河南省五校2023-2024学年高二上学期2月期末英语试题（音频暂未更新）

Fun Fall Weekend Getaways.

Gulf Shores, Alabama: 

Alabama's Gulf Shores is attractive year-round, but the fall months bring fewer crowds and more affordable prices on hotels. Head to Gulf Shores for warm ocean waters and lovely white sand beaches that you may have all to yourself. There's also plenty to do at this beach destination outside of playing in the sand and surfing. For example, you can visit a downtown music bar.

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Albuquerque's amazing landscapes provide an enjoyment for visitors year-round. However, visiting in fall allows you to enjoy the famous Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, which takes place in October. Book a trip in early October to see hundreds of brightly colored balloons dot the sky—you can even take a balloon ride yourself. Because this hot air ball oon festival is such a popular event, you'll want to secure accommodations well in advance.

Laconia, New Hampshire

You may not have heard of Laconia before. This small New Hampshire city is mostly known for its incredible fall festivals. Perhaps you've heard the famous New Hampshire Pumpkin Festival, which takes place here in late October. Plan a weekend getaway to check out the amazing display of jack-o'-lanterns, live music, the Children's Costume Parade, a cornhole tournament and more.

Shenandoah National Park, Virginia

Located around 75 miles southwest of the nation's capital is Shenandoah National Park, a great place for leaf peeping（赏叶）and exploring the outdoors in autumn. This national park has more than 200,000 acres of forest, waterfalls, flower fields and plenty of wildlife. For example, you can spot black bears, deer and birds throughout the national park.

On Sunday night, the police found a baby koala in a bag in the town of Wishart in Queensland, Australia, during a traffic stop. Queensland police spokesperson Michael Beatty said that the officers asked a 50-year-old driver if she had anything to report. She then told the officers that she had a baby koala in her bag.

"Not quite believing their ears, the officers cautiously opened the bag and found this lovely boy and we've called him Alfred," the spokesperson said. "The young koala is about 6 months old and weighs 1.5 kg. It appears to be healthy, though it was very thirsty."

The police are warning people who find koalas to turn them over to authorities, rather than try to take care of them themselves. Koalas are protected in parts of Australia, including in Queensland, where they have been listed as "threatened" under the Nature Conservation Act.

Of course, koalas are also violent animals. One particularly wild koala even attacked a farmer in South Australia when she was riding along a muddy road.

"As it started running towards me, I thought I'd better speed up," the terrified farmer told reporters. "But the road was too muddy, So I abandoned my bike and ran away. Fortunately, it ran up and attached itself to the dirty wheel—perhaps mistaking it for a eucalyptus tree."

Deakin University biologist Desley. Whisson has some tips in case you experience this    predicament. "Koalas more generally run from than to people. The farmer did the right thing by moving away from her bike," she said. "The best advice I can give to people is to not fight with a koala displaying unusual behaviour. Make sure that there is another object between you and the koala so that it can't climb you. Or you can just simply run. Their fingers are very sharp."

She also believed the koala might have been confusing the sound of the bike with that of a koala mate.

A recent study published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society suggests that Leonardo da Vinci was more experimental with his well-known "Mona Lisa" than previously thought—and was likely the creator of a technique seen in works used a century later.

A team of scientists in France and Britain has detected a rare mineral compound（矿物化合物）, plumbonacrite, within the piece. Plumbonacrite forms when lead oxides（铅氧化物）combine with oil. Mixing these two substances is the technique that later artists like Rembrandt used to help the paint dry, according to the study.

Detecting the rare compound in the "Mona Lisa" suggested that Leonardo could have been the original user of this approach, said Gilles Wallez, an author of the study. "Everything that comes from Leonardo is very interesting, because he had lots of ideas, and he was an experimenter, attempting to improve the knowledge of his time," Wallez said. "Each time you discovered something in his processes, you discovered that he was clearly ahead of his time."

The "Mona Lisa", like many other paintings from the 16th century, was created on a piece of wood that required a thick base layer. The researchers believed that Leonardo had made his mixture of lead oxide powder with linseed oil to produce the thick coat of paint needed for the first layer, while unknowingly creating the rare compound.

Nowadays, researchers aren't allowed to take samples from the masterpiece, which resides at the Louvre in Paris and is protected behind glass. Using a microsample that had been taken from an area of the artwork just behind the frame, however, scientists were able to analyze the paint by using a high-tech machine. "These samples have a very high cultural value," Wallez said. "You can't afford to take big samples on a painting."

A tiny crack grew in a very small piece of metal when placed under repetitive stretching. The experiment, designed to study crack growth, continued as predicted for a while. But then, something unexpected happened. The crack stopped growing and instead began to get shorter, effectively "healing（愈合）"itself. This incredible observation was made by a group of researchers at Sandia National Laboratories. The findings were recently published in the journal Nature.

It would be reasonable to think, prior to this discovery, that self-healing metal was something that could only be found in science fiction. However, Dr. Michael Demkowicz, a professor in Texas A&M University's materials science and engineering department and co-author of the recent study, held no such assumptions.

Ten years ago, while an assistant professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's materials science and engineering department, Demkowicz and his student predicted self-healing in metals. "We didn't set out to find healing. My student, Guoxiang Xu, was doing experiments on fracture（断裂）," Demkowicz said. "We accidentally observed healing in one of his experiments and decided to follow up." Then, just like now, the results in 2013 were surprising.

Both the 2013 models and the recent experiment used nanocrystalline（纳米晶体）metals, which make studying self-healing easier because their small grain size allows for more microstructural features that even small cracks can interact with. Demkowicz said that these features are common in many metals. One condition common to both the 2013 theory and the recent experiment is that both were conducted in vacuum environments without foreign matter. Such outside matter could influence crack surfaces' ability to bond back together.

Even with this limitation, applications could still be possible for space faring technology or internal cracks that are not exposed to outside air. "The main impact of the current work is to move the original theoretical prediction off the drawing board and show that it occurs in reality," Demkowic z said. Potential applications of this work could vary widely. Demkowicz suggests that self-healing could be possible in conventional metals with larger grain sizes, but future investigations will be needed.

How to Read a Poem

You've selected the poem you want to read—congratulations! Now it's time for the business of reading it.

Examine the title and the shape

—how does it make you feel? How does the title fit the shape of the poem? If the title is sad, let the shape of the poem inform the small difference of the emotion—if it's short and sparse（稀疏的）, maybe it's coming from a place of desolation or desperation. .

Read the poem as you normally read anything

Reading poetry doesn't require a clever approach; you can read as you'd read anything else. On the first pass through, absorb whatever it is that arises upon first impression. —maybe your stomach churns（恶心）at a particular phrase, or you hold your breath at a certain line. Explore the feelings that come up as you read.

Next, try reading the poem out loud or search for readings of the poem online. This is where the music of a poem emerges, and you can feel the shape of each word and line as you move through it.

Add context to paint a full picture

Finally, return to the poem context. ; look at the publication date and consider the world around the poem when it was first released. Consider where the poem lives: Was it released as part of the author's poetry book, or was it published in a literary magazine? From these details and materials you will get a deeper understanding of the poem.

A. Re-read for sound

B. Re-read for meaning

C. Dig into the author's history.

D. Notice where in the poem you react

E. Look for where the poem offers a moment of surprise

F. Before you start a poem, you should first read the title

G. Long messy forms might mean it's coming from a place of confusion or anger

Emily Bhatnagar is a shy girl who has always loved reading. She says, "The books sort of became my best friends when I didn't have one."

When Bhatnagar was 16, her father was diagnosed（诊断）with cancer. The news was1 for the family. Books became an even bigger 2 , and she started thinking about families in similar situations. When her father recovered, she 3 a plan to help others. "The idea came from not just great thanks that the doctors were able to 4 such a miracle（奇迹）,"she said, "but also a little of 5 that there were kids who were 6 the same battle."

Bhatnagar started a 7  in her hometown. The goal was to collect books and give them to kids being 8  for cancer in local hospitals. Since the start of the book drive, which she called For Love & Buttercup, Bhatnagar has 9  more than 10,000 books.

Bhatnagar had no idea how much 10 her work would get. She started by posting on social media, asking people in her area to donate. "I was expecting maybe two or three 11 from neighbors," she said. But it ended up blowing up, 12 when news stations began reporting it. "The public response has been super great," her father said.

Bhatnagar continues to run the book drive, with a little help from her parents. She hopes to expand the project to 13 more kids one day. The memory of the first time she visited those children who'd 14 her books sticks with her. "It was the best 15 of my life," she said. "I realized I wanted to do this type of work forever."

Japanese researchers have developed computerized chopsticks that enhance（增加） salty tastes, could help those who need to reduce sodium（钠）in their diets.

The chopsticks （develop）by Meiji University professor Homei Miyashita and drink manufacturer Kirin Holdings Company in May.

Wiring connects the chopsticks to a small computer device （attach）to the eater's hand. A weak electrical current transports sodium ions（离子）from food through the chopsticks the mouth. "As result, the salty taste enhances 1.5 times," Miyashita said.

The （tradition）diet in Japan is salty. The average Japanese adult eats about 10 grams of salt each day. That is twice the amount suggested by the World Health Organization.

High sodium intake is linked to increased cases of high blood （press）, strokes and other conditions.

"To prevent these （disease）, we need to reduce the amount of salt we take in," said Kirin researcher Ai Sato. Sat o （add）that if Japanese people try to reduce salt intake in the usual ways, they will need to cut many of their favorite foods from their diet. Otherwise, they would have to eat bland or flavorless food.

Miyashita and Kirin are improving their chopsticks and hope to have them ready （sell）as early as next year.

注意：1.写作词数应为80个左右；2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。

Music is my first love. I can sit down at my electronic keyboard and forget all about time and space, all about my problems. During the lowest moments in my life, music was my savior. Besides, I would like to thank two volunteer organizations-one is America's Veterans Services and the other is The Paul Hazelton House for seniors and the disabled.

I was a veteran(老兵). After I got out of the service, I began a career in music, and then became an ironworker for higher pay. A few years ago, the one-bedroom house I rented in Massachusetts was sold. The developer planned to tear it down. The property manager gave me two months rent-free to find a new place to live. It didn't help because I'd been disabled from an accident at work and was living on benefits. Nothing affordable turned up.

With the help of two friends, I silently and hopelessly packed up my belongings and moved everything-including my electronic keyboard-into storage. I slept in my car, thinking it wouldn't last long. But weeks turned into months and the months into years. My car had become my home.

The one thing that kept me alive was music. I would lose myself in music. Although I had developed cataracts(白内障), nothing could keep my fingers from finding the right keys.

However, I hit my real low one Christmas Eve. I was driving down a narrow back road to where I would park my car and sleep at night. I turned right and accidentally ran into a wall. My car—my only home—lost its right front end.

At that point, I really had no place to live. Fortunately, Bruce Knight, a retired firefighter, heard about me. He drove me to a homeless shelter in York County where I stayed for 75 days. That's where I met with case managers from Volunteers of America's Veterans Services. They helped me move into their housing, a place called Huot House. I was able to sign up for Veterans Administration benefits and get the cataract treatment I needed to recover my eyesight.

注意：1.续写词数应为150个左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。

Ken Darby, manager of Huot House, told me to move toward life. 

……

I went to volunteer for the "Day of Caring" held by The Paul Hazelton House.