Virtual reality
Probably the most exciting tech development of recent times, virtual reality (VR) has arrived, with sufficient options available to the consumer who?s searching for an extra amount of high-tech fun. The cheapest way to get a high-end VR experience comes courtesy of Sony. Its PlayStation VR doesn?t require a tricked-out PC or expensive phone – it works with the Playstation 4 control board and comes with a few great games in its library. There is some equipment you can purchase to enhance the experience, but if you?ve already got a PS4 you can enter the world of VR for just $400. Other high-end offerings like the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, as well as mobile options like Samsung?s Gear VR, will get your head in the game. Wireless headphones
Combining ease of use with the ability to move wild around your home, gym or workplace, wireless headphones just make sense. And there are plenty of practical options to suit any budget. The Bose QuietComfort 35 wireless headphones are definitely worth a test drive, though. The full-size, around-ear Bluetooth headphones highlight active noise cancellation and double as a headset for making phone calls. They?ve even earned the Editor?s Choice award at Cnet.com and can be purchased for less than $400 online. Digital cameras
While your phone is a worthy assistant, there?s no substitute for a real camera when it comes to taking the perfect picture. And these days you can get quality specifications in a package that?s almost as small as your smartphone. The shiny design of the Fujifilm X70, $699, makes it the perfect companion, or you could go retro with the Olympus PEN-F ($1,200) that offers old school looks alongside cutting edge technology. Domestically, it?s worth checking out Xiaomi?s mirrorless Yi M1 for a more affordable option. With a high-end 20-megapixel（兆像素）sensor and the ability to host multiple lenses, it?s available from just 2,199 yuan.
60. Sony can provide high-tech fun at the lowest cost because __________.
A. players can play free games online C. it gives players adequate experience
B. PS4 owners don?t need any other device D. players have purchased expensive PCs B. Users can reduce noise manually.
D. Users can make phone calls with the headphones.
61. What is Bose QuietComfort 35 wireless headphones? selling point promoted in the passage?
A. They have various types to meet users? needs. C. They work better in the wild.
62. If your friend, who favors everything in the styles of the past, plans to make perfect pictures with a new device, you will most probably recommend __________.
A. A smart phone.
(C)
Naquela Wright?s life took an unexpected turn when she lost her eyesight as a teenager, but even when her world became dark, the New Jersey resident didn?t want to quit social media.
Using Facebook was a challenge at first. Diagnosed in 2010 with pseudotumor cerebri, a rare health condition in which pressure increases around the brain and can result in the loss of vision, Wright learned how to use a screen reader to read the site through the touch of the keyboard and sound of a robotic voice. Still,
B. Fujifilm X70. C. Olympus PEN-F. D. Yi M1.
when a friend sends her a photo, Wright often has no clue what the image shows.
Now Facebook is trying to solve this problem by exploiting the power of artificial intelligence to create new tools that not only describe items in a photo but allows users to ask what?s in an image.
“I can have a basic picture in my mind of what?s going on in the picture and now I can comment on my own,” said Wright, who got to try out the new tools that are still being tested. “Of course, it?s different, but it?s something more than I had.”
An estimated 285 million people are visually disabled globally, according to the World Health Organization, and research conducted by Facebook showed that blind users have trouble figuring out what?s in a photo because the description isn?t clear or doesn?t exist.
Facebook has made it easier to skim through the content on its website with a screen reader by improving HTML headings, adding alternative text for images, launching keyboard shortcuts, and more. Using artificial intelligence to describe photos is only a part of these ongoing efforts.
With 1.5 billion users, Facebook isn?t the only social media company that wants to improve its website for the visually disabled. Along with Facebook and other major tech firms, Twitter and LinkedIn have their own accessibility teams and belong to an initiative called “Teaching Accessibility”.
Jeff Wieland, Facebook?s head of accessibility engineering, said the group wants to educate more engineers, especially early in college, about designing products that are compatible with the disabled and others. “We really don?t want accessibility to be the luxury of a handful of companies,” Wieland said. “We want everything around the world to be built with accessibility in mind.”
63. What tool helps the visually disabled to read Facebook?
A. A screen reader.
B. A special keyboard.
C. A helpful robot.
D. HTML headings.
64. What can be inferred from the passage about the new tool created by Facebook?
A. It adds a lot of shortcuts on the keyboard.
B. It helps users to employ their senses other than sight. C. It meets no competitors with its advanced technology. D. It inspires more engineers to explore artificial intelligence.
65. The underlined phrase in the last paragraph “are compatible with” most probably means __________.
A. are unaffordable to B. bring harm to
C. keep company of
D. well suit
66. Which of the following is the best title for this passage?
A. Screen reader: tool to access social media B. Ongoing efforts: strength to improve websites C. Artificial intelligence: power to help the blind D. Teaching accessibility: initiative to educate engineers Section C
Directions: Read the following passage. Fill in each blank with a proper sentence given in the box. Each sentence can be used only once. Note that there are two more sentences than you need. A. But there?s no need for embarrassment. B. If you want proof, turn on the sports channel. C. As we grow older, we don?t abandon this system – we internalize it.
D. This so-called inner speech can improve our performance on various tasks.
E. Conducting a dialogue with ourselves might turn out to be one of the keys to human creativity. F. Psychologists refer to this as private speech – language that is spoken out loud but directed at the self.
Your Own Best Friend
Talking to yourself may seem a little shameful. If you?ve ever been overheard criticizing yourself for a foolish mistake or practicing a tricky speech ahead of time, you?ll have felt the social restriction against communicating with yourself in words. According to the well-known saying, talking to yourself is the first sign of madness.
__67__ Talking to ourselves, whether out loud or silently in our heads, is a valuable tool for thought. Far from being a sign of foolishness, self-talk allows us to plan what we are going to do, manage our activities, regulate our emotions and even create a narrative of our experience.
Take a trip to any preschool and watch a small child playing with her toys. You are very likely to hear her talking to herself: offering herself directions and giving voice to her frustrations. __68__ We do a lot of it when we are young – perhaps one reason for our shyness about continuing with it as adults.
As children, according to the Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky, we use private speech to regulate our actions in the same way that we use public speech to control the behavior of others. __69__
Psychological experiments have shown that the distancing effect of our words can give us a valuable perspective on our actions. One recent study suggested that self-talk is most effective when we address ourselves in the second person: as “you” rather than “I”.
We internalize the private speech we use as children – but we never entirely put away the out-loud version. __70__ You?re sure to see an athlete or two getting themselves ready for a sharp phrase or scolding themselves after a bad shot.
Both kinds of self-talk seem to bring a range of benefits to our thinking. Those words to the self, spoken silently or aloud, are so much more than lazy talk.
IV．Summary Writing
Directions: Read the following passage. Summarize the main idea and the main point(s) of the passage in no more than 60 words. Use your own words as far as possible.
Moustache（胡子） for Cash
“Movember”, as the annual event is known, sees men in countries including the UK, US and Australia grow out their facial hair while collecting sponsorship money from friends, family and colleagues, with the money going to cancer charities.
The month of no shaving began unofficially in 2003, when a pair of men from Australia persuaded their family to join them in growing a moustache in order to encourage men to get themselves checked for cancer, which is seen as distasteful by some males. A year later, the group decided to set up the Movember Foundation, asking friends and colleagues to offer donations of money to support their efforts, and raised a massive A $54,000 which was shared between a number of health projects. With thanks most likely to social media, Movember soon went global and the foundation now operates worldwide, having raised over ￡440 million since 2004. The effects of the fundraising are wide-reaching, which had made a significant discovery in the treatment of cancer.
The issue of some men being too self-willed to visit their doctor for a checkup, or perhaps being raised in
a culture of “tough it out”, has led some males to neglect their health, which may mean it could be too late if something potentially deadly did develop. However, Movember is helping to break down the shame of male health by making it more accessible, meaning that men are more likely to visit their doctors. They found a way to appeal to men in a way that other campaigns just don?t – with a sort of blokey jokiness.
① blokey: behaving in a way that is supposed to be typical of men , especially men enjoying themselves in a group.
V. Translation
Directions: Translate the following sentences into English, using the words given in the brackets. 72. 永远不要对你孩子的缺点熟视无睹。(blind) 73. 任何情况下，你都不应该恶意评论他人。(Under…)
74. 申请人必须精通英语，否则他无法胜任这个岗位。(command)
75. 除了美味的咖啡和甜品，这间咖啡馆还提供各种书籍，从小说到诗歌，应有尽有，足以让你安静地
度过一个下午。 (range)
VI. Guided Writing
Directions: Write an English composition in 120-150 words according to the instructions given below in Chinese.
①
请简单描绘图片内容，并用你生活中的一个经历来具体说明。你的文章必须包括： 1） 对图片的简单描述； 2） 对个人经历的具体描写； 3） 你当时的感受或想法。
黄浦区2016-2017第二学期高三英语期中调研卷
