浙江省宁波市鄞州中学2023-2024学年高一上学期12月考试英语试题

 阅读理解

It's the most wonderful time of the year! The winter holidays are the perfect chance to get comfortable with a good book, and luckily we have some best sellers right now. We're sure you'll find what you're looking for. 

Sunday Funday by Katherine Hallgan

Hardback, $20 (10 percent off with membership)

A great book full of seasonal activities that families and friends can enjoy together. From gardening projects to creative hand-made things and warming winter recipes (食谱), there's something for everyone, whatever the weather. 

The History of the World in 100 Animals by Simon Barnes

Hardback, $16.99

This beautifully pictured book explores the good relationship between humans and animals, from bees to chimpanzees (黑猩猩) who share more than 90% of our DNA. If you are crazy about animals, this is the book for you. 

Accidentally Famous by David Baddiel

Paperback, $12.99

Nothing amazing ever happens to Billy Smith but when TV workers visit his school he becomes popular, but as everyone knows, being famous comes with a price. David Baddiel's laugh-out-loud book asks what life would be like if everyone suddenly knew your name. 

Eddie Albert and the Animal Gang by Paul O'Grady

Paperback, $15

This action-filled adventure from TV favourite Paul O'Grady follows a young boy with a very special gift—he can talk to animals! On a trip to Amsterdam, Eddie meets a monkey in danger and rescues the young creature with the help of his animal friends.

 阅读理解

Fifteen years ago, I took a summer vacation in Lecce in southern Italy. After climbing up a hill for a panoramic (全景的) view of the blue sea, white buildings and green olive trees, I paused to catch my breath and then positioned myself to take the best photo of this panorama.

Unfortunately, just as I took out my camera, a woman approached from behind, and planted herself right in front of my view. Like me, this woman was here to stop, sigh and appreciate the view.

Patient as I was, after about 15 minutes, my camera scanning the sun and reviewing the shot I would eventually take, I grew frustrated. Was it too much to ask her to move so I could take just one picture of the landscape? Sure, I could have asked her, but something prevented me from doing so. She seemed so content in her observation. I didn't want to mess with that.

Another 15 minutes passed and I grew bored. The woman was still there. I decided to take the photo anyway. And now when I look at it, I think her presence in the photo is what makes the image interesting. The landscape, beautiful on its own, somehow comes to life and breathes because this woman is engaging with it.

This photo, with the unique beauty that unfolded before me and that woman who "ruined" it, now hangs on a wall in my bedroom. What would she think if she knew that her figure is captured (捕捉) and frozen on some stranger's bedroom wall? A bedroom, after all, is a very private space, in which some woman I don't even know has been immortalized (使……永存). In some ways, she lives in my house.

Perhaps we all live in each other's spaces. Perhaps this is what photos are for: to remind us that we all appreciate beauty, that we all share a common desire for pleasure, for connection, for something that is greater than us.

That photo is a reminder, a captured moment, an unspoken conversation between two women, separated only by a thin square of glass.

 阅读理解

Recent research discovered that a low-cost computer training program can help older persons drive less dangerously. 

"We developed a training program, called Drive Aware, which could be used by anyone who has a computer," says Jing Feng, co-author of the study and a professor of psychology at NC State. "Drive Aware is a cognitive (认知的) training program for older persons that helps them notice traffic risks more effectively. The purpose of our recent study was to see how much Drive Aware changes trainees' driving behaviors once they get behind the wheel."

The researchers found 27 persons aged 65 and up to test Drive Aware. In a driving simulator (模拟器), all of the study participants (参与者) experienced a basic driving exam. The "active training" group was made up of nine of the study participants. Every two weeks, the active training group had two Drive Aware trainings. A group of nine additional study participants was asked to take "passive training". This group watched videos of others receiving the Drive Aware instruction. This happened twice, with each lasting about a week. The control group, which was made up of the remaining nine study participants, received no training. After that, all 27 study participants performed a second driving exam in the simulator.

The study participants in the active training group experienced 25% fewer "unsafe incidents (事件)" following the training, according to the researchers. There was no obvious change in the number of dangerous incidents among study participants in the passive training and control groups.

"This testing was done with a fairly limited number of study participants," Feng says. "If we can succeed in getting the fund, we'd like to further our testing with more people to clearly prove how effective this training is at reducing accidents among older drivers."

 阅读理解

"Who loves pizza?" is a question you almost never have to an American. A better question might be "Who doesn't love pizza?" Now, there's a place for all pizza lovers to gather: the Museum of Pizza. It can be found in America's pizza capital—New York City.

A company called Nameless Network came up with the idea for the museum, known as "MoPi" for short. "It's often that the simplest ideas are the best. The company used the popularity of pizza as a way to get people "looking at art and hearing about history in a different way," said Alexandra Serio, who is with Nameless Network. Many kinds of artists were asked to create art works about pizza. They, in turn, provided large photographs, sculptures and huge installations. So far, the museum has had lots of visitors. More than 6,000 people came through the door when it opened this month.

Visitors seem to love MoPi's bright colors, which makes it perfect for taking selfies and other photographs for social media.

Nene Raye, from New Jersey, was a recent visitor. Raye didn't expect to see what she saw—and she was happy about that. "Honestly, I thought it would be, like, more of a traditional museum," She said. But instead, Raye got some of everything. "So You get a little bit of education and then some fun, which I love," she said.

Lydia Melendez made plans to visit the pizza museum in April. For her, the experience was worth the wait. "I thought it was going to be kind of boring," she said. She had imagined walking in and finding books on how to make pizza. But she was very pleased when her actual experience was different than what she had imagined.

While pizza may be what has captured the interest of crowds, the point of the Museum has been to help people exposed to fine arts world.

 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。

As a speaker of 10 languages I know the benefits of speaking more than one language. Actually, it is not a big challenge to learn languages. We only have to change the way we learn them.  

Language learning is hard.

It is only difficult to learn a language if you don't want to. What you mostly need to do is spend some time listening and reading. Believe me, it is that simple. I have done it many times. Soon you feel the satisfaction of understanding another language. Before you know it you start speaking.

No, you don't. Anyone who wants to, can learn. In Sweden and Holland most people speak more than one language. They can't just all be gifted at languages. Foreign athletes in North America usually learn to speak English faster than people in more formal learning environments. In language learning it is attitude that determines success.

You have to live where the language is spoken.

Some immigrants (移民) to North America never learn to speak more than broken English. Yet we meet people in other countries who speak perfect English. In 1968, I learned to speak Mandarin fluently while living in Hong Kong, where few people spoke it.You can download it to your iPod and listen. Where you live is not a problem. 

I would love to learn but I don't have the time.

How about the time you spend waiting in line, doing things around the house, going for a walk?Once you get started, even 10 or 15 minutes a day will soon grow to 30 minutes a day, or one hour. If you believe you will achieve great results, and if you enjoy doing it, as I do, you will find the time. 

I believe if you can avoid these traps, we will surely become masters of language learning.

A. The following are some tips for you to follow.

B. You have to have a gift for learning languages.

C. Learning a language takes time, but is not difficult

D. We need to avoid some common misunderstandings

E. Languages can only be learned instead of being taught.

F. Why not use that time to listen to a language on your iPod?

G. With the Internet, language content is available to anyone with a computer.

 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。

McCoy was looking for a safe place to do drugs. He had been there for just a minute or so when something clearly out of 1 caught his eye: a luxurious brown leather handbag. When he picked it up, he found that it had been 2 of everything but an electric bill. Remembering how angered he'd been by his own 3 , he determined to return it to its owner.

He decided to start with the 4  on the electric bill. It was on the other side of the city. On the way, a couple of people asked to buy the handbag, but he 5 . After traveling much of the day and approaching the address, he luckily6  the owner, Kaitlyn Smith, on the street. 

McCoy wasn't in good shape then looking exhausted and sick. At Smith's 7 , McCoy told her his story. He'd been in 8 of a landscaping business until 2018, when a car accident left him 9 to drugs. Smith,10 at what this stranger had done, asked whether there was anything she could do to help. "I'm a drug addict," McCoy 11 . "I don't want to disturb your life; I'm probably gonna let you down." Smith gave him her phone number,12 .

Two days later, she got a call. Realizing that McCoy was 13 about making a fresh start, she bought him a plane ticket to Florida. After 28 days in the rehab(戒毒)program, McCoy is drug-free. His life is back on 14 now, all because one crime victim(受害者)could feel 15 for another's loss.

 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。

Do you like travelling abroad? Almost everyone says yes. And  (stay) healthy and safe while travelling can help to ensure that your trip is a happy and  (enjoy) one. If you are travelling abroad, here are some tips you need  (make) your trip much easier.

First of all, make sure you have applied  a visa. Also, before you go, fill in the emergency information page of your passport! Make two copies of your passport identification page. This will be  (extreme) helpful if your passport  (steal). Leave one copy at home with friends or relatives. Carry the other with you in  separate place from your passport. Get  (you) familiar with local laws and customs of the countries to  you are travelling. Do not accept packages from strangers. Do not carry too much money. If you make enough  (prepare), you will certainly have a good time!

 假如你是学生会主席李华。你校学生会将于12月24号下午4点在学校报告厅举办英语短剧大赛。请您根据以下信息，用英语写一篇书面通知。要点如下：1. 活动目的；   2. 参赛要求；  3. 报名时间地点。

注意：1. 写作词数应为80左右；2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。

Notice

 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。

My father was the kind of person who could never pass by someone who needed help. He was a firm believer in the mantra (箴言)： What goes around comes around. He believed that someday he might need help, and someone would return the favor. But I didn't quite buy it.

One weekend, my father and I took a trip to Flaming Gorge Reservoir (水库). We loved to fish at Flaming Gorge. We owned a cabin boat that was about fifteen feet in length. We put our boat in at Sheep Creek Marina (游艇停泊港). Our goal was to go as far north as possible, spend the weekend in our boat, and fish until we had our limit.

Heading toward the Wyoming side of the reservoir, we traveled some distance before we began to fish. Frankly, the fishing wasn't very good, but we loved being out on the boat together in such a beautiful place.

Suddenly, we saw a man on the far shore waving at us. Immediately, my father fired up the motor and went toward the other side of the reservoir, where the man was still waving at us. When we arrived, I was amazed to see a beautiful big yacht (游艇) pulled onto the shore.

The man introduced himself as Mat and then thanked us warmly for coming to his assistance. His battery was dead, and he wondered if we could help him. We did, and soon his big motor roared back to life. Mat and his family were very grateful. We lost an hour of fishing. Being an impatient teenager, I was a bit annoyed at the one-hour loss, but we were soon back out on the reservoir.

The next day the fishing didn't improve. As a matter of fact, it was terrible, so we decided to call it quits and go back to the marina. We were about two miles from the marina when we found ourselves fighting a strong headwind that slowed our progress. The waves were kicking up, and suddenly our engine decided to quit.

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。

We tried to get it running, but it simply wouldn't start.

……

On our way home, I saw an old lady waving at our car by the roadside.