浙江省温州市苍南县金乡卫城中学2020-2021学年高二下学期英语3月第一次月考试卷（含听力音频）

What is an accent? An accent is a flavoring to your speech that influences the sounds of words and sentences. In Birmingham you might hear "lake" sounding close to "like", and In Ireland you might hear "this" sounding close to "diss".

Accents are related to social groups: Birmingham, say, or upper class. Everyone has an accent, and no one is accent-free. And for every accent there are groups of people who react badly to it. These reactions are the result of prejudice —an unreasoned jumping to conclusions.

Everybody has prejudices about accents. I certainly do. I have held prejudices about other people's accents. But over the decades, my experience of working with people from a wide range of backgrounds has led me to give up these prejudices. However, I still have prejudices that I find difficult to control.

Academics tell us that no accent is superior to any other. But the reality is that the wider world likes the idea of simple rules which tell us what is right and wrong. We like to judge our colleagues on the basis of these rules. If you break these rules, you are somehow to blame.

Jacob, Member of Parliament, remembers when he first stood unsuccessfully for election in Fife, Scotland, "I gradually realized that whatever I happened to be speaking about, the number of voters in my favor dropped as soon as I opened my mouth."

And some people change their accents to sound more refined (文雅的) when talking to people outside their immediate circle of family and friends.

Sky News ran a report recently in which an 18-year-old woman was trying to sound less posh (上等人的), that is speaking non-standard English, because she didn't like random people telling her that she must be rich and from a privileged background.

Lastly, it's worth being reminded that people can have an accent and still be recognized.

You may not consider yourself the patient type. Maybe your first-grade teacher pointed this out when you were pulling the door open before the bell even sounded. As a grown-up, maybe you press the "close door" button in the elevator many times. You're not alone. Impatience has become a sign of a troubled society.

The time we save to get to our destination faster is not worth the price we pay for our health. As we all know, in traffic making rash decisions can send yourself and others to hell. In addition, there are plenty of links between impatient people and many health issues.

A 2011 study, for example, suggests it may even be making us fat. If you are willing to give up present satisfaction for future benefits, it shows you are the patient type. If, however, you want your satisfaction right now regardless of future benefits, you are going to have that extra dessert or that extra ice cream. It's a sign of impatience. You don't need to do a lot of research to link impatience to high blood pressure and even heart disease. Besides, being impatient could cause anxiety. And if you're constantly anxious, your sleep could be affected, too.

So learning to be patient is important. The good news is that we can all learn to be patient. The first thing to do is to recognize that you have a problem. Impatience usually happens during several situations. One of them is that your environment isn't conforming (符合) to your expectations. Another is that you're not conforming to your expectations of yourself. 

There are all kinds of every-day situations that test patience. Once you've found that cause, though, it will be a lot easier to break the bad habit. Most importantly, once we understand what makes us impatient isn't within our control, we can change the way we understand that situation. If you've made it, congratulations. You're already on your way.

A huge 42 percent of marriages in the UK end in divorce, the highest rate in Europe. What is happening in the UK to cause such a phenomenon? Many consider the family to be the basic building block of society. If marriages and families are falling apart, is the UK society also falling apart? Is the UK's cultural identity breaking down? The UK of today is one of the most multicultural countries on earth. There are exotic sights and sounds on the street corners of every British city. British cuisine is now one of the most diverse around. Everyone speaks with a different accent.

Is such diversity a good thing? Well, it makes the UK a very exciting place to live in. There are new ideas everywhere. There is great freedom to be who you want to be, and most people will not criticize you for who you are. Yet such freedom seems to come at a cost. Some British people regard ethnic minorities (少数民族) as coming to the UK to steal jobs. When the economy does badly, this feeling increases as unemployment rates rise. So, it could be argued that the breakdown of marriages in the UK is in some part because of the pressures put upon families by wider problems in British society. Many people become stressed when those problems arise, and that can then make their family life unhappy as well.

Another possible reason for the high divorce rate might be that marriage no longer has the same value or meaning for British people as it once did. Church attendance in the UK has been falling for the last 50 years, suggesting fewer people consider marriage a holy thing. Since 1991, there has been a drop of 50 percent in people getting married in church rather than a register office.

Then there is the financial side. In the past, married couples paid lower government taxes than single people. That tax incentive (激励) policy, which used to reduce a couples tax by up to 500 in a year, has now disappeared, making the cost to keep a marriage higher.

However, the 42 percent UK divorce rate isn't the highest rate in the past forty years! Meanwhile, some measures are being taken to strengthen marriage in the UK by the government.

There are a variety of things to do with old books that you no longer want, depending on their condition and content. You might choose to donate old books, sell them to a bookstore, pass them on to friends, or simply throw them out if they are in poor shape.  . Others might be able to find a good use for them.

When you are deciding what to do with old books, assess their condition first. If it is an old paperback with torn cover and pages, sell it to the recycle bin. If the book is a hardcover and the cover is still in good shape, sell it to a used bookstore.  .

When selling old books to a bookstore, it is important to be aware of the content of old books if you are bringing them to a bookstore.  . Fiction is usually a safe bet, for example: travel guides are not.

If donating old books to charity, avoid donating books that are in truly poor condition. If a book is dirty, or missing the cover, a charity cannot sell it or give it out. Don't leave donating books on the steps.  . Charities can also provide you with a receipt, if you need one.

. You could simply place a shelf of old books that you don't want by the door, and encourage your friends to take books that look interesting. You could also have a book swap party. After the book swap, box up the remainder of the books and donate them to charity.

A. It could also be donated to charity

B. There is no reason to dust old books

C. Form a constantly circulating library of old books

D. Because some topics are more attractive than others

E. It is preferred that you enter the charity with your donation

F. Book buyers know what sells in the store and what does not

G. You may also want to consider exchanging books with others

She may be a young girl, but when it comes to sisterly devotion and giving back, Hailey Scheinman is wise beyond her years. 13-year-old Hailey has a/an 1 sister named Olivia (Livy), and the two are of an age and 2 inseparable.

This is true despite the fact that physically, the girls are very 3 . Hailey is healthy, but Livy 4 from epilepsy (癫痫). Regardless of their physical difference, Hailey's love for Livy 5 through every day. The sisters play and read together and Hailey helps her sister with her many needs. Since Hailey was very young, she has taken this 6 even one step further. In order to help with the cost of Livy's physical treatments and to help other families with large  7  costs, she created and sold artwork through her 8 , Livy's Hope.

Hailey had overheard her parents talking about how to 9 money for Livy's expensive medical treatments. She immediately started painting pictures and 10 them on eBay.

Hailey and her family decided to start 11 back to other families in need. Now, they give 100% of the 12 from everything sold at Livy's Hope to other families who are going through what the Scheinman's have 13 !

More recently, they started an activity, which has 14 from one local lemonade stand that Hailey's friend's organized for Livy to a national 15 that takes place in every state and around the world each July!

Through her incredible 16 and sympathy, Hailey has given new 17 to the words "sisterly love", which has 18 countless others with her actions!

The Scheinman family's 19 is Don't Give Up, Give Back. They are a true example of taking actions, helping others and doing something good in the face of 20 .

A young couple moved into a new neighborhood. The next morning, they  (eat) breakfast, when the young wife saw her neighbor hang the wash outside.

"That laundry is not very clean," she said to her husband. "The neighbor doesn't know how to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs  (good) laundry soap." Her husband looked on, but remained  (silence). Every time her neighbor hung her wash  (dry), the young woman would make  same comments. About one month  (late), the young woman was surprised to see a nice clean wash on her neighbor's line and said to her husband, "Look! She has learned how to wash correctly. I wonder  taught her this?"

The husband said, "I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows!"

Can you see how it might be a good idea to check first to see if your windows are clean? What we see when  (watch) others depends on the purity of the windows  which we look.

Before we give any criticism, it might be a good idea to check our state of mind and ask  (we) if we are ready to see the good rather than just look for something wrong in the people we met.

1）描述困难；

2）寻求帮助；

3）表达感谢。

注意：

1）词数80左右；

2）可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。

My son Ben had barely heard of his cousins Marcia and Juli before we moved to their hometown. Since we'd become neighbors, I thought he should get to know them. So, I invited the cousins over for a meet-and-greet one afternoon.

When the bell rang, Ben rushed to open the door. In came Marcia, a chatty, retired schoolteacher in her 70s. Dragging behind her, relying heavily on his walking stick, was her over-eighty-year-old husband Juli, who used to be a sports lover. Not having seen him since I'd become a mom, I wondered whether he was kid-friendly. With one glance, I quickly decided that he probably wasn't.

After the introductions, we sat down to have a chat. Ben, who was 4 at the time, stared curiously at the cousins. Suddenly, he eyed Juli's walking stick, which stood right beside his chair. ''Why do you have a stick? '' he asked abruptly.

Juli paused for a while as he hadn't expected my son to speak to him. Then he seemed pleased that Ben had noticed something about him. He briefly explained, and invited Ben to try out the walking stick. Excited, Ben stepped up, took it in hand and walked with it around the room. The serious look on Juli's face softened as he watched. That afternoon, Ben popped in and out of the room several times to have fun with his new friend. Toward the end of the visit, Ben sneaked over to Juli, wordlessly climbed onto his lap and gave him a hug. After a little surprise, Julis lips curved into a subtle smile.

During the following two years, Juli often came to babysit Ben. The two would call each other buddy and laughed loudly together, even though one was much older.

One summer evening, unexpectedly, I received a painful call saying that Juli had just passed away, which came as a shock to me. I gently told Ben about the terrible loss, explaining that Juli was 85. ''That was so young! '' Ben shouted between tears.

注意：

1）所续写短文的词数应为150左右;

2）应使用5个以上短文中标有下划线的关键词语;

3）续写部分分为两段,每段的开头语已为你写好;

4）续写完成后,请用下划线标出你所使用的关键词语。

Para 1: The next day, we decided to visit cousin Marcia.

Para 2: Before we left, Marcia told Ben that she had something special to give him