广东省广州市2022届高三上学期12月阶段训练英语试卷

Smokejumpers

Every year, wildfires destroy millions of hectares of forest. Homes are damaged, and thousands of people die. Smokejumpers are helping to stop this.

What is a smokejumper?

Smokejumpers are a special type of firefighter. They jump from planes into areas that are difficult to reach by car or on foot, like the middle of a mountain forest. They race to put out fires as fast as they can.

What do smokejumpers do?

At a fire site, smokejumpers first examine the land and decide how to fight the fire. Their main goal is to stop a fire from spreading. Using basic equipment such as shovels and axes, smokejumpers clear land of burnable material like plants and other dry material. They carry water with them too, but only a limited amount.

Who can be a smokejumper?

Although the majority of smokejumpers are men, more women are joining. Most important are your height and weight. Smokejumpers employed in the U. S., for example, must be 120 to 200 pounds(54 to 91 kilograms), so they don't get hurt when they land，or get blown by strong winds. Smokejumpers must also be capable of surviving in the wildness.

The work is dangerous, and the hours are long. But for these firefighters, smoke jumping isn't just an occupation. They love being able to jump out of planes, fight fires, and live in the forest. As 28-year-old smokejumper Bob Smith says, "This is the best job for tough guys."

Under the first full moon of the year, music lovers in Norway sit on seats made of ice and covered with animal skins. On a frozen stage, musicians in furry hats and coats play instruments carved from ice! This show is the Ice Music Festival, the only concert in the world of its kind. This cool idea began in 1999, when musician Terje Isungset played music inside a frozen waterfall. The amazing sounds that he heard led him to start using ice as a musical instrument. Isungset spent years experimenting with ice instruments. The more he learned, the more excited he became. After years of trial and error, he was ready to start the Ice Music Festival in 2016.

To prepare the frozen instruments, Isungset hunts for the best natural sources of ice. He tests each source of ice by cutting out a piece, tapping it with his finger, and listening to the sound it produces. Experience tells him whether the ice will make a good instrument. He prefers not to use human-made ice, because he believes frozen lake water sounds better. This may be supported by science. Scientists have noticed that natural ice has fewer bubbles (气泡), which could lead to a clearer sound.

Once the ice has been sourced, professional ice carvers use tools to create instruments. They carve everything from saxophones to xylophones. The carvers often change the look of the instruments, which helps them produce special, even unique, sounds. Each year, the goal of the festival is to challenge musicians to make creative music when playing these one-of-a-kind ice instruments.

Playing the frozen instruments is a challenge. Each performance surprises both the musicians and the audience. After the concert is over, Isungset jokes that the musicians will drink their instruments. Actually, they just leave their stage and instruments behind, giving it all back to nature.

After years of heated debate, gray wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park in1995.Fourteen wolves were caught in Canada and transported to the park. By 2007, the Yellowstone wolf population had grown to more than 170.

Gray wolves once roamed throughout the Yellowstone area. But they were gradually displaced by human development and hunted by farmers for killing livestock(牲畜). By the 1920s, wolves had practically disappeared from the Yellowstone area. They moved farther north into the deep forests of Canada, where there was less contact with humans.

The disappearance of the wolves had many consequences. Deer populations — a major food source for the wolf — grew rapidly without their usual enemy. These animals consumed large amounts of vegetation, which reduced plant diversity in the park. In the absence of wolves, coyote(小野狼) populations also grew quickly. The coyotes killed a large percentage of the park's red foxes.

As early as 1966, biologists asked the government to consider reintroducing wolves into Yellowstone, hoping that they would be able to control the deer and coyote problems. Many farmers opposed the plan, worrying that wolves would kill their livestock or pets. Other people feared that the wolves would not be well-protected in Yellowstone.

The government spent nearly 30 years coming up with a plan to reintroduce the wolves. They included many compromises to help people accept the wolves' presence. For example, they promised to pay farmers for livestock killed by wolves.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service carefully monitors and manages the wolves in Yellowstone. Certain wolves wear special collars to help biologists gather information about how the wolves live, hunt, and reproduce. Each year the wolf population is counted.

Today, the debate continues over how well the gray wolf is fitting in at Yellowstone. Deer and coyote populations are down, while red foxes have made a comeback. The Yellowstone wolf project has been a valuable experiment to help biologists decide whether to reintroduce wolves to other parts of the country as well.

Babies appear to know how to help those in need, according to researchers who studied signs of altruism in almost 100 children.

Researchers who wanted to see whether children would give up their food to a stranger without encouragement found the kids did just that — even when they were hungry.

The scientists recruited 96 19-month-old children. During the experiments, a child and a researcher sat across from each other. In the control group of the first set of experiments, researchers threw a piece of fruit onto a plate where they couldn't reach, but the child could. They then waited. In contrast, researchers in the test group pretended to drop the fruit on the plate, then tried and failed to reach it. This signaled to the child that the adult wanted the food.

Among the control group, only 4 percent of the children gave the piece of fruit to the researchers, compared with 58 percent, or over half, in the test group.

Next, the team explored if children would still be generous when it was at a cost to themselves. The first set of experiments was repeated with a separate group of kids before their lunchtime, when they were likely to be hungry. Similarly, 37 percent of the test group handed over their fruit, compared with none in the control group.

The experiments were repeated four times. Researchers got similar results each time. Babies with siblings(兄弟姐妹) and babies from Latino or Asian families shared more of the fruit, the team also found.

Carter Morgan, lead professor of the study, said, "We often think of babies as selfish. But here we find that they are willing to help others even when it comes at some 'cost' to the self."

Addressing why children with siblings or from certain cultural backgrounds were more likely to share their fruit, Morgan said, "We believe this partly reflects what social psychologists call 'interdependence', which stresses on the importance of interpersonal connections and adjusting to others. These social experiences that shape attitudes towards sharing appear to have an effect very early in life."

Are you sitting more than ever? You're probably sitting while reading this. Sometimes you sit when you are driving or attending a meeting. Other times you sit when you engage yourself in watching a movie or playing computer games. That's undoubtedly a lot of sitting. The fact is, the amount of time spent sitting has increased over time.

We know sitting too much is bad, and most of us naturally feel a little guilty after a long-time TV watching. A study on nearly 8,000 adults suggests that there's a direct relationship between the time spent sitting and our risk of early death of any cause. As the total sitting time increases, so does the risk of early death.

"Sit less, move more" is what the Heart Association encourages us to do. It is like telling someone to just "exercise" without telling them how. Exercise guidelines are always more practical. For example, the Center for Disease Control recommends adults do exercise for two hours and 30 minutes every week, plus muscle strengthening activities two or more days a week. We need similar guidelines for sitting.

"It would probably be like, for every 30 continuous minutes of sitting, stand up and move or walk for five minutes at a quick pace," Diaz, the lead researcher said, adding that the study has put us a step closer to the satisfying guidelines. But more researches are needed to confirm their approach.

A. Now it's time to get up and move around.

B. Take a moment to think about your sitting activities.

C. Health experts also suggest exercising on a daily basis.

D. But this guideline is just too simple and abstract to make a difference.

E. As of today, average adult will spend 56-86% of their daily time sitting.

F. But what exactly goes wrong when we park ourselves for nearly eight hours per day?

G. To make up for the weakness, a research team is working on a more specific guideline.

The morning had been a disaster. My tooth was aching while my dentist was on holiday, and I'd been in a/an1with a friend. Her words still hurt, "You never put yourself in my place. Can't you see things from my point of view?" I shook my head and felt the2in my tooth. It was really3. I started calling the dentists in the phone book, but no one could see me immediately.4, at about lunchtime, I got lucky.

"If you5right now," the receptionist said, "the dentist will fit you in."

I rushed out to my car. But suddenly I began to6about the dentist. What kind of dentist would be so eager to7someone at such short notice? Why wasn't he as8as the others?

While I was in the dentist's office, I saw nothing but the empty walls and I became even more9.The assistant10my nervousness and placed her warm hand over my ice-cold one.

When I told her my fears, she laughed, "Don't worry. The dentist is very good. Just lie down and11.And enjoy the artwork."

"The artwork?"" I was12.

The chair went back, and suddenly I smiled. There was a beautiful picture, right where I could enjoy it: on the13.How14the dentist was! At that moment, I15what my friend meant.

The skyscraper(摩天大楼) became the standard design of a modern, global city in the 20thcentury.So much so that by the end of last century, centers of many big cities around the world began (look) alike.

As we entered the 21st century, many designers began to ask (they): Is this we want our cities to look? Must our cities give up their individual identities to become modern? Some (architect) have responded to these questions by incorporating traditional design elements into their skyscrapers. Others are returning local traditions and, often, local materials.

In China, internationally famous architect Wang Shu wants to bring a breath of fresh air to modern design. He is creating designs in which modern concrete and Chinese traditional building practices coexist. Traditional Chinese buildings, (include) homes, often have green spaces on the inside. Wang says that the most important thing for Chinese people is "living in some (peace) place with trees, water, and your family together. "He keeps this idea in mind and reuses old materials in his new buildings. Some buildings contain (recycle) bricks and tiles from constructions that (build) hundreds of years ago. Wang believes this is what gives building its spirit and makes it feel alive.

1）重阳节的意义;

2）如何关爱老人;

3）期望与呼吁。

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。

Love the elderly

Two things changed my life: my mother and a bike basket. It's true. I would be a different person if my mom hadn't turned a bike basket into a life lesson I carry with me today — A lesson about the value of efforts.

My mother and father were united in their way of raising children, but it mostly fell to my mother to actually carry it out. Looking back, I honestly don't know how she did it. Managing the family budget must have been a very hard task, but she made it look effortless. If we complained about not having what other kids did, we'd hear something like, "I don't care what so-and-so got for his birthday, you are not getting a TV in your room or a big party." We had to earn our allowance(零用钱) by doing chores(家务) around the house. I can still remember how long it took to polish the legs of our coffee table. My brothers can no doubt remember hours spent cleaning the house. We had to keep track of our belongings, and if something was lost, it was not replaced.

It was one summer day. My mother drove me to the bike shop to get a tire fixed — and there it was in the window — white, shiny, plastic and decorated with flowers. The basket winked at me and I knew — I knew — l had to have it.

"It's beautiful," my mother said when I pointed it out to her, "What a neat basket."

I tried to hold off at first, but then I couldn't stand it any longer. "Mom, please can I get it? I'll do extra chores for as long as you say. I'll do anything, but I love that basket. Please, Mom, please? "I was desperate.

"You know," she said, gently rubbing my back while we both stared at what I believed was the coolest thing ever, "If you save up you could buy this yourself."

"By the time I earn enough it'll be gone! Someone else will buy it. Please, Mom, please?"

"There might be another way," she said.

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。

"I'll buy it now but you only get it after 3 weeks of double chores," Mom explained.

Finally, I got my dream basket, but soon I sadly found the same basket on others' bikes!