贵州省桐梓县高级中学2023-2024学年高三上学期12月月考英语试题

Potala Palace Travel Guide

Travel Tips

● The travel route is strictly set. 

● The visiting time is limited to 1 hour. 

● Watch your steps due to the high altitude. 

● Bring along an overcoat as it is a bit cold in the hall. 

Notice

● Oxygen bags are forbidden to be taken into the Palace. 

● Smoking is prohibited and cigarettes are not allowed to be brought into the Palace. 

● Smartphones can be carried with you into the Palace, but please do not take photos. 

● Liquid is not allowed, including mineral water, which can be purchased at the hilltop. 

Ticket Purchase Procedure

Visitors are required to apply for free reservation tickets with identity documents, such as ID cards and passports one day in advance. 

The visiting date and exact time, number of visitors and ID document numbers are printed on the reservation tickets. Those visitors who have reservation tickets should make their tickets canceled if they can't visit the Palace for personal reasons. Otherwise, they will be forbidden to apply again within a week because their names are added to the blacklist.

On the following day, visitors should have their reservation tickets and ID documents checked and walk to the ticket office in front of the White Palace to buy the entrance tickets. Then they can start their tour after another security check. 

How to Get to Potala Palace

● Take No. 13 bus to Yaowangshan Bus Stop. 

● Take No. 8 or No. 17 buses to Baita Bus Stop. 

● Take No. 2, No. 16 or No. 26 buses to Lazhong Bus Stop. 

● Take the airport shuttle to Minhangju Bus Stop. 

Jose Alberto Gutierrez's life would never be the same again after finding a copy of Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy in the garbage 20 years ago. It happened while he was driving his garbage truck through wealthier neighborhoods at night and seeing deserted books. It sparked his desire to start rescuing books from the garbage. He took home 50 to 60 books every morning after his nine-hour shift. Eventually, he turned his book collection into a community library.

Colombia's capital city of Bogota has 13 million residents and 19 public libraries. However, these libraries tend to be far away from where rural and poorer communities live. The option of buying new books is non-existent for families struggling to make ends meet. Having access to a library of books and being taken away to another world while absorbed in a book is a luxury for the kids who visit Gutierrez's library.

Gutierrez grew up poor, and his family could not afford to educate him beyond primary school. Nevertheless, his mother was a keen reader and read stories to him every night. Her love for books left a deep impression on Gutierrez, who never let a lack of formal education stop him from reading classics by the likes of Victor Hugo, Mario Vargas Llosa and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. 

Today, his community library, called "The Strength of Words", occupies most of his home and is piled from floor to ceiling with fiction and non-fiction titles. Everything from school textbooks to story books can be found in his collection of more than 20, 000 books!

The Strength of Words library opens every weekend. It is not just school-going children who are enjoying the benefits of The Strength of Words library. Adults are also welcome to expand their horizons and develop new skills to build a better life for themselves. 

Despite having done so much for his community, Gutierrez is not yet content to call it a day. He continues to search through bins for reading material and has even travelled to book fairs in Mexico and Chile to sell his idea of building libraries from unwanted books. 

Mosquitoes carry malaria (疟疾), which kills thousands of people each year. Now some researchers are trying to use genetic engineering to make the annoying insects into partners in the fight against the disease. 

For years, public health officials have tried to limit the disease by controlling mosquito populations. "But that approach is temporary, " says Anthony James, a professor of biology and genetics at the University of California, Irvine. "Because mosquitoes are extremely tough little insects, and their populations can quickly rebound. "

Therefore, James and his colleagues want to try a different approach: making mosquitoes themselves into malaria-fighting warriors, which is a complete departure from traditional ways of controlling malaria. 

To understand how it works, it helps to understand the life cycle of malaria. The malaria pathogen (病原体) is a parasite (寄生虫) that grows inside humans. It's passed via mosquitoes that move from person to person, sucking blood. "If we can make the mosquitoes difficult for the pathogens to survive, we can wipe out the disease, " he says. But making mosquitoes uninviting to malaria is a tough job.

To solve the problem, the team used a gene-editing technique called CRISPR. They started with genes from mice, whose immune systems do fight human malaria, engineered those genes, and then gave them to the mosquitoes. 

It turned out the malaria-fighting antibodies which gene-edited mosquitoes produced worked very well. They reduced the number of parasites in the mosquito before they were passed to a human host. 

James' team are now working on planning a field trial, which he hopes could be conducted on an island or in another isolated location.

But genetically changing wild animals does not sit well with environmentalists. "There's no need to engineer a mosquito, " says Dana Perls, senior program manager for the emerging technology program at the non-profit Friends of the Earth. Perls points out that naturally occurring methods for reducing malaria appear to be showing promise, as does a new vaccine (疫苗) against the disease. "Why take unnecessary risks and release a species that can't be recalled once it's released into the wild?" she asks.

In the days before the Internet, critical thinking was the most important skill of informed citizens. But in the digital age, according to Anastasia Kozyreva, a psychologist at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, and her colleagues, an even more important skill is critical ignoring. 

As the researchers point out, we live in an attention economy where content producers on the Internet compete for our attention. They attract us with a lot of emotional and eye-catching stories while providing little useful information, so they can expose us to profit-generating advertisements. Therefore, we are no longer customers but products, and each link we click is a sale of our time and attention. To protect ourselves from this, Kozyreva advocates learning the skill of critical ignoring, in which readers intentionally control their information environment to reduce exposure to false and low-quality information. 

According to Kozyreva, critical ignoring comprises three strategies. The first is to design our environments, which involves the removal of low-quality yet hard-to-resist information from around. Successful dieters need to keep unhealthy food out of their homes. Likewise, we need to set up a digital environment where attention-grabbing items are kept out of sight. As with dieting, if one tries to bank on willpower not to click eye-catching "news", he'll surely fail. So, it's better to just keep them out of sight to begin with.

The next is to evaluate the reliability of information, whose purpose is to protect you from false and misleading information. It can be realized by checking the source in the mainstream news agencies which have their reputations for being trustworthy. 

The last goes by the phrase "do not feed the trolls". Trolls are actors who intentionally spread false and hurtful information online to cause harm. It may be appealing to respond to them to set the facts straight, but trolls just care about annoying others rather than facts. So, it's best not to reward their bad behaviour with our attention.

By sharpening our critical ignoring skills in these ways, we can make the most of the Internet while avoiding falling victim to those who try to control our attention, time, and minds. 

Saying "thank you" when you receive an unexpected gift is all well and good, but how can you get a little creative with your appreciation? As it turns out, there are plenty of ways to express your gratitude to others while remaining gracious and sincere. . We'll show you how to say "thank you" in exciting and meaningful ways!

I appreciate this. . A great "thank you" involves expressing appreciation for the gift and explaining why you're grateful. For added value, you can even describe what you'll do with their gifts if you have an idea.

You've made my day! Show them that their gifts turned your day around. Telling someone that they made your day will make the giver feel that their gifts are much more meaningful and worthwhile. .

It's like you read my mind! Thank you. Compliment (称赞) their gift-giving skills. , it can be likely that they really know you and are anticipating your needs without having to ask you what you want! Show them how touched you are by letting them know that their gifts are exactly what you want.

. Show them how surprised you are. If someone goes out of their way to give you an unexpected gift, make sure they know they succeeded in their mission to surprise and delight you. Say "thanks" and express your shock at the same time. For example, you should have seen me; my eyes almost popped out of my head! Thank you for the lovely surprise.

A. I'm extremely astonished

B. When someone gives you a gift

C. If people choose to spend time with you

D. It is impolite of you to say those words

E. You may receive gifts from others in daily life

F. Be specific about what you appreciate and why

G. They'll be pleased that they were able to make you smile

Mom was late once again!!

"Sorry, honey. I left the office only a little bit late, but the 1 caused really bad traffic, and I…"

I hung up. All too often, situations like this happen. Being a teenager is not 2 , and my parents often make me feel less important than their work. 

In third grade, I broke my arm at school. When the school nurse called my mom, she was too 3 to answer. When the phone call 4 my father, he sighed and said, "I'm in the middle of my research. " I waited in the nurse's office for hours before my parents finally 5 to take me to the hospital.

I wished my parents could spare me some time. To make my parents take me seriously, I 6 . I tried to establish my own authority (权威) by 7  their schedule. My mom did everything possible to settle the problem, but nothing 8 until she met that adviser. 

One day after I shut the door in her face, my mom didn't complain or cry. 9 , she knocked and said, "I have something to tell you. " I opened the door. "Today I met a really good adviser. He said that every time your daughter is angry, she is just saying: I 10 you. "

It occurred to me that my anger was merely a mask for me to 11 my loneliness and disappointment. But facing one's 12 need is the first step towards being happier. This concept not only helped things between my parents and me but also enabled me to handle conflicts and emotions. I started to pay attention to other people's 13 . When an angry customer approached me at my volunteering job, he was saying, "I need more service. " When a homeless person shouted to me in a parking lot, he was simply saying, "I need food and help. "

I am now able to see 14  the fog of anger and see the real face and heart of other people. 

Five minutes after I hung up on her, my mom's car finally appeared through the fog. She rolled down her window and said, "Let's go to a hotpot place, shall we?" I 15 , "OK, but promise me you won't be late again. "

Wenchang, a city in Hainan, is the birthplace of Hainanese chicken rice. Boiled chicken, rice  (cook) with chicken oil and dip (调味酱) make up the simple but delicious Hainanese chicken rice,  has provided lasting homesickness for overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia. 

Over a century ago,  large number of Hainan people spread across Southeast Asia,  (take) their native dish Hainanese chicken rice with them. As time went by, Hainanese chicken rice  (gradual) became a popular dish in Southeast Asian countries, including Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia. 

Hainanese chicken rice satisfies the diners  represents the taste of home for overseas Chinese from Hainan. It is a vivid reflection of the cultural exchange between people in countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, from history  reality. 

Michael Heng Yee Boon is a second-generation Malaysian. When he was young, chicken rice (serve) during the Spring Festival, and his mother would make it into rice (ball), which stand for "reunion" in Chinese. "It's a (touch) moment whenever we have Hainanese chicken rice. For us, it's indeed a part of our cultural roots, and we will continue to pass it on," Heng says.

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。

In a small town, there lived a young boy named Tom, who came from a poor family. Determined to gather enough money for his education, Tom decided to start a challenging journey, going door to door selling various items. Little did he know that his life was about to change with the arrival of a compassionate (有同情心的) young woman named Lucy. 

While talking with Tom, Lucy, a kind-hearted individual, knew about Tom's struggles. She thought she could do something to help him. She told Tom that education was the key to transforming his life. Determined to make a difference, Lucy gave Tom a sum of money so that he could afford his tuition fee (学费).

Moved by Lucy's kindness and genuine concern, Tom was filled with gratitude. He was determined to seize this opportunity and remembered Lucy's act of compassion throughout his journey towards success.

With renewed determination, Tom devoted himself to his studies, working diligently to overcome the obstacles that lay in his path. He strived for excellence and seized every learning opportunity that came his way. Tom's pursuit of knowledge eventually paid off, pushing him towards a bright and successful future.

Years passed, and Tom worked hard and never gave up. He did really well in his chosen job and people respected him. Even though he achieved a lot, he never forgot how kind Lucy was to him. 

One day, fate made Tom see Lucy when she was having a tough time. Even after a long time, Tom recognized her right away and knew he owed her something. Remembering how kind Lucy had been, Tom felt a strong urge to repay Lucy's kindness, so he went to her and thanked her sincerely. He promised to stand by her side during her tough times. Tom listened carefully as Lucy shared her struggles and problems. He supported her wholeheartedly and offered a shoulder to lean on.

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。

Tom realized that Lucy needed more than just money.

Besides his support, Tom organized a community fundraiser for Lucy.