发布时间 : 星期日 文章北京东城区2018-2019年高三英语上学期期末试卷及答案 - 图文更新完毕开始阅读
B
Every year, 1.5 million kids around the world die as a result of not getting
vaccines (疫苗). This is partly because transporting and storing medicines can be a huge challenge in some countries. Anurudh Ganesan, 17, knows this firsthand. When he was a baby in India, his grandparents carried him 10 miles to a health clinic in a remote village to receive a vaccine. But by the time they arrived, the vaccines were no longer usable because they had been overheated. Vaccines, Anurudh later learned, must be kept cool to stay effective. But refrigerating them requires electricity or ice – precious resources that many developing countries lack. Although Anurudh eventually received the vaccine he needed, his experience as a baby and the sad reality that so many other children aren’t as lucky motivated him to take action. The high school student invented Vaxxwagon, a portable vaccine-carrying device that generates its own power to keep lifesaving medicines cool as they’re delivered to remote areas around the world. Anurudh first got his idea for Vaxxwagon in 2014. He read several textbooks to learn everything he could about refrigeration, and then he did research online to learn more about vaccines. Rather than relying on electricity or ice, Anurudh figured out a way to use wheels to power a refrigeration system for about eight hours. The entire rechargeable cooling system can be pulled to areas in need of vaccines by a bicycle, a car, or an animal. Eventually, Anurudh took his design to professors at Johns Hopkins University for advice. Not only did they confirm Vaxxwagon could work, but they offered him funding to help build it. Anurudh was rewarded with the 2015 Google Science Fair LEGO Education Builder Award for his invention. Anurudh says his final goal is to start selling Vaxxwagon to relief organizations, so it can be used to help people around the world. Anurudh, who plans to pursue engineering degree in college, says, “Don’t give
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up on your ideas. But always try to help others with your projects. That’s the point
of engineering – to help people.”
34. Why do many children die every year? A. They lack qualified medical teams. B. They cannot afford usable medicines. C. They don’t have an electricity system. D. They have no access to effective vaccines.
35. What is special about Vaxxwagon? A. It can serve as a fridge. B. It can produce safe vaccines. C. It can detect deadly diseases. D. It can be a means of transport.
36. Which of the following words can best describe Anurudh? A. Caring and creative. B. Modest and sympathetic. C. Loyal and determined. D. Honest and hard-working.
37. What can we learn from the story? A. Practice makes perfect. B. One good turn deserves another. C. Motivation is the mother of success. D. All things are difficult before they are easy.
C
Why Black Friday Shoppers Still Crowd Stores
To many of us, the ideas of rushing out to a superstore the day after Thanksgiving is appealing. Why would anyone race to crowded stores when they could stay in with family, or watch college football? We can’t say we know the answer for sure. But we do feel amazed at those who pour into stores looking for Black Friday bargains. Seemingly, nothing can stop them. Not the weather. Not the crowds. And not the fact that hurrying to a store in the age of instant e-commerce seems so…last century. To be sure, holiday shopping habits do appear to be shifting. The National Retail (零售) Federation has stopped breaking up its holiday sales numbers by whether they come from e-tail purchases or from physical stores. It’s a pretty good sign that retailers don’t want to bring further attention to the declining fortunes of brick-and-mortar stores. But there is no denying that people still love going to stores. Actual shopping in actual places remains an important part of the holiday ceremony for millions of Americans. To many, it’s the difference between playing a sport and playing a video game. As commercial as stores may be, they are still places where actual human beings interact. In a store, the “courageous” shopper performs the approving act of finding a present. That item might be heavily promoted by the store, but it doesn’t drop into one’s cart. It is picked up and examined before a decision is made. Maybe it gets put back on the shelf when the shopper changes his or her mind. Maybe there is a conversation with a sales clerk. The process is not that different than it would have been decades ago. Online, the shopper has barely logged in before being faced with disturbing algorithmic (大数据的) suggestions based on earlier purchases. This hardly qualifies as shopping. This hardly qualifies as thinking. Perhaps we are reading too much into the Black Friday phenomenon. But we
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suspect one reason Black Friday remains is that it involves an act of resistance
against the Internet age. That would hardly be unreasonable. There aren’t many studies showing that time spent in stores is bad for one’s health, while there are quite a few drawing a link between time spent online and depression. Perhaps the people crowding into stores aren’t the crazy ones after all.
38. What can we infer from the first two paragraphs? A. Physical stores are not so popular as before. B. People spend more on Black Friday bargains. C. Americans have an unhealthy shopping habit. D. Goods in stores are cheaper than those online.
39. The author thinks people love to go holiday shopping mainly because ________. A. they feel tired of shopping online B. they think it is good for their health C. they hope to pass down the holiday tradition D. they can have real communication with others
40. What does the author think of the Black Friday phenomenon? A. Puzzling. B. Unusual. C. Out-of-date. D. Understandable.
41. What is mainly discussed in the passage? A. The psychology of shopping. B. The development of retailing. C. The influences of e-commerce. D. The features of holiday economy.
D
An open office is supposed to force employees to cooperate. To have them talk more face to face. To get them off instant messenger (IM) and brainstorming new ideas. But a recent study by two researchers offers evidence to support what many people who work in open offices already know: It doesn’t really work that way. The noise causes people to put on headphones and tune out. The lack of privacy causes others to work from home when they can. And the sense of being in a fishbowl means many choose email over a desk-side chat. Ethan Bernstein and Stephen Turban, two Harvard Business School professors, studied two Fortune 500 companies that made the shift to an open office environment from one where workers had more privacy. Using “sociometric” electronic badges (徽章) and microphones, as well as data on email and instant messenger use by employees, the researchers found in the first study that after the organization made the move to open-plan offices, workers spent 73% less time in face-to-face interaction. Meanwhile, email use rose 67% and IM use went up 75%. The participants wore the badges and microphones for several weeks before the office was redesigned and for several after, and the company gave the researchers access to their electronic communications. The results were astonishing. “We were surprised by the degree to which we found the effect,” Bernstein said. The badges could tell that two people had a face-to-face interaction without recording actual spoken words. The researchers were careful to make sure other factors weren’t in question—the business cycle was similar, for instance, and the group of employees were the same. In a second study, the researchers looked at the changes in interaction between specific pairs of colleagues, finding a similar drop in face-to-face communication and a smaller but still significant increase in electronic correspondence. Another wrinkle in their research, Bernstein said, is that not only did workers shift the way of communication they used, but they also tended to interact with
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different groups of people online than they did in person. Moving from one kind of communication to another may not be all bad—“maybe email is just more efficient,” he said—but if managers want certain teams of people to be interacting, that may be lost more than they think. The shift in office space could “have strong effects on productivity and the quality of work”. Bernstein hopes the research will offer evidence that will help managers consider the possible trade-offs of moving to an open office plan. In seeking a lower cost per square foot, they buy into the idea that it will also lead to more cooperation, even if it’s not clear that’s true. “I don’t blame the architects,” he said. “But I do think we spend more of our time thinking about how to design workplaces based on the observer’s angle”—the manger—“rather than the observed.” 42. 43. 44.
Employers prefer an open office because they think it can ______. A. increase competition B. improve communication C. create a safe environment
D. motivate workers’ responsibility
Why was there an increase in electronic correspondence among employees? A. Because they thought little of desk-side chat. B. Because they shifted to a new business cycle. C. Because they wanted to protect their privacy. D. Because they needed to complete more tasks.
What does the underlined word “they” in Paragraph 5 refer to? A. The researchers. B. The managers.
C. Certain teams of people. D. Different groups of workers.
45.
As for the design of workplaces, what is Bernstein’s major concern? A. Connectivity. B. Accessibility. C. User-friendliness. D. Cost-effectiveness.
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