广东省六校联盟2022届高三下学期第六次联考英语试题

Astrotourism: Travel to a place where you can see stars

Few sights are as breathtaking as the night sky full of stars. But you can't get a good view of the stars in cities. Nowadays, increasing numbers of people are participating in astrotourism—traveling to destinations where they can focus on viewing stars, planets and other space-related phenomena.

Star party in Nebraska, USA

In north-central Nebraska, a week-long Star Party has been held annually for almost 30 years. Held at the Merritt Reservoir (水库), the party features classes teaching beginners about astronomy, along with some programs especially for children. The party features challenges such as a photo contest. During the day, visitors can swim in the reservoir and go fishing and boating.

Jasper National Park, Canada

The second-largest dark sky preserve in the world, Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada, covers 11,000 square kilometers. In October each year, visitors show up there for the Jasper Dark Sky Festival making Jasper

National Park one of Canada's top astrotourism destinations. During the day, visitors can enjoy the beauty of the park's glaciers (冰川), streams, lakes and mountains.

Chile

With an average of 300 nights with clear skies per year, Chile is a great destination for astrotourism. The clear skies mean visitors are very likely to be able to see stars and planets without clouds blocking their view.

Finland

Northern Finland is one of the best places in the world to take in the northern lights. They are usually green but can be pink and more rarely red and violet. Finland's Lapland region, they are visible 200 nights a year.

Wherever you go, astrotourism provides an opportunity to pause and reflect on the wonders of the universe.

I've been writing since before I could write. As a kid, I dictated stories to my parents. About 12 years ago, I was living in New York City and pursuing a master's degree in creative writing. For years I'd been suffering vision disorder, but in New York my symptoms worsened. I became unable to read or write for any considerable length of time. I tried vision therapy, an overhead projector, a special pair of glasses — all in vain.

Eventually, I discovered a computer program for the visually challenged. As I typed, my words were read aloud by an automated voice. With my screen dimmed (变模糊) to black, I relied entirely on the automated voice to know what I had written.

Facing the blank page is worrying, but facing the black page is worse. The dark screen is a sinkhole that swallows creative hope. Sentences disappear into it like an astronaut into a black hole. I managed to complete

my master's degree, but it took me years to adapt to my new reality. The greatest barrier seemed to be the automated voice, which was like a robot parrot on my shoulder, and I wanted nothing more than to drive it away. If a pianist were forced to practice on an untuned piano, would it corrupt his ear over time?

Of course, I could have quit writing and stopped making myself suffer. But it honestly never occurred to me—and I'm glad it didn't. Last year, after I told my story on the radio, I was contacted by VocaliD, a Massachusetts-based company that created a voice modeled on my own.

The first time I heard the voice they created, it is so close to my own that the two are nearly indistinguishable. I've only just begun using this new voice. My hope is that this will restore a sense of solitude (孤独) to my writing process, allowing me easier access to that inner space where the imagination can take over, and I can forget myself, and the real work can begin.

The black screen still exists — it always will — but the robot parrot has taken wing.

Noise created by humans, such as car traffic, quieted by about 30% between late March and early May, 2020, when Governor Greg Abbott closed schools and restaurants across Texas, according to analysis by researchers at Southern Methodist University (SMU).

"There was quite a big change in some areas," said Stephen Arrowsmith, a seismologist at SMU, who took on the project with a class of undergraduate and graduate students. Arrowsmith and his students looked at data from a dozen seismometers (地震仪) across North Texas. Seismometers are used to detect earthquakes, but they are sensitive to just about everything that makes the ground vibrate, such as strong winds, ocean waves, construction and traffic.

The idea of using seismometers to track urban noise gained popularity last March when Belgian seismologist Thomas Lecocq posted some of his urban noise data from Brussels on Twitter. Lecocq, of the Royal Observatory of Belgium, received such an enthusiastic response from scientists that he launched the group "Lockdown Seismology" online. "It's where bored seismologists around the world are working together," Arrowsmith joked.

Arrowsmith hopes his findings will contribute to a growing list of creative ways in which researchers are using seismometers. In his course, Arrowsmith teaches students how seismic stations can help investigators solve crimes, like terrorist bombings, aid scientists in tracking nuclear tests or assist inspectors in investigating accidents, like chemical plant explosions. One potential application of his research is to better understand the shallow layers of Earth beneath cities. "That could be useful in places where there's a real seismic hazard (风

险), like San Francisco or Los Angeles," he said, "where just knowing what that shallow structure is tells you a lot about how it would respond in a big earthquake."

In the world of water, 2021 was another year for the record books. Parts of Western Europe suffered from deadly floods while large areas of the southwestern United States remained locked in a massive drought.

One might think that our impressive water management would safeguard society from such catastrophic events. Yet when it comes to water, the past is no longer a good guide for the future and most of the water engineering is unprepared for consequences of increasingly occurring extreme weather. One of the most alarming wake-up calls came from the city of Cape Town, where the water taps of 4 million residents were nearly forced to be shut off after severe drought dried up its reservoir (水库).

Appealing as it might be, the solution is not to further build bigger and higher dams (水坝) that often result in more disastrous flooding. Rather, it is to work more with natural processes.

The Netherlands avoided major damage from the historic floods in July 2021 thanks to its recently completed project, which gives river room to spread out by redirecting floodwaters into wetlands, lowering parts of the stormy river by more than a foot. Agricultural practices offer another strategy. Scientists have found that boosting organic matter in the soil by 1% can increase the soil's water-holding capacity by up to 18,000 gallons per acre, creating flexibility to both intense rains and dry periods. This means farmland practices such as the planting of cover crops can not only raise output but improve water management.

Solutions don't come easily, but they are key to a livable future. While it's too late to avoid the impacts of climate change, we can avoid the worst of those impacts by investing more in such nature-based water solutions. 

Reading is essential but how can one choose the right books to read and where can one find them? A few famous people may give you some helpful tips. 

●Read books from past eras.

 Otherwise, you'd be "completely dependent on the prejudices and fashions of your times," just as

Albert Einstein put it. "Somebody who reads only newspapers and books of contemporary authors looks to me like an extremely near-sighted person who dislikes eyeglasses," he said.

●       

Reading too wide a variety in too short a time would keep the teachings from leaving a lasting impression on you. Seneca the Younger, a first-century Roman philosopher, suggested that "you must linger (流连) among a limited number of master thinkers, and digest their works, if you would obtain ideas which shall win firm hold in your mind."

●Shop at secondhand bookstores. 

Virginia Woolf believed the works in secondhand bookstores have an attraction which the usual volumes of the library lack. Browsing through these books gives you the chance to run into something that wouldn't have risen to the attention of librarians and booksellers.  

●Check out authors' reading lists. 

In his 1940 guide How to Read a Book, American philosopher Mortimer J. Adler talked about how to choose books. He attached importance to those that other authors consider worth reading.  Mortimer wrote that "one way to understand them is to read the books they read."

● Make the final decision by yourself. 

 It's you yourself who should choose what, how and when to read. Theodore Roosevelt recommended choosing books on subjects that interest you and letting your mood guide you to your next great read.

A. Interest is the best teacher.

B. Great authors are great readers.

C. Leave some room for older works.

D. Learn more about those great authors.

E. Don't jump too quickly from book to book.

F. There's no "best books" list that everyone should follow.

G. Usually they are much more selective in organizing their collections.

Graduation day is one of the most important milestones in many people's lives.

Timothy was 1 to make some money before officially graduating from high school, so he 2a job. About a week before his graduation ceremony, Timothy asked his manager Cedric for the day off.3, on graduation day, Cedric was 4when Timothy showed up for his shift anyway. Timothy 5   that he couldn't get a 6 across town.

Cedric and the other employees 7 formed a plan to get Timothy to his graduation no matter what!

The 8 made a list of what needed to be done to get Timothy there and divided it all up. Once they had9 what they needed, everyone took turns helping Timothy until he felt like Cinderella (灰姑娘) 10the ball! An employee, Shantana, 11 Timothy to the ceremony, patiently 12 outside the whole time until he was finished taking pictures and celebrating with his friends.

Cedric said they were happy to 13 Timothy because he's a good kid—and because it was the right thing to do! Their wonderful 14 even inspired Lawson State Community College to offer Timothy free tuition and books if he wants to continue his education beyond high school!

Kindness truly made an unforgettable 15 on this young man's life.

China has formally made an announcement of its first five national parks of 230,000 from Tibet to Hainan, focusing on (preserve) of its most valuable bio-resources.

 Giant Panda National Park will surely be  hit with the swells of tourists who come yearly for some of the world's cutest animals.  (cover) three provinces ( Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu), the region is the panda's natural habitat.

The intersection (交汇处) of Jilin and Heilongiang provinces is home to Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park, which  (set) out to protect the habitats of those two species since its start. It is the unique area  live both wild Siberian tigers and Siberian leopards.

China's best-preserved rainforest is in Hainan, the only place in the world  (find) the Hainan black-crested gibbon（黑冠长臂猿). Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park protects the gibbons and   (they) environment.

Unlike those three, Wuyishan National Park in Fujian Province and Sanjiangyuan National Park on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau focus  (much) on preserving multiple animals than  (specific) protecting one species. They serve various rare and endangered species and conserve biodiversity.

Now, with some tourist programs  place, these parks will be a good way for tourists to truly experience the natural originality as well as expansive Chinese landscape.

Intelligent Robot for the Elderly"为题写一篇英语课堂前的一分钟汇报，内容包括：

1） 设计目的；

2） 功能介绍；

3）你的期望。

注意：

1） 写作词数应为 80 左右；

2）请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。

Be a true runner

For me, it was normal to feel lost at the inter-camp track. Four camps of kids were ready to lead their teams to a blue ribbon and win the day. Not me. I was too little to be the leader and too skinny to be an athlete. I knew this by the time I was twelve, because my camp counselors（辅导员）and the other kids reminded me of it every chance they got. So when our camp needed a fourth runner in the two-mile race around the lake, I knew I was no one's first choice. 

I hid in the shade of a maple tree as they called the names of the runners, my body tensed as I heard a counselor call, "Fred! Where is Fred! He is in this race!" It was Barry. He spotted me under the tree. "Fred! We need a 12-year-old who hasn't been in other events to run the two-mile!"

He gave me a push towards the starting line. Having no confidence and trying to save myself from the shame of taking the last place as four camps watched, I pleaded with him. 

"But I don't know the way around the lake!"

"You're in. Just follow Bill!" Barry smiled. 

Bill was my friend and the fastest runner in our camp. And then Barry said, "When you make it to the last stretch（最后一程）on the field, just throw your head back and run." At the starting line, I stood next to Bill and trembled. 

"On your mark… Get set..." The gun cracked and sixteen of us took off. I stayed close on Bill's heels, a little too close for Bill, I guess. He shouted at me, "Back off!" I did. Two guys passed me, but I kept my eyes on Bill. 

It was tiring. The distance was widening between Bill and me. We made the turn from the dusty road onto the muddy, wooded trail that would go around the lake back to the field. Through the trees, I saw Bill trip over a tree root and fall. A runner from another camp passed him.

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。

In a moment, Bill was up and running again.

I didn't realize that I had crossed the finish line.