湖南师范大学附属中学2020-2021学年高二下学期英语第二次月考试卷

Reading has been on the decline for years. One of the reasons for the decline in book sales is the leaps and bounds in technology. Why do you buy a book when you can conveniently buy audio books(有声读物)instead? Here are 4 of the best audio books you can find.

The Power of Now

Published in 2000, The Power of Now explains a journey-a journey that encourages you to dismiss your analytical mind and set aside yourself as well. The author, Eckhart Tolle, guides you through these transitions with easy words and phrases. The purpose of this book is to help you pay more attention to the current moment - the "now".

The Alchemist (练金术士)

It talks about the journey of a boy named Santiago who travels from Spain to Egypt in search of riches. Along the way, he meets three characters, a woman, a man who thinks that he's a king, and the alchemist. These characters help guide Santiago to his goal, but over time that goal changes. It moves away from worldly riches to something deeper and more meaningful.

The Power of Habit

Written by Charles Duhigg, The Power of Habit talks all about the power behind habits using various cases and plots to present Duhigg's points. In the book, Duhigg turns complex systems and methods into easily digestible stories that people and businesses can relate to.

Outliers

Written by Malcolm Gladwell, this book has popularized the idea that practicing 10,000 hours in total will make you an expert in that area. It also covers other aspects about what many of today's great people do in their daily life and how they have become successful in their own field.

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.

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

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 wisdom- when my feet hit the bottom, I would make a big jump and 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 rid 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 he knew 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.

If you frequently google language-related questions, you've probably seen an advertisement for Grammarly, an automated grammar-checker. Grammarly claims that it has the ability not only to fix mistakes, but also to improve style and polish too. Does it achieve what it claims to? Maybe not.

Artificial-intelligence systems like Grammarly are trained with data. Developers also manually add certain rules to the patterns Grammarly has taught itself. The software then looks at a user's essay: if a string of words seems ungrammatical, it tries to spot how the acknowledged mistake most closely resembles one from its training inputs.

All this shows how far artificial intelligence (AI) is from the human kind. Computers outsmart humans at problems that can be solved with pure maths, such as chess. Advances in language technology have been impressive in, for example, speech recognition, which involves another sort of statistical guess-whether or not a stretch of sound matches a certain string of words.

But grammar is the real magic of language. And machines are no match for humans. Computers can analyze grammatical sentences fairly well, labeling things like nouns and verb phrases. But they struggle with sentences that are difficult to analyze, precisely because they are ungrammatical.

To correct such essays requires knowing what the writer intended. But computers don't work in meaning or intention, they work in formulae. Humans, by contrast, can usually understand even rather damaged syntax, because of the ability to guess the contents of other minds. Grammar-checking computers focus on not how bad humans are with language, but just how good.

The health of millions could be at risk because medicinal plants are being used up. These plants are used to make traditional medicine, including drugs to fight cancer. "The loss of medicinal plants is a quiet disaster, says Sara Oldfield, secretary general of the NGO Botanic Gardens Conservation International.

Most people worldwide rely on herbal(药草制的)medicines which are mostly from wild plants. But some 15,000 of the 50,000 medicinal species are under threat of dying out, according to a report from the international conservation group Plantlife. Shortages have been reported in China, India, Kenya, Nepal, Tanzania and Uganda.

Overharvesting does the most harm, though pollution and competition from invasive species and habitat destruction all contribute. "Businessmen generally harvest medicinal plants, not caring about sustainability," the Plantlife report says. "Damage is serious partly because they have no idea about it, but it is mainly because such collection is unorganized. Medicinal trees at risk include the Himalayan yew (紫衫)and the African cherry, which are used to treat some cancers.

The solution, says the report's author, Alan Hamilton, is to encourage local people to protect these plants. Ten projects studied by Plantlife in India, Pakistan, China, Nepal, Uganda and Kenya showed this method can succeed. In Uganda the project has kept a sustainable supply of low-cost cancer treatments, and in China a public-run medicinal plant project has been created for the first time.

"Improving health, earning an income and keeping cultural traditions are important in encouraging people to protect medicinal plants," says Hamilton. " You have to pay attention to what people are interested in. "

Ghillean Prance, the former director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in London, agrees that medicinal plants are in need of protection. "Not nearly enough is being done," he told New Scientist. "We are destroying the very plants that are of most use to us. "

Sometimes, situations arise where you have to politely refuse others' offers. Sometimes knowing the reason why they are insisting may make you change your mind. But sometimes this attitude leads us to long-term unhappiness or we regret later not saying "no" to others. So we should learn to say "no" gently.

 Being sweet to others and always saying "yes" might make others happy but not you. If you say "yes" to everyone, they will take you for granted. Let others know that you have your own priorities and that you can't say "yes" to all the requests offered to you.

Be polite. The biggest reason why people don't say "no" is that they they feel it's rude to do so.  Give others real reasons for saying "no" and they won't feel bad about it. If they can't understand your problems, better not think about such people in your life. You can give excuses like Sorry, I am overloaded with work, so I can't take new projects. "

Don't hesitate. People who feel tough to say "no" generally keep the option open. If you don't want to do or agree on something, then directly say "no", otherwise the other person will keep waiting for your answers.

Stick to "no" even if you feel pressured. If you want to reject any offer, say "no" and stick to it. There are people who will keep on asking you until you say "yes" to them.  When people are pressuring you, you should stick to your point. They won't bother you again.

A. Don't always say "yes".

B. Change your answer immediately.

C. You can ask for time to think about it if you need to.

D. Change your thinking, for you can also say "no" politely.

E. This can be difficult especially when you care about them.

F. Even if faced with continuous insisting, you should not say "yes".

G. Many of us feel that we will appear rude if we say "no" to anyone.

When we're young, we always dream of love and fulfillment, and we think perhaps of beautiful nights or walks along the beach at sunset. No one tells us that the greatest 1 of a lifetime are flying, unplanned and nearly always catch us off guard.

Not long ago, as I was reading a bedtime story to my seven-year-old daughter, Annie, I became aware of her 2 gaze. She was 3 at me with a fascinated expression. 4 , completing The Tale of Samuel Whiskers was not as 5 as we first thought. I wondered what she was thinking about.

"Mommy," she 6, "I just can't stop looking at your pretty face. " I was almost deeply moved by her words. Little did she know how many 7 moments the glow of her sincerely loving statement would carry me through over the following years.

Not long after, I took my four-year-old son to an elegant 8 , where the sweet notes of a classic love song 9 us toward a musician playing the piano. Sam and I sat down on a marble bench nearby, enjoying the 10 quietly.

I didn't realize that Sam had stood up next to me until he turned, took my face in his little hands and said, " 11 with me. "

If only those women 12 under the moonlight knew the joy of such an13 made by a round-cheeked boy with baby teeth. Although shoppers 14chuckled, and pointed at us as we moved around the open space, I would not have15a dance with such a charming young gentleman if I'd been offered the universe.

The first practical cooling system for use in industry was invented in 1902 by Willis Carrier in New York, the USA. He continued to improve his  (invent) and, in 1928, (develop) the first air conditioner for home use. In 1939, an American car company introduced the first air conditioner for cars,  (make) driving more comfortable. After World War II, many homes in the USA were built  central air conditioning. Central air conditioning uses a single unit to heat  cool a whole house. With this, people could escape the heat of summer and the cold of winter no matter  they were in the house. But when electricity became more expensive, people managed to develop  (good) air conditioners  (save) money. Later, the cooling gas in air conditioners  (find) to pollute the environment, so engineers have been working to produce air conditioners more friendly to the environment since 1980s.

1）请补全所给的标题；

2）谈谈你对该谚语或句子的感悟或体会。

注意:

1）写作词数应为80左右；

2）适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；

3）题目已给出,不计入总词数；

4）请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。

My Favorite

Yumi stood at the door of the cabin (小屋). She watched black clouds roll across the sky. "This has been an awful vacation, she said to Mei. "We've been in this cabin all week because of this rain. Then I wanted to go into town with Mom and Dad today, but you got sick. "

"I couldn't help it," Mei cried.

Yumi didn't listen to her. "My friend Sue is lucky. She's an only child. She never has to miss out on things because of a little sister," she said.

With an angry click, she turned on the radio. "Word is just in," a man said. "There is a chance of a flash flood in Green Valley. The water in Copper Lake has reached the top of the dam. The dam could give way at any time. People in Green Valley are in danger. They should move to high ground right away. "

"Should we leave?" Mei asked.

"No, Mom and Dad will be home soon. I don't want to leave until they get here," Yumi answered.

Yumi was upset. Every past year she loved their vacations in Green Valley. But this year the rain spoiled(毁掉)everything. The sky grew darker. Heavy rain beat against the windows, and thunder shook the cabin. "Yumi, I'm scared," Mei said. "What if the dam breaks?"

"It won't," Yumi said. She hoped Mei believed her. Yumi didn't want Mei to know how scared she was.

The radio stopped in the middle of a song. A man came on the air talking loud and fast. "The Copper Lake Dam has broken. Everyone in Green Valley must move to high ground NOW!"

Yumi's heart raced. "Let's get out of here!" she cried. She took Mei's arm and pulled her outside. They could hear a terrible roar(咆哮)coming from the far end of the valley. Yumi and Mei dashed up the muddy road behind their cabin. The thundering roar grew louder. Yumi looked back. The wall of water was coming faster. It seemed to be swallowing all of Green Valley. In another minute it would hit them.

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。

Yumi saw a large tree just ahead.

……

In a short time the flood water began to go down.