陕西省陕西师范大学附属中学2023-2024学年高二上学期期末考试英语试题.docx

陕西省陕西师范大学附属中学2023-2024学年高二上学期期末考试英语试题
学校:___________姓名：___________班级：___________考号：___________

一、阅读理解
Italy is a country that cannot be missed on your travel bucket list.
Things to Do in Italy
Owning 50 UNESCO approved World Cultural Heritage Sites, Italy is honored around the world for its ancient civilization and art. Being the epitome (典范) of the western art and culture, this remarkable land gave birth to the Renaissance, which affected the whole Europe, and obviously every corner of Italy bears a long history. Men are crazy about Italian football, while ladies can’t move their eyes away from Italian fashion. Moreover, the world famous Italian cuisine will also delight you. Our Italy vacation packages could cover all these absorbing aspects.
Best Time to Go
Italy has a diverse climate, with continental climate in the north and Mediterranean climate in the south.
In summer, most areas in Italy are extremely hot, with the highest temperature over 35℃. Usually, the high temperature starts from the end of June and lasts till August. August is the national holiday month. Many Italian families will spend their holidays in coastal cities.
During the winter time, the northern Italy is relatively cold and accompanied by heavy snows. Many people will stay indoors. But it is highly recommended to go skiing and enjoy the snow-covered landscape of the mountains. The southern and island areas are relatively warm, with an average temperature of about 15℃.
Generally speaking, the best time to take Italy tours is spring from April to June and autumn from September to October.
Visa for Italy Tours
Italy is a Schengen country (申根国家), and international travelers can enter Italy with an available Schengen visa issued by any Schengen country. Travelers holding American, Canadian, Australian passports, and citizens of European Union (EU) countries are allowed to stay up to 90 days without a visa.
Currency & Payment in Italy
Italy uses the European Union’s common currency Euro (€). Visa, MasterCard, JCB, etc. are widely accepted. But for tobacco purchases, only cash is accepted. Some supermarkets do not support credit card payment.
1．What greatly appeals to female visitors in Italy?
A．History. B．Football. C．Fashion. D．Cuisine.
2．What is advised to do in the winter of Italy?
A．Go skiing in the north.
B．Join in some indoor activities.
C．Enjoy family holidays in coastal cities.
D．Climb snow covered mountains on islands.
3．Who can stay in Italy for three months?
A．A traveler with a Chinese passport.
B．Any international traveler with a visa.
C．Any person living in Canada for many years.
D．A citizen from an EU country without a visa.

It was October 2005, and the catastrophic earthquake killing some 79,000 people in Pakistan had reduced the valley to mud and ruins.
Yasmeen Lari, a 65-year-old architect, was there to help lead the reconstruction of settlements, but she had never done disaster work before. Lari was known for designing smooth towers of glass and concrete. But here, she’d be drawing plans for earthquake-resistant homes using stone and timber debris(木材碎片). With each passing day, she felt deeply right to do disaster-relief work. So she made it her new mission, spending the next four months working with volunteer architects and engineers from Pakistan and abroad.
Inspired by local buildings made with sustainable materials such as timber debris, bamboo and mud, Lari’s shelters can better withstand disasters. Lari says this local, cost-effective and zero-carbon approach is creating an ecosystem. Anyone can learn by watching DIY videos on Lari’s Zero Carbon Channel on YouTube.
The design won a UN World Habitat Prize in 2018.“We need to believe in people’s capacity to bring about change. I treat displaced people as partners, not victims. They know what to do,” says Lari.
Over the decades, Yasmeen Lari has won many awards as architect and environmentalist. While it may seem like an unlikely path for a girl who was born into a well-to-do family in1941, she had an unconventional upbringing. At home, her father would talk about the desperate need for housing. Listening to her father talk about the housing crisis and need for architects made an impression on Lari. On a family visit to London when she was 15, she applied to architecture school at Oxford Brookes University. She laughs as she recalls her bravery.
At age 83, Yasmeen Lari is still full of ideas about zero-carbon designs, skills building and self-sustaining villages. “Architects can no longer work for just the one percent,” she says. “That doesn’t allow them to serve humanity as much as they could.”
4．What can we learn about Lari from the first two paragraphs?
A．She felt considerably proud to do disaster-relief work.
B．She started a brand-new volunteer working experience.
C．She was good at designing earthquake-resistant houses.
D．She reconstructed the settlements with glass and concrete.
5．How did Lari make her design practical and environmental?
A．By creating an ecosystem.
B．By strengthening local buildings.
C．By using local sustainable materials.
D．By watching DIY videos on YouTube.
6．Why did Lari decide to apply to architecture school?
A．Her interest in architecture drove her.
B．Her father encouraged her to path unusual.
C．Her father talked about the demand for architects.
D．Her rich family allowed her to pursue the most of dream.
7．Which of the following best describes Yasmeen Lari?
A．Sensitive and brave.
B．Determined and cooperative.
C．Honest and generous.
D．Sympathetic and eco-responsible.

Transport is undergoing a massive transformation so it can meet society’s demands for a low- carbon economy. Introducing electric vehicles (EV) and declining gasoline use are helping, but zero-carbon hydrogen can speed up both the transition (转变) and long-term decarbonization of transport.
In the US, transportation produces the largest share of all greenhouse gas emissions (排放) in the economy at 29%, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. More than 90% of transport fuel is petrol based, but if more vehicles used hydrogen, emissions of this kind would plummet.
However, hydrogen is not considered an ideal replacement for gasoline as an engine fuel for cars because it is harder to store safely. And while fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) that turn hydrogen into electricity can compete with EV performance-and even out-compete them on range and refill time, extra energy is needed to produce the hydrogen needed for fuel. Also, finding investment for storage, pipelines and fuel stations is still a challenge for many nations.
Currently, governments worldwide are backing green hydrogen projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in heavy industries like freight (货运), steel, and energy storage. But hydrogen transport will need rapid production methods to create the fuel needed for the world’s road fleet.
Thankfully, research is advancing all the time. Nanoscale (纳米级的) thin films are applied to improving the chemical process to rapidly harvest hydrogen from the seawater. The same technology has been successfully used in solar power devices with higher efficiency-to-cost rates. Since hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe and as seawater makes up about 96% of all water on Earth, there is a virtually limitless supply.
Even wastewater and solid waste can create green hydrogen. Researchers at Princeton University are using sunlight to separate hydrogen from industrial wastewater. Chemical plants that currently face high costs for cleaning wastewater could transform it into clean hydrogen supplies.
8．What does the underlined word “plummet” mean in Paragraph 2?
A．Stop. B．Decrease. C．Continue. D．Disappear.
9．What is Paragraph 3 mainly about?
A．Ways of storing hydrogen safely.
B．Benefits of fuel cell electric vehicles.
C．Challenges of using hydrogen as car fuel.
D．Differences between gasoline and hydrogen.
10．What makes it more efficient to get hydrogen from the ocean?
A．The application of solar power devices.
B．The method of identifying water elements.
C．The invention. of the water transport system.
D．The use of the nanoscale thin-film technology.
11．Which of the following can be a suitable title for the text?
A．Clean Energy Hydrogen Ready to Take Off
B．Traditional Fuels Bound to Reach a Dead End
C．How We Can Generate Energy from Hydrogen
D．What the Future of Transportation May Be Like

The Stanford marshmallow (棉花糖) test was originally conducted by psychologist Walter Mischel in the late 1960s. Children aged four to six at a nursery school were placed in a room. A single sugary treat, selected by the child, was placed on a table. Each child was told if they waited for 15 minutes before eating the treat, they would be given a second treat. Then they were left alone in the room. Follow-up studies with the children later in life showed a connection between an ability to wait long enough to obtain a second treat and various forms of success.
As adults we face a version of the marshmallow test every day. We’re not tempted by sugary treats, but by our computers, phones, and tablets — all the devices that connect us to the global delivery system for various types of information that do to us what marshmallows do to preschoolers.
We are tempted by sugary treats because our ancestors lived in a calorie-poor world, and our brains developed a response mechanism to these treats that reflected their value — a feeling of reward and satisfaction. But as we’ve reshaped the world around us, dramatically reducing the cost and effort involved in obtaining calories, we still have the same brains we had thousands of years ago, and this mismatch is at the heart of why so many of us struggle to resist tempting foods that we know we shouldn’t eat.
A similar process is at work in our response to information. Our formative environment as a species was information-poor, so our brains developed a mechanism that prized new information. But global connectivity has greatly changed our information environment. We are now ceaselessly bombarded (轰炸) with new information. Therefore, just as we need to be more thoughtful about our caloric consumption, we also need to be more thoughtful about our information consumption, resisting the temptation of the mental “junk food” in order to manage our time most effectively.
12．What did the children need to do to get a second treat in Mischel’s test?
A．Take an examination alone. B．Share their treats with others.
C．Delay eating for fifteen minutes. D．Show respect for the researchers.
13．According to Paragraph 3, there is a mismatch between_______.
A．the calorie-poor world and our good appetites B．the shortage of sugar and our nutritional needs
C．the tempting foods and our efforts to keep fit D．the rich food supply and our unchanged brains
14．What does the author suggest readers do?
A．Be selective information consumers. B．Absorb new information readily.
C．Use diverse information sources. D．Protect the information environment.
15．Which of the following is the best title for the text?
A．Eat Less, Read More B．The Later, the Better
C．The Marshmallow Test for Grownups D．The Bitter Truth about Early Humans

A diverse workforce consists of people from all walks of life. These are employees who will view the world differently, and who will apply their personal experience to contribute unique viewpoints which can benefit your company. 16 There are still more real and immediate benefits of diversity in the workplace.
When employees with different viewpoints come together, everyone shares a slightly different approach to the job and the problem at hand. And that’s a benefit, as far as your success is concerned. 17 They’re diverse too, after all.
Meanwhile, workplace diversity boosts creativity. Think about it this way: sameness causes sameness. If you only hire employees coming from similar cultures and socioeconomic circumstances, you’re limiting the creativity and innovation of your company. 18
In general, people like to fit in, so they are careful not to stick their necks out. When in a strong, homogenous (同种类的) culture, they prevent the natural cognitive (认知的) diversity in groups through the pressure to follow the majority. 19 No matter who they are or where they come from, this inclusiveness helps them break down barriers and reduce the fear of being rejected.
20 A diverse workforce gives you a diverse and global perspective — a point of view rich in incredible slight differences in human experience and culture — and that means you will have a greater chance of expanding into more diverse markets, both at home and abroad.
A．And this just doesn’t end there.
B．Similarly, different voices will contribute to diversity.
C．Actually, diversity should be a major goal for every company.
D．A diverse workforce also gives you better insights into your customers.
E．But a workplace culture of diversity helps your employees feel included.
F．Beyond that, diversity can help you successfully develop your business globally.
G．On the contrary, employees from diverse backgrounds will bring diverse solutions.

二、完形填空
Many years ago, I bought a house in the Garfagnana, where we still go every summer. The first time we 21 there, we heard the chug chug-chug of a motorbike making its way down the hill towards us. It was a neighbor called Mario, coming to 22 us a box containing some tomatoes and a bottle of wine. It was a very nice 23 for him to make. But when we looked at the tomatoes, we were 24 because they were so misshapen: not at all like the nice, round, shiny things you get in a supermarket. And the wine was 25 , in a funny old bottle with no label (标签) on it. These can’t be any good we thought. But we were 26 his kindness, so we tried them.
What we discovered is that it’s 27 to judge what you eat only by its 28 . Those tomatoes had 29 that reminded me of the ones my uncle used to grow when I was a child. Nowadays supermarket tomatoes look perfect but taste of water. Nobody’s going to have a(n) 30 memory of those. It’s a surprise they haven’t managed to grow square ones so that they can 31 them easily. Mario’s wine may have been cloudy and come out of an old bottle, but it was 32 .
It’s good to eat things at the correct time, when they’re 33 , and as close as possible to where they were 34 . What Mario had 35 us was the taste of the Garfagnana.
21．A．departed B．occupied C．camped D．stayed
22．A．bring B．send C．recommend D．promote
23．A．choice B．comment C．proposal D．gesture
24．A．worried B．depressed C．thrilled D．discouraged
25．A．bold B．spicy C．cloudy D．strong
26．A．sympathetic to B．thankful for C．cautious about D．interested in
27．A．unnecessary B．uncertain C．unwise D．unusual
28．A．appearance B．texture C．origin D．pri