发布时间 : 星期日 文章陕西省黄陵中学(高新部)2018届高三下学期第一次大检测英语试题(含答案)更新完毕开始阅读
For the last eight years, Jo Meade rode her bike each Sunday on a 16-mile round trip to her job washing dishes. It took more than an hour each way. Other days of the week she would spend two hours on three buses from her apartment to get to the other work, for a four-hour round trip.
That was the “before” part of her life. The “after” part of her life was started by the community Police Officer Trevor Arnold, who delivered a used car to her with the help of a car dealer and other donors.
Arnold, who spotted Meade, red and sweaty, riding her bike in the worst heat this summer, decided he would get her a car. He intended to quietly buy her a used car out of his own pocket so he turned to his friend Kody Slaght, a car salesman to ask about a car priced $1,000. That wasn’t enough for a reliable ride, Slaght said, but the dealership said they would find a good car for her at a good price. Soon others were donating. Slaght and Arnold wouldn’t say how much the car cost, but the value is about $4,000.
Arnold said he was motivated by Meade’s work ethic（职业道德）to help. “I see a lot of hardworking people but that’s when they are at work. Can you imagine spending four hours of your day getting to and from work?” he said.
Meade’s boss said she was awesome and really reliable when she worked and she got along with others. “She’s willing to ride the three buses to get in here on her day off if we need her to.”
Meade said she was planning to buy a car, “but I haven’t been able to afford it,” she said. “Trevor, he is a very good guy. I did not expect this.” 24. What can we learn about Jo Meade’s work? A. It’s free but low-paid. B. It’s not worth her devotion. C. It’s competitive and high-paid. D. It’s time-consuming on the road.
25. Why did Slaght disagree to Arnold’s buying a car priced $1,000?
A. The car was too expensive for Meade. B. The car was beyond Arnold’s affordability. C. The car had been donated to another person. D. The car was not in good condition of driving. 26. What inspired Arnold to buy a car for Meade? A. His sympathy for Meade. B. His duty as a policeman. C. Her commitment to work. D. Her desire for a better life.
27. What’s Meade’s feeling for the donated car? A. Normal. B. Surprised. C. Embarrassed. D. Disappointed.
C
Almost all researches in sleep explain that nightmares are a reaction to negative experiences that happen during waking hours. However, some of them believe that nightmares do have some real benefits. One 2017 study, for example, found that frequent nightmare sufferers rated themselves as more empathetic（共鸣的）. They also displayed more of a tendency to unconsciously mirror other people through things like yawning. People who have constant nightmares also tend to think further outside the box on psychoanalysis tasks. Some other researches have found support for the idea that nightmares might be linked to creativity.
People seeking cure for nightmares were not necessarily more fearful or anxious, but rather had a general sensitivity to all emotional experience. Sensitivity is the driving force behind intense dreams. Heightened sensitivity to threats or fear during the day results in bad dreams and nightmares, whereas heightened passion or excitement may result in more intense positive dreams. And both these forms of dreams may feed back into waking life, perhaps increasing
suffering after nightmares, or promoting social bonds and empathy after positive dreams.
The effects go further still. This sensitivity overflows over into perceptions and thoughts: people who have a lot of nightmares experience a dreamlike quality to their waking thoughts. And this kind of thinking seems to give them a creative edge. For instance, studies show that such people tend to have greater creative talent and artistic expression. And people who often have nightmares also tend to have more positive dreams than the average person.
The evidence points towards the idea that, rather than disturbing normal activity, people who are unfortunate in having a lot of nightmares also have a dreaming life that is at least as creative, positive and vivid as it can be distressing and terrifying. What’s more, this imaginative richness is unlikely to be limited to sleep, but also is filled with waking thought and daydreams. Even after people wake up and shake off the nightmare, in other words, a mark of it stays behind, possessing them throughout the day.
28. What do most sleep researchers think of nightmares? A. They have no advantages at all. B. They make people more empathetic. C. They can promote human’ creativity. D. They are a reflection of waking behaviour.
29. How can nightmare sufferers probably stop nightmares in theory according to the text? A. Try to reduce sensitivity to threats or fear. B. Be more fearful or anxious to nightmares. C. Avoid excitement as much as possible. D. Promote social bonds and empathy.
30. What does the underlined word “perception” in Paragraph 3 mean? A. Content.
B. Awareness. D. Determination.
C. Intelligence.
31. What can be the best title for the text? A. The Benefits of Nightmares
B. The Solution of Nightmares
C. The Empathy of Nightmares D
D. The Tendency of Nightmares
China’s Singles Day, which falls on Nov. 11 every year, has far surpassed its U. S. counterparts of Black Friday and Cyber Monday—combined. Last year, Americans spent a record $12.8 billion online between Thanksgiving Day and Cyber Monday. It’s impressive until you compare it to the $17.6 billion in sales made by Chinese consumers in a single 24-hour period during 2016’s Singles Day.
Singles Day is known as “Bare Sticks Day” or “Bare Branches Day” in Chinese—because the date “11/11” looks like bare branches and “one” is the loneliest number. Singles Day began in the early 1990s in the dorm rooms of Nanjing University when a group of single friends were sorry about the lack of significant others and decided to mark the day by organizing activities as a group of singles and reducing their loneliness by buying themselves a gift.
Then in 2009, sensing a break between the sales period of China’s National Day on Oct. 1 and Chinese New Year in late January or early February, Alibaba’s Jack Ma saw an opening: sell to comfort lonely hearts.
The first year did only $7.5 million in sales, but just 8 years later, shoppers spent $15.3 billion or 168.2 billion yuan, this year—a 40 percent jump from last year’s $17.6 billion. For comparison, Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the U. S. only netted $6.79 billion in 2016. Amazon doesn’t release sales figures for July’s Prime Day, but it’s pretty safe to believe the not-quite-national-holiday doesn’t come close to $25 billion.
“More than $25 billion in one day is not just a sales figure,” Alibaba Group CEO Daniel Zhang said in a statement. “It represents the desire for quality consumption of the Chinese consumer, and it reflects how merchants and consumers alike have now fully accepted the combination of online and offline sales.”
32. What does the underlined word “others” refer to in Paragraph 2? A. Roommates.
B. Good friends. D. Relatives.
C. Boyfriends or girlfriends.