2014年高二英语下学期期末试卷

2014年高二英语下学期期末试卷（带答案人教版）考试时间：100分钟试题分数：150分第一部分阅读理解（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。

AMy brother Ron joined the US army a few years ago. Most girls, especially those who are my age, are thrilled by anything that has to do with the “army”. It’s a novelty to them to shoot a gun, jump out of a plane, and wear uniform.Now I know you’re thinking that I must find it really cool to know a solider, who’s my brother. That’s wrong, before I found out that my brother joined the army, I was crazy about the army. Firstly, I wanted to go to college, knew that joining the army was probably the only way I could get it as my parents couldn’t afford it. Additionally there were all the other points of the army that grabbed my heart. I wanted the challenge, I wanted the discipline and I wanted the feeling that I would be doing something beyond the ability of average citizen.But as soon as my brother joined the army, all those things fell away. All I saw were dead people, guns shooting, tanks turning into a ball of fire, tents burning, and lots of blood. It was so horrible. When Ron went to Iraq, I freaked out whenever I didn’t he ar from him for more than a week. I kept up with the news, reading the latest newspaper and listening to the hourly reports. And every time I heard that an American solider was killed, I prayed, it’ wasn’t Ron.I’m proud of my brother for serving our count ry, and his willingness to devote his life to something he finds important. It’s great to see how discipline and mature he’s got, and I’m glad he has his college paid for. But although I am proud, I gladly give up the “coolness” of having a brother in the army. I would be perfectly all right if I had never seen that uniform on him, and he was just a plain old “boring” brother.I love my brother, and I’m proud of him, but I want him back home!21. What did the writer think of the army before Ron joined?A. Joining the army was more beneficial than going to college.B. Joining the army was a good choice for those who couldn’t afford college education.C. Joining the army was meant risking one’s life for something important,D. Joining the army did more harm than good.22. After Ron joined the army, the writer .A. decide to join the army one dayB. became afraid of seeing soldiersC. often showed off Ron in front of friendsD. became aware of the danger of joining the army23. What would be the best title for the passage?A. Peace or war?B. Life in the armyC. Having a soldier in the familyD. A choice between your life and your dreamBThe greatest recent social changes have been in the lives of women. During the twentieth century there has been a remarkable shortening of the proportion of a woman's life spent in caring for the children. A woman marrying at the end of the nineteenth century would probably have been in her middle twenties, and would be likely to have seven or eight children, four or five of whom lived till they were five years old. By the time the youngest was fifteen, the mother would have been in her early fifties and would expect to live a further twenty years, during which health made it unusual for her to get paid work. Today women marry younger and have fewer children. Usually a woman's youngest child will be fifteen when she is forty-five years and can be expected to live another thirty-five years and is likely to take paid work until retirement at sixty. Even while she has to take care of children, her work is lightened by modern living conditions.This important change in women's life-patterns has only recently begun to have its full effect on women's economic position. Even a few years ago most girls took a full-time job after they left school. However, when they married, they usually left work at once and never returned to it. Today the school- leaving age is sixteen; many girls stay at school after that age, and though women usually marry older, more married women stay at work at least until shortly before their first child is born. Many more afterwards return to full-or-part-time work. Such changes have led to a new relationship in marriage, with the husband accepting a greater share of the duties and satisfactions of family life, and with both husband and wife sharing more equally in providing the money, and running the home, according to the abilities and interests of each of them.24. At what age did most women marry around the 1890 according to the passage?A. At about twenty-fiveB. In their earl fiftiesC. At the age of fifteenD. At any age from fifteen to forty-five25. Many girls, the passage claims, are now likely to_______.A. give up their jobs for good after they are marriedB. leave school as soon as they canC. marry so that they can get a jobD. continue working until they are going to have a baby26. When she was over fifty, a late nineteenth-century mother ______.A. was usually expected to die fairly soonB. would expect to work until she diedC. would be healthy enough to take up paid jobsD. was less likely to find a job even if she wanted to27. Nowadays, a husband tends to_______.A. play a greater part in looking after the childrenB. help his wife by doing much of the houseworkC. feel dissatisfied with his role in the familyD. take a part-time job so that he can help in the homeCThe best example of something is often called the "gold standard." It sets the standard against which other things are measured. In economics, the term describes how major trading nations once used gold to set currency values and exchange rates. Many nations continued to use the gold standard until the last century.In the United States, people could exchange paper money for gold from the eighteen seventies until nineteen thirty-three. Then-President Richard Nixon finally disconnected the dollar from the value of gold in nineteen seventy-one. From time to time, some politicians call for a return to the gold standard.In 1978, the International Monetary Fund ended an official gold price. The IMF also ended the required use of gold in transactions with its member countries. Since that time, gold prices have grown and continued to be high. But people keep buying. Some people are "gold bugs." These are investors who say people should buy gold to protect against inflation(通货膨胀).People have valued gold for thousands of years. The soft, dense metal polishes to a bright yellow shine and resists most chemical reactions. It makes a good material for money, political power -- and, more recently, electrical power. If you own a device like a mobile phone or a computer, you might own a little gold in the wiring. The gold standard was the subject of one of the best-known speeches in American political history. William Bryan wanted the country to use both gold and silver as money. The idea was to devalue the dollar and make it easier for farmers to pay their debts. So he delivered a speech, which made him famous. He was a presidential candidate three times. But he never won.28. The underlined word “transactions” probably means “”A. warsB. tradeC. meetingsD. conflict29. After the IMF ended the official gold price, the gold prices .A. stayed the sameB. began to dropC. increasedD. increased a little at first and kept drop30. What’s the fourth paragraph mainly about?A. The reason for valuing goldB. The history of the use of goldC. New function of goldD. How to obtain gold31. We can learn from the last paragraph that William Bryan .A. was once a farmerB. loved to collect goldC. was a famous political figureD. was a good at giving speechesDEdward Wilson is America's, if not the world's, leading naturalist. In The Future of Life, he takes us on a tour of the world's natural resources. How are they used? What has been lost? What remains and is it able to continue with the present speed of use? Wilson also points out the need to understand fully the biodiversity(生物多样性)of our earth.Wilson begins with an open letter to the pioneer in environment protection, Henry David Thoreau. He compares today's Walden Pond with that of Thoreau's day. Wilsonwill use such comparisons for the rest of the book. The problem is clear: man has done great damage to his home over the years. Can the earth, with human help, be made to return to biodiversity levels that will be able to support us in the future? Biodiversity, Wilson argues, is the key to settling many problems the earth faces today. Even our agricultural crops can gain advantages from it. A mere hundred species(物种) are the basis of our food supply, of which but twenty carry the load. Wilson suggests changing this situation by looking into ten thousand species that could be made use of, which will be a way to reduce the clearing of the natural homes of plants and animals to enlarge farming areas.At the end of the book, Wilson discusses the importance of human values in considering the environment. If you are to continue to live on the earth, you may as well read and act on the ideas in this book.32. We learn from the text that Wilson cares most about .A. the environment for plantsB. the biodiversity of our earthC. the waste of natural resourcesD. the importance of human values33. How many species are most important to our present food supply?A. TwentyB. EightyC. One hundredD. Ten thousand34. Wilson suggests that one way to keep biodiversity is to .A. learn how to farm scientificallyB. builds homes for some dying speciesC. makes it clear what to eatD. use more species for food35. We can infer that the text isA. description of natural resourcesB. a research reportC. a book reviewD. an introduction to a scientist第二节（共5小题；每小题2分，满分10分）根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。