We use LumiWeave to light public space without carbon emissions, making the lighting all-natural. And we spread light in the area we want to light only."

The system was designed to adapt to all weather conditions and can continue to provide lighting even after three days without sunlight. In addition, you simply put LumiWeave up and the sun will do the work. This in itself saves 50 percent of the cost of building standard lighting, and it saves 100 percent on the electricity bills. This is great news for cities. Tel Aviv, Green's hometown, is trying out LumiWeave in AtidimPark.

The mayor of Tel Aviv, Ron Huldai, is making efforts to address climate change. "LumiWeave will turn out to be a groundbreaking project," Huldai said. The mayor added that LumiWeave is especially important as it solves the issue of shading urban areas and uses clean energy.

The new fabric can be fixed atop bike paths, in children's parks and in walking areas. Many big cities in Israel are planning on adopting LumiWeave. As there is also use for the fabric in outdoor sitting areas of restaurants and hotels, Green has developed a LumiWeave parasol (大遮阳伞). "We are now developing the possibility of controlling it from the phone — we're creating an application," Green said. LumiWeave provides an ideal solution for urban parks and gardens. We hope that it will soon be lighting up night skies around the world.

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D

In school, we learned the periodic table and were told to recite the alphabet, but nobody forced us to take a class on what emotions are and how they work before we entered the big world. And for many of us, that means understanding how we feel and why can be incredibly difficult.

Yet, research shows that being aware of your emotions is hugely beneficial and people with high emotional awareness have better social and emotional functioning. In layman's terms, that can translate as being able to predict your emotions and develop coping mechanisms in advance, becoming wise to unhealthy behavior patterns, and even being more in tune with the needs of others.

"Emotional awareness is being able to identify and make sense of not only our own emotions but those of others. It's absolutely essential in maintaining good mental health," explains Rachel Vora, psychotherapist and founder of CYP Wellbeing. "When we are able to identify and reflect on our emotional responses, we can understand how this influences our behaviors and in turn, change the way we respond to challenging situations."

Of course, pinpointing how we feel can often prove difficult. It's the very reason we turn to general phrases like "I feel blue" or "I'm not myself today". Vora says thisis often because on some level we don't want to know how we really feel. "We can often try to numb (使麻木), suppress or avoid emotions because they feel overwhelming or distressing and this can often lead to a lack of emotional awareness as we feel disconnected from ourselves," she explains.

Without emotional awareness, we can also develop emotional blind spots: unhealthy thoughts, behaviors and coping mechanisms that are hidden from our view. Perhaps you may feel self-doubt when you receive negative feedback. Unless you take time for introspection (反省), you'll remain unaware of these habits. Vora says tuning into your emotions and honestly reflecting on how you feel is key. "By identifying our emotional blind spots, we can feel more in control of our emotions, how to improve our mood and also how we respond in challenging situations."

阅读下面短文，从短文后的选项中选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。

If you've spent any time online in the first few weeks of 2023, you may have already picked up on the buzz surrounding ChatGPT. But what exactly is it?

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence chatbot from OpenAI. It enables users to "converse" with it in a way that's meant to copy natural conversation. The easy-to-understand, easy-to-use, and free tool has already gained popularity as both an alternative to traditional search engines and as a tool for Al writing, among other things.

What does GPT stand for?

 While older AI chatbots could answer questions with detailed responses, ChatGPT uses a dialog format, which allows it to answer follow-up and clarifying questions, as well as recognize and reject inappropriate or dangerous requests (such as questions about illegal activity).

How to use ChatGPT to increase your work?

 Knowing how to effectively communicate with ChatGPT, or any generative AI model, is called prompt engineering. You can either include ChatGPT in your day-to-day work to conduct a research or to help you get started on a writing project while staring at a blank page.

ChatGPT uses natural language processing (NLP), an AI technology that deals with understanding, analyzing, and generating human-like language. It analyzes sample texts from the internet and conversations provided by real humans, and then ranks outputs based on the quality of the response. Providing occasional feedback from humans is a technique that can help fine-tune the output by improving both safety and reliability.

A. As a user, you can ask questions or make requests, and ChatGPT will respond.

B. ChatGPT has become a powerful tool to save time and energy.

C. In this article, you can find all you need to know about ChatGPT.

D. ChatGPT represents the future of all chatbots without doubt.

E. The "GPT" in ChatGPT is short for generative pre-trained transformer.

F. How does ChatGPT work?

G. The technique to apply when using ChatGPT.

/span>.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。

Jen is a 39-year old community dancer with Down's Syndrome(唐氏综合征). She is the founder of Dance Syndrome, a nonprofit organization that brings together 1 dancers and make them feel equal to everyone.

Dancing has always been in her veins. As a young girl, Jen seized every opportunity to dance with full  2  both in the morning and during her 10 minutes of  3   before bedtime. The dynamic workout would keep her 4  all day long.

Life hasn't been straightforward for Jen. She was 5 by a number of dance clubs in primary school and encountered numerous 6 while pursuing her passion for dance. Despite these challenges, her ambition to share her love for dance and 7 disabled individuals in the art grew stronger.

After leaving school at 18, Jen spent over 10 years searching 8   for opportunities to be trained as a dance leader. Eventually, she had to give up and decided to try her own way, not knowing where it might lead!

Despite the 9  , Dance Syndrome was established in 2009. Jen and her fellow disabled dance leaders took  10   of the charitable organization, working alongside non-disabled dance artists who helped them work more professionally.

Over the decade, Dance Syndrome has 11 thousands of disabled dancers, cultivating an environment where every person is recognized as equal, 12 and accepted for who they are. The year 2019 witnessed Jen 13 for the third time as a member of Shaw T rust's Disability Power 100. She is a living proof that 14 can come from unexpected places and that disabled individuals can 15 society in extraordinary ways.

 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Whenever you have to write a paper, a letter, or any other document for work or school, you probably head toward the computer. Now, most people reach for  (keyboard) faster than they pick up pens. In a Scottish primary school, however, Mr. Norman Lewis is taking a different approach. He feels that neat handwriting  (be) still an important skill, so he has his students write not only by hand but also  old fashioned fountain pens. 

Fountain pens  (use) in schools long ago and have been regaining popularity lately because they are refillable. Today, a writer  (simple) throws an empty pen away and gets  new one. 

So far, Mr. Lewis is pleased with the results of his experiment. He reports that his students are taking more care with their work, and their self-confidence has improved as well. He is happy with the (improve) he sees in his students' writing in his own writing. He knows that computers are here (stay) and that they will not disappear. However, he believes that the practice with fountain pens helps students to focus, to write faster, and they can feel proud of (they).

假定你是李华，你校英文报"人与动物"栏目刊登主题为"保护野生动物"的短文，邀你投稿。请你以此为题，谈谈野生动物出现生存危机的原因、影响及解决方法。

注意：

1.词数100左右；

2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。

Protecting Wild Animals

 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。

Thomas watched the irrigation canal (灌溉渠) for a sign of water. It looked as dry as he felt inside. Thomas's thoughts were interrupted as his younger sister, Maggie, came skipping across the field.

"What are you giving Mama for her birthday?" she asked.

Thomas felt his stomach turn. He had forgotten that Mama's birthday, the first since they left their hometown, was tomorrow. "It's a surprise, Maggie," he answered. It was the truth.

Even he would be surprised.

Thomas would wish to be back in the mountains of their hometown. Surely Mama would want the same. At least it rained there. Each time it did, Mama, Thomas, and Maggie would sit on the front porch and watch for a rainbow. Then each of them picked out a favorite color in the rainbow. Mama always gave the same answer. "Turquoise (蓝绿色，绿松石)," she would finally say with a dreamy smile, pointing at the sky. "Squeezed in tight, between the blue and green. Close your eyes and you can see it. If you could touch it, it would feel cool, like a breeze blowing across the stream."

Thomas was discouraged. The sun would be setting soon, and he still had nothing to give his mother. What he saw around were rocks and sand. He picked up a large, flat rock, scooped up the dirt and watched it fall to the ground. Suddenly, something caught his eye. A speck of color peeked through the dirt.

"Hey, what's this?" he asked.

"Let's find out," Maggie yelled. Thomas and Maggie dug with their fingers and uncovered a small, round stone. In the center, there was a tiny hole.

"That's just a turquoise bead (珠子)," Thomas exclaimed. "My friend Jack's sister has a jar full of them."

"Let's see if there are more," Maggie got excited.

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。

"I have an idea," Thomas said cheerfully. 

Early the next morning, Thomas and Maggie set a small package on the table.