浙江省强基联盟2023-2024学年高二上学期12月月考英语试题

Top Theme Parks and Amusement Parks in Australia

Magic Mountain Merimbula

Located in the town of Merimbula, this small theme park is situated on the Sapphire Coast. There are multiple attractions in this place including Kiddie Splash Pool, Magic Carpet Slide and the Diamond Pyth on Roller Coaster. You can buy souvenirs from the gift shops for friends and family back home.

Opening hours: Monday to Sunday 10 am to 4 pm

Price: $90 per person

The Big Banana Fun Park

The Big Banana Fun Park is located in the city of Coffs Harbour and it boasts a large walk-through banana. Guests can go roller skating at the ice-skating rink, enjoy water slides and play golf.

Opening hours: Monday to Sunday 9 am to 5 pm

Price: $25 per adult(age 13-99); $15 per child(age 1-12)

Wet Wild Gold Coast

Owned and operated by the Village Roadshow Theme Parks, this park features 17 water slides, 4 pools, and 2 children's areas. If you are traveling during the winter season, there is nothing to worry as the pools and slides are heated according to your convenience.

Opening hours: Monday to Sunday 10 am to 5 pm

Price: $24 per person

Big Splash Waterpark

Featuring nine slides, a 50-meter(164 feet) pool, and kiddie pools, this park is a perfect spot to chill when the sun is out. Being one of the oldest theme parks in Australia, it boasts the famous Jammo Pool.

Opening hours: Monday to Sunday 10 am to 6 pm

Price: $150 per adult(age 13-99); 40% discount per child(age 1-12)

Enjoy with your kids at one of the theme parks in Australia.

It was October 2005, and the catastrophic earthquake killing some 79,000 people in Pakistan had reduced the valley to mud and ruins.

Yasmeen Lari, a 65-year-old architect, was there to help lead the reconstruction of settlements, but she had never done disaster work before. Lari was known for designing smooth towers of glass and concrete. But here, she'd be drawing plans for earthquake-resistant homes using stone and timber debris(木材碎片). With each passing day, she felt deeply right to do disaster-relief work. So she made it her new mission, spending the next four months working with volunteer architects and engineers from Pakistan and abroad.

Inspired by local buildings made with sustainable materials such as timber debris, bamboo and mud, Lari's shelters can better withstand disasters. Lari says this local, cost-effective and zero-carbon approach is creating an ecosystem. Anyone can learn by watching DIY videos on Lari's Zero Carbon Channel on YouTube.

The design won a UN World Habitat Prize in 2018."We need to believe in people's capacity to bring about change. I treat displaced people as partners, not victims. They know what to do," says Lari.

Over the decades, Yasmeen Lari has won many awards as architect and environmentalist. While it may seem like an unlikely path for a girl who was born into a well-to-do family in1941, she had an unconventional upbringing. At home, her father would talk about the desperate need for housing. Listening to her father talk about the housing crisis and need for architects made an impression on Lari. On a family visit to London when she was 15, she applied to architecture school at Oxford Brookes University. She laughs as she recalls her bravery.

At age 83, Yasmeen Lari is still full of ideas about zero-carbon designs, skills building and self-sustaining villages. "Architects can no longer work for just the one percent," she says. "That doesn't allow them to serve humanity as much as they could."

The Guilford County Department of Public Health is hosting two rabies(狂犬病) clinics this month in honor of World Rabies Day on Sept.28. The rabies vaccination(接种疫苗) will cost $5 per shot and will protect your pet for one calendar year. Dogs mustn't get loose and cats must be kept in cages.

The State of North Carolina requires dogs and cats to be vaccinated. The health department recommends that other animals that have regular contact with humans, such as horses, should be vaccinated as well. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the rabies virus causes approximately 55,000 human deaths worldwide each year, with most of the deaths occurring in children under 15.

The rabies virus is transmitted through the bite of an infected animal. When an animal has rabies(or is rabid), the virus circulates throughout its body and is transmitted to other animals or humans through its saliva. The most commonly infected animals are raccoons(浣熊), bats, skunks, and foxes.

The best ways to keep your pet from becoming rabid are to keep it tied when in public, as unchained pet s are easily exposed to wild animals. Feed your pet indoors if possible. Wild animals will break into your basement, outbuildings, or garage to seek food, so be sure the storage location you select for your pet food is secure. Moreover, do not try to touch, feed, or rescue wild animals. Do not pick up dead animals as the virus could still be present.

This year in Guilford County, the majority of the animal rabies cases have involved raccoons, with foxes in a very close second place. Guilford County has recorded fifteen cases of animal rabies thus far this year.

Fathers can give their children an educational advantage at primary school by reading, drawing and playing with them, according to a newly published report. Research led by the University of Leeds has found that children do better at primary school if their fathers regularly spend time with them on interactive engagement activities like reading, playing, telling stories, drawing and singing.

Analysing primary school test scores for five- and seven-year-olds, the researchers used a representative sample of nearly 5,000 mother-father households in England from the Millenium Cohort Study.

According to the research, dads who regularly drew, played and read with their three-year-olds helped their children do better at school by age five. Dads being involved at age five also helped improve scores in seven-year-olds' Key Stage Assessments.

Dr Helen Norman, who led the research, said, "Mothers still tend to assume the primary care r role and therefore tend to do the most childcare, but if fathers enthusiastically engage in childcare too, it significantly increases the likelihood of children getting better grades in primary school. This is why encouraging and supporting fathers to share childcare with the mother, from an early stage in the child's life, is critical."

Dads' involvement impacted positively on their children's school achievement regardless of the child's gender(性别), race, age in the school year and household income, according to the report.

There were different effects when mums and dads took part in the same activities—the data showed that mums had more of an impact on young children's emotional and social behaviors than educational achievement.

The researchers recommend that dads carve out as much time as they can to engage in interactive activities with their children each week. For busy, working dads, even just ten minutes a day could potentially have educational benefits. They also recommend that schools and early years education providers routinely take both parents' contact details (where possible) and develop strategies to engage fathers.

Reading is often seen as an individual activity, but it definitely doesn't have to be. If you join a book club, reading with others can be a positive social interaction.  And here are some of the ways that becoming part of a book club can better your life.

 If so, a book club can help you discover and explore new types, authors, and perspectives(观点). According to a recent survey, 57 percent of book clubbers said they wouldn't otherwise have read some of the books selected by their book clubs.

In such a fast-paced world, sometimes it's challenging to find the time and motivation to read. By joining a book club, you make a commitment to read the book of the month or the week and discuss your insights with others. 

Reading is one of the most important things you can do for your brain, but reading with other people can make it even better.  Being part of a book club can improve your learning skills, such as your memory, comprehension, vocabulary, and critical thinking skills. By discussing the book with others, you are exercising your brain and stimulating new neural(神经的) connections. Book clubs allow you to connect with other readers and learn from their perspectives.

Another plus is that at a book club you get together with your club members regularly, with whom you can share not only your thoughts about books but also other aspects of life. Therefore, by reading with others, you are enriching your heart as well as your mind. So what are you waiting for? Join a book club now and enjoy the many benefits of reading with others!

A. This can help you meet your reading goals.

B. Joining a book club can offer you many benefits.

C. Book clubs can boost your happiness and well-being.

D. Do you often have difficulty finishing reading a book?

E. This brings a sense of community, belonging, and friendship.

F. Have you found yourself always reading similar types of books?

G. Meeting with others and exchanging ideas about things is the key.

Eight years ago, I determined to start my first job—training horses in different countries. Now here I am, my connection with horses have taught me a lot. Let me share two 1 with you.

We can manage 2  through cultural sharing connection. Horse riding is the only sport in the Olympics where men and women 3  equally. In India, as the only woman 4  in the riding club, I had to teach some uneducated males who had a 5  understanding of horsemanship. People believe horse riding is a man's sport. As a woman, I had to 6  my right. I often trained difficult to ride horses as well as 7  the entire riding club. I worked hard, eventually 8  over those men, who were eager to learn horsemanship training techniques.

The second lesson is that we are never too old to learn. Riding can be learned at any9  . My husband, Christian, had never ridden a horse before but had always 10  it. When moving to England, we invested in a young horse named Lilly, as a 11  project. At the age of 30, my husband started to learn horse riding, and now, the two can't be 12 .Lilly follows him everywhere. Christian finally realized his dream.

I never realized how many doors of 13  horses would open up for me. Because of horses, I14  the world, I help others, and I've watched them heal souls and 15  with people.

Tu Songgen recently took his audience's breath away at  historical folk celebration event in his hometown of Zhouquan in Tongxiang, East China's Zhejiang Province.

(dress) in a white folk costume, Tu made different moves on top of a bamboo pole more than 10 meters high in a boat on the river. He climbed to the top of the pole started to move his body around it. Seen from afar, Tu looked as if (move) through the clouds. At times, he released his  (hand), lying on his back over the top of the pole. Then, he gave the audience a start by suddenly hooking(钩住) his feet onto the end of it and hanging  (he) upside down.

With every new move, visitors cried out in amazement, creating an atmosphere of (excite) during the Silkworm(蚕) Flower Water Festival staged in the town's Qinghe Village in early April.

(wide) recognized for its waterborne acrobatics(杂技), the boat show is also closely related to local silkworm culture and is a highlight of the festival  has a history of more than 800 years.

"Acting on the bamboo pole (be) not only a show of skills but also a wish for a better life," Tu said.

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。

A Successful Cleanup Activity

Ashley ran home from school. Thanksgiving meant four days off. Driving from Ohio to Minnesota took one day, so she could spend two whole days with Emily. Ashley hadn't seen Emily for five months since Ashley moved to Ohio.

Over the phone, Ashley and Emily talked a lot. When Ashley got to Minnesota, Emily would show off her ballet steps. Ashley would draw a picture of dancing Emily. They'd be best friends forever like they'd promised. Only Ashley knew how to make Emily's favorite dessert, apple pie.

Ashley couldn't wait to get back to Minnesota with Mom.

On Thanksgiving morning, they got up before the sun and drove. Snow began to fall. Little flakes at first, then big. The freeway had no place to stop. The windshield wipers could hardly keep up. A snowplow(扫雪车) passed and Mom followed in its tracks. When the plow pulled off the road into a rest area, Mom pulled into the rest area, too. The driver lowered his window. "I have to head south next. Best you stay off the road a while."

"Thanks!" Mom said. She waved and parked the car, then turned to Ashley. "We'll stay here until the roads are clear."

"It's Thanksgiving. I brought Emily's favorite pie. She's counting on me." Ashley felt her eyes filled with tears.

Mom reached back to squeeze Ashley's hand. "I'm sorry, sweetie. We can eat pie tomorrow."

Ashley stared at the rest-stop building. A snow-covered truck and car were already parked. "Where will we stay?"

"The rest stop has a lobby and bathrooms. And heat. We can sleep on the floor." Mom pulled her coat on."Grab your car blanket and pillow. It'll be fun, like camping."

Ashley scrambled out of the car and followed close behind Mom. Mom pulled open the door and they walked inside. In the middle of the lobby, a man sat between two little boys on a football blanket. A girl sat with her parents on another blanket next to them.

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。

"Welcome. Come share our Thanksgiving dinner," said the father of the two young boys.

……

The next morning, Ashley and Mom would continue their journey to Minnesota with no apple pie left.