北京市通州区2020-2021学年高一下学期英语期中质量检测试卷

Jahiem Morgan knew he was too young to be living on his own at 15 years old, but he didn't have much of a choice. His parents died when he was 12, and he lacked a reliable home. So he slept on the streets. "It was dangerous but I did what I had to do in order to 1," said Morgan.

Morgan was among the nearly 1.3 million young people across the US. Some of them are runaways; others2abusive (施虐的) homes. They are out on their own, and many end up in 3 situations— living on the streets or in abandoned buildings.

"Most people don't even4 these kids exist," said Vicki Sokolik, who helps these teens in Florida. "There's shame that goes with being a homeless youth. So they hide what's going on with them." Sokolik was first introduced to this population in 2006, when her son told her about a classmate who was in danger of becoming5. Sokolik helped the girl, finding her a place to live.

The experience encouraged Sokolik to do 6. In 2007, she founded "Starting Right, Now," an organization that helps homeless youth get permanent housing, graduate from high school and move on to their next goal. "They come in so broken; they cannot7 others," Sokolik said. "The 8 of these kids is great. And it's great that they can be happy again."

Morgan, who has been with the group, will soon graduate from high school and head to college. "I am so 9Miss Sokolik," Morgan said. He has big ideas for his future, with the hopes of being a teacher.

"These kids' voice matters. Everyone should look for them and 10 them."

Jan was so inspired by the people she met online that she decided to start an IT club to teach older people how to use computers and the Internet. She and her friends now organize events and collect money to pay for private teachers. Many people (help) by the club. A 59-year-old man learnt how to apply for work online and found a great job. Now that he works and can take care of (he), his daughter has time to study at university. A 61-year-old woman was living alone has started a small online company together with two friends.

The virtual choir was the idea of award-winning composer and conductor Eric Whitacre. Born in the USA on 2 January 1970, Whitacre (begin) studying music at the University of Nevada in 1988. He fell in love with Mozart's classical music when he sang for the university choir. (move) by the music, he said, "It was like seeing color for the first time." He graduated from university in 1995, and then received a master's degree in musical composition from the Juilliard School in New York in 1997. over the next 10 years, Whitacre's original compositions began to become quite popular among choirs singers.

Customs play a significant role in festivals, but sometimes they can change over time. With the development of modern society and the spread of new ideas, some traditions may fade away and others may (establish). One example is the typical Chinese Spring Festival custom of (light) firecrackers to drive away the evil spirits and celebrate the new year. Nowadays, many big cities (give) up this custom in order to avoid air pollution. Another example is Halloween, which slowly became an (excite) festival for children, in spite of its religious origins.

In the South Atlantic Ocean, there is an island called Tristan da Cunha, which is a six day boat ride from the nearest town Cape Town in South Africa. There's no airport on Tristan. Every month or so, a boat will bring visitors but not many. The boat will also bring mail and supplies. You can only see about 270 people, 300 cows, 500 sheep, and a whole lot of penguins there.

The British tried to build a military base there in 1816. They gave up after a year. But a soldier and his family talked a few people into staying. Those people slowly built a community. Few trees grow on the island. So they found wood that washed ashore. They used it to build homes and boats. For food, they raised cows, sheep and pigs. They fished and planted potatoes. They promised to share everything they had. Sometimes ships brought supplies to Tristan. But for many years, no one there used money. Instead, people on the island traded potatoes for supplies. It cost five potatoes to send a piece of mail.

Today, nearly everyone on Tristan is a farmer. The island's main industry is fishing. It has a single factory that cans fish.

Several times, bad luck has nearly destroyed the town on Tristan. In 1885, men died in a boat accident. That left 13 women and only 4 adult men on the island. Still, everyone stayed. In 1961, a bigger disaster stuck. The town was destroyed by a volcanic eruption. All 290 people on the island moved to England. But soon, nearly all of them moved back to the island and rebuilt their town.

What's so special about life on this lonely island? For islanders like Harold Green, that's an easy question to answer. Green has lived on Tristan his whole life. He left when the volcano erupted. But England was too loud and too crowded for him. He came back because the island is peaceful.

At the start, one gets the impression of being in a normal museum where you walk from room to room and look at things like paintings. The Museum of Broken Relationships, however, offers its visitors a chance to see a special part of people's lives: both women and men from all over the world have sent in their personal belongings which they connect with past and broken relationships.

There is a surprisingly large number of things in the little museum that is set in the beautiful old town of Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. The things have been placed in different rooms, representing different kinds of break-ups. Some relationships lasted for a long time while others were only short ones.

A woman from the Philippines sent a newspaper from NYC where she and her boyfriend had been building up their careers. The newspaper stands for the hard work of becoming successful together; within a few years though, the couple took different roads in life.

As you walk through the museum you will laugh your head off one minute and find yourself reduced to tears during another. This might happen in the room of unintended break-ups, that is, relationships that fell apart because one partner died.

Poems and letters, or broken glass are common symbols for the end of a pleasant, but sometimes difficult time. People also sent wedding dresses, photos and things that helped them escape a relationship for good, like a bicycle or trainers.

This museum might not teach you anything about art, history or technology, but it shows a very humane side of life. Each story tell us that life will go on after a break-up. It might not be easy for a while but you will learn from your experience and grow stronger again.

Having visited a lot of “normal” museums, the Museum of Broken Relationships is a good second choice and a creative way of making people think about their lives.

Parents often tell kids that playing video games will harm their brains. But last June a study found the opposite — certain video games can give your brain help. Researchers from the University of Montreal, in Canada, asked a group of people to play Super Mario 64 for 90 hours over the course of about 10 weeks. They found that those people experienced growth in the part of the brain that is responsible for memory.

But many people think that there's nothing good about looking at a screen for hours at a time. They say that playing sports, reading, and doing other activities can give you the same benefits that playing video games does. Plus, some video games can be harmful. The study from the University of Montreal also found that playing shooter games like Call of Duty has a different influence from playing Super Mario 64 — it causes the area of the brain that's responsible for memory to shrink.

Here's what two of our readers think.

Playing video games can be beneficial because it requires skills like problem-solving, strategic thinking, and sometimes teamwork. A study by researchers at the University of Glasgow, in Scotland, found that playing video games improves your communication skills and ability to find ways to solves problems. Video games can also help you become more creative. For example, Minecraft requires you to think outside the box and build things with materials you never even knew existed. Yo can build your dream house! Some schools are even using Minecraft to teach topics like math and computer science.

—Mackenzle Reldy, Nebraska

Playing video games takes time away from other more important things. I used to spend a lot of time playing them. Sometimes that kept me from doing things I needed to do, like studying my spelling words. Playing video games can also be bad for your health. Last year, researchers studied kids and teens in Canada who play video games. They found a connection between playing video games for hours before going to bed and being overweight.

—Devin Lewis, Arizona

It's very important to develop new technology wisely so that everyone can benefit form it. Some people believe our technology plan should focus on building spaceships. Which is the better course of action?

For those who dream of exploring outer space, the development of high-tech spaceships is important. But just one spaceship can cost billions of dollars. Even the most specialized robots could be designed and built much more cheaply than spaceships. Besides, robots could be used for practical purposes right here on Earth.

Many people who focus on future space exploration talk about solving the key mysteries of space and perhaps even how life comes into being.  Robots will play many new roles in people's life in the future, but even the robots we have now benefit us in practical ways. For example, they can work in dangerous conditions, such as places with very high or low temperatures. They can take apart bombs, build products, or carry out important surgery.

In a word, it's clearly better to give attention, time, and money to the technological development of robots. They also benefit people in ways that are more practical than any benefit from a spaceship.

A. It is way more costly than building a robot.

B. Others believe it should focus on building robots.

C. They are less expensive to develop and more useful.

D. These are all useful things that benefit people right now.

E. Here are some of the advantages of having robots around the house.

F. Technology plays an important role in helping humans work more easily.

G. While this kind of knowledge is interesting, it is not what people need most right now.

The white rhino is the largest species of rhinos. It has a wide mouth and is known to be sociable. Its eyesight is not very good though. For these reasons, poachers (偷猎者) have found it easier to hunt the white rhino for its horns. There are now serious concerns that the white rhino may soon become extinct.

In the large national parks in Africa where white rhinos live, it is very hard to protect them. The rhino horn these days is more expensive than gold, so poachers are very determined to hunt them. It is said that about three rhinos are killed by poachers every day. If this continues they will be extinct with in the next ten years.

Three years ago, an organization in Adelaide, Australia, began planning The Australian Rhino Project. Its purpose is to create what they call the insurance population. The idea is to create a 120 acre park in Australia where white rhinos from Africa can be kept and protected. They can also breed so over time their numbers will grow. If anything happens to the white rhinos in Africa, they can be replaced with the rhinos in Australia.

It sounds like a good idea, but it's expensive! White rhinos first have to be taken to Australia. Each one weights about 3,000 kilos and the cost of flying them on the 13-hour flight is US $70,000 per rhino! To make sure that the selected rhinos are healthy, they will have to be kept in quarantine before they leave Africa and when they arrive in Australia. This too, is expensive. Some people have said that the money would be better spent on education people in Africa to stop poaching rhinos.

As long as poachers continue to kill rhinos and people want to buy rhino horns, it's probably a wise decision to help protect some of the species in Australia. It would be a tragedy if these huge animals disappeared for ever.

1）活动的时间和地点。

2）活动内容。

要求：

1）词数80-100左右；

2）开头和结尾己给出，不计入总词数。

Dear Jim,

……

Yours

Li Hua