山东省枣庄市薛城区2020-2021学年高二下学期英语期中考试试卷

Visiting museums is an important means of knowing a country's development and culture. Here are some greatest museums in the world which are worth a visit.

Tate Modern, London, The UK

Together with three other Tate museums, Tate Modern is national museum of international modern art. It is one of the largest museums of modern art in the world. Most of the exhibit areas are open to the public for free, only charging for major temporary exhibitions.

Musee du Louvre, Paris, France

It is the world's largest and most visited art museum. It's a historical land mark of Paris. Housed in the Louvre Palace, the museum has been added to many times since its opening in 1793. Its glass pyramid in the main courtyard was designed by Chinese-American architect leoh Ming Pei, which later became a landmark of Paris.

National Museum of China, Beijing, China

It is near Tiananmen Square in Beijing. It's one of the largest museums and the second-most visited art museum in the world. Covering time span (范围)from the Yuanmou Man of 1.7 million years ago to the Qing Dynasty, the museum houses around 1.05 million items, many of which cannot be found in museums elsewhere.

State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, Russia

The State Hermitage Museum is the second-largest art museum in the world. The public can visit five of the main building: the Winter Palace, Small Hermitage, Old Hermitage, New Hermitage and Hermitage Theatre. It often appears as setting for films, TV series, novels and even video games.

At eleven, I decided to learn to swim. There was a pool at the Y. M. C. A. offering exactly the opportunity. Mother continually warned against it, and kept fresh in my mind the details of each drowning in the river. But the Y. M. C. A. pool was safe.

I had a childhood fear of water. This started when I was three years old and father took me to the beach. The huge waves knocked me down and swept over me.

The pool was quiet. I was afraid of going in all alone, so I sat on the side of the pool to wait for others. Then came a big boy. He yelled, "Hi, Skinny! How'd you like to be ducked?" With that he picked me up and threw me into the deep end. I landed in a sitting position, and swallowed water. But I was not frightened out of my wits-when my feet hit the bottom, I would make a big jump, come out of the surface. It seemed a long way down. I gathered all my strength when I landed and made what I thought was a great spring upwards. Then I opened my eyes and saw nothing but water. I tried to yell but no sound came out. I went down, down, endlessly.

When I came to consciousness, I found myself lying on the bed in the hospital.

I never went back to the pool. I avoided water whenever I could. This misadventure stayed with me as the years rolled by. It deprived me of the joy of boating and swimming. Finally, I decided to get an instructor. Piece by piece, he built a swimmer. Several months later, the instructor was finished, but I was not. Sometimes the terror would return.

This went on until July. I swam across the Lake Wentworth. Only once did the terror return. When I was in the middle of the lake, I put my face under and saw nothing but bottomless water. I laughed and said, "Well, Mr. Terror, what do you think you can do to me?"

I had conquered my fear of water.

The planting or woodlands in upland areas could play a key role in preventing the flooding which has increasingly affected communities across the world in recent years.

A new study by the University of Plymouth has shown that within just 15 years of being planted, native broadleaf trees can have a great effect on soil's response during extreme weather events. It means that the huge amount of rainwater can be more readily absorbed, rather than simply running over the surface and into rivers where it probably causes severe flooding.

Scientists say their findings show planting more native woodlands in upland areas could be an effective and natural flood management tool. There have been a number of extreme rainfall and flooding events in recent years, and they are predicted to increase in both frequency and seriousness in the future as a result of human-caused climate change.

They show that in areas where new woodlands have been planted, the ability of soil to absorb water is almost double that of areas with no trees, associated with increases in soil macro-pores- (大孔隙) and reductions in soil compaction (压实) . This means the speed at which rainwater enters rivers during rainfall events is obviously reduced, which helps lower peak flow.

However, the nature of the soil and location of the woodlands are also critical to their success, with steep hillside on the edge of upland areas providing the most effective location for tree plantations to serve as an effective flood prevention tool.

Dr Paul Lunt, Associate Professor in Environmental Science added, "There are a lot of weak upland catchment (集水) areas across the UK. However, by working with farmers and the government's farm woodland measures, this study has shown that damaged soil can recover rapidly. This is particularly obvious on hillsides which are traditionally not so good for farming. So there is an opportunity for a joined-up approach which could benefit the uplands themselves, but also those people living on and around them."

Marcus Eriksen was studying Plastic pollution when he met camel expert Ulrich Wernery. They went deep into the desert and spotted a camel skeleton (骨架). Eriksen was not prepared for what he saw in the desert. "I was just appalled," he said, "because inside the dead body of a camel was a mass of plastic bags, which was as big as a medium-sized suitcase."

Wernery is a scientist working in a research lab in Dubai. Since 2008 Wernery's team has examined 30,000 dead camels. They found 300 of those dead camels had a mass of plastic bags in their bodies. As camels wander in the desert, they eat plastic bags and other rubbish that move into trees and pile up along roadsides. "To a camel, if it's not sand, it's food," explains Eriksen.

Tightly packed masses of indigestible (难消化的) things can be built up in the digestive system of people or animals. Scientists call them bezoars (胃石). Normally, these are made of vegetable fibers or hair. Werner and Eriksen call those found in the camels "polybezoars". It points to their origin: plastic polymers.

In a new study, Eriksen and Wernery report data suggesting that each year these polybezoars are killing off around 1 in every 100 camels. Of five camel bezoars analyzed for this study, the plastic content ranged from 3 to 64 kilograms. "If it is confirmed that 1 percent of camels died due to plastic by future and more detailed studies, then plastic pollution will certainly be important concern for camels," says Luca Nizzetto, an environmental scientist. "Such studies are important, because they raise social awareness about this pollution."

Banning plastic bags and single-use plastics is crucial for protecting camels and other wildlife, Eriksen says. "Plastic bags blow out of garbage cans, out of landfills, out of trucks and out of people's hands." What's more, he adds, "They travel for hundreds of miles."

Time and money are life's most valuable resources. One of the great laws of economics is that time equals money. The phrase "time is money" is usually credited to Benjamin Franklin, who used it in an essay(Advice to a Young Tradesman, 1748).  He encouraged people to treat time like money. However, most people think about time and money in different ways.

 Poor or rich, we all have 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Thus, No one can get more time than others. In world of scarcity, we should make the best use of time.

Time cannot be stored. One of the reasons we give little thought about how we use our limited resources is that we cannot save time.  You can't bottle time and exchange it for an object or event. However, when people are made aware of their limited life, they wonder if they did make the most of their life.

In a word, time is anything but free. As a nonrenewable resource, time is quite expensive. Do we want to spend these precious moments on social media or spend that time learning something new? Skills and knowledge take time. The more time you spend on them, the more you improve.

A. However, it cannot be bought at any price.

B. It means time is a valuable resource.

C. Time is our most limited resource.

D. Time moves no whether we choose to spend it or not.

E. They will try their best to do what they want.

F. How we are using our time is really a question.

G. Actually, time and money are greatly different from each other.

Throughout my childhood, I felt the need to be in control. However, the need came to a sudden 1 during my trip to Puerto Rico, where spanish is an official language. On the trip, the combination of travel and 2 me that freedom doesn't come from being in 3 but rather from fully engaging in my surroundings.

I stood on the hotel balcony in Old San Juan, 4 the long street that led to the ocean. Voices in 5 from the street market far below reminded me of how 6 this place was from my home. I decided it was time to 7.

I kicked my soccer ball gently as I walked. Near one of Puerto Rico's famous castles, I saw a group of Puerto Rican boys standing in a circle 8 a small, flat soccer ball. Making eye contact with one of the boys, I passed my ball over and 9 them. As we played, I gradually began to understand something.

My 10 need for control had come from growing up with strict parents, coaches and expectations from my school and community. I 11 for control wherever I could get it. I thought every move in soccer games, which made me less creative and often 12 the team.

This experience made me 13 my struggle for control was 14 me. I learned that when I open myself up to others, I am free to earn this rare state of 15 in which I can freely express myself.

With the Year of the Ox on the horizon, you will find common to see various ox figures made of gold, wood, plastic, and stone on sale in stores. The ox is not merely an (influence) representative of the farming, but a symbol of diligence and responsibility in China.

The ox has also long played  significant role in Chinese literature. Ancient Chinese poets and writers  (constant) described the ox. In the Classic of Poetry, which is the oldest existing collection of Chinese poetry and reflects the (wise) of ancient Chinese people, the ox appeared in nine out of the 305 pieces. A couplet from a poem (write) by Lu Xun:  "Fierce-browed, I coolly defy a thousand pointing fingers; Head bowed, like a willing ox I serve the children", fully expresses the poet's devotion  the people.

To this day, when someone achieves a great accomplishment through hard work, people often use "niu",  (mean) "awesome", to describe him or her.

So naturally, those born in the Year of the Ox  (expect) to be hardworking, reliable and loyal. "is special about oxen is that they never seek to be the focus and do not look for praise." the website China Highlights noted.

1）喜欢的著作；

2）你喜欢它的原因或它对你的影响；

3）希望对方给你推荐一些经典英文名著。

注意：1）词数100左右；

2）可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。

Dear Peter,

How is everything going?

……

Looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours sincerely,

Li Hua

Lt Zachary Mayo, a soldier in the USA Navy, woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. He felt too hot. He got off his bed quietly so as not to wake his shipmates. He put on his blue coat over his shorts and T-shirt- he had been sleeping in, and left for the deck (甲板).

Zachary Mayo went up onto the deck. It was two o'clock on a Friday morning. He breathed in the fresh air and looked up at the stars in the clear night sky. And then, without thinking, he leaned out too far and lost his footing. Before he knew it, he was in the water. He tried to draw attention by shouting, but he didn't succeed. He watched the huge ship disappearing into the night. Not one of the 4,700 crew on board had seen him fall, and for nearly two days, none of his shipmates realized that he was gone.

Mayo had been taught how to make clothes into life jackets in a training camp, so he took off his coat and tied its arms and legs. Then he waved his "life jacket" over his head and filled it with air so he could stay afloat (漂浮的). He did this many times during his floating on the sea.

During his floating on the sea for the following 34 hours, he didn't see many search planes or any boats, and twice he had seen sharks swimming around him. He was in the water for both nights. He was attacked by small fish and he was slowly dying of thirst. Mayo was sure he would die, but he thought of his family-his parents, wife and two-year-old son. "I can never give up with so much love," he said to. He wished miracle (奇迹) would happen.

Finally, he felt asleep. When he woke up, his coat were floating away from him. Feeling the death was approaching closer and closer, he tore off his T-shirt and shorts in a fit of madness and prepared to die.

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。

Just before he lost consciousness（意识）, he saw small boat.

……

Three days later, Lt Zachary Mayo recovered.