2022-2023学年安徽省合肥市第一中学高一下学期期中考试英语试卷

2022-2023学年安徽省合肥市第一中学高一下学期期中考试英语试卷1. Exploit your parking spaceAn unused parking space or garage can make money. If you live near a city center or an airport, you could make anything up to £200 or £300 a week. Put an advertisement（广告）for free on Letpark or Atmyhousepark.Rent a roomSpare room? Not only will a lodger（房客）earn you an income, but also, thanks to the government-backed “rent a room” program, you won’t have to pay any tax on the first £4500 you make per year. Try advertising your room on Roomspare or Roommateeasy.Make money during special eventsDon’t want a full-time lodger? Then rent on a short-term basis. If you live in the capital, renting a room out during the Olympics or other big events could bring in money. Grashpadder can advertise your space.Live on setRenting your home out as a “film set” could earn you hundreds of pounds a day, depending on the film production company and how long your home is needed. A quick search on the Internet will bring up dozens of online companies that allow you to register your home for free—but you will be charged if your home gets picked.Use your roofYou need the right kind of roof, but some energy companies pay the cost of fixing solar equipment(around￡14,000), and let you use the energy produced for nothing. In return, they get paid for unused energy fed back into the National Grid. However, you have to sign a 25-year agreement with the supplier, which could prevent you from changing the roof.1. If you earn ￡5000 from renting a room in one year, the tax you need to pay will be based on______.A．￡800 B．￡4500 C．￡500 D．50002. If you want to use energy free, you have to_____.A．sign an agreement with the governmentB．keep the roof unchanged for within 25 yearsC．sell the roof to some energy companiesD．pay around ￡14,000 for the equipment3. For whom the text most probably written?A．Lodgers. B．Advertisers.C．Online companies D．House owners.2. The Amazon Echo, a voice-driven computer that sits on a table top and answers to the name Alexa, can call up music tracks and radio stations, tell jokes, answer simple questions and control smart appliances. Even before Christmas it was already resident in about 4% of American households. Voice assistants are being widely used in smart phones, too: Apple’s Siri handles over 2 billion commands a week, and 20% of Google searches on Android-powered handsets in America are input by voice. Dictating e-mails and text messages now works reliably enough to be useful. Why type when you can talk?Simple though it may seem, voice has the power to transform computing, by providing a natural means of interaction. Windows, icons and menus, and then touch screens, were welcomed as much easier ways to deal with computers than entering complex keyboard commands. But being able to talk to computers abolishes the need for a “user interface(界面)” at all. Just as mobile phones were more than existing phones without wires, and cars were more than carriages without horses, so computers without screens and keyboards have the potential to be more useful, more powerful than people can imagine today.Voice will not wholly replace other forms of input and output. Sometimes it will remain more convenient to converse with a machine by typing rather than talking (Amazon is said to be working on an Echo device with a built-in screen). But voice is sure to account for a growing share of people’s interactions with the technology around them, from washing machines that tell you how much of the cycle they have left to virtual assistants in corporate call centres. However, to reach its full potential, the technology requires further breakthroughs and a resolution of the tricky questions it raises around the trade-off between convenience and privacy.Computer-dictation systems have been around for years. But they were unreliable and required lengthy training to learn a specific user’s voice. Computer’s new ability to recognise almost anyone’s speech dependably without training is th e latest manifestation (证明) of the power of “deep learning”, an artificial intelligence technique in which a software system is trained to use millions of examples, usually selected from the Internet. Thanks to deep learning, machines now nearly equal humans in transcription accuracy, computerized translation systems are improving rapidly and text-to-speech systems are becoming less robotic and more natural-sounding. Computers are, in short, getting much better at handling natural language in all its forms.Although deep learning means that machines can recognize speech more reliably and talk in a more natural manner, they still don’t understand the meaning of language. That is the most difficult aspect of the problem and, if voice-driven computing is truly to flourish, one that must be overcome. Computers must be able to understand context in order to maintain a coherent conversation about something, rather than just responding to simple, one-off (一次性的) voice commands, as they mostly do today (“Hey, Siri, set a timer for ten minutes”). Researchers in universities and at companies are working on this problem, building “bots” that can hold more detailed conversations about more complex tasks, from searching information to making travel arrangements.Many voice-driven devices are always listening, waiting to be activated(激活). Some people are already concerned about the implications of internet-connected microphones listening in every room and from every smart phone. Not all audio is sent to the cloud - devices wait for a trigger phrase (“Alexa”, “OK, Google”, “Hey, Cortana”, or “Hey, Siri”) before they start passing the user’s voice to the servers that actually handle the requests - but when it comes to storing audio, it is unclear who keeps what and when.1. According to Paragraph l, the Amazon Echo ________.A．has been sold out before ChristmasB．has been used by most American familiesC．came on the market later than Apple’s SiriD．is more useful than smart phones in dictating e-mails2. What can we learn abo ut computers’ deep learning from the passage?A．It is vital to accurate identification of human voices.B．It is almost the same as the computer-dictation system.C．It has helped machines understand the meaning of language.D．It has helped machines beat humans in accuracy and reliability.3. What are some users of voice-driven devices concerned about?A．The devices will be in charge of their life.B．The devices need to be activated before working.C．They are in the dark about their data’s ownership.D．Their voices can be recognized by every smart phone.4. What’s the author’s attitude towards voice-driven technology?A．Worried. B．Doubtful.C．Supportive. D．Objective.3. The other day, my sister and I were sitting in the restaurant, trying to have a conversation, but her children, four-year-old Willow and seven-year-old Luca, would not stop fighting. The arguments——over a fork, or who had more water in a glass--never stopped.Then my sister reached into her handbag, produced two shiny iPads, and handed one to each child. Suddenly, the two were quiet. They sat playing games and watching videos, and we continued with our conversation.After our meal, as my sister stuffed the iPads back into her bag, she said, “I don’t want to give them the iPads at the dinner table, but if they keep them occupied for an hour so we can eat in peace, I often just hand them over. I am afraid that it’s bad for them. I do worry that it makes them think it’s OK to use electronics at the dinner table in the future.”Dr. Gary Small, director of the Longevity Center at the University of California, Los Angeles says that the brain is highly sensitive to stimuli(刺激物), like iPads and smartphone screen, and if people spend too much time on one technology, and less time interacting(互动)with people like parents at the dinner table, that could prevent the development of certain communication skills.“Conversations with each other are the way children learn to have conversations with themselves, and learn how to be alone,” said Sherry Turkle, a professor of science, technology and society at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She fears that children who do not learn real interactions, which often have imperfections, will come to know a world where perfect, shiny screens give them a false sense of intimacy(亲密) without risk. However, they need to be able to gather themselves and know who they are. So someday they can form a relationship with another person without a panic of being alone. “If you don’t teach your children to be alone, they will only know how to be lonely,” she said.1. What did Willow and Luca fight about?A．Little things. B．iPads.C．Delicious food. D．Interesting things.2. How did the author’s sister feel about offering children iPads?A．She loved doing it very much B．She was uncertain about its effects.C．She felt it was worth a try. D．She felt surprised at its effect.3. According to Dr. Small, what should parents do?A．Provide their children with various technologies.B．Teach their children communication skills.C．Limit their children’s screen time.D．Talk to their children at the dinner table.4. What is Sherry Turkle worried?A．Children are afraid of taking risks.B．Children try to escape from the real world.C．Children can’t deal with time when they have to be alone.D．Children can’t live without electronic devices.4. In 2015, researchers from Australia's Deakin University published one of the first studies measuring food's physical effect on the left hippocampus(海马体), a seahorse-shaped brain region crucial for memory, learning, and decision making. It is also one of the first areas to shrink in people with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia (痴呆).255 people filled out diet surveys and then underwent MRI scans(磁共振扫描成像) that measured their brains. Four years later, they returned for another scan in response to a request from the researchers.The study found that the left hippocampus was bigger and heavier in the healthy eaters than in the unhealthy ones, regardless of age, sex, weight, exercise habits, or general health. That means eating the right foods and skipping the wrong stuff could help protect against declines in thinking and memory that lead to dementia. Healthy eating doesn't just prevent brain decline. It raises scores onthinking and memory tests, according to a study published in March 2019 that tracked 2,621 American women and men for 30 years."Green leafy vegetables have good effects that may protect both females and males against cognitive(认知的）decline and dementia," says lead researcher Claire McEvoy, RD, of the Centre for Public Health at Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland.Even a little healthy food goes a long way. According to a 2018 Rush University study that tracked 960 people for 4.7 years, participants who ate just 1.3 extra servings of green leafy vegetables a day showed cognitive abilities similar to those of people 11 years younger.How are these power foods working with your brain cells? Animal and test-tube experiments suggest that compounds in healthy diets help new cells make copies of DNA when they divide and multiply. Meanwhile, high-fat, high-sugar processed foods harm brain cells.While food serves as an important brain protector, experts say brain supplements(补品)aren't all that effective. Studies show that they don't make brain cells active in a significantly positive way.＂Let the buyer be cautious," says David Hogan, MD, a specialist at the University of Calgary.A study of nootropics(益智药) in the November 2019 Journal of the American Medical Association revealed that the unapproved drug-piracetam(乙酰胺吡咯烷酮) was found in four out of five brands tested, at levels that could cause side effects such as depression.1. Why did the researchers have the 255 people return for another MRI scan four years later?A．To test whether they had Alzheimer's disease.B．To see what effects diets had on the left hippocampus.C．To study how they kept healthy in the four years.D．To deepen their research into Alzheimer's disease.2. What can we infer from Paragraph 2?A．Healthy eating helps to reduce the risk of dementia.B．Unhealthy diet is a major contributing factor in cognitive decline.C．Age and sex have nothing to do with our general health.D．Plant-based diets have greater effects on women than men.3. Which of the following would David Hogan most probably agree with?A．Brain supplements are as helpful as healthy diets.B．We'd better take brain supplements for convenience.C．We should be careful when taking brain supplements.D．Brain supplements have as many side effects as processed foods.4. What might be the best title for the passage?A．Yes to Green Leafy VegetablesB．Yes to NootropicsC．No to IntelligenceD．No to Dementia5. Have you ever had someone tell you "If you eat before bed, you are more likely to get fat!"? 1 This belief originated when researchers found the relation between individuals snacking late at night and having a BMI that categorizes them as obese(肥胖的）。