广东省深圳市2023届高三年级第二次调研考试英语试卷

Your Garden Escape

Even in the big city you can find oases(绿洲) of calm and beauty. From a royal palace to a classical garden, we recommend great green spaces to escape the hustle and bustle of London.

Horniman Gardens

Horniman Gardens cover 16 acres with breathtaking views of London. Visitors can enjoy the Sound Garden, Meadow Field, and even a Prehistoric Garden, which features a display of "living fossils." The gardens are very popular with families, and dogs can be let off their leads in the Meadow Field.

Chiswick Garden

As a classical garden landscape in London, it was here that the English Landscape Movement was born with William Kent's designs. Enjoy fresh bread, seasonal food, and natural wines in the award-winning cafe, while admiring the beauty of the naturalistic landscape, spotted with impressive art and statues.

Buckingham Palace Garden

The 39-acre garden boasts more than 350 types of wildflowers, over 200 trees and a three-acre lake. The garden also provides a habitat for native birds rarely seen in London. A tour of the garden can be completed by having a cream tea in the cafe overlooking the Palace's famous grassland and lake.

Kew Garden

The Royal Botanic Garden at Kew is one of the world's most famous gardens and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Have a walk through the vast garden, spot local wildlife at the lake, or get your hands dirty by trying a gardening lesson. Be sure to visit the Temperate House, which contains some of the rarest and most threatened plants.

My childhood was a painted picture of sunny sky and rolling green fields stretching to the horizon. It tasted of sharp berries and smelt of sour grapes. My family lived in a cabin(小木屋) in the countryside but I lived in my mother's arms. They were so delicate but strong, her red hair falling around me like a curtain separating me from the world.

Childhood was simple. The borders of my village were the furthest my troubles went and monsters only lived in the pages of books. Every day was a waking dream of running races and muddy knees. My village was archaic, dying cabins housing dying farmers with dying traditions. There weren't many children but me and the other boys; boys of butchers and sellers formed our own group.

They called us wild. I suppose we were. Trees and mountains formed our playgrounds and fights broke out as easily as sudden laughter. Liberated from the restrictions of society, we would bound into the woods,deeper and deeper until we found a lake which, with a wild yell, we would jump into all at once.

My most vivid memories from boyhood center around that lake. Water shone brightly and the sounds of our screams broke into the outcry from birds. The shock of cold water against sweating skin would wake every nerve in my body and my bare feet would hit the sinking muddy bottom. As we submerged(淹没), time would suspend, movements slowing as bubbles rose around us.

I was drowning. I was living. I was living. I was drowning.

For timelessness or a second (both felt the same), we would suspend, curl up, and then be forced back out into breathing air.

We should have known that it wouldn't last forever. Yet, even under the best circumstances, there's something so tragic about growing up: to have your perspective on the people and life around you change; to always struggle to reach a mirror only to find yourself tall enough to see your reflection one day. And find, a different person staring back out at you.

In shallow coastal waters of the Indian ocean, Dugong, a kind of sea cow, is in trouble. Environmental problems pose such a major threat to its survival that the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) upgraded the species' extinction risk status(地位) to vulnerable(脆弱的).

Much worse, Dugongs are at risk of losing the protection of the Torres Strait Islanders, who have looked after them historically, hunting them for food sustainably and monitoring their numbers. These native people keep their biodiversity, and have deep knowledge about their environment. But these people are also threatened, in part because rising sea levels are making it difficult for them to live there.

This situation isn't unique to Dugongs. A global analysis of 385 culturally important plant and animal species found 68 percent were both biologically vulnerable and at risk of losing their cultural protection.

The findings clearly illustrate that biology shouldn't be the primary factor in shaping conservation policy, says anthropologist Victoria Reyes-García.When a culture declines, the species that are important to that culture are also threatened. "Lots of conservationists think we need to separate people from nature," says Reyes-García. "But that strategy misses the caring relationship many cultural groups have with nature."

One way to help shift conservation efforts is to give species a "bio-cultural status," which would provide a fuller picture of their vulnerability. In the study, the team used a new way to determine a species' risk of disappearing: the more a cultural group's language use declines, the more that culture is threatened. The more a culture is threatened, the more culturally vulnerable its important species are. Researchers then combined a species' cultural and biological vulnerability to arrive at its bio-cultural status. In the Dugong's case, its bio-cultural status is endangered, meaning it is more at risk than its IUCN categorization suggests.

This new approach to conservation involves people that have historically cared for them. It can highlight when communities need support to continue their care. Scientists hope it will bring more efforts that recognize local communities' rights and encourage their participation — taking advantage of humans' connection with nature instead of creating more separation.

Adapting to technological advances is a defining part of the 21s-century life. Just two months after being launched in November 2022, OpenAI's ChatGPT has already reached an audience of over 100 million people. While ChatGPT threatens to change writing and writing-related work, the Mesopotamians, who lived 4,000 years ago in a geographical area centered in modern-day Iraq, went through this kind of far-reaching change before us.

Ancient Mesopotamia was home to many of civilization's early developments. Its people were world leaders in adapting to technological and cultural changes. They invented the wheel and agriculture, and pioneered advances in mathematics and urbanization. These breakthroughs are reflected in cuneiform(楔形文字) literature, one of the oldest known forms of writing.

In its literature, Mesopotamians don't present cultural and technological advances as consistently beneficial. They often represent new technologies being controlled in the service of human conflict and mostly serving the interests of those with high social positions. In some ways, the representation of new technologies in its literature echoes(映现) contemporary concerns about AI: fears of increasing social inequalities and its potential use in information war.

In recent years, AI — the newest form of writing — has been used to decipher(破译) the oldest: cuneiform literature. In broader fields, the boundaries of how AI may be used haven't been clearly explained. In January, for example, a top international AI conference banned the use of AI tools for writing scientific papers.

Humans have been struggling to invent, use and adapt to technology since our earliest civilizations. But the technology and resulting knowledge are not always evenly distributed. Knowing how we adapted to changing technology in the past helps us more fully understand the human condition and may even help us prepare for the future.

Have you noticed how evenings cool off more in rural areas than they do in cities? Urban areas also tend to get hotter during the day than any nearby areas with lots of greenery.

It's mainly caused by the difference in materials that cover the ground in urban areas and the countryside. In the country, evaporation(蒸发) of water from soil and the leaves of plants helps to cool the air. Having fewer plants, cities have less evaporation and are unable to cool down the temperature.

Dark colours are another problem. Dark objects absorb all wavelengths of light, making the temperature increase more noticeably. In contrast, white objects reflect all wavelengths of light energy. Sadly, most parts of cities are covered by asphalt(沥青), steel, roofs and bricks which are often dark in colour.

As people drive cars, heat buildings, and run air conditioners, cities are generating waste heat and pouring it into the atmosphere directly. The waste heat adds to the solar energy trapped by the tall buildings.

But cities don't have to be so hot. Some cities have lightened their streets. This is done by covering black asphalt streets, parking lots, and dark roofs with a more reflective gray coating.

Having more green spaces also helps. Plants serve as a natural air conditioner. They catch heat, release vapour(蒸汽) into the air, and take away heat, contributing to cooler, fresher cities.

A. Cities also produce more heat than suburban areas.

B. The higher the temperature, the shorter the wavelength.

C. This phenomenon is known as the urban heat-island effect.

D. So it will not be transformed into heat which makes the air hot.

E. Changes in building materials have a minimal effect on city temperatures.

F. Much of the soil in cities, by contrast, has been covered with roads and buildings.

G. These changes can decrease air temperatures dramatically, especially in summer.

Growing up, I was fortunate to have dinner with my family almost every day. Sometimes, the family dinner circle 1 to include relatives stopping by. Yet, I knew some friends whose parents got home after dinner or even 2 the entire evening. So I 3 the quality time around our kitchen table, which witnessed countless valuable4 in my life.

5, my kids cannot relate to my childhood memories. They have been left to 6 with babysitters more times than I would like to admit. My husband and I have 7 careers. And we often end up staying at the office way past dinnertime. When this happens too often, it 8 the balance of our family.

Apart from suffering from 9, what else can a hardworking family do? I think we can all try to 10 our own ways to spend time together. Surely there are days when I'm too busy to share a meal with my family. But I would make efforts to 11 and chat later that day, 12 setting aside cellphones every time. And I even find a bedtime reading with my kids much 13. I am also proud to have our "big breakfast" routine every Saturday. My husband serves as the head chef, and my younger son 14 him to make the breakfast.

I am aware that my sons are growing up quickly and will be out of the 15 someday. But now, I am happy to have so many wonderful things on my plate.

Every year during the Spring Festival, a small village east of Beijing puts on a special show. It's about -15℃, and a man dressed in a straw hat and sheepskin coat (throw) spoon after spoon of heavy molten iron(铁水) at a massive, icy wall. The collision(碰撞) between the 1,600℃ liquid metal and the frozen brick creates a waterfall of sparks(火花) (fall) over him, equally beautiful and dangerous.

This is a performance requires extraordinary courage, skill and strength. Known as Da Shuhua, it has a history of 500 years in Nuanquan, a highly-developed steel town. Da Shuhua translates literally into "beating down the tree flowers," agricultural activity of hitting fruit trees to stimulate growth.

In ancient times, fireworks weren't always (wide) affordable. So people in Nuanquan made use of scrap iron and developed Da Shuhua as a way (celebrate) festivals. As a result, they brought firework displays a whole new level.

Today, Da Shuhua has become more popular than ever, due to (ban) on fireworks to reduce air pollution in some parts of China. Every year, this unique firework display attracts tons of people in spite of the freezing cold weather draws attention for its protection. Since 2021, it (list) as an intangible cultural heritage of China.

注意：1. 词数80左右；2. 请在答题卡的相应位置作答。

Dear Hans,

Yours,

Li Hua

Ballet was a way of life in Kelly's family. Her elder sister Serena was now dancing at a top college. Though Kelly's mom always wanted her to follow in her sister's footsteps and Kelly herself was good at ballet, her love for ballet had faded years before, and she was eager for a new challenge.

One day at school, as Kelly left the dance studio, she walked past the gym, fascinated by boxers(拳击手) training inside the boxing ring. She was deeply impressed by how hard they hit and how fast they moved. In fact, she'd long been attracted to boxing.

She pulled a piece of paper from her backpack. On the familiar Oakwood High School Club Sign-up Sheet was the phrase：BOXING CLUB TRYOUT(选拔). That was what Kelly really wanted to do. She knew her mom had high expectations for her when it came to ballet. Tired of trying to keep up with her sister, Kelly was ready to carve her own path.

The next day, she gathered her courage and told Serena about her new passion. At first, Serena didn't understand and thought she was just joking. But when she saw Kelly was serious, she replied, "You know Mom wants you to be a ballet dancer, right? Besides, boxing is only for boys, and you're so good at ballet.Lean into your strength, Kelly."

"But this is where I want to put my strength," Kelly insisted,"and what exactly does ‘only for boys' mean, anyway? Boxing is a sport for everyone!"

Gradually, touched by her determination and passion, Serena began to understand and support her. Kelly could feel it. Her sister was going to respect her decision,no matter what. But that was nothing compared to the preparations for the tryout, where she was required to show her footwork and punching(击打) abilities with other candidates. Boxing didn't come natural to Kelly, but she had made up her mind to stick with her choice.

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。

Then Kelly began her training for the tryout, keeping it a secret from her mom.

The following Monday, results of the boxing tryout were posted.