广东省广州市真光重点中学2020-2021学年高二上学期英语期中考试试题

Auckland University Online Education — What to Expect

Most Auckland University （AU） online programs are 100 percent online so that students do not come to the school campus. Instead, AU has designed a media-rich, easy-to-use learning environment through a Learning Management System （LMS）.

• Discipline （纪律）

With disciplined work habits, you are likely to succeed as an online student. It is up to you to log on to your course and meet your own deadlines.

• Time Management

In order to earn competitive grades, plan on spending a minimum of 20-25 hours a week on each course. AU courses operate on a seven-week schedule, with start dates in January, March, May, July, September and November. Students are able to complete two courses per semester by taking one seven-week course at a time.

• Professional Connections

Many of the AU faculty （教员）who teach online have connections to industry, so the online learning environment ensures access to diverse expertise and practice. It includes an extensive network of professionals in a variety of industries.

"I work as an IT manager. And right from the very beginning, every class I took was relevant to what I was doing at work. The wide range of courses gave me a strong foundation for my career development."

—Jim Heilman, Computer Information Systems graduate

• Technology

It goes without saying that technology plays a vital role in online learning. You will need a high-speed Internet connection and basic computer skills. For specifics, please click here to visit our Technology page.

Kyle Cassidy and three other members of the Annenberg Running Group were stretching on the grounds of the University of Pennsylvania, waiting for a few latecomers. The Penn colleagues and other community members meet three days a week for a roughly 30-minute jog and an occasional lecture. That's right― during some runs, one of them delivers a talk. Topics range from the brain to Bitcoin.

But on this day last January, it would not be their normal run. The first clue that something was off was the man who sprinted past them. "Running at an amazing pace," Cassidy told Runner's World admiringly. Cassidy discovered why the sprinter was so fleet of foot when another man ran by, yelling, "Help! He took my phone and laptop!"

At that, the group did what running clubs do: They ran, trailing the suspect down the streets of Philadelphia until he ducked into a construction site. The runners split up. Cassidy ran around to the far side of the site to cut the thief off while the others wandered the neighborhood hoping he had dumped the loot （赃物）in a backyard.

No luck. So they decided to ask residents whether they'd seen the guy. When they knocked on the door of one row house, they were in for a surprise. Unknown to them, he had already emerged from the construction site—and was hiding behind a bush by that very house. As the owner opened the door, the suspect darted out from behind the bush ... and right into the arms of campus police, who'd joined the chase shortly behind the runners.

The members of this running group are not hard-core athletes. But they do understand the benefit of a little exercise. ''Running is typically a useless sport where you turn fat cells into heat," Cassidy told The Philadelphia Inquirer. "But occasionally it can be useful, and here was one of those opportunities."

Some creative people see colours when they hear different sounds. Others see colours when they see words and numbers printed in black and white. These interesting people are called synaesthetes, and what they experience is called synaesthesia.

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A study at the University of Sussex is finding out how learning to see sounds as colours or think of letters in colour could improve your IQ and memory.

Study leaders Dr. Daniel Bor and Dr. Nicolas Rothen have been working on memory for a number of years. They want to see which parts of the brain do different jobs. Dr. Bor says that carrying out these tests has given them the opportunity to find out more about how we use different kinds of memory.

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He explains that Professor Simon Baron Cohen, of the University of Cambridge, was largely responsible for beginning the modem science of synaesthesia in the 1980s. His tests showed that synaesthesia was real, and this made lots of scientists in different places want to do similar research.

Information chunking

Dr Bor based his latest research around something scientists already know a lot about — "chunking". He explains that this is a way of breaking large pieces of information into smaller units, to make it easier to remember. When I give you my phone number, 01274737215, you probably remember it as 012 74 73 72 15, or something similar. If you can remember 012 and the first 74, you can remember the rest. You can get some amazing benefits from chunking.

This is really important for understanding synaesthesia. Dr Bor says that synaesthesia adds extra information to things that are difficult to remember, such as letters and numbers, or extra colours. This helps us remember things better.

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"All these signs are pointing towards synaesthesia being connected to greater abilities to do certain things, certain jobs," says Dr. Bor. "So, the study began as a way to test that." They developed the study from an idea by Dr. Nicolas Rothen who had trained people for ten minutes a day for a week. The results were not huge, but they were interesting. They used those ideas in the study and they did see strong benefits.

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They discovered that, after training, people were able to pass the normal synaesthesia tests, and their IQ jumped up about 12 points!

As Dr. Bor says, "Synaesthetes are really pleased and proud that they get a memory advantage and they see the world in this extra special way."

According to a new study,  teens focus on rewards and have a hard time learning to avoid punishment or consider the consequences of alternative actions.

University College London researchers compared how teens and adults learn to make choices based on the available information. They tracked the way in which 18 volunteers aged 12-17 and 20 volunteers aged 18-32 completed tasks in which they had to choose between abstract symbols.

Each symbol was consistently associated with a fixed chance of a reward, punishment, or no outcome. As the trial progressed ， participants learned which symbols were likely to lead to each outcome and adjusted their choices accordingly. Teens and adults were equally good at learning to choose symbols associated with reward, but teens were less good at avoiding symbols associated with punishment. Adults also performed significantly better when they were told what would have happened if they had chosen the other symbol after each choice, while teens did not appear to take this information into account.

"From this experimental lab study we can draw conclusions about learning during the teen years. We find that teens and adults learn in different ways,  something that might be relevant to education," said lead author Dr. Stefano Palminteri. " Unlike adults, teens are not so good at learning to adjust their choices to avoid punishment. This suggests that incentive systems based on reward rather than punishment may be more effective for this age group. Additionally, we found that teens did not learn from being shown what would have happened if they made alternative choices."

To interpret the results, the researchers developed computational models of learning and ran simulations （模拟）applying them to the results of the study. The first was a simple model, one that learned from rewards, and the second model added to this by also learning from the option that was not chosen. The third model was the most complete and took the full context into account, with equal weight given to punishment avoidance and reward seeking. For example, obtaining no outcome rather than losing a point is weighted equally to gaining a point rather than having no outcome.

Comparing the experimental data to the models, the team found that teens" behavior followed the simple reward-based model while adults" behavior matched the complete, contextual model. "Our study suggests that teens are more receptive to rewards than they are to punishments of equal value, " said senior author Dr. Sarah-Jayne Blakemore. "As a result, it may be useful for parents and teachers to frame things in more positive terms."

If you are like most international students, you are probably pretty comfortable reading and writing in English. Below are some tips to help you to improve your conversational skills.

Make friends with American students. Many international students end up making friends with a lot of-or only -other international students. Hanging out with natives not only naturally pushes you to improve your spoken English, but also helps you pick up cultural and social information.

Learn from American friends. Tell your American friends that you are trying to improve your listening and speaking skills, and would like them to help you. If you pronounce a word incorrectly, or misuse an idiom, you ask them to guide you.

Increase your Knowledge. If you have been exposed to topics that are likely to be discussed in conversation, you have a much better chance of understanding people when they talk, and of being able to express yourself well.

If you have to explain something to someone, you have a strong motivation to pronounce everything as well as you can, and find other ways to explain yourself. Finally, this becomes a good habit. Many people have asked me how I learned to speak English fluently, and I owe most of it to my years of being a math teacher in college for years.

A. It is bad for them to do that.

B. You will make progress this ways.

C. If possible, become a teacher at your school.

D. It's a win-win opportunity for international students.

E. Keep up with news and watch popular shows and movies.

F. Explaining everything in a different way counts.

G. You may have trouble in listening and speaking in the language, however.

My daughter loved dance, until she didn't. After an1first year, I noticed her interest fading week by week. Then, one day, she slowly walked to me before class and asked if she could just 2 it.

My first reaction was to 3 her to "finish what you start".4, sticking with something difficult can teach perseverance (毅力), discipline and confidence. But watching my first-grader 5herself into each ballet position, I started to question how much6that "blanket advice" made. Is it really in my kid's best 7, or even practical, to make her stick to every commitment through until she reaches a bitter8? What if there are different but 9 valuable qualities, which can be gained by 10 the things that are not right for her?

With the winter show approaching, I realized she needed to either 11 her class or commit herself to it. After a few days' consideration, she 12 dance wasn't for her — a choice I 13. Quitting is never a black-and-white issue. Sometimes, it means 14 a barrier in your way to love something else. In my daughter's case, ending dance made space for her new hobbies, such as horseback riding and Girl Scouts. She's into them for now, but it is okay if that 15 changes.

As adults, we are accustomed to16the power of saying yes, but what about saying no? The ability to recognize when something isn't an 17investment of our time or energy is also important. As my daughter gets older, I want her to feel confident to 18 something that's no longer meeting her needs. She shouldn't be held back by the thought that she must 19 something at any cost 20 because she has started.

Several countries in Asia celebrate the Lunar New Year in their own way. But dragon and lion dances in Chinatowns all over the world have helped to make China's New Year the most famous. These days growing (number) of people who are not of Chinese origin are joining in. In Tokyo window cleaners dress up the animals of the Chinese Shengxiao. America, Canada and New Zealand have published memorial stamps for the year of the chicken. Last year New York City made the Lunar New Year school holiday for the first time.

The spread of the Spring Festival is(part) due to recent immigration from China: 9.5 million Chinese people (move) abroad since 1978, many of are far richer than earlier waves of immigrants.

Aware of China's growing economic and political influence, foreign leaders have noticed the occasion. Britain's prime minister, Theresa May, has given video address, a tradition (start) in 2014 by her predecessor(前任). This year's World Economic Forum in Davos was held a week earlier than usual (avoid) conflicting with China's New Year.

China hopes the festival will promote (it) cultural "soft power" abroad. So it may give the Chinese people (satisfy) to see foreigners enjoy such festivities.