四川省泸县第二中学2020届高三英语下学期第一次在线月考试题

23．Which is a state public holiday?

A．CM Day. B．RII Day. C．T Day. D．NMC Day.

B

A decade ago, colored lights danced around the living room on New Year’s Eve and happy music was played. Upstairs, the children were asleep. But I wasn’t feeling happy. In mid-December, my husband and I had been informed that he had cancer and that he was going to die. He had less than a year left, the doctors said.

In the years since that painful season, I have come to look back upon New Year’s Eve as an ending and a beginning. New Year’s Eve brings a halt to the endless commitments that fill our daily lives and a chance to reflect.

New Year’s Eve is full of possibility and anticipation. What will be the surprising experiences and delightful successes in the coming year? But also, what disappointments are waiting for us in the next twelve months?

In many ways, New Year’s Eve and the days that surround it are a line between past and future. That line is made up of a series of moments of transition(过渡) that take us out of the old and into the new. Transition can be challenging for many of us. It’s about letting go of the familiar and diving headlong (迅猛地) into the unfamiliar.

Just as, back then, I had to face letting go of the life I had led with my beloved husband and stepping into a new world as a widowed mom. I find that each year I have to step out of the version of me that suited the year that is ending and ease into the version of me who will rise to the goals I am holding for myself for the year ahead.

Last year at this time, I sat in a chair in southern France and drank in the stillness(沉静) and beauty of the countryside around me. The three children and I had brought into this world talked and laughed around the table beside me as we enjoyed a lunch of bread and cheese.

I was filled with a sense of joy and I had a glowing(热情洋溢的) heart that was full of hope. It was another ending and another beginning. May we all transition into the best of what lies ahead. May we all find happiness this holiday season.

24．What does the underlined word “halt” in Paragraph 2 mean most probably? A．Stop.

B．Beginning.

C．Meaning.

D．Tradition.

25．What’s the main cause of the author’s unhappiness on New Year’s Eve a decade before?

A．The pressure she faced in her work. B．The health problem her husband faced. C．The information received from her family. and her husband.

26．What’s the author’s attitude towards the thing people should do at New Year? A．Set challenging goals for the next year. B．Break with daily routines and form a new habit.

C．Spend more time with family members. D．Think about the past and get ready for the future.

27．What’s the main purpose of writing the passage? A．To memorialize her husband.

B．To show how she got through a hard time.

D．To remind us that uncertainty is

D．The relationship between her

C．To share her view of New Year’s Eve. part of life.

C

Please take a few seconds and think of your personal biggest goal. Imagine telling someone you meet today what you’re going to do. Imagine their

congratulations and their high image of you. Doesn’t it feel good to say it out loud? Don’t you feel one step closer already? Well, bad news: you should have kept your mouth shut, because that good feeling will make you less likely to do it.

Any time you have a goal, there is some work that needs to be done to achieve it. Ideally, you would not be satisfied until you’d actually done the work. But when you tell someone your goal and he acknowledges(认可) it, psychologists have found it’s called a “social reality”. The mind is kind of tricked into feeling that it’s already done. And then, because you’ve felt that satisfaction, you’re less motivated to do the actual hard work necessary. This goes against the traditional wisdom that we should tell our friends our goals, right?

In 1982, Peter Gollwitzer, a Professor of Psychology, wrote a whole book about

this. And in 2009, he did some new tests that were published. It goes like this: 163 people across four separate tests—everyone wrote down their personal goal. Then half of them announced their commitment(许诺) to this goal to the room, and half didn’t. Then everyone was given 45 minutes of work that would directly lead them towards their goal, but they were told that they could stop at any time. Now those who kept their mouths shut worked the entire 45 minutes on average, and when asked afterwards, said they felt they had a long way to go to achieve their goal. But those who had announced it quit after only 33 minutes on average, and when asked afterwards, said that they felt much closer to achieving their goal. 28．What do the words “social reality” in Paragraph 2 mean? A．Completion of the goal. C．People's acknowledgement.

B．Necessary hard work. D．A sense of satisfaction.

29．What does Peter Gollwitzer try to tell us? A．Writing down the goal is very helpful. B．Achieving personal goal needs more time.

C．Keeping the goal secret makes people work harder. D．Making the goal public makes people less satisfied.

30．How did Peter Gollwitzer prove his idea about people’s goal? A．By giving figures. C．By making a survey.

B．By giving examples. D．By making comparison tests.

31．What will probably happen if you tell your friends your goal? A．You will be more confident.

B．You will not gain satisfaction.

C．You are less likely to realize it. D．You’ll be much more motivated.

D

Many of us know about Russia’s Lake Baikal from our textbooks, or by listening to Chinese singer Li Jian’s hit song, Lie Baikal. But over the past decade, the world’s deepest freshwater lake has been in the spotlight for an extreme sport.

Each March since 2005, about 150 people from around the world sign up for the Baikal Ice Marathon. They come to explore the lake’s breathtaking beauty and challenge themselves in unpredictable conditions. The 26-mile (41.84-kilometers)

journey starts on the lake’s eastern shore. In March, the ice is a meter thick and iron-hard. Runners cross this frozen surface, finishing on the western side of the lake.

Known as the “blue eye of Siberia”, Lake Baikal has exceptionally clear waters. This means its ice is almost perfectly transparent (透明的). “Seen from above, a runner on the ice looks as if he or she were jogging through space.” The New York Times noted.

The landscape might be beautiful, but it’s also harsh. Strong winds blast (侵袭) across the lake and frostbite can occur within half an hour. Runners say the cold climate is what draws them. They want to test their limits.

“When you are in such an environment, you don’t have cars around you, and you don’t have the noise around. I think these extreme races allow you to be alone with nature.” Alicja Barahona, a 64-year-old runner from the US, told ABC news.

The location offers some strange and unique characteristics for this marathon. The finishing line is visible from the start, but the endless white offers no progress markers. The race also ends with little fanfare (隆重的欢迎). Tourists crowding the ice are mostly addicted to snapping selfies (自拍) and just ignore the runners.

For some runners, the absence of spectators makes the race more challenging, because it’s lonely. They must fight with themselves. “You are alone on Baikal. It is your race. You are alone with yourself. All you need to do is to defeat yourself.” Veronique Messina, a French runner, told the Telegraph. 32．What can we know about the Baikal Ice Marathon from the article? A．It takes runners from the northern end to the southern end of the lake. B．It involves extreme weather and beautiful scenery. C．It attracts more and more participants each year. D．It is about 26 kilometers in length.

33．How does the Baikal Ice Marathon differ from other marathons? A．Only men are allowed to run in this race. B．The runners are often distracted by tourists. C．There are many progress markers on the ice.