辽宁省大连市2023-2024学年高一上学期期末考试英语试题

Escape to a New Life— Everyone's Dream?

A TV series in Wales has become a heated issue by becoming the number one choice for teenagers to watch. 

The main character is a young farmer and the series is about country life, making the popularity of the series all the more surprising. The series is calm and relaxing and really the opposite to city life. Escape to a New Life describes the Welsh countryside as a beautiful and peaceful place and its people as very caring and happy. 

The series director believes that this is what young people want today. She says the success of the series is because teenagers want a happier and healthier life away from the pressures of deadlines and exams. She figures this series offers a form of escape from their fast and stressful lives. 

Despite this, many parents and teachers are worried about the effect this is having on young people. Parents report that their children are just watching this series and neglecting everything else, using Escape to a New Life as an excuse for not completing homework, or refusing to revise for exams, citing a need for a happier and less stressful life. 

One father, Paul McGregor, said his daughter Charlotte had changed a lot. He said, "She used to be in the school athletics team and loved the javelin, but now she only wants to watch the TV series and has been dropped from the team. She no longer completes her homework saying it doesn't matter as she just wants to ‘escape to a new life'.

Paediatrician, Dr. Elisa Carhart who specialises in child mental health, says that TV can influence young people's decisions in life, but believes that if a young person reacts as strongly as Charlotte, it's likely there are other reasons for the change in her behaviour.

When you think of a new place for growing food, you might think of Mars. But one Italian family believes one possible place is right here on the Earth: the ocean. 

Nemo's Garden is the world's first underwater system of land plants. Located off the coast of Noli, Italy, it consists of several greenhouses called biospheres, each of which is attached to the seafloor. "The aim of it is to change agriculture, and add a possibility for growing produce in the ocean," says co-founder Luca Gamberini.

His father Sergio Gamberini came up with the idea by combining his two passions — diving and gardening. In 2012, the project began with planting basil (罗勒) underwater. Now Nemo's Garden is growing strong.

"Our limited number of resources can not promise sustainable (可持续的) development," Luca says, "and we believe that underwater gives us some advantages over traditional agriculture."

Floating six to ten meters underwater, plants in Nemo's Garden are separated from any outside pathogens (病原体). Also, the temperature of the ocean water is an ideal environment for plant life. Besides, Nemo's Garden uses a technique that uses water-based nutrients (养分) instead of soil. "Also, there is little interaction with the underwater environment and related ecosystems, which means no harm is caused to sea creatures," adds Luca.

Everything is monitored on land through cameras and sensors, and settings can be adjusted. When it's time to harvest, a diver will cut the vegetation, place it in bags and float them to the surface.

The team at Nemo's Garden has plans for even bigger biospheres in the future, as well as other locations. Luca believes the future of Nemo's Garden will be mostly along the coastlines where communities could benefit from the added space it offers.

"Practice makes perfect" is a very popular expression. However, can we take this saying literally?

One popular theory (理论) is that if a person practises for at least 10, 000 hours, they will reach "perfection"—or, in other words, become an expert in their field. This theory was made famous by Malcolm Gladwell in his 2008 best-selling book, Outliers: The Story of Success. He gave the examples of the music group The Beatles and Microsoft co-creator Bill Gates, who clearly put in over 10, 000 hours of practice before they became successful.

However, Gladwell's book has been said by many to be too simplistic and generalising. Although Gladwell's work was largely based on research done by Anders Ericsson, Ericsson argued that 10, 000 hours was just an average figure. Some people, for example, needed far fewer than 10, 000 hours, and others many more. More importantly, Ericsson said that just practising a lot was not enough; the type and quality of practice were also significant. He went on to explain the importance of "deliberate practice", which is when a person practises a specific part of a skill in depth rather than practising a skill as a whole. Deliberate practice is said to be much more effective, though more tiring.

Many other studies argue that practice alone is far from enough. In fact, a more recent study from Princeton University stated that practice only accounted for up to 26% of reaching an expert level. Many other factors contribute to people becoming experts. Natural talent is an important factor, which is especially evident in sports. For instance, many baseball players in America have amazing vision that allows them to see the ball much sooner than others do. Besides, IQ, personality, attitude, and starting age are decisive factors, too. It is also important to note that becoming an expert doesn't equal instant success. Success also relies on social factors, environmental factors, and even just being in the right place at the right time!

In conclusion, practice may not make perfect, but deliberate practice has been shown to lead to significant improvement. 

As we walk the "path of life", we may sometimes wish to be alone with our own thoughts, for quiet periods of reflection can lead to personal improvement. However, social life is also important to us. More often than not, close friendships will help smooth out the sometimes rocky road that we are all meant to travel.

The first is the peace that comes from sharing with friends our joy, sadness, success and failure. Here, friendship has a double advantage.And a trouble shared becomes a trouble halved! With true friends, we feel free to share our joy and sadness in full measure. Indeed, the human heart depends on such opportunities for comfort and protection.

We often find it easier to recognize other people's weaknesses than our own. As a result, if we are guided only by our own feelings, our judgments might be one-sided. On the other hand, our friends are better able to offer advice on important decisions. Also, when we want to talk our problems over with a friend, we have to put our thoughts into words first. This alone helps make our thoughts clearer and brings us a more thorough understanding of our problems.

The last is the help that a friend may offer in many different ways. There are so many things in life that can only be achieved with the help of friends. Friends may have many different ideas and skills.

By the way, it should be pointed out that enjoying the company of a crowd is not the same as being with friends. The relationships should be carefully developed. In this way, we can better walk the "path of life" with the comfort, advice and help from our trusted friends.

A. Friends should be carefully chosen. 

B. Then comes the recognition from our friends. 

C. Happiness shared takes on a greater meaning.

D. Therefore, we can be much happier and wiser. 

E. They can help us achieve what we want in our life. 

F. The next is the better judgement and understanding. 

G. Generally speaking, close friendships have three "fruits".

I started collecting shopping lists around 1997. One day, I was shopping for my daughter's birthday party in St Louis, Missouri, where we lived. After leaving the store, I1 a yellow note in the parking lot. I picked it up and it was somebody's shopping list. I thought, "That's interesting. Well, whenever I see one, I will 2 it."

People collect all sorts of things you would never 3 . It's as if all these 4 , unimportant things, when put together as a collection, suddenly become meaningful. The first list I found was nothing special. But after you see a lot of them, the odd ones5 . One says at the bottom: "NO MORE CHIPS, JESSICA." Another one I found is a long 6 of stuff and then, in the margin (空白处), someone had written: "If you dare to7 any more rice, I'll hit you."

The shopping list8 started slowly. At first it was just me and people I knew who would9  lists for me. Then at the beginning of the 2000s, I put it online and I started receiving lists from everywhere in the world. It seemed there was a(an)10 supply (供应). 

In 2012, I was11  by a publisher who wanted to turn my collection into a book. Then I started going through all my lists,12  ways to sort and explain them. The project is continuing, but it grows more 13  now. Technology has made shopping lists more14 , because most people use apps, like I do. I guess there might not be another15 . 

Every year the Weifang International Kite Festival (amaze) visitors with colorful kites. The origin of kites in China can be traced back to the Warring States Period the great Chinese philosopher Mozi in the State of Lu made the first "wooden kite". In 1984, the first Weifang International Kite Festival was held.

Kites  (use) in China for military purposes at the very beginning. They were made to signal and measure distance, (provide) intelligence to aid moving large armies across difficult terrain (地形). Over time, kites became connected with leisure activitieswere often flown during festivals and  (holiday). 

The Weifang Kite Festival is not only the best platform (share) kite-making skills, but also good way to improve friendship between people from different countries. The kites presented in 2023 brought various surprises to kite lovers all over the world, and brought the people of China and other countries much (close). As one netizen put it, "No matter how far away kite lovers go, there is always a ‘thread' in their heart that can pull (they) together."

包括：1.美食简介；2.推荐理由。

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。

Paul and I were on our school basketball team, The Lions. We loved basketball and were both huge fans of the NBA. When we weren't playing on the court, we were watching a game on TV. My favourite player was LeBron James. Paul's favourite player was Tyrone Bogues, a guy who played for the Charlotte Hornets, although we actually agree that they are both champions.

Bogues was only 1.6 metres tall, which made him the shortest player ever in the NBA. Guess what? Paul was only 1.6 metres tall, too! Paul knew that being shorter than other players meant that he had to practise more. During all those hours of doing jump shots on his own, he used Bogues as his inspiration. Paul once said, "If Bogues could make it, why not me?" Our coach was not so sure. Paul had to try out many times just for making the team. He was still usually on the bench, being just a replacement, which was really tough on him. I knew Paul had real skills, and was someone who worked really hard and had a strong desire to play for the team. However, Paul didn't get a chance.

Then came the big day. We were playing our main competitors, The Bears, a team whose record of this season had been perfect. They hadn't lost a single game. Despite our best efforts, we were still 10 points behind The Bears. Without much time left, the last quarter began. Unfortunately, our team members got injured one after another.

All hope fell on me. Unfortunately, a player and I crashed into each other. With pain racing through my body, my knee hurt badly. The team gathered around, looking worried. The doctor put an ice pack on my knee, but it was still painful. Obviously, I could not play any more. The coach gave a deep sigh and murmured in a low voice, "We have no more players".

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。