1、广东省惠州市高二英语下学期期中试题广东省惠州市第一中学2015-2016学年高二英语下学期期中试题第一部分 阅读理解（共两节，满分40分）第一节（共15小题；每小题2分，满分30分） 阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。AOf course, she wasnt really my aunt and, out of fear, I never called her that to her face. I only referred to her as “My Aunt Fannie” because the name always ma
2、de my father laugh quietly and gave my mother cause to look strictly at both of usat me for being disrespectful of my elder and at my father for encouraging my bad behavior. I enjoyed both reactions so I grasped every opportunity to work the name into as many conversations as possible. As a young wo
3、man, my mother had worked in the kitchen of a large Victorian farmhouse. During those years my mother helped Aunt Fanny make the best blueberry jam ever tasted by anyone in Glenfield. She was well-known for her jam and for never sharing the recipe with others. Even though my mother knew the recipe b
4、y heart, as long as Aunt Fannie was alive, she never made the jam without Aunt Fannie in our kitchen to direct the process and preserve the secret.Each August, my mother would prepare me for Aunt Fannies visit. One year, after I had helped with the jam process Aunt Fannie gave me a coin and then mad
5、e me promise that I would never spend it. Hold onto this coin, she said, and someday you will be rich. I still have my very first coin, given to me by my grandmother. So I kept the coin in small box and waited to become rich.I now have the blueberry jam recipe and the coin from Aunt Fannie. In peopl
6、es eye Aunt Fannies success resulted from that secret recipe. But to me, it was just a common recipe. Neither have significantly made me become a rich person, but I keep them as reminders to hold onto the valuable things in life. Money can make you feel rich for a while, but it is the relationships
7、and the memories of time spent with friends and family that truly leave you wealthy. And that is a fortune that anyone can build.1. Why did the author always use the name “My Aunt Fannie” in conversations?A. She was frightened of Aunt Fannie.B. She enjoyed her parents reactions.C. She liked Aunt Fan
8、nies recipe.D. She greatly respected “Aunt Fannie”.2. In the last paragraph, the author encourages readers to_.A. hold onto the first coin in life.B. spend more time with family and friends.C. make money with their own hands.D. make as many friends as possible3. What could be the best title for this
9、 passage?A. The Key to Success B. A Fortune Built from a CoinC. Blueberry Jam Recipe D. A Relationship of TrustBThis year is the 5th birthday of Barbie. The doll first appeared at the toy fair in New York on March 9th, 1959. Its creator was Ruth Handler, an American businesswoman. She and her husban
10、d Elliott along with Harold “Matt” Matson started the toy company Mattel. She named the new doll after their daughter Barbara. She based the design on a German doll named Bild Lilli.The first Barbie wore a black and white swimsuit and had her hair in a ponytail. She looked and seemed very grown up.
11、But any concerns that parents would not want to buy it for little girls were soon proved wrong. Mattel sold 300,000 Barbie dolls in the first year at a price of three dollars. Today, a 50-year-old Barbie in good condition might cost more than 27,000 dollars. Barbie have represented 50 different nati
12、onalities and are sold in 150 countries. Mattel says 90 percent of girls in the U.S. between the ages of three and ten own at least one Barbie doll. Barbie has faced recent competition from Bratz dolls. Barbie has also faced her share of critics. A well-known example was when womens education groups
13、 objected to a talking Barbie doll that declared, among other things, “Math class is tough!” Mattel agreed to change it. Saudi Arabia has banned Barbie dolls. And a lawmaker in the American state of West Virginia would like to do the same. Last month, he proposed banning sales of Barbie and other do
14、lls that influence girls to put too much importance on physical beauty.Some people say Barbie is an unhealthy role model for young girls. Robin Gerber disagrees. She wrote a book about Barbie. She points out dolls like scientist Barbie and race car driver Barbie. She says peoplewho criticize Barbie
15、should tell girls the story of the businesswoman who created her. She says Ruth Handler wanted the dolls to help girls think about what they wanted to do with their lives.4. Barbie was named after_.A. a Bratz doll B. a German doll C. Ruth Hanlers daughter D. a famous businesswoman5. We can learn fro
16、m the third paragraph that_A. Barbie was quite popular with little girls B. its inventor was sure that Barbie would sell wellC. parents didnt buy Barbie for little girls at first D. Barbie was first intended for grown-up girls6. Womens education groups objected to a talking Barbie mainly because_.A.
17、 it was talking in a bad manner B. it told what many girls thought aboutC. it made girls discouraged at much D. it caused girls to pay too much attention to their appearance.7. Robin Gerber believes that Barbie_.A. could create something worthy of criticism B. could help girls forget their own troub
18、le in their livesC. should be changed to be more positive D. could help girls think about their own lives.CBullying (欺凌)in school is a problem for many staff as well as pupils, according to a teachers union survey.The bullies are often other teachers who pick on their colleagues - with heads and sen
19、ior staff bully most often.The survey says about a quarter of teachers have been bullied by another member of staff.The survey of more than 900 primary, secondary, and further-education staff across the UK, showed that many teachers faced a range of workplace-bullying threats.But among the teachers
20、who felt they had been bullied, 50% said it was by a senior member of staff, compared with 25% by pupils and 23% by parents.I didnt report it as the person bullying was the head teacher, said a primary school teacher.I was driven from a previous job by a head teacher who was suffering from stress. S
21、he yelled at everybody around her.” said a secondary school teacher.Another teacher, a head of department in an academy, said: Following a poor set of results my whole department have been spoken to in a way I would never wish to be spoken to again. As a consequence, two are leaving and others would
22、 if they could.The survey looked at the type of bullying that these teachers had faced from pupils, parents and fellow teachers. The most widespread forms of bullying were negative comments and verbal insults. But almost half of bullying victims claimed they had been threatened and two in five repor
23、ted psychological abuse. There was physical violence in just under 2% of cases.The unions general secretary, Mary Bousted, warned that schools needed to have policies in place to protect staff from workplace bullying.It is unacceptable for any staff to be bullied by colleagues, schools and colleges
24、need policies to pick up any problems and deal with them promptly. It is not good enough to just tackle the symptoms; schools and colleges also need to get rid of the cause of the bullying.” Said Ms Bousted.8. Most of the teachers were bullied by_A. Parents B. leaders C. colleagues D. students9. Wha
25、t is the most common form of bullying that the teachers faced?A. Being frightened B. Physical attackC. Spiritual punishment D. Being abused10. What was Mary Bousteds attitude towards workplace bullying?A. Its unacceptable and hard to solve. B. Solving bullying itself is not enoughC. Schools need to
26、punish the bullies D. Teachers should protect themselves.11. The underlined word in the last paragraph probably means_.A. handle B. treat C. remove D. find. DSiri is an artificial intelligence (AI) that you can carry around in the pocket, where it waits patiently to be told what to do. In the week w
27、e spent together, my AI assistant has performed admirably in finding me restaurants, or the location of the nearest coffee shop.A typical command might be: “Reserve a table for two at a good French restaurant in San Francisco.” Siri responds by presenting a list of top-rated restaurants that can be
28、booked on OpenT. If you say which time you want, it can book you a table without your lifting a finger. In some ways Siri is just a fancy front-end (前端程序) to the 35 sites it can connect to, from taxi booking sites to movie review databases. But whats new is the way it can analyze the intentions of i
29、ts master or mistress and use those sites to put them into action. Siri attaches probabilities to the explanation of each word and cross-references (对照检索) with your location and other data, some of which you must provide yourself. To send email reminders, Siri obviously needs to know your email addr
30、ess. To “find me the flower shop closest to work”, it needs to know where you work. To pay bills or buy airline tickets, it would need access to your credit card. That raises the question of how far we are willing to trust a piece of software that can go and dothings for us based on what it “thinks”
31、 we mean, a topic that occupies some engineers working on artificial intelligence. The more data, and power, you give your virtual assistant, the more damage it could do. Siri may be simple, and always shows its explanation of a command before carrying it out. But it gives users a preview of a new b
32、alance between privacy, trust and convenience that the expansion of AI into everyday life is likely to develop.12. What is Siri?A. A digital e-book reader. B. An artificial intelligence software.C. A voice-controlled website. D.A music-sharing software.13. When asked “do I need my umbrella today?”, what will Siri probably respond with?A. The list of umbrella makers. B. The local weather forecast.C. The list of umbrella shops. D. The local climate
