浙江省2025-2026学年高二上学期英语期中模拟卷（1）

The driverless future of autonomous vehicles (AV) is set to transform society by reinventing (重塑) the transportation industry and changing consumer behaviors forever. Yet, the share of consumers who support government regulation of fully self-driving cars has declined 15% over the past year, and trust in the safety of autonomous vehicles is down 5%. To address these ongoing safety concerns, more must be done.

Autonomous vehicles should not be regulated by the same rules that govern standard passenger vehicles because those regulations do not address the unique safety challenges for AVs. To address these concerns, the industry will need to continue building public trust through the improved performance of AV systems, especially in controlled environments.

Reaching a totally hands-off and eyes-off autonomous driving experience will require a range of next-generation technologies that are still being developed. Automakers will continue to increase the safety of autonomous vehicles by applying new technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve the performance of sensors that use radio and light waves to help detect road users in all weather conditions.

The technical brain of an AV system relies on software systems that actively protect passengers. As this market grows, costs will steadily fall for these new sensors and high-performance computers, just as safety standards continue to progress around the country and the world. To help build confidence in AVs, the industry will need to generate a common set of testing standards, similar to crash safety standards, that AV developers can evaluate their systems against.

As autonomous driving evolves, the road to a driverless future still holds many twists and turns ahead. It should be an exciting and wild ride for years to come as the auto industry reinvents itself with ever-increasing levels of automation.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine did the sleep study. The study examined 100 adults for their ability to think for an average of 4.5 years. The average age of the study subject was 75. Eighty-eight of the group had been identified as free of cognitive damage. Twelve subjects were judged very mildly damaged.

During the study, they were asked to complete several tests for signs of cognitive decline. The tests are combined into a cognitive score — the higher the score, the better. They also wore electroencephalography (EEG) devices for four to six nights to measure their brain activity during sleep.

Overall, cognitive scores declined for those who slept less than 4.5 hours or more than 6.5 hours per night — as measured by EEG (脑电图). But the scores stayed the same for those in the middle of the range.

Dr. Brendan Lacey is the director of the Washington University Sleep Medicine Center and led the research. He said, "Our study suggests that there is a sweet spot for total sleep time for best cognitive performance." "Short and long sleep times are associated with worse cognitive performance, perhaps due to insufficient sleep or poor sleep quality," Lacey added.

Greg Elder is a sleep researcher at Northumbria University in New Castle, Britain. He was surprised about the findings that sleeping longer than 6.5 hours was linked with cognitive decline. Elder wrote in The Conversation, "Each person's sleep needs are individual. If people feel rested, there is no need to change how they sleep." He also noted that it suggests that sleep quality may be the key, as opposed to simply total sleep time.

Nothing screamed freedom for me as a kid like green rubber boots. Each winter meant new boots for my little brother and me. Sometimes they were Christmas presents, but more often they were simply necessities for two boys who took their job of getting dirty very seriously and whose feet grew like they stepped in fertilizer each night.

Depending on the model, they might have long yellow laces (鞋带) all the way up the front and a strip of yellow rubber around the top. Sometimes we got the common slip- on kind, but I liked the lace- up type better. I loved threading those laces in and out and in and out and then fastened them down tight at the top to lock the legs of my overalls or jeans in place. You couldn't maintain the wavy effect with the slip- on kind, so you couldn't look like a British soldier for very long with those.

The only drawback to the laces was that over time the plastic tip would wear off and the laces would be worn out. Then threading them through the eyes got to be a chore- especially when some weeds or insects would grab hold of the ends and make a sticky mess.

Getting boots at the store was nice, but nothing was better than getting boot s in a wrapped- up box. The best ones have a pretty lid(盖子) and open like a treasure chest. Sometimes a big sticker with a picture of the boots greeted us from under the wrapped paper. But every time, raising the lid released a sweet smell of rubbery goodness.

I loved the smooth inside of the boot, and moving my toes in it. There was always plenty of space for growing feet. Then came the important walk around the room and up and down the hall, booming along on the hardwood floor. Best of all was the bang of the back door, the clumping down steps, and the heavy, thunderous thunderous thunk, thunk across the yard to the nearest hole of mud and freedom.

Poetry has the oldest recorded texts in literature. Although it's impossible to say exactly when it began to be used in the oral tradition, we dare to say that it's accompanied humanity forever. This gives us an idea of the impact that poetic language can have on our emotional and cognitive state. The emotional response to literature in general shares areas of activation with music. However, more areas of the right hemisphere (半球) seem to be related to poetry. The researchers measured the goosebumps resulting from the tingling (强烈感受) sensation in reading poetry. This type of sensation has also been proven to result from music. However, the tingling sensations produced by poetry activate different areas of the brain compared to those activated by music.

Dr. Eugen Wassiliwizky's team collected data on behavioral responses in people reading or listening to poetry. They proved that poetry is capable of causing emotional responses and rich emotional experiences. In addition, a poem expresses the poet's ideas. From a psychological view, poetry is a game of language that manages to group words in a surprising way. We could compare this with how a chef combines ingredients that seem impossible to combine, producing extraordinary results. Poetry is based on rules of construction. It sets up a rhythm, which then breaks, before finally returning to it. The play on the meanings of words, sometimes several meanings in just one word, is extremely intellectually inspiring. We can read a poem a thousand times, and still find its new meanings.

Generally, our passage through the wonderful world of poetry is cut short by a rather reduced exposure during childhood and the overly analytical approach of this literary genre (类型), which is given in most schools. Although the studies that experts have conducted on poetry get a lot of interesting results, poetry still holds a mystery that science hasn't yet been able to investigate. For example, why a perfect cadence (抑扬顿挫) and rhythm can lift the spirit of people is the new challenge for the research.

Has Advertising Made Us Wasteful?

Advertising involves employing persuasive techniques to get consumers to buy products, services and ideas. Very often, we are persuaded to buy a product or service because of what we see on the television, hear on the radio, or read on social media. This raises an important question: Has advertising made us wasteful? As mass-produced" goods surge in the market, companies employ advertising to attract consumers to see a necessity to buy the products they sell, thereby persuading people to buy things that they do not really need. 

Advertising has encouraged the shift from needs-based to wants-based production, leading to wasteful consumerism.  For one, tech companies are constantly producing new products and their advertisements highlight the positive features of the latest models, persuading consumers to ditch（丢弃）their old devices and purchase new ones. For another, advertising constantly promotes new trends and styles, encouraging people to get rid of their out-of-fashion items for trendier ones. In short, advertising fosters a false need for people to always follow trends, leading to waste. 

  To persuade buyers to repeat their purchase, companies employ strategies such as limited-time discounts, promotions and coupons. Buyers who do not want to miss out on a good deal, would buy again even if they have no need for the product.  When customers make more purchases, they earn loyalty points, which encourages them to keep shopping. Since loyalty points expire（过期）, customers might end up buying more items they don't actually need just to use up their points. In this way, advertising convinces consumers to purchase things they don't need, leading to more waste. 

Advertising undeniably influences buyers, fueling unnecessary consumption, which was problematic in some aspects. 

A. In this way, it becomes clear that advertising has indeed made us wasteful.

B. Advertising also encourages an addictive behaviour that results in repetitive buying. 

C. Advertising techniques often trick consumers into buying unnecessary items for greater discounts.

D. The rise of digital platforms enables companies to target ads to individual preferences more effectively. 

E. Some advertising campaigns focus on promoting social causes, like health awareness, rather than selling products. 

F. A loyalty program is another effective type of advertising that encourages people to buy things repeatedly. 

G. To tackle this, buyers should be aware of these techniques above, limit excessive spending, and take control of their choices. 

 Last year, as my 9- year- old son, Leopold, and I prepared for a ski trip to Keystone, I set a rule: We would say yes to everything. Leopold is a picky eater and can be1 to try new things.

 Before the trip, Leopold and I agreed we should say yes to everything. We started saying yes2 we even boarded our flight. The next day, after we got3 at our hotel, I took Leopold to meet his snowboarding4 . My hope was that Leopold would seize this5 to snowboard on a mountain of this size. On the first day, I skied by myself, played it safe and stuck to the long6 green run. On the second day, I thought of Leopold, who, the day before, had kept to our7 and faced his fear of heights. In the spirit of8 ,I challenged myself to ski an intermediate blue run. It was steeper but I did my slow, diligent S- turns and I9 . When Leopold and I reunited, he asked if we could go in the outdoor hot tub. It was a 2- degree day, and the only thing I10 more than being cold is being cold and wet! When I started to11 , Leopold reminded me of the rule. Yes, it was cold, and yes, I was wet. The experience was a12 as Leopold and I braved it together.

 And there lies the charm of saying yes on vacation: It13 you to step out of your comfort zone. Though it's not always14 to say yes to everything, developing a sense of adventure helps us live life to the fullest — 15 you sometimes end up cold and wet.

 Set in the fictional setting of the Rong and Ning Mansions during the Qing Dynasty, the novel mainly tells the life of Jia Baoyu, a young character( concern) about the emotional well- being of those around him, especially the beautiful and talented young ladies in his family. The story opens with the introduction of the " Stone,"mysterious object carved with legends, ( symbolize) the fate of the characters and the decline of the feudal society. The( beautiful) of the Daiying Garden, much of the novel's action takes place, servesa microcosm(缩影) of the larger world outside, reflecting the complexities of human nature and the fleeting pleasures.

 One  ( strike) aspect of the novel is its description of female characters, ( particular) those living in the Inner Quarters. Characters like Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai, are not merely passive objects of desire,complex individuals with their own desires, ambitions, and struggles.

 Through the lens of Jia Baoyu's experiences, the author, Cao Xueqin, (explore) themes of love, loss, and the illusion of permanence.

1.公园名称，地理位置；

2.公园的著名景观，特色设施；

3.你对该地方的印象和感受。

(词数不少于100；可适当增加细节使行文流畅)

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