广东省阳江市高新区2024-2025学年高二上学期1月期末英语试题

机密★启用前

2024-2025学年度第一学期高二期末测试

英语试题

本试卷共7页。考试结束后, 将本试卷和答题卡一并交回。

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第二部分  阅读(共两节，满分50分)

第一节  (共15小题;每小题2.5分，满分37.5分)

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中选出最佳选项。

A

Famous Rocks From Around the World

Humans are crazy about impressive landscapes. Here are 4 famous rocks/stones across the world.

Blarney Stone

The Blarney Stone is a block of limestone (石灰岩) stuck in the walls of Blarney Castle, near Cork, Ireland. According to legend, kissing the stone lends the gift of great speech, a reward taken to heart by millions of tourists who have traveled to the castle to perform the act. In earlier days, accomplishing this was a real test of courage, requiring kissers to drop headfirst over the gap.

Stonehenge

It is a prehistoric monument constructed of large stones in Wiltshire, England. The structure has been the subject of archaeological study for centuries, but generally speaking, questions about who built it, as well as how and why it was built, still remain. Researchers hope that continued work in the area will unlock more of the mysteries surrounding this ancient monument.

Haystack Rock

At 235 feet tall, Haystack Rock is a large rock formation near Cannon Beach along the Oregon coast, formed by lava (岩浆) and shaped over many centuries by wind and wave erosion (侵蚀). During low tide, visitors can explore its tide pools, which are home to many sea creatures. Climbing the rock and collecting shells are both prohibited.

Great Arch of Getu

At 230 feet across, the arch in south-central China is one of the largest natural arches worldwide. It was carved millions of years ago by an ancient river that flowed through the soft, porous (多孔的) limestone. Visitors can reach the arch by climbing up a steep pathway through another cave lower in the mountain that connects to the arch. The area is part of the Getu River National Park and is frequented by rock climbers.

21．Why do tourists kiss the Blarney Stone?

A．They want to be blessed. B．They hope to be loved.

C．They prefer to explore more. D．They love to take a chance.

22．Which of the following best describes Stonehenge?

A．Ever-lasting. B．Unknowable. C．Well-understood. D．Insignificant.

23．What do Haystack Rock and Great Arch of Getu have in common?

A．The act of climbing is not allowed. B．They are in the form of limestone.

C．They reflect the wisdom of people. D．They are shaped by natural forces.

B

In an outsider’s eyes, China always enjoys a fame for enormous creative inventions. Accordingly, I found myself in Mangling township in Luoyang, Henan Province. I was to film a video about the three-wheeled vehicle industry. After multiple visits to factories with impressive output, my director suggested we make a random visit to a rural area to interview the farmers who ride the vehicles, which are called sanbengzi in Chinese. Her last-second idea brought me closer to a farm than I had been since childhood.

I remember when the road to my home was paved for the first time and when the community debated whether or not we should fix our first stoplight. The magic of the new replaced the dignity of the old, as it did all corners of the United States. It was an easy change; the nation’s roots are shallow. My hometown has a history of farming. We raised chickens and horses. Family dogs barked at each other from across fenced yards, as the distance between homes was a walk.

I felt homesick in Mangling, surrounded by nutrient-dense earth. My coworker went to talk with a farming couple in a field. Our interviewee let me ride in the bed of her sanbengzi as I asked how people found it. She just told me that everyone in town owned one. Some families even owned two. Her job was to drive farmers up and down rows of crops to shorten their travel time. Others rode around collecting the harvest to transport it to storage, saving the farmers’ aching backs.

Along the road, I tried to listen to the wind and feel the soft soil beneath my shoes. I thought about the food growing all around me and the strong hands collecting it. They are the same hands that fed empires, the hands with which history was written. Now, they feed minds that innovate. Educated engineers devise electric sanbengzi. They create an enclosed version with air conditioning and touch screens for comfortable travel. Surely enough, China’s future will shine on what it stands now.

24．For what purpose did the author come to Luoyang?

A．To practise film-making. B．To explore China’s creativity.

C．To enjoy the rural life. D．To interview vehicle makers.

25．What can we learn from the author’s mentioning of his family?

A．One’s hometown is the best of all. B．Country life is always memorable.

C．Modernity found its way into daily life. D．New technology benefited the community.

26．What is the author’s purpose of writing the third paragraph?

A．To show what sanbengzi means to the locals. B．To display how people deal with sanbengzi.

C．To introduce why the locals like sanbengzi. D．To illustrate the purpose of transportation.

27．What does the author imply in the last paragraph?

A．Only local farmers have stronger hands. B．Electric vehicles play a key role in history.

C．Innovation surely makes a comfortable trip. D．China’s future feeds the past with the present.

C

Some moments in life bring full attention to what’s important — a birth, an anniversary, a joyful surprise, the formation or breakup of a relationship, or the passing of a loved one. They remind us that all worldly happenings are impermanent and that the only time we have is the present moment. One such event was the recent passing of our dog, Tucker.

Tucker was an extraordinary family member who frequently showed more human than dog characteristics. For example, he showed affection toward children and animals, he had a fantastic memory, and he took particular delight in doing favors like fetching shoes, tidying up toys and so on.

Most mornings, we take our dogs for a walk along country roads. Tucker had a habit of walking along for a

while then coming to a complete, I-couldn’t-move-him-if-I-tried full stop. At first, I felt annoyed. “What are you doing?” I’d ask him. “Come on! Let’s move!”

In my mind, I had places to go, things to do, and more than a few tasks to complete. I couldn’t just stand there because Tucker wanted to take a few seconds… five minutes… ten minutes … to simply pause and take in his surroundings.

Until one day, I wondered: “Why not?” For many of us who grew up before the technology-filled age of constant busyness, free time included a lot of “doing nothing”. Kids could just go out and play, make up adventures, explore, look through comic books or magazines, and sometimes, just sit and think. There was space and freedom that provided an opportunity to become comfortable with just being by ourselves. We may not have been able to put it into words, but we could appreciate being in the moment for its own benefit. We found bliss in play and the idea that “We have nothing to do and nowhere to go!”

I was lucky to have Tucker as my teacher through his life and by his passing.

28．What is the author’s purpose in writing the first paragraph?

A．To show the temporariness of worldly happenings.

B．To introduce the importance of present moments.

C．To express sadness over the passing of Tucker.

D．To describe various life events.

29．Why did Tucker use to stop during walks?

A．He was waiting for other dogs. B．He was tired and needed to rest.

C．He wanted to take in his surroundings. D．He was unwilling to go for a walk again.

30．What does the underlined word “bliss” in paragraph 5 probably mean?

A．Disappointment. B．Happiness. C．Confusion. D．Anxiety.

31．What can we conclude from the text?

A．The author regrets not spending more time with Tucker.

B．Tucker was a naughty dog who often annoyed the author.

C．Modern technology has made people busier and less happy.

D．The author learned to appreciate the present moment from Tucker.

D

Can large language models solve logic puzzles? There’s one way to find out, which is to ask.

The puzzle in question is commonly known as the “Cheryl’s birthday puzzle”. Cheryl challenges her friends Albert and Bernard to guess her birthday, and for puzzle-reasons they know it’s one of 10 dates: May 15, 16 or 19; June 17 or 18; July 14 or 16; or August 14, 15 or 17. To speed up the guessing, Cheryl tells Albert her birth month, and tells Bernard the day of the month, but not the month itself.

Albert and Bernard think for a while. Then Albert announces, “I don’t know your birthday, and I know that Bernard doesn’t either.” Bernard replies, “In that case, I now know your birthday.” Albert responds, “Now I know your birthday too.” What is Cheryl’s birthday? More to the point, what do we learn by asking GPT-4?

The puzzle is a challenging one. Solving it requires excluding possibilities step by step while reflecting on questions such as “what is it that Albert must know, given what he knows that Bernard does not know?” It is, therefore, hugely impressive that when we repeatedly asked GPT-4 to solve the puzzle, the large language model got the answer right every time, fluently stating varied and accurate explanations of the logic of the problem.

Yet this great performance of logical mastery was nothing more than a clever illusion (错觉). The illusion fell apart when we asked the computer a slightly modified (修改的) version of the puzzle, changing the names of the characters and of the months.

GPT-4 continued to produce fluent, reasonable explanations of the logic, so fluent, in fact, it takes real concentration to spot the moments when those explanations turn into nonsense. Both the original problem and its answer are available online, so probably the computer had learned to rephrase this text in a complicated way, giving the