北京市西城区2021届高三下学期英语一模试卷

Some dreams take longer to come true than others, but with the help of 21st-century social media and her great-grandson, at the age of 110, one British woman is 1 hers at long last.

At the end of World War I, Amy Hawkins was a 7-year-old child who loved nothing more than to 2. As a teen, Hawkins set her 3 on becoming an entertainer. Hawkins was on her way, touring the country with a dance troupe (歌舞团) — until her ambition was 4 by her mom, who didn't see it as a respectable 5 for a young lady.

All these years later, the 110-year-old lady lives at home in Monmouth, South Wales, surrounded by her loved ones. The four-generation family unit includes her granddaughter, Hannah Freeman, and Freeman's 14-year-old son, Sacha. Even though she's no longer doing it 6, Hawkins has never stopped singing.

"She's like a clock, once you wind her up she won't stop," Freeman said in an interview. "She just keeps asking, 'Would you 7 another one?'."

On Hawkins' 110th birthday, Sacha 8 his great-gran singing one of her favorite WWI tunes. When Freeman jokingly suggested Sacha post it to TikTok, neither of them could have 9 the overwhelmingly positive response it would receive, reaching 100,000 views and a large number of emotional praises in just days.

Some journeys take longer than others. Sometimes, we're detoured (绕路) along the way. Dreams can and do come true every day. While it's been a long time coming, Amy Hawkins is 10 a whole new generation of fans.

Invented  early twentieth-century America by Richard Drew, Scotch tape can be used to fix almost anything. However, there is more to this fix-it-all than just that. Sticky yet easily removed, Scotch tape was designed for use in painting cars—to mask off areas that should not  (paint). The tape soon found other uses. During the 1930s, people didn't have much money, so they couldn't throw away damaged things; they had to repair them. Drew's painting tape became a popular, money-saving fix for everything from torn clothing to broken eggs. Since then, people  (find) all sorts of creative ways to use the sticky tape.

After a lot of preparation, Joseph Lockwood and Philippa Amos were finally ready to start their journey into the Amazon rainforest. They were feeling (cheer) as they sailed down the great river. Eventually, they got out of the boat and walked into the darkness of the jungle. Neither of them had ever been in such an extreme situation before, using just a compass (指南针) to find the area where the kind of frog they wanted to study  (live). Suddenly, Joseph, who was holding the compass, tripped and lost it in a river. The situation seemed hopeless—how would they find the frogs now? But just  they started to feel really sad and worried that their journey  (be) a failure, they saw the frogs they had come to look for.

The Longji Rice Terraces (龙脊梯田) were built by the local Zhuang and Yao people, to whom Guangxi is home. Starting in the Yuan Dynasty, work on the terraces took hundreds of years. The terraces are  (clever) designed, with hundreds of waterways that connect with each other. During the rainy season, it is along these waterways that rainwater  (move) down the mountains and into the terraces. These terraces also provide a perfect environment for birds and fish, some of which feed on insects  can harm the rice crops. Today the Longji Rice Terraces attract thousands of visitors who come to admire this great wonder created by people and nature working together.

Immersive Van Gogh

From the creators of the blockbuster show in Paris seen by over two million visitors and still wowing crowds in Toronto, the west coast premiere (首场) of the Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit will bring the art of Vincent to life in Los Angeles.

Immersive art is not just a technical way to represent video and audio in huge spaces. The word immersive indicates a deep commitment of intentions which connect images and sounds in a way that the audience is able to experience a different way of the art.

True to its name, this exhibition transforms the iconic (偶像的) paintings of Vincent van Gogh into moving, wall-filling projections. "Immersive Van Gogh" promises half-a-million cubic feet of projections that pull from some of the post-impressionist's most recognizable pieces, including The Bedroom, Sunflowers and, yes, The Starry Night.

You will experience art like never before—lose yourself in entrancing, moving images that highlight brushstrokes, detail, and color—truly illuminating (照亮) the mind of the genius.

LOCATION

The Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit is located at a secret place situated in the heart of Los Angeles. To be announced before the exhibit opens, existing ticket holders will receive an email with the place name and location once it is made public.

TICKET PRICES

Tickets are available online at www.vangoghla.com.

GIFT SHOP

Stop by our Exhibit Gift Shop to take the magic of Van Gogh home with you! From clothing and jewelry to home décor, children's books, and so much more, you will find unique and thoughtful souvenirs at the Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit. Also be sure to check out at our online store!

Experience the organic landscapes of Van Gogh's imagination, and journey through his brilliance and madness in a completely new and unforgettable way.

Ida Nelson and her sister were relaxing and enjoying themselves in the sauna (桑拿室) when she heard a series of long low sounds from a small airplane circling the nearby airport.

It was 11:30 at night in the Alaskan village of Igiugig, population 70, and, as she told the reporter, "Any time a plane flies over that late, you know something is wrong."

Nelson and her sister leaped out of the sauna, ran to the window, and saw the problem: The airport's runway lights were out.

Nelson threw on some clothes, jumped into her ATV, and floored it to the airport, where she found a local pilot trying to turn on the lights manually.

"Normally, if you push the button 10 or 15 times, the lights will just light up," Nelson told KTOO out of Juneau. Not this time. Meanwhile, she and the pilot learned of the plane's urgent mission: It was a medevac (医疗救护直升机), there to transport a seriously ill local girl to the nearest hospital, 280 miles away in Anchorage.

Nelson had a plan. Driving her ATV to the end of the runway, she shone her headlights for the plane to follow. Great idea, but it wasn't enough. More light was needed, so a neighbor called nearly every home in the village—32 of them.

Within 20 minutes, 20 vehicles arrived at the airport, many of the drivers still in pajamas (睡衣). Following directions from the medevac pilot, the cars lined up on one side of the runway.

The medevac made its final approach and, guided by the headlights, landed safely. The young patient was loaded onto the aircraft, and the plane immediately took off again. Her illness was never publicly revealed, but she has since been released from the hospital.

In a world filled with uncertainty, the little community's positive activism was a big deal. Not so much for Nelson. As she told the reporter, in Igiugig, coming together "is kind of a normal deal."

Humans' overconsumption of resources is a leading contributor to global climate change, says University of Arizona researcher Sabrina Helm. Therefore, it's increasingly important to understand the choices consumers make and how those decisions affect the health of a planet with limited resources. In a new study, published in the journal Young Consumers, Helm and her colleagues explore how materialistic values influence pro-environmental behaviors in millennials, who are now the nation's most influential group of consumers.

The researchers focused on two main categories of pro-environmental behaviors: reduced consumption, which includes actions like repairing instead of replacing older items; and "green buying," or purchasing products designed to limit environmental impacts. The researchers also looked at how engaging in pro-environmental behaviors affects consumer well-being.

More materialistic participants, the researchers found, were unlikely to engage in reduced consumption. However, materialism did not seem to have an effect on their likelihood of practicing "green buying." That's probably because "green buying," unlike reduced consumption, still offers a way for materialists to fulfill their desire to get new items, Helm said.

Study participants who reported having fewer materialistic values were much more likely to engage in reduced consumption. Consuming less was, in turn, linked to higher personal well-being and lower psychological suffering. Green buying—which may have some positive environmental effects, although to a smaller degree than reduced consumption—was not found to improve consumer well-being, Helm said.

The take-home message for consumers: "The key is to reduce consumption and not just buy green stuff. Having less and buying less can actually make us more satisfied and happier," Helm said. "If you have a lot of stuff, you have a lot on your mind," she said. "For example, it requires maintenance and there's a lot of burdens of ownership, and if you relieve yourself of that burden of ownership, most people report feeling a lot better and freer."

Helm and her colleagues additionally looked at how materialism affects millennial consumers' proactive financial behaviors, such as budgeting and saving. Examining financial behaviors alongside pro-environmental behaviors provides a picture of how young adults proactively deal with resource limitations in two contexts: environmental and financial, Helm said.

As expected, Helm and her colleagues found that those who reported having more materialistic values engaged in fewer proactive financial behaviors than their less materialistic counterparts (对应的人). The researchers also found that, consistent with previous studies, proactive financial behaviors were associated with better personal well-being, life satisfaction and financial satisfaction, as well as lower psychological suffering.

Understanding how materialistic values impact consumer behaviors, and how those behaviors in turn affect personal and environmental well-being, is important, Helm said. However, she acknowledges that for many consumers, shifting behaviors to be more financially proactive and consume less will be challenging.

Plants, and the insects which rely on them, are the living foundations of our planet. But these foundations are under stress because we have a tendency to replace fields and forests with decorative trees and shrubs imported from around the world. Adding to the problem, our obsession (痴迷) with perfection leads us to use a lot of pesticides (杀虫剂).

These actions are part of the reason global biodiversity is crashing. There are over three billion fewer wild birds in North America than there were in 1970. Recent research shows that insect numbers, even in nature reserves, have fallen, and 40 percent of all insect species may be extinct within a few decades. This is discouraging news; however, there are actions we can take to help bring at least some species back.

The first step is to redefine our concept of "garden" to include more than just plants. We need to intentionally share our space, and not just with the birds, bees and butterflies that visit our flowers, but also with the little insects that may eat a part (very rarely all) of our plants. Therefore, we must limit pesticide use. It's crucial to support nature's recovery, and it's much better for everyone: no doctor has ever recommended long-term exposure to pesticides.

Many drought-tolerant plants brought in from across the planet are being passed off as ecofriendly. However, mostly they're not. Yes, you're saving water, but these foreign plants can become disasters when they escape our yards. Helping the environment can be about more than saving water. Even in drier areas, like the American West, the selection of attractive native plants to choose from is vast. If dry is your style, there are native wildflowers, flowering bushes and trees that allow you to save water and nature.

Xeriscapes (节水型园艺) leave many gardeners thirsting for green, and there's an important alternative that has been largely ignored. For those disenchanted with dry landscaping, using underappreciated and water-loving native plants to make your garden a real-life oasis (绿洲) could be lifesaving to wildlife. In nature, this unsung group of native plants is limited to riparian zones, the narrow belts of green along water bodies, but if consumers demand them, nurseries will increasingly carry these riparian species, and the presence of such plants in the garden will provide for many animals including not just butterflies and their relatives but also colorful birds.

The ideal garden would offer a combination of drought-tolerant native plants and a few species that need a little more water, providing options for little guests and the bigger ones that will come to eat them. As more creatures stop by to share our yards, we will be making nature, and us all, a little healthier.

If you text often, you likely have a "texting style". Do you often use emojis? Or what about using correct punctuation (标点)? What do all these texting habits say about you? To help you understand yourself, here are some texting styles that can tell you a lot about your personality.

Do you always use emojis when you're texting? You're most likely someone who is open to showing your emotions and is truthful.  To make sure the other person doesn't get the wrong idea about your messages, you make sure to express the tone of messages with an emoji, which can be often used as effective signals in modern social communication.

If you like to respond in one-word texts like a quick "Good", then you most likely have a more reserved personality, and aren't as open with your true thoughts and feelings. Because you are not as open with your emotions in texts, you may not care how lengthy your response is. But be careful.  

Do you value punctuation and grammar in your writing? This love of grammar goes straight into your texts as well as your emails. This seems like a great thing, doesn't it? But in texting, people seem to think otherwise. Simply placing a period at the end of sentences in texts can make you come across as untrustworthy to others.  With this texting style, you are rooted in logic and always pay attention to the little details.

Are your texts lengthy and thoughtful?  Similar to someone who texts with perfect grammar, you are a thoughtful and detail-oriented person, who enjoys deep conversations and likes things that are controlled and stable.

 Which texting personality are you? Are you a mix of several types? It's important to note that everyone has different ways of texting in different situations. Everyone texts their colleagues in a different style from their family or their friends. If you ever think someone may have left you an unclear or rude text, it's better to just ask them in-person what they meant or what they were feeling.

A. Do you relate to any of these texting personalities?

B. Do you know that you and your friends may have different styles?

C. Such texts may also be rated as less sincere than those that do not.

D. You may be the busy type who doesn't have a lot of time to respond.

E. You're the type of person who understands the importance of context.

F. You want others to know how you're feeling when you're using a message.

G. If you're texting someone with a different text personality, they may view your text as negative.

Is it better for our bodies to work out at certain times of the day? Scientists have known for some time that every tissue in our bodies contains a kind of biological clock that goes off in response to messages related to our daily exposure to light, food and sleep.

However, whether and how exercise timing might influence metabolic (新陈代谢的) health has been less clear, and the results of past experiments have not always agreed. A much-discussed 2019 study found that men with Type 2 diabetes (糖尿病) who completed a few minutes of high-intensity interval (间隔) sessions in the afternoon improved their blood-sugar control after two weeks. Patrick Schrauwen, a professor of nutrition and movement sciences read that 2019 study with interest. He had been studying exercise in people with Type 2 diabetes, but had not considered the possible role of timing. Now, seeing the varying impacts of the intense workouts, he wondered if the timing of workouts might similarly affect how the workouts changed people's metabolisms.

Incidentally, he and his colleagues had a ready-made source of data in their own prior experiment. Several years earlier, they had asked adult men at high risk for Type 2 diabetes to ride stationary bicycles at the lab three times a week for 12 weeks, while the researchers tracked their metabolic health. They also had noted when the riders showed up for their workouts. The researchers pulled data for the 12 men who consistently had worked out between 8 and 10 a.m. and compared them with another 20 who always exercised between 3 and 6 p.m. They found that the benefits of afternoon workouts far outweighed those of morning exercise.

He says, "This study does suggest that afternoon exercise may be more beneficial for people with disturbed metabolisms than the same exercise done earlier. The particular and most effective exercise for each of us will line up with our daily routines and exercise tendencies because exercise is good for us at any time of day—but only if we choose to keep doing it."