第二学期期末考试
高二级英语科试卷
第一部分：阅读理解（共两节，满分40分） 第一节（共15小题；每小题2分，满分30分）
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
A
After I mastered my first concerto(协奏曲) at age fourteen, my parents decided to get me a nice violin. I tried out dozens of instruments before I found my match: a German violin. It was beautiful, but what I liked best about it was its voice. Confident and strong, it was everything I longed to be.
I'm not sure how much that violin cost, but my parents made me promise never to let it out of my sight. They didn't understand that dragging a large violin case run counter to my daily middle school task of being invisible. I was a strange absent-minded kid. When I spoke up in class, my comments brought confused silence from teachers, and wild laughter from students. Like a deer in a wolf pack, I tried to be quiet and still.
On the contrary, my new violin was almost shockingly loud. Together, we could drown out the rest of my middle school orchestra, which was encouraged, since the other kids made sounds like cats’ crying. For one glorious hour every day, I was showered with attention. Everyone wanted to hear what I had to say.
Between classes, I bent under the combined weight of my violin case and a backpack filled with books. My posture suffered, but my confidence grew. With my violin by my side, I found my voice. More and more, I contributed to class discussions and even made a couple of friends.
Today, I’m just an amateur violinist with a regular day job. As I sit in my community orchestra, sometimes I feel jealous of my fellow musicians’ instruments with their elegant voices. I may not be the best violinist around, but at least I’m still the loudest.
1. The underlined part “run counter to” in paragraph 2 probably means ______.
A. was similar to B. went along with C. was the opposite of
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D. had something in common with
2. We know from paragraph 2 that the author ______.
A. did not fit in at school B. was an excellent student C. was strong and confident D. didn't attend classes regularly
3. What kind of feeling is expressed in paragraph 3?
A. Disappointment. B. Anger. C. Pride. D. Regret. 4. What can we infer from the text?
A. The violin changed the author in some way. B. The author hated the loud voice of his violin. C. The violin always made the author embarrassed.
D. The author was the best violinist in his community orchestra.
B
On one of her trips to New York several years ago, Eudora Welty decided to take a couple of New York friends out to dinner. They settled in at a comfortable East Side cafe and within minutes, another customer was approaching their table.
“Hey, aren’t you from Mississippi?” the elegant, white-haired writer remembered being asked by the stranger. “I’m from Mississippi too.”
Without a second thought, the woman joined the Welty party. When her dinner partner showed up, she also pulled up a chair.
“They began telling me all the news of Mississippi,” Welty said. “I didn’t know what my New York friends were thinking.”
Taxis on a rainy New York night are rarer than sunshine. By the time the group got up to leave, it was pouring outside. Welty’s new friends immediately sent a waiter to find a cab. Heading back downtown toward her hotel, her big-city friends were amazed at the turn of events that had changed their Big Apple dinner into a Mississippi.
“My friends said: ‘Now we believe your stories,’” Welty added. “And I said: ‘Now you know. These are the people that make me write them.’”
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Sitting on a sofa in her room, Welty, a slim figure in a simple gray dress, looked pleased with this explanation.
“I don’t make them up,” she said of the characters in her fiction these last 50 or so years. “I don’t have to.”
Beauticians, bartenders, piano players and people with purple hats, Welty’s people come from afternoons spent visiting with old friends, from walks through the streets of her native Jackson, Miss., from conversations overheard on a bus. It annoys Welty that, at 78, her left ear has now given out. Sometimes, sitting on a bus or a train, she hears only a fragment(片段) of a particularly interesting story.
5.What happened when Welty was with her friends at the cafe?
A. Two strangers joined her. B. Her childhood friends came in. C. A heavy rain ruined the dinner.
D. Some people held a party there.
6.The underlined word “them” in Paragraph 6 refers to Welty’s.
A. readers B. parties C. friends D. stories
7.What can we learn about the characters in Welty’s fiction? A. They live in big cities. B. They are mostly women. C. They come from real life. D. They are pleasure seekers.
C
For 28 years, three months, and 12 days, I drove a New York City taxi. Now, if you were to ask me what I had for breakfast yesterday, I probably couldn’t tell you. But the memory of one fare is so vivid. I’ll remember it all my days in this world.
It was a sunny Monday morning in the spring of 1966. I was cruising down York Avenue looking for a customer, but with the beautiful weather, it was kind of slow. I had stopped at a light just opposite New York Hospital when I spied a well-dressed man dashing down the hospital steps. He was greeting me.
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Just then, the light turned green, the driver behind me honked(按喇叭) impatiently, and I heard a cop’s whistle. But I wasn’t about to lose this ride. Finally, the man reached the cab and jumped in. \
Good news, I thought. On Monday morning, LaGuardia is hopping, and with a little luck, I could get back-to-back fares. That would make my day.
As always, I wondered about my passenger. Was this guy a talker, or a newspaper reader? After a few moments, he started a conversation. It began ordinarily enough, \a cab?\
It was an old question, and I gave him my old answer. \g and meet interesting people sometimes. But if I could get a job making $100 a week more, I’d take it — just like you would.\
His reply intrigued me. \would not change jobs if it meant I had to take a cut of a hundred a week.\
I’d never heard anyone say such a thing. \\) department at New York Hospital.\
I’ve always been curious about people, and I’ve tried to learn what I could from them. Many times during long rides, I’d developed a rapport (和谐)with my passengers — and quite often I’d received very good advice from accountants, lawyers, and plumbers. Maybe it was that this fellow clearly loved his work; maybe it was just the pleasant mood of a spring morning. But I decided to ask for his help.
8．What can be inferred from the first paragraph?
A. The taxi driver was a green hand.
B. There were fewer customers near the hospital. C. When the weather was fine, there were more customers. D. The driver was greatly impressed by one customer. 9．Why did the driver behind the writer honk impatiently?
A. Because the light turned yellow.
B. Because the writer was about to lose his ride. C. Because a cop whistled from behind. D. Because the writer was in the way of him.
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10．What does the underlined word in the passage mean?
A. Annoyed B. Interested C. Frightened D. Inspired 11．Which of the following is true of the doctor?
A. He was not much of a talker.
B. He earned not so much as the taxi driver. C. He loved his job very much. D. He would go on business by train.
D
A warm drink of milk before bed has long been the best choice for those wanting a good night’s sleep. But now a study has found it really does help people nod off—if it is milked from a cow at night.
Researchers have discovered that “night milk” contains more melatonin(褪黑激素), which has been proven to help people feel sleepy and reduce anxiety.
The study, by researchers from Seoul, South Korea, involved mice being fed with dried milk powder made from cows milked both during the day and at night.
Those given night milk, which contained 10 times the amount of melatonin, were less active and less anxious than those fed with the milk collected during daytime, according to the study published in The Journal of Medicinal Food.
Night milk quickened the start of sleep and caused the mice to sleep longer.
While the effect of cows milk harvested at different time has not been tested on humans up to now, taking melatonin drugs has been suggested to those who are struggling to fall asleep at night.
Previous studies have also indicated that milk can be excellent for helping sleep because of the calcium content, which helps people to relax.
Milk is also sugar-free and additive-free with nutritionists recommending skimmed milk as the best choice before bed as it is the least fattening. The more fat you take in before bedtime, the greater burden you will put on your body at night.
12. According to the text, the mice fed with daytime milk_______. A. started sleep more easily B. were more anxious
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高二第二学期期末考试英语试题(含答案)
