四川省泸州市合江县马街中学2023-2024学年高三上学期1月期末考试试英语试题

Visiting the Met

Masters and Masterpieces: Chinese Art from the Florence and Herbert Irving Collection (January 30—June 5)

An outstanding selection of Chinese art gifted to the Met by Florence and Herbert Irving is the focus of this exhibition. Beginning in the early 1970s, the Irvings built one of the most comprehensive collections of Chinese art in the world. The approximately 120 works on display cover almost all major categories of Chinese art.

P.S. Art 2021 (January 23—June 5)

P.S. Art is an annual celebration of achievement in the arts in New York City public schools. This exhibition showcases the creativity of 152 prekindergarten through grade 12 students from all five boroughs.

Baseball Cards from the Collection of Jefferson R. Burdick (June 3—November 22)

The Burdick collection of baseball cards tells the history of popular printmaking in the United States, In 1947, Jefferson R. Burdick began to give away his baseball cards to the Met. This exhibition features over one hundred cards produced between the 1880s and the 1950s.

Relative Values: The Cost of Art in the Northern Renaissance (January 23—August 7)

Bringing together sixty-two masterpieces of sixteenth-century northern European art from the Met collection and one important loan, this exhibition centers around questions of historical worth, exploring relative value systems in the Renaissance era.

Open

Sunday—Tuesday, and Thursday: 10:00—17:00

Friday and Saturday: 10:00—21:00

Closed Wednesday

Closed Thanksgiving Day, December 25, January 1, and the first Monday in May.

Tickets

$25 for adults; $17 for seniors; $12 for students; free for children under 12.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is one of the best books I have read in years. This is a page turner with complex characters and situations that will make you think hard about friendship, good and evil, betrayal, etc. It is intense and a great book by many measures.

On one level, The Kite Runner is the story of two boys in Afghanistan and Afghan immigrants in America. It is a story set in a culture that has become of increasing interest to Americans since the September 11, 2001 attacks. It also explores the history of the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan. On this level, it provides a good way for people to learn more about Afghan history and culture in the context of the story.

Looking at The Kite Runner as a story about culture, however, misses what the book is really about. This is a novel about humanity. This is a story about friendship, loyalty, cruelty, longing for acceptance, redemption(救赎), and survival. The core story could be set in any culture because it deals with issues that are universal.

The Kite Runner looks at how the main character, Amir, deals with a secret in his past and how that secret shaped who he became. It tells of Amir's childhood friendship with Hassan, his relationship with his father and growing up in a privileged place in society. I was drawn in by Amir's voice. I sympathized with him, cheered for him and felt angry with him at different points. Similarly, I became attracted by Hassan and his father. The characters became real to me, and it was difficult for me to put the book down and leave their world.

I highly recommend this book, especially for book clubs. For those of you who are not in a reading group, read it and then lead it to a friend. You are going to want to talk about it when you finish.

Many farmers in China are exploring new career paths. From drone (无人机) operators to social media influencers, new types of occupations taken on by Chinese farmers not only bring higher incomes but also put new life into China's rural area. 

In April 2016, Yu Xiaojun, 28, founded an agricultural machinery services cooperative in partnership with his friends to provide services including sowing, crop protection and harvesting for large farms with drones. 

The cooperative now has over 100 sets of machinery and equipment and more than 20 staff members. Many young people ask Yu to teach them how to fly drones. 

As a short-video craze sweeps China, many farmers are becoming enthusiastic about sharing their lives online. Livestreaming has become a new farming tool, allowing farmers to reap the benefits of selling goods directly to urban consumers. 

Holding a plate of dried sweet potatoes, Zhang Chuanfeng stood in front of a mobile phone to introduce the local products. The 40-year-old farmer is 1.4 meters tall and was worried about his future after struggling in various jobs because he is too short. However, his transition has been a success. 

With the support of the local government, Zhang rented a stall and opened his online business. To improve his marketing skills, he attended training courses and learned from other online streamers. 

In April 2020, Zhang started livestreaming sales. The products received positive feedback from the market, and that encouraged Zhang to include more types of local specialties in his sales. 

His hard work paid off. Now Zhang has over 90,000 followers on the Douyin short-video platform. He made 5 million yuan from sales of local specialties last year. He also volunteered to help locals sell other products including honey, organic eggs and fish through livestreaming. 

"Through my efforts, I have lifted my family out of poverty, which was unimaginable before," Zhang said. "Compared to professional livestreamers, we are just at the primary stage. I hope more professionals will join us and we can build our brand."

When romantic partners argue over things like finances, jealousy, or other interpersonal issues, they tend to employ their current feelings as fuel for a heated argument. But thinking about the future helps overcome relationship conflicts, according to a University of Waterloo study just published online in Social Psychological and Personality Science. Alex Huynh, a doctoral candidate in psychology is the lead author of the study, which he published with Igor Grossmann from the University of Waterloo, and Daniel Yang from Yale University.

Previous research has shown that third-perspective reasoning can be a positive strategy for reconciliation (调解) of interpersonal struggles. Huynh and his collaborators investigated whether similar benefit can be induced by simply thinking about the future. Study participants were instructed to reflect on a recent conflict with a romantic partner or a close friend. One group of participants were then asked to describe how they would feel about the conflict one year in the future, while another group was asked to describe how they feel in the present.

The team examined participants' written responses through a text-analysis program for their use of pronouns — such as I, me, she, he. These choices of pronouns were used to capture participants' focus on the feelings and behaviour of those involved in the conflict. Written responses were also examined for forgiveness and reinterpreting the conflict more positively, both of which implied the participants' use of reasoning strategies.

The researchers found that envisioning future relationship affected both participants' focus on their feelings, and their reasoning strategies. As a result, participants reported more positivity about their relationship altogether, especially when study participants extended their thinking about the relationship a year into the future.

"Our study demonstrates that adopting a future-oriented perspective in the context of a relationship conflict — reflecting on how one might feel a year from now — may be a valuable coping tool for one's psychological happiness and relationship well-being," said Huynh.

Anyone can book a trip, but not everyone can plan the best adventure that is affordable and fun. If you want to do it better, the places to stay in for the nights must be chosen carefully. 

Check distances on a map. It's common for hotels to slightly exaggerate （夸大）their closeness to attractions around town. They will not tell you the true distance. If being close to a particular airport is important for your trip, you'd better confirm the distance on Google Map before you book a hotel.

 A little niceness goes a long way, especially with the hotel staff who have to deal with difficult guests on a regular basis. When you check in, simply say hello to the cleaning staff when you pass them in the hall. This is not only common politeness, but it also increases your chances of getting incidental benefit during your stay.

Give up the package deals（套餐）To appeal to new guests, some hotels will offer themed package deals. Sometimes these packages include things you don't want or need and the special prices could be higher than the regular ones.

Ask about parking.  You'd better look for a hotel offering free parking. If you have to afford the expensive parking, apps like Best Parking can help you find nearby parking lots at lower prices. As parking costs really go up, if not necessary, we suggest you take a taxi or a bus from the hotel to travel around the city rather than travel in your own car. 

People may misunderstand what they used to be familiar with. I remembered a 1  professor was invited to our school, teaching stress management principles in a school hall 2  with students.

As she 3 a glass of water, every one of us expected we'd be asked the 4 "glass half-empty or glass half-full" question. 5 , with a smile on her face, the professor asked, "How 6 is this glass of water I'm holding?"

All of us shouted out answers ranging from eight ounces to a couple of pounds.

She replied, "From my perspective, the absolute weight of this glass doesn't matter. It all 7 how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute or two, it's fairly light. If I hold it for an hour straight, its weight might make my arm8 a little. If I hold it for a day straight, my arm will likely cramp up and feel 9 numb (麻木的) and paralyzed, 10 me to drop the glass to the floor. In each case, the 11 of the glass doesn't change, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it feels to me."

As the whole class 12 our heads in agreement, she continued, "Your 13 and worries in life are very much like this glass of water. Think about them for a while and 14 happens. Think about them a bit longer and you begin to ache a little. Think about them all day long, and you will feel specially numb and paralyzed— 15 of doing anything else 16 you drop them."

It's important to remember to 17  your stresses and worries. No matter what happens during the day, as early in the evening as you can, put all your burdens down. Don't 18  them through the night and into the next day with you. If you still feel the weight of 19  stress, it's a strong sign that it's time to put the 20  down.

A small village in Yunnan Province is (wide) known as the Dai paper factory. There are nets for (dry) paper all over the village and inside villagers' houses. Dai paper (make) for over 800 years there up to now.

One of the best papermakers is Yan, who was already interested in Dai paper at an early age. Taught  his grandparents to be a papermaker at 16, Yan was quickly able to complete  production independently.

Unlike ordinary papermaking where trees need to be cut down, Dai paper is environmentally friendly. This is its raw material is the recyclable bark of a kind of trees unique to the area. Dai paper' production process is still used today. In a workshop, Yan demonstrated 11 different papermaking (process) to us.

Although Dai paper carries the culture and (believe) of the Dai people, the crafting of it is faced with great challenges. (address) the problems, Yan improved Dai's papermaking technology, thus saving production time and reducing labor costs. And then he (start) teaching the villagers his new papermaking process for free.

增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号(∧)，并在其下面写出该加的词。

删除：把多余的词用斜线(\)划掉。

修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。

注意：1. 每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；2. 只允许修改10处，多者(从第11处起)不计分。

Responsibility is one of the most important human quality. Responsible people can be trusted, and this benefits to both the person and the people counted on him. No one can become successful without good sense of responsibility.

What does responsibility mean for we students? Firstly, being responsible means making our own choices, attending classes on time, and cleaning our own rooms regular. Secondly, being responsible means caring about others in social communication. Therefore, we should help them when they were in need of help. Finally, we are all members of our country, that implies we need to obey the laws, regulations and rules of the country. Beside, we need to do some voluntary work for our community.

All in all, being responsible surely enable us to contribute to the world. Let's be responsible.

要点如下：1.感恩的具体事例；2.给你带来的积极影响；3.你的祝福。

注意：1.词数100左右；2.可以适当增加细节，以使得行文流畅；3.涉及的学校或人物不可使用真名。