四川省宜宾市叙州区2023-2024学年高二上学期1月期末考试英语试题

Check out these places and have the vacation of a lifetime in Greece!

1. Lovely Ithaca

Located on the Ionian Sea, Ithaca is a combination of the greenest landscapes in Greece, the most wonderful swimming waters and a lively local atmosphere. When going around the narrow island, you will be attracted by the hilltop village Stavros and the beautiful fishing village Frikes. For motorists, Kaminia beach, hidden in a peaceful cove, is the perfect destination for a day of relaxation.

2. Breathtaking Meteora

Although when you go to Greece, you often go to the beaches and islands, one of the must-visit destinations in Greece is definitely the breathtakingly beautiful Meteora, located on the mainland next to the village of Kalabaka. It is a natural attraction and the second most important monastic area in Greece, which is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Meteora's landscape is made special by the rocks shaped like columns (柱状物) over time, on which the Monasteries (修道院) of the area were built around the 14th and 16th centuries.

3. Ios－the favorite destination of the future

Ios may be left out of many people's plans as it is known as a party island, but in fact the party season only lasts from about half of June to mid-August. In the off-season, the island is very quiet compared to popular destinations such as Santorini. Of course, Ios is an absolute destination for party-goers even in midsummer. Ios is dotted with a number of small churches. What makes Ios interesting is its setting for an ideal holiday without crowds and noise. Here is a guaranteed hit of the future, waiting to be discovered!

In the digital age, opportunities are arising for everyone. However, only those putting plans into action can stay ahead. Alexandr Wang is one such example.

Los Alamos National Laboratory was where Alexandr spent his childhood. Both his parents were physicists there. Alexandr, from a young age, had a sharp mind. As a kid, he was regarded as a math wizard (奇才) and competed in national math and computer competitions. Finishing high school, Alexandr entered MIT where machine learning and AI amazed him. He saw the potential (潜力) of AI, and was excited about how it could change the world. But it wasn't making a real impact. His ambition to set up a company in that field was seeded then.

At 17, he got the role of tech lead at Quora and dropped out of MIT. "I told my parents it was just going to be a thing I did for the summer. Obviously, it wasn't," Alexandr said. Surely, his parents were disappointed. They all knew he made that change filled with unexpected risks. But Alexandr said, "If you aren't willing to take a risk now, then when?" Alexandr met Lucy Guo at Quora, with whom Alexandr founded Scale AI, which turned out to be a considerable success.

In fact, at that time, there were various opportunities in the tech world. It was hard to decide which road they should go down. Then he and his team decided to take a different approach—instead of following diverse paths, they agreed to focus on one. They went with "imagery, computer vision and other kinds of sensor data". And that is what made the company's profits rise quickly. Scale AI has a net worth of about $7.3 billion at present, with Alexandr being the world's youngest self-made billionaire.

When asked lessons he'd like to share with founders, Alexandr stated there are a number of things. "The top one is always doing things that go with your values and how you want to build a company at the beginning. When you talk to investors (投资者) they'll contribute advice that may go against your goal. Figure out your focus and what gets you started."

21 Spoons is a restaurant aimed at bringing back the appeal of intimate (亲密的) dining. "This restaurant kind of fell into my lap," says chef and owner Ann Butler, "I own the cooking school next door to it, and this space was empty for quite some time, and it seemed to be saying, ‘Do you want me?'"

After working in Fairfax and Chesterfield public schools, Butler started her cooking school, Edible Education, 12 years ago, hoping to change the dietary habits of kids.

The occurrence of the pandemic halted Butler's cooking classes, as students were unable to attend in person. "We didn't have any kids taking classes," she says. "I didn't know how long it'd be before we saw students again, so I thought, we got to do something." So, Butler opened 21 Spoons in March of 2021, focused on small plates and shared bites from ratatouille flatbread to deep-fried deviled eggs.

"I took it over at a time when everyone was closing their restaurants in Richmond," Butler says. This allowed her to start her new business in a way that made people feel more at ease during such a stressful time. Butler says the service and size of the restaurant-24 seats are what make people feel more comfortable and what allow them to open during the pandemic. "We opened during a time when everyone was scared, so we wanted to build a space where you could come and rest, back to old-school, old-fashioned service."

Butler says the architectural plat (建筑区) for the space was unit 20. "I saw somewhere that a chef has 39 spoons," she says, "and it was unit 20, so I thought, ‘How about 21Spoons?' since we opened in 2021."

While Butler says there'll be no 22 Spoons, she describes 21 Spoons as a "creative gift", allowing her to combine passions and build something beautiful for the community.

Aerospace engineers are working on air vehicles-that will be used to drop packages on your doorsteps, transport people and goods over shorter distances and could even give people the ability to call air taxis-to fundamentally change how we see the sky.

What helps the engineers get ready for the change? Batteries keep getting smaller. Materials to build the air vehicles are lighter than ever, Software is more sophisticated. A modern cockpit(驾驶舱)from 20 years ago can't do half as much as the phone in your pocket. These modernizations have enabled a greater focus on electric technology in flying over the past 15 years. It's changed the way they fly.

Maybe soon you will be walking down the street to a vertiport, where you'll catch an air taxi. We're likely to see one with a pilot, carrying boxes from one place to another. Then it will start flying with passengers and become pilotless. As the new plane becomes more common, the result could be something as simple as cutting down travel time within urban and suburban areas, making it slightly easier to get to the airport or from the suburbs to downtown. But the planes could also help get rid of "transportation deserts," making it easier for a doctor to reach a patient in a rural area who has limited access to a hospital.

However, there are still a lot of outstanding questions. There are safety measures and requirements that need to be developed. There is pilot training and workforce development. There's the cost. There's figuring out who would use this type of transportation. There are still more advances in technology that need to happen if you want them to go farther than 150 miles and to be unmanned. But, according to Hackenberg of NASA, "About the future, it's not an if; it's a when."

Reading is an important part of learning English, but many students find it difficult. This collection of tips can be of great help to you.

Read for the main ideas

Read the text a first time to understand the main idea, and don't look up new words.

Use Context

Context refers to words and situations around a word you don't understand. Look at the example sentence：

I went to the shlumping to buy some chitla for dinner.

What's ‘schlumping'? - It must be a store because you bought something there.

What's ‘chitia'? -

Use Your Own Language

Ask yourself this question：Do I read every word in my own language when I am reading a schedule, or summary?

Reading in English is like reading in your native language. It is not always necessary to read and understand every word in English.

Understand Different Reading Skills

Here is a quick overview of the four types of reading skills used in every language： skimming, scanning, extensive reading and intensive reading.

 Run your eyes over the text, noting important information. Run your eyes over the text for the specific piece of information. Extensive reading is used to obtain a general understanding of a subject, including reading longer texts for pleasure. Intensive reading is used on shorter texts to get specific information, including close accurate reading for detail.

You can use these reading skills to improve other areas of English learning, such as pronunciation, grammar and increasing vocabulary.

A. The answer is most definitely：No!

B. You may not be so sure about the answer.

C. You can usually understand the general idea.

D. Skimming is used to quickly gather the main idea.

E. It must be food because you are going to eat it for dinner.

F. Scanning is used to find a particular piece of information.

G. Words you don't know may contain important information.

Compassion (同情) literally means "suffering together". Among many emotion researchers, it is 1 as the feeling that arises when you encounter a person's suffering and feel motivated to 2 his or her suffering.

Compassion is not the same as empathy (共鸣), though the two concepts are 3 . Empathy refers more generally to our ability to feel the 4  of another person, while compassion goes a step beyond and appears when those feelings and thoughts include the desire to 5 .

When we feel compassion, our heart rate slows down. Then a chemical is produced in our body and 6  regions of the brain linked to empathy and caregiving light up, which often results in our wanting to 7  other people and offer assistance. 

Compassion often comes in two forms, which vary 8  where these feelings are directed. Your experience of compassion may focus on other people, or it may inwardly focus on yourself. 

When we 9 compassion, we can start by 10 another person's situation. We look at what they are 11 without passing judgment on their behavior and put ourselves in their shoes. And then we'll find ourselves filled with compassion.

Compassion tends to have a 12  impact on our life, ranging from improving our relationships to boosting our psychological 13 . One study found that people who volunteer out of concern for others can be as 14  as the receivers. The finding suggests that compassion itself can be a 15  to the givers.

Over 800 performers from around the world including over 300 from China, brought back the(impress) scene of the Edinburgh Festival Carnival (嘉年华) . They presented music, dance, and circus performances along the Princes Street in the heart of Edinburgh, with tens of thousands of people (cheer) them on. Edinburgh, Scotland's capital, (fill) with music and color that day. The excellent performances(give) by the Chinese community in Edinburgh, such as dragon and lion dance and colorful ethnic(民族的)dance, drew (wave) of warm applause.

 carnival is an annual event organized by the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival, and marks the beginning of Edinburgh's summer festival season, in a series of festivals will last from mid-July till the end of August.

"The Chinese performances are absolutely wonderful in (they) . It's really exciting to see so many performers from China. It's something we want to build on for the future, "said the chair of the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival. "The Chinese presence in this multicultural event (help) create a diverse society. It's a good way to share that understanding and bring people togetherart and music. "

内容包括:1.两周之后才收到书。2. 包裹受损，货品缺失。3. 表达不满，寻求解决方法。

注意： 1. 词数 80 左右。 2. 可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。

Dear Sir/Madam,

……

Yours sincerely,

Li Hua

People think being a delivery person is easy, but it's more complex than anyone can imagine. Although Harry always did his best, he was not able to afford a car. He used his motorbike to deliver orders and usually it was convenient except for severe weather conditions.

One day, he was trying to get off the highway when he saw an old beggar trying to cross the road. He was weak and looked cold in his dirty jacket. The honks (鸣笛) of cars echoed as they passed him, and the man backed away with fear. If that kept going, someone would run over the man, so Harry stopped to help him cross.

Harry grabbed the man's arm to guide him and started leading him through it. Luckily, they reached the other side after a few minutes, and the old beggar smiled brightly at him. "Thank you so much, young man. I can't believe I finally crossed. Can you tell me your address? I want to send a thank-you gift." the older man said, reaching for Harry.

"Oh, that's not necessary." Harry said and straightened his motorbike to get back on it. "Please. I couldn't live with myself if I didn't repay this kind gesture," he insisted, and Harry nodded, telling him his address. Still, he didn't expect anything from this poor older man. "Thank you again!" the senior beggar waved as Harry rolled away to continue working.

Harry lived in a nice neighborhood but because the pandemic cost him his job, and now food delivery was his entire livelihood. Some days he had to work 18 hours to make ends meet. He was his children's only parent because his wife had abandoned them long ago, and Harry was determined to build a promising future for them, even if he didn't have a car to make those deliveries properly. He was saving for that.

注意：

However, he found a brand new car in his garage the following day.

……

The sincerity in the old man's face couldn't be denied.