广州市执信中学2021届高三年级第二次月考
英 语
全卷满分120分，考试用时120分钟。
第一部分 阅读理解 ( 共两节，满分50分 )
第一节 ( 共15小题；每小题2.5分，满分37.5分 )
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C和D四个选项中，选出最佳选项。
A
Planning a visit to the UK? Here we help with ways to cut your costs.
AVOID BIG EVENTS Big sporting events, concerts and exhibitions can increase the cost of accommodation and make it harder to find a room. A standard double room at the Thistle Brighton on the final Friday of the Brighton Comedy Festival (19 Oct.) cost ￡169.15 at Booking.com. A week later, the same room cost ￡118.15.
If you can be flexible and want to know dates to avoid — or you’re looking for a big event to pass your time — check out sites such as Whatsonwhen.com, which allow you to search for events in the UK by city, date and category.
STAY AWAY FROM THE STATION If traveling to your destination by train, you may want to find a good base close to the station, but you could end up paying more for the sake of convenience at the start of your holiday.
Don’t be too choosy about the part of town you stay in. Booking two months in advance, the cheapest room at Travelodge’s Central Euston hotel in London for Saturday 22 September was ￡95.95. A room just a tube journey away at its Covent Garden hotel was ￡75.75. And at Farringdon, a double room cost just ￡62.95.
LOOK AFTER YOURSELF Really central hotels in cities such as London, Edinburgh and Cardiff can cost a fortune, especially at weekends and during big events. As an alternative consider checking into a self-catering flat with its own kitchen. Often these flats are hidden away on the top floors of city centre buildings. A great example is the historic O’Neill Flat on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, available for ￡420 for five days in late September, with room for four adults.
GET ON A BIKE London’s ‘Boris bikes’ have attracted the most attention, but other cities also have similar programmes that let you rent a bicycle and explore at your own pace, saving you on public transport or car parking costs.
Among the smaller cities with their own programmes are Newcastle (casual members pay around ￡1.50 for two hours) and Cardiff (free for up to 30 minutes, or ￡5 per day). 1. The Brighton Comedy Festival is mentioned mainly to show big events may ________. A. help travelers pass time B. attract lots of travelers to the UK
C. allow travelers to make flexible plans D. cause travelers to pay more for living
2. “Farringdon” in Paragraph 5 is most probably ________. A. a hotel away from the train station B. the tube line to Covent Garden C. an ideal holiday destination D. the name of a travel agency
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3. The passage shows that the O’Neill Flat ________. A. lies on the ground floor B. is located in central London
C. provides cooking facilities for tourists D. costs over ￡100 on average per day in late September
B
There is a very instructive incident involving the life of Alexander the Great, King of Greek. Alexander, after conquering many kingdoms, was returning home. On the way, he fell ill and it took him to his death bed. With death staring him in his face, Alexander realized his conquests, his great army, his sharp sword and all his wealth were of no consequence. So, he lay helplessly waiting to breathe his last. He called his generals and said, “I will depart from this world soon, and I have three wishes. Please carry them out without fail.”
“My first desire is that,” said Alexander, “my physicians alone must carry my coffin.” After a pause, he continued, “Secondly, I desire that when my coffin is being carried to the grave, the path leading to the graveyard be strewn (撒满) with gold, silver and precious stones which I have collected.” The King continued, “My third and last wish is that both my hands should be kept hanging out of my coffin.” Alexander’s favorite general kissed his hand and pressed them to his heart. “Oh King, we assure you that your wishes will all be fulfilled. But tell us why you make such strange wishes?”
Alexander took a deep breath and said, “I would like the world to know of the three lessons I have just learnt. I want my physicians to carry my coffin because people should realize that no doctor can really cure any bodies. They are powerless and cannot save a person from the clutches of death. So let people not take life for granted. “The second wish of strewing gold, silver and other riches on the way to the graveyard is to tell people that not even a bit of gold will come with me. I spent all my life earning riches but cannot take anything with me. Let people realize that it is just a waste of time to chase wealth.
“And about my third wish of having my hands hanging out of the coffin, I wish people to know that I came empty-handed into this world and empty-handed out of this world.” With these words, the King closed his eyes. Soon he let death conquer him and breathed his last. 4. The first paragraph suggests that Alexander ________.
A. was conquering many kingdoms.
B. realized that what he got in his life was nothing to him at all. C. wanted to leave as he came empty-handed.
D. regarded his conquests, his great army, his sharp sword and all his wealth as the most important things.
5. The underlined word “clutches” in paragraph 3 means “________”.
A. sentence B. attention C. control D. shadow 6. The author intends to ________.
A. tell us the story of Alexander
B. persuade people to realize what Alexander said C. stress the powers of Alexander the Great
D. introduce readers to the instructive lessons of Alexander
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7. What would be the best title for the passage?
A. Three Wishes of Alexander B. The Greed of Alexander C. The Death of Alexander D. The Life of Alexander
C
The idea of being able to walk on water has long interested humans greatly. Sadly, biological facts prevent us ever accomplishing such a thing without artificial aid -- we simply weigh too much, and all our mass pushes down through our relatively small feet, resulting in a lot of pressure that makes us sink.
However, several types of animals can walk on water. One of the most interesting is the common Basilisk, a lizard (蜥蜴) native to Central and South America. It can run across water for a distance of several meters, avoiding getting wet by rapidly hitting the water’s surface with its feet. The lizard will take as many as 20 steps per second to keep moving forward. For humans to do this, we’d need huge feet that we could bring up to our ears in order to create adequate hitting.’’
But fortunately there is an alternative: cornflour. By adding enough of this common thickening agent to water (and it does take a lot), you can create a “non-Newtonian” liquid that doesn’t behave like normal water. Now, if the surface of the water is hit hard enough, particles (粒子) in the water group together for a moment to make the surface hard. Move quickly enough and put enough force into each step, and you really can walk across the surface of an adequately thick liquid of cornflour.
Fun though all this may sound, it’s still rather messy and better read about in theory than carried out in practice. If you must do it, then keep the water wings handy in case you start to sink -- and take a shower afterward!
8. Walking on water hasn’t become a reality mainly because humans ________.
A. are not interested in it B. have biological limitations C. have not invented proper tools D. are afraid to make an attempt
9. What do we know about Basilisk from the passage?
A. It is light enough to walk on water.
B. Its huge feet enable it to stay above water. C. It can run across water at a certain speed.
D. Its unique skin keeps it from getting wet in water.
10. What is the function of the cornflour according to the passage?
A. To create a thick liquid. B. To turn the water into solid.
C. To help the liquid behave normally. D. To enable the water to move rapidly.
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11. What is the author’s attitude toward the idea of humans’ walking on water?
A. It is risky but beneficial.
B. It is interesting and worth trying.
C. It is crazy and cannot become a reality.
D. It is impractical though theoretically possible.
D
Baby bats learn language from peers (同伴) in their social group, and will adopt the group’s dialect, or accent, instead of their mother’s, researcher said on Tuesday.
The findings shed new light on crowd-learning of language, a skill thought to belong mainly to humans and just a few other mammals. It also shows that bats are different from songbirds, which tend to learn songs by copying one of their parents. “The ability to copy vocalizations (发音) from others is extremely important for speech learning in humans, but it’s believed to be rare among animals”, said lead author Yossi Yovel of Tel Aviv University.
For the study, researchers captured 14 pregnant Egyptian fruit bats. They separated them into three different bat social groups, where they raised the young bats with their mothers. Each bat group was exposed to a different recording of bat vocalizations.
“The baby bats all adopted the manner of vocalizing of the group they heard, not their mothers. The difference between the vocalizations of the mother bat and those of the group is comparable to the difference in a London accent and, say, a Scottish accent,” Yovel said.
“The babies heard their mothers’ London dialect, but also heard the Scottish dialect produced by many dozens of Scottish bats. The babies eventually adopted a dialect that was more similar to the local Scottish dialect than to the London accent of their mothers.”
Researchers hope to conduct future studies to examine how bats’ dialects change when they leave their social groups, and if it affects how they integrate with others.
12. What are the latest findings about bats?
A. Bats’ accents are influenced by their peer’s accents. B. Bats are born to adopt their mother’s dialect. C. Bats can understand peers with different dialects.
D. Bats pick up language quickly in company with their peers. 13. Why are London and Scottish accent mentioned?
A. To indicate the birthplace of baby bats.
B. To explain why bat produce different sounds.
C. To show the differences in dialects among social groups. D. To compare how the two accents influenced understanding. 14. In paragraph 3, what does the underlined word they refer to?
A. Accents. B. Baby bats. C. Researchers. D. Mother bats. 15. What will the future study most probably focus on?
A. How bats adopt a new dialect after entering a new social group. B. Whether bats leave their social group if they change their accents. C. Why some bats fail to be accepted in a new group after they are born.
D. What changes might occur to bats’ accent after entering a new social group.
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第二节（共5小题，每小题2.5分，满分12.5分）
根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项，选项中有两项为多余选项。
Reading well begins with understanding the words on the page. In nearly three decades of teaching literature, I’ve noticed that many readers have been conditioned to jump so quickly to interpretation and evaluation that they often skip the fundamental but essential task of comprehending what the words actually mean.
16 . When I ask students to describe or explain a line or passage, often their first response is to turn their eyes upward in search of a thought or an idea, rather than to look down at the words on the page in front of them where the answer actually lies. 17 and this improves with practice.
Practice makes perfect, but pleasure makes practice more likely, so read something enjoyable. If a book is so agonizing that you avoid reading it, put it down and pick up one that brings you pleasure. Life is too short and books are too plentiful. Besides, one can’t read well without enjoying reading.
18 . A book that requires nothing from you might offer the same distraction as that of a television sitcom, but it is unlikely to provide intellectual, aesthetic (美学的), or spiritual rewards long after the cover is closed. 19 : books with sentences so exquisitely (精妙地) crafted that they must be reread, familiar words used in fresh ways, new words so evocative (唤起情感的) that you are compelled to look them up, and images and ideas so arresting that they return to you for days to come.
Also, read slowly. Speed-reading is not only inferior to deep reading but may bring more harm than benefits. 20 . Worse yet, “speed-reading gives you two things that should never mix—superficial knowledge and overconfidence.”
A. This habit of the mind can be seen in the body
B. Therefore, demand books that make demands on you C. Attending to the words on the page requires deep thinking D. When you read, you should be faithful to the text and context E. While reading is fun, not every minute of reading is enjoyable
F. When you read quickly, you aren’t thinking critically or making connections G. On the other hand, the greatest pleasures are those born of labor and investment
第二部分 语言运用（共两节，满分30分）
第一节 完形填空（共15小题；每小题1分，满分15分）
阅读下面短文，从短文后各题所给的A、B、C和D四个选项中，选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
Each year the headmaster of the school where I work asks us to read a book chosen by him. The book provides a framework for work we will do throughout the school year, which can 21 better service to our students.
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广州市执信中学2021届高三年级第二次月考（英语） - 图文
