广东省广州市四校2021-2022学年高二上学期期中联考英语试题

4 Popular Places to Go This Winter

Harbin, China

China Harbin's winter is for the brave ones—the average temperature is 1.8°F- but those who brave the cold will be rewarded with experiencing one of the world's largest winter festivals. 2021 marks the 37th Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival (January-March), when massive frozen structures rise and are lit up, transforming the city into a winter wonderland.

Lyon, France

Paris may be called The City of Light, but every December, light takes center stage in Lyon, France's third-largest city. That's when the annual Festival of Lights (around December 8) takes over, with light installations (装置)that transform the city's streetscapes into modern works of art. The city is also home to two Christmas markets (one in La Croix-Rousse; the other at the Place Carnot; through December 25).

Lima, Peru

Peru's capital Lima is home to the world's highest number of cooking schools per person. Aside from its delicate dining, the city also has great cocktail bars where you can taste classic or contemporary takes on the Pisco Sour. Combine that with the oceanfront setting and temperatures in the 80s, and you'll understand why Lima should no longer be ignored this winter.

Vermont, US

Winter in Vermont means skiing and snowboarding, Many resorts (度假胜地)have greatly upgraded their snowmaking abilities as part of a $15 million statewide program that replaced many outdated snow guns with new, low-energy models. These new machines will also improve the quality of snow surfaces and lengthen the season, meaning this will be one of the best winters for skiing and riding in Vermont in recent memory.

After news broke over the weekend that Beverly Cleary had died at age 104. Judy Blume took to Twitter, "Beverly Cleary! My inspiration. I wanted to write books like yours. I so regret never having met you. You will not be forgotten," she wrote on Twitter.

The "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret" author vent on to share another social media post About one very memorable interaction she did have with Cleary. The 83-year-old author explained that their common publisher exchanged their fan mails, and she read some of Cleary's letters. After the accidental exchange, Blume sent back the fan mails with a special note. Cleary wrote her one in turn. "She cautioned me not to get caught up in the demands of the teachers and students," Blume said. "She was concerned that if I did it would interfere with (干扰) my writing. She was right. "

"When I started writing in the late 60s end was reading children's books for inspiration, no books delighted and inspired me the way Beverly Cleary's did. I once fell off the sofa while reading one of her books because I was laughing so hard," Blume added.

Journalist Reyhan Harmanci also shared a post about what Blune once told her on social media. "I'm always amused when I met young readers who say, ‘I love your Ramona books.' Then I explain that I love Ramona, too, but I didn't write those books, Beverly Cleary did," the author shared. "They give me an ashamed look then, and I tell them it's OK. What's important is that they're reading and loving the experience. "

Blume's admiration for Cleary was passed on to her daughter, who read it whenever she seemed anxious. Now, Blume's grandson is also a fan of Cleary's works. She concluded that Cleary's writing has positively impacted several generations, and she couldn't imagine what the world would be without her brilliance.

Transportation and communication networks bring people together. Yet sometimes people themselves create barriers (障碍) to transportation and communication. In some countries, laws stop people from moving freely from place to place. Over the centuries, many groups of people have been denied the freedom to travel because of their race, religion, or nationality. In the Middle Ages, for example, Jews were often forbidden to move about freely within certain cities. South Africa's government used to require black Africans to carry passes when they travel within the country. Some governments require all citizens to carry identification papers and to report to government officials when they move.

Countries set up customs posts at their borders. Foreign travellers must go through a customs inspection before they are allowed to travel in the country. Usually travelers have to carry special papers such as passports and visas (签证). Some countries even limit the number of visitors to their country each year. Others allow tourists to visit only certain areas of the country, or they may require that travellers be with an official guide at all times during their stay.

Many of those barriers to travel also act as barriers to communication. When two governments have conflicts with each other on important matters, they usually do not want their citizens to exchange news or ideas freely. Countries often try to keep military or industrial information secret.

Today, people have the ability to travel, to communicate, and to transport goods more quickly and easily than ever before. Natural barriers that were difficult or dangerous to cross a hundred years ago can now be crossed easily. The barriers that people themselves make are not so easy to overcome. But in spite of all the different kinds of barriers, people continue to enjoy travel and the exchange of goods and ideas.

The world's clocks mark every passing second, minute and hour. But to humans, seconds of pain can feel like minutes, and hours spent at a party can end in a blink (眨眼).

The brain can stretch or squeeze the feeling of tine for many reasons, including pleasure, pain, fear and age. Although the science behind this "subjective time" is not fully understood, some research suggests that an additional factor might influence the subjective length of your life: your income.

Research already suggests that, on average, wealthy people live longer, biologically. Now, emerging work indicates that varied and novel (新奇的) experiences could create more "time codes (编码)" in the human brain as it processes memory formation. This, in tun, could mean that people who can afford to enjoy more vacations and hobbies, and who have more stimulating jobs, will recall having lived for a longer time on Earth.

"Even though time flies when you're having fun, when you look back on it, you can remember much more of this extended experience compared to a boring experience, " says Jorgen Sugar, a postdoctoral student at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience. He's part of a team of scientists investigating these mental time codes.

The idea that novelty can affect the experience of time also seems to fit cultures that don't measure time using clocks—many cultures depend instead on celestial, cultural and seasonal events to mark the flow of time. Our experience of time does vary according to circumstances, and also according to the kind of rhythm of activity we engage in, " says Chris Sinha, a cognitive (认知) scientist working with Hunan University who has studied so called "event-based time" in Amazonian tribes and linguistic minority groups in China.

But other experts aren't convinced. According to Monica Capri, an economist with a background in neuro-economies at Claremont Graduate University, subjective time isn't well understood scientifically. Even if higher-paid jobs can lead to more new experiences, wealthy people aren't necessarily spending money that way. A millionaire, for instance, may spend money on a fancy watch, but this isn't likely to change their feeling of time the way a vacation or even a low-cost hike would, she says.

What's more, she says, there are many factors to consider in how the brain processes time. For instance, according to Adrian Bejan, a professor at Duke University, the novelty of fun experiences an simply war off.

Still, researchers from many fields are eager to uncover the mysteries of memory and subjective time. According to Sugar, understanding how humans form and recall memories can affect many aspects of society, such as law, education and healthcare—and perhaps can even aid our understanding of ourselves. "The human brain is the most complex biological system we know. " he says.

Procrastination(拖延症) Tech Support

Choosing between immediate satisfaction and future benefit can easily lead to shortsighted decisions: Watching TV instead of going to the gym, for example, or going through social media rather than working on a challenging project.

To guide individuals toward greatest choices, Falk Lieder, a cognitive(认知) scientist, and his colleagues designed a digital tool called a "cognitive prosthesis." It uses artificial intelligence to match a decision's immediate reward with its long-term worth after making a to-do list. The researchers developed a set of models and algorithms(算法) that consider various elements such as a list of tasks, an individual's unwillingness to each and the amount of time available. It helps to encourage that person to complete them all.

The idea was to turn the challenging projects that people pursue in the real world into a game like environment. "The point system gives people achievable goals that signal that they're making progress." Lieder says.

The results, published online in August in Nature Human Behavior, revealed that the AI support system helped people make better, faster decisions and procrastinate less—and it made them more likely to complete all the assigned tasks. In one experiment, in which the researchers presented 120 participants with a list of several writing assignments. However, the rate was only 56 percent for those not using it.

Lieder says one of the current tool's limitations is that it can handle only short to-do lists. At the same time, they are working with a company called Complice to integrate the tool into an existing to-do list app. The researchers also plan to run field experiments to see how well their cognitive prosthesis succeed in the real world.

A. People often struggle to do what's best for them in the long run.

B. The team tested this tool in a series of experiments with human subjects.

C. The system then assigns reward points to each task in a way that is customized.

D. And now, he and his team are trying to develop it up for a larger number of tasks.

E. They found that 85 percent of individuals who used the tool completed all their tasks.

F. A study was conducted to find a way to help people increase their decision-making ability.

G. This tool is a convincing demonstration that procrastination is something that this strategy can help with quite a lot.

I log onto a computer at the doctor's office to say I have arrived and then wait until a voice calls me into the examination room. There, a robotic nurse 1 me onto the scales and then takes my blood pressure. Some time later, in steps the 2, who is also a robot. He notes down my 3 and gives me a prescription (处方). I pay for my visit using a credit card and return home without having met another human being. This is my terrible vision of the future, which hasn't happened 4 yet.

I should say I really do like many aspects of 5. I am a big fan of air conditioning in summer and heaters in winter. But I am writing this because I don't want machines to 6.

When I call my dentist's office and actually get a human being on the line, I am 7. But when I see the introduction of yet more self-service checkout stations at the grocery store, I feel like 8 "When it comes to cashiers (收银员), make mine a(n) 9, please!"

After all, human cashiers sometimes 10 you a store coupon (优惠券) for items you are buying.

Even more than that real-life cashiers often take an interest in particularly cute children, which can 11 young mothers' day. A cashier may also show pity on an elderly person 12 to get that last penny out of his purse.

Machines can be 13 and cost-effective and they often got the job done just fine. 14 they lack an element so important to everyday life.

Call it the spirit, the soul or the heart. It is 15 no machine will ever have. It is human being that encourages us to smile at others, which nay be what they need at that moment.

Agriculture has developed rapidly. In the past decades, modern science and technology(help) to greatly reduce the back-breaking labor involved in farming. These advances have benefited people in(vary) countries in crop production.

Probably one of the most beneficial(innovation) is drip irrigation (滴灌), which has madepossible to develop big, green farms in the middle of the desert. there have been experiments in different places in the past to make drip irrigation a reality, it is in the Middle Eastern county of Israeldrip irrigation has becomemodern success. By means of drip irrigation, farmers can now produce crops on dry landneeding much water. This irrigation method uses far(little) water than other methods. The limited and focused use of just the right amount of water also reduces water to weeds and pests, (keep) them from harming the crops.

you like there is an incredible park that will you!

Thus, may be useful in understanding the influence of this matter.

Yuan Longping has his life Chinese Agriculture.

  this team will be those scientists remains an unanswered question.

Some students act this way merely because they are afraid of by the teacher.

and your feet should keep time to the rhythm of the music.

1）简单介绍长降欢乐世界：出名的主题公园，位于广州南部，有各种游乐设施

2）描述你印象最深的时刻。

参考词汇（可自由选用）：

长隆欢乐世界Chimelong Paradgioe；自由落体 free-fall drops；海盗船 pirate ship；U型滑板 U-shaped slide；

过山车 roller coaster；旅转木马the merry-go-round；4D电影 4D theatre；巡游parade

注意：1）词数应为100左右。

2）可以话当增加细节，以使行文连贯。