上海市莘庄中学2024-2025学年第一学期高二期中英语试卷

**基本信息** 聚焦时代热点与语言运用，融合文化意识与思维品质的高二英语期中卷，听力取材媒体影响等社会议题，阅读涵盖科技（蚊子DNA）、商业（品牌管理）等话题，写作任务真实情境（与郑钦文沟通），全面考查语言能力与跨文化理解。 **题型特征** |题型|题量|知识覆盖|命题特色| |----|----|----|----| |听力|20题|日常对话、新闻理解|短对话考查交际策略，长对话/短文聚焦媒体影响、极地探险等热点，培养信息抓取能力| |语法词汇|20题|时态、非谓语、词义辨析|语法填空结合发明史（弓箭、陶器），词汇题融入金融科技（借贷评估），强化语境应用| |阅读理解|30题|科技（微生物与蚊子）、商业（品牌延伸）、社会现象（社交媒体订阅）|推理题占比高，如分析品牌延伸策略，提升逻辑思维与批判性思考| |写作|1题|应用文（邮件回复）|任务真实（向郑钦文提问），需结合网球运动与人生感悟，考查表达连贯性与文化意识|

莘庄中学2024学年第一学期高二英语期中考试卷 I. Listening Section A Directions: In Section A, you will hear ten short conversations between two speakers. At the end of each conversation, a question will be asked about what was said. The conversations and the questions will be spoken only once. After you hear a conversation and the question about it, read the four possible answers on your paper, and decide which one is the best answer to the question you have heard. 1. A. Spend more time working on chemistry problems. B. Talk to his advisor about dropping the course. C. Work on the assignment with a classmate. D. Ask graduate assistants for help. 2. A. Go home to get the washing. B. Send dirty clothes to the laundry. C. Pick up the washing. D. Remind the woman to hurry up. 3. A. The woman could use his calculator. B. He'll finish the adding up for the woman. C. The woman's calculator is better than his. D. He's faster at adding numbers up than the woman. 4. A. The final will begin next week. B. The man should talk with his doctor again. C. She hopes the man will be able to play in the final. D. She wants the man to watch the soccer game with her. 5. A. The advisor will approve of the man's class schedule. B. The advisor is not easy to make an appointment with. C. The man should work harder next semester. D. The man should go to see his advisor. 6. A. An educational policy. B. An economic issue. C. A heated debate. D. A famous economist. 7. A. The former is more valued than the latter. B. Views on them vary from person to person. C. The former is less valued than the latter. D. Neither of them should be valued so much. 8. A. Disappointed. B. Puzzled. C. Astonished. D. Relieved. 9. A. Why the woman took up this job. B. Why there are ice-cream tasting schools. C. How the man went into the ice-cream business. D. How it feels to work as an ice-cream taster. 10. A. They can go to the theater on foot. B. The theater is on the other side of the town. C. This town is big enough to walk around. D. Everything in the town is worth visiting. Section B Directions: In Section B, you will hear two passages and one longer conversation. After each passage or conversation, you will be asked several questions. The passages and the conversation will be read twice, but the questions will be spoken only once. When you hear a question, read the four possible answers on your paper and decide which one is the best answer to the question you have heard. Questions 11 through 13arebased on the following news. 11. A. A doctor. B. A model. C. A TV host. D. A magazine editor. 12. A. Kirsty is very likely to develop an eating disorder. B. Teen programmes talk a lot about appearance. C. Being thin is a common trend. D. Magazines are informative. 13. A. How to develop a healthy diet. B. Whether the media are a bad influence. C. How to follow famous people's lifestyles. D. Whether your appearance should matter or not. Questions 14through 16arebased on the following news report. 14. A. Peary wasn't an experienced explorer. B. He had reached the pole before Peary did. C. Peary had announced his success too late. D. Peary’s exploration wasn't thoroughly investigated. 15. A. They interviewed Peary himself. B. They examined the tools that Peary used. C. They talked to one of Peary's companions. D. They conducted a computer analysis of his photographs. 16. A. Exploration of space. B. Doctor Cook's exploration. C. Exploration of the South Pole. D. The Navigation Foundation's conclusions. Questions 17 through 20 are based on the following conversation. 17. A. A biologist. B. A psychologist. C. An artist. D. A reporter. 18. A. Talents play a role in children's overall development. B. Typical parental involvement is not as important as thought. C. Arts training will improve children's performance in other subjects. D. Children need to be assigned to different groups according to their ability. 19. A. Its subjects were young children. B. It showed what skill is essential to maths. C. It illustrated why abstract reasoning is important. D. Its results helped explain why parents turn to arts education. 20. A. Possibly by helping activate children’s brains. B. Possibly by helping raise educators’ awareness. C. Possibly by helping children learn how to learn. D. Possibly by helping scientists find a rich environment II. Grammar and Vocabulary Section A Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank. One of the earliest-known inventions is the bow and arrow, which is still used throughout the world today, 15,000 years (21)_______ it was first invented. Of course, these days, the bow and arrow (22)________ (use) mainly in sporting events, but in some places it is still a means of killing animals for food. In western Asia, another extremely important invention (23)_______(bear)—the ability to produce pots. As long as 6500 years ago, people were producing pottery, mostly plain and without designs, but the technique has changed little since. Some people say that the wheel is the single most important invention. Early examples from about 5000 years ago have been found in the forests of Europe. Around 1500 years later, the Phoenicians腓尼基人 used sand, limestone and sodium carbonate to produce (24)________ else without which we would be lost. How many things do you lock with a key every day? Doors, cupboards? The car? We really don't think much about them, (25)________ we? Well, the first example of a lock and key dates back to 2750 years ago, in Assyria. This is a lock on a large wooden door in the palace of Sargon II萨尔贡二世. Another amazing invention, which we probably take for granted these days, is the skill of knitting (26)________ first appeared in the Roman Empire, some 1700 years ago. (27)________ (early) examples are knitted socks! Eye glasses developed from just one lens in a frame, like a simple magnifying glass, way back in the 13th century. In about 1290, the idea to put two lenses in a frame to sit on the nose was developed in Florence. And, believe it or not, the modern contact lens is 120 years old. Time flies and we spend a lot of time (28)________ (check) how much time we have left! This would be impossible (29)________ clocks and watches, which are all around us: on walls, on our wrists, on our PCs, and even on our mobiles and iPod's. The first pocket watch was invented by Thomas Tompion (1639-1714) in England 330 years ago, and his watch—face design, with two (and sometimes three) hands moving around a single dial, (30)________ (remain) largely unchanged ever since. Section B Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need. A. modest B. creative C. confirm D. pace E. increasingly F. emerging G. scoring H. caps I. evenly J. access K. collapse Bathroom Reveals Your Repayment Ability Banks and other lenders typically look at borrowers’ credit histories, tax forms and other financial information to determine whether they will get paid back. In China, ____31____ lenders also look at borrowers’ bathrooms. As the economy slows, the government wants to develop a credit culture to get Chinese families spending instead of saving. While the country is getting wealthier, the financial system has not kept ____32____. Some people have had no ____33____ to credit card or mortgage, so lenders often have little reliable information about potential borrowers. To fill the gaps, one lender, China Rapid Finance, assigns its investigators to check for the number of toothbrushes or towels to determine how many people are living in a house. They look for dirty dishes in the kitchen. They take photos of a potential borrower at work to ____34____ employment status. A growing number of companies are trying to crack the credit code in China. The Internet giants Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu are developing credit ____35____ systems based on users’ online transactions and search histories. The World Bank estimated that 79 percent of China’s population above the age of 15 have bank accounts, while only 10 percent have ever borrowed from the formal financial system. China’s banks have a(n) ____36____ consumers lending business. Contrarily, online lenders are ____37____ as the pioneers, satisfying China’s rising consumer class. Alibaba’s financial affiliate (隶属机构), Huabei, makes small loans to online shoppers and vendors (小贩) on its e-commerce platforms. Peer-to-peer platforms have proved hugely popular in China, but the industry’s reputation has been ruined by scandal, like the ____38____ of Ezubao (易租宝). After that, regulators have stepped up their supervision of online lenders, which includes setting ____39____ on the amounts that can be borrowed. The regulators’ tightening management is “something like a shepherd herding (放牧) his sheep into a(n) _____40_____ narrowing pen (围栏),” said Mark Natkin, the founder and managing director at Marbridge Consulting, based in Beijing. III. Reading Comprehension Section A Directions: For each blank in the following passage there are four words or phrases marked A, B C and D. Fill in each blank with the word or phrase that best fits the context. We often see human evolution through a series of technological advances that provided material benefits. ___41___, when our ancestors learned to make weapons, they could hunt more effectively and secure more reliable sources of meat. Softer aspects of life, such as the ways we socialise, might seem less important to the ___42___ of our species. But Christopher Lynn, an anthropologist (人类学家), says we socialise not because we like to, but because we ___43___ to. It all began, he says, when our ancestors learned to control fire. We have known for decades that the use of fire ___44___ life for early humans. It allowed them to cook food, for example, making it easier to digest. But there is another crucial side to fire: its role as a source of light around which people can ___45___ at night. One of the few researchers to consider the ___46___ importance of firelight is anthropologist Polly Wiessner. For decades, she has been visiting the Ju/'hoansi, hunter-gatherers who live in southern Africa, to study their way of life. After she explored the content of more than 150 Ju/'hoansi ___47___ she had documented, she made a remarkable discovery. During the day, the talk was relatively ___48___: about one-third of discussions concerned such topics as hunting strategies, for instance, with another third devoted to complaints about group members. Around the campfire at night, however, around 80 percent of discussions were in the form of stories. Some were funny, others exciting — all were ___49___. Yet they often also contained information about social manners and tradition, as well as about geographically distant social contacts who could be visited for help during times of hardship. ___50___, listening to these stories had the potential to make life and survival easier. “In the big picture, stories are probably ___51___ than day talk,” says Weisser. But there is another way fire might have ___52___ us as a social species. The archaeological (考古的) record suggests that campfires appeared perhaps 1.5 million years ago, but humans actually learned to light fires for at least another million years. If so, then fire was, for much of human prehistory, a resource that had to be gathered from the ___53___. That can be difficult, says Lynn, so would have encouraged people to cooperate with one another to keep their campfires burning. He believes that is a big reason why groups containing the most ___54___ humans survived well over time. Throw in the idea that these groups used fireside gatherings to share informative stories at night, and you get a situation where humans ___55___ to find fire comforting, unlike other animals, and to enjoy cooperating, socializing, and storytelling around the flames. 41. A. For instance B. In addition C. On the contrary D. By all means 42. A. success B. exchange C. distribution D. appearance 43. A. learn B. need C. refuse D. happen 44. A. sustained B. experienced C. transformed D. complicated 45. A. look B. gather C. work D. travel 46. A. strategical B. social C. environmental D. commercial 47. A. conversations B. rituals C. behaviours D. schedules 48. A. emotional B. practical C. cultural D.unreal 49. A. educational B. traditional C. scaring D. entertaining 50. A. In other words B. For instance C. What's more D. By comparison 51. A. less valuable B. less common C. more important D. more surprising 52. A. bound B. challenged C. guided D. protected 53. A. animals B. tribesmen C. awareness D. environment 54. A. intelligent B. hardworking C. cooperative D. courageous 55. A. evolved B. wished C. remembered D. struggled Section B Directions: Read the following passages. Each passage is followed by several questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that fits best according to the information given in the passage you have just read. (A) No offense to you, but scientists have found that mosquitoes may find your feet as appealing as Limburger cheese. If that's you, don't panic--it doesn't mean you're not washing them enough. Mosquitoes are simply attracted by certain DNA. A research team out of London recently investigated the genetic role in mosquito attraction by testing the bite appeal of 18 identical and 19 fraternal (异卵的) pairs of female twins. In a series of tests, 20 hungry mosquitoes were released into the end of a Y-shaped tube and allowed to choose whether to follow their noses left or right. Down either path was one twin's hand, releasing its delicious natural odors (气味) but protected from bites behind a screen. After testing all 37 twin pairs, scientists found that the identical twins had consistently more similar attraction scores than the fraternal ones did — specifically, 67 percent of a person's insect attractiveness had to do with her genes. So what's the deal: Is DNA smelly? Thankfully, no. But specific DNA does attract unique species of micro-bacteria to your body — and those are what mosquitoes just can't resist. Each of us, right now, is covered with about 100 trillion microbes (微生物), outnumbering our human DNA ten to one. Maybe stranger still: Scientists believe we share only a small part of these microbial species with one another, making our “microbiome” — the world of bacteria living in and on us — distinct, just like our fingerprints. In addition to producing many of the vitamins and chemicals in our blood, our microbiome is thought to be responsible for most of our distinct odors as well. Different mosquitoes prefer different smells from different parts of the body, and those smells come from chemicals produced by our microbiomes. So the next time a group of hungry mosquitoes flying around your cousin but leaves you bite-free, thank your DNA for the world of microscopic creatures on your skin that produce just the right smell to make the mosquitoes dizzy. 56. What is the main reason why some people are more attractive to mosquitoes than others? A. They have a specific type of DNA. B. They don't wash their hands enough. C. They eat too much Limberger cheese. D. They have some especially smelly DNA. 57. What was the primary method used by researchers in London in their study? A. Measuring the amount of sweat produced by twins. B. Comparing the bacteria on the hands of the 37 twins. C. Releasing mosquitoes into a tube to follow their noses. D. Observing mosquitoes' behavior in a natural environment. 58. Why is our microbiome compared to our fingerprints in paragraph 4? A. They both need vitamins. B. They are both unique to us. C. They both contain the same chemicals. D. They are both responsible for our odors. 59. Which of the following might be the best title of the passage? A. Why mosquitoes are smelly B. How mosquito bites harm us C. Why mosquitoes find you irresistible D. How mosquito bites are hard to discover (B) A brand is a name, word, sign, symbol, design, or a combination of these, intended to identify the goods or services of a company or a group of companies. Another purpose of a brand is to contrast one company from another. The most important skill of professional marketers is the ability to create, maintain, protect, and enhance the brands of their products and services. Branding has become so important that today hardly any company or product is without one. Therefore, brand management is an increasingly important element in marketing. Brand power refers to the relative strength of a company’s brand in the minds of consumers, and can influence consumers’ choice of products. Brands are powerful to the extent that they give high brand loyalty and strong brand associations, name recognition, perceived quality and other assets to a company. A strong brand can be one of a company’s most important assets. High brand power provides a company with many competitive advantages. A powerful brand enjoys a high level of consumer brand awareness and loyalty. Because consumers expect stores to carry the brand, the company has more bargaining power when negotiating with retailers. And because the brand name brings high credibility, a company with a strong brand can more easily launch new products with the same brand name. Many companies use the advantage of a strong brand power strategically to expand their business. When a company introduces an additional item with a new flavour, form, colour or package size in a given product category and under the same brand name, it is called a line extension. Another strategy is called brand extension. This involves the use of a successful brand name to launch new or modified products in a new category, thereby employing brand recognition in order to increase sales of new products. Brand recognition is certainly important. Because consumers often hold long-standing perceptions about brands, high brand power ensure a company continued sales of its products. 60. What does the word “assets” in the 2nd paragraph mean? A. points B. advantages C. aspects D. elements 61. All of the following statements are the advantages of a high brand power EXCEPT that________. A. a high brand wins the loyalty of consumers B. a high brand usually sets a much higher price C. it’s easy for a high brand company to launch new products D. a high brand company is more competitive when doing business with retailers 62. A brand extension ________. A. happens when the company is developing a new product B. means the expansion of a company’s business in its established field C. takes place when the company introduces a similar item but with a new colour D. refers to the use of an established brand name to promote a new product in a new category (C) “It's free and always will be, Facebook promised on its landing page 登陆页for nearly a decade. The world's largest social network still is. But from this week its users and those of its sister app, Instagram, will have the option of paying $11.99 a month for a “verified (经核实的)" account, buying them better customer service and more widely distributed posts. The subscription is the latest example of a growing trend. Last June Snapchat, a messaging app popular among 20-somethings, launched a $3.99 plan called Snapchat+. In December Twitter  relaunched Twitter Blue, an  $8-per-month service. Like Facebook's offering, both offer extra services, the most significant being a higher visibility of the user's posts in others' feeds. It is hardly surprising that ad-supported networks are looking to diversify their sources of  income. After years of non-stop growth the online-advertising business has hit a speed bump. The great one-off shift of ad budgets from offline locations, like newspapers, to the web is mostly  complete. The results have been painful. Meta, Facebook's parent company, has reported falling profit in each of the past three quarters. Snap, which owns Snapchat, has lost nearly 90% of its market  value in the same period. Subscriptions are no substitute for ads. Snap said that 2.5 million people had signed up to  Snapchat+, less than 1% of its app's 375 million daily users. That implies annual subscription sales of no more than $120 million, or less than 3% of Snap's total income last year. Though Twitter  has not said how many have joined, a recent leak put the figure at below 300,000. To the extent that social networks employ subscription it will mean a windfall for the mobile platforms that host their apps. Google, which runs the Android operating system, and Apple,  which runs ios, make no money from apps' advertising, but take a cut of consumers' in-app  purchases including subscriptions. Having blocked the mobile ad business with new privacy rules, Apple and Google stand to profit from the resulting move to subscriptions. There may be a sting in the tail. While Meta's new service costs $11.99 for those signing up  on the web, the price if paying through the app is $14.99. Similarly, Mr Musk, who has called Apple's fees “a 30% tax on the internet", charges $8 for Twitter Blue online and $11 in the app. Such  pricing has proved controversial, with Apple blocking apps such as Fortnite, a video game which told users they could pay less in a browser. But as more large companies adopt differential pricing, consumers may learn that they can get a big discount by signing up outside Apple and Google's  ecosystems. 63.   What trend is described in the first two paragraphs? A. Social media platforms start to increase their subscription fees.  B. Social media platforms are losing their appeal to young people. C. Social media platforms start to offer paid subscription services.  D. Social media platforms are making efforts to maintain their users. 64.  Why do social networks need to have more sources of income? A. Their market value has just started to rise.  B. Ad budgets are returning to offline locations.  C. Ad companies are giving up online platforms. D. Their online advertising business is slowing down.  65. The statistics in paragraph 4 are intended to ______. A. suggest a more feasible substitute for online advertising  B. show that the contribution from the subscriptions is limited C. criticize social media platforms for their misleading information  D. imply that there is no need to provide extra services for paying users  66. What can be inferred from the passage? A. Consumers can apply for a discount if they subscribe in apps. B. The mobile platforms may well benefit from the subscription plans.  C. New privacy rules will impact negatively on the subscription services. D. Differential pricing will become a thing of the past due to consumers' opposition.  Section C Directions: Complete the following passage by using the sentences given below. Each sentence can be used only once. Note that there are two more sentences than you need. A. This was the only mass extinction in Earth's history — there were several others long before the dinosaurs. B. To help us explain what this was, we have to know that rock is often in layers, each layer matching a different time in history. C. Dinosaurs, at the top of the food chain, would suffer most. D. As we will see, it seems likely that a major and sudden disaster caused their disappearance. E. Iridium (铱）is widely used by the telecommunications industry for its stability. F. In fact, there was 30 to 130 times more of this material than normal in this layer of rock. What Killed the Dinosaurs? Dinosaurs ruled Earth for 160 million years. But, suddenly, about 65 million years ago, they all died.This is very surprising because there were very many different species of dinosaur, all suited to different climates and conditions.The normal causes of extinction,such as natural climate change,may explain why some species of dinosaur died out,but not all of them. 67 So, what was this disaster? In the past, scientists thought of many possible explanations, like disease, earthquakes, or volcanoes. Unfortunately, for a long time, there was no strong evidence for any of them. This changed, however, in 1980. Researchers, led by Nobel Prize winner Luis Alvarez, noticed something unusual. 68 Alvarez and his team were amazed to find that the layer of rock that matched the time of the dinosaurs' extinction 65 million years ago had a very large amount of something called iridium. And it was all around the world.Iridium is very unusual;there is very little of it on Earth. 69 What amazed the Alvarez team was that this was about the same amount as the percentage of iridium in meteorites(陨石). How could this material spread all around Earth? Scientists can predict what might happen when a large asteroid(小行星)hit Earth, sending dust up into the atmosphere.Winds would spread it around the world. It would stay in the atmosphere for several years, stopping sunlight. This would cause plants and trees to die.Animals that used to eat the plants would starve, as would the meat- eating animals that ate them. 70 No large animal can live for years without food. By now, you might be thinking that there should be more physical evidence,such as a crater where the asteroid hit.In 19090 scientists found just a crater.The Chicxulub crater in Mexico is 180 kilometers across,just the size that the Alvarez team estimated. 第II卷 IV. Verb Filling 71. To my surprise, the course named “Introduce to Three Dimensional Design” was not computer-based at all, but ________ on materials and their properties. (focus) 72. We were later told that the haircut is believed __________ productivity, encourage focus on studies, and promote personal cleanliness. (increase) 73. On 30 August 1916, two years after the expedition began, they returned to Elephant Island in a small boat __________by the Chilean government. (provide) 74. My friend, who had persuaded me to go away to sea, came up to me so as to make sure that my good resolutions about going back to my father’s house no longer ________. (exist) 75.Is ________on hydroponics(水栽法) a good strategy for feeding people in the future? If so, we should begin today to teach people the principles and benefits of hydroponics.(rely) 76. If players need to set their own objectives, _____ sure this is clear. Otherwise, they may spend their time struggling to figure out the supposed end goal rather than enjoying the game.(make) 77. With so many young “buy now, pay later” shoppers already in debt from this short-term financing tool not requiring interest, questions emerge: why do these shoppers use such a tool? And what risks does it pose to their budgets in the months________? (come) 78. The incredible rock formations have resulted in the park __________ as a World Heritage Site, thanks to its extraordinary size and scientific importance ——making it one of only 13 natural US sites with that title. (recognize) 79. The analysis by Friedman and Kern highlighted a significant correlation between conscientiousness(认真）and lifespan, _______ that personal traits play a critical tole in determining longevity. (suggest) 80. There are many different ways food_________ : farmers only pick the best-looking crops, deliveries aren’t made on time, supermarkets throw out extra products, customers buy more than they need, and so on. (waste) V.Translation(3+3+4+5+5=20’) Directions: Translate the following sentences into English, using the word given in the brackets. 81. 旅行可以让你接触到不同的文化和视角。(expose) 82. 上海车展一直是公众感受全球新品首发的“打卡地”。 （launch ） 83. 由周轶君执导的教育纪录片《他乡的童年》(Childhood Elsewhere)温柔地提醒着身为成年人的我们，不要用单一的标准去评判孩子。(base) 84. 在经历了一系列突如其来、威胁生命的事件之后，他开始意识到，面对紧急情况时，人们只有保持镇静、同心协力才能更快找到应对之法。（Having...) 85. 无需多久，无人驾驶飞机送外卖这个当下鲜为人知的小行业，将迅速发展成为一个年销售额逾千亿美元的大产业，许多人将在这个产业里找到机遇。（before） VI. Guided Writing (25’) Directions: Write an English composition in 150-200 words according to the information given below. 假设你是明启中学学生李华，你的学校邀请了在今年巴黎奥运会网球女单赛场上勇夺桂冠的郑钦文(Queen Wen)来校与同学们分享她的冠军之路和人生感悟，由你负责与她联系。她给你发了一封电子邮件(内容如下)，请根据她在电子邮件中提出的要求写一封回信。 Dear Li Hua, Thanks for inviting me. For my sharing session, I’d like to know what interests you students most about tennis, the sport that I play, or me. Please give me two questions you’d like me to answer and tell me why you choose those two questions. I’m looking forward to your reply. Yours sincerely Queen Wen 1 学科网（北京）股份有限公司 $