2024-2025学年上学期期中

2024-2025学年上学期期中试卷（A）

Part I. Word Building（1*10, 10 minutes）

Directions: Choose the best answer from the four choices marked A, B, C or D. Then Mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet with a single line through the center.

He belonged to several ______ societies and charitable organizations.

A. benign B. beneficial C. benevolent D. beneficiary
Doctors usually prescribe painkillers and a low-dose ______ to treat the symptoms.

A. antipathy B. anticlimax C. antithesis D. antidepressant
An International Criminal Court has been created to deal with ______, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

A. pesticide B. suicide C. genocide D. ecocide
There will be a talk on the international situation in the ______.

A. audience B. auditorium C. auditor D. auditory
Mr. Ma ______ control of the company to Zhang Yong, and worked hard on charity.

A. transferred B. transmitted C. transplanted D. transported
It seems to me that this crime was ______ and this death preventable.

A. foreseeable B. measurable C. sustainable D. comparable
He says the death of his father months ago has given him a new ______ on life.

A. inspection B. prospect C. spectacle D. perspective
The nurse tells me that after-sun products will cool and ______ the skin.

A. hydrate B. hydrogen C. carbohydrate D. dehydrate
The ______ combination of landscapes, people, history and culture offers a larger-than-life experience for the travelers.

A. exocentric B. exotic C. exosphere D. exothermic
An overwhelming majority of history books are written in ______ order.

A. chronic B. photographic C. synchronous D. chronological

Part II. Vocabulary（1*15, 15 minutes）

Directions: Choose the best answer from the four choices marked A, B, C or D. Then Mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet with a single line through the center.

It is generally ______ that young people from poorer socio-economic backgrounds tend to do less well in our education system.

A. applied B. accomplished C. achieved D. acknowledged
In order to ______ the widely circulated myth that eating carrots significantly improves night vision, the scientist did research.

A. comply B. debunk C. construct D. deregulate
Because the resumes were statistically identical, any differences in outcomes could be ______ only to the factor we manipulated: the names.

A. assigned B. contributed C. attributed D. initiated
We're not talking about artistic creativity here but seeing beyond the ______ of traditional categories, or thinking outside the box.

A. constraints B. assumptions C. cross-sections D. affirmations
The Belt and Road ______ plays a major role in our country's foreign investment and cooperation.

A. Institute B. Strategy C. Construction D. Initiative
We must help the region ______ poverty, improve people's well-being and promote development.

A. elicit B. eliminate C. perpetuate D. sustain
She wants to stay at home and ______ her children.

A. nurture B. usher C. comply D. institute
The restaurant was known for its delicious food, but it also had a ______ reputation for its slow service, causing many customers to leave frustrated.

A. inherent B. desirable C. vulnerable D. notorious
Many adults in the remote countryside have problems with ______ and numeracy.

A. literacy B. variation C. consciousness D. association
The illness has ______ his ability to think and concentrate.

A. scrambled B. sacrificed C. impaired D. embodied
During an AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) meeting, the team discussed the need for an immediate ______ to stop Jim from drinking more alcohol.

A. essentialization B. emulation C. intervention D. exaggeration
We can ______ the power of the wind to generate electricity.

A. charge B. harness C. preclude D. impose
It was not taken seriously for years and proper research has been ______ only recently.

A. averaged B. undertaken C. accounted D. steered
Periodic check-ups of the child's educational and sensory development were made to ______ possible handicaps that interfere with growth and development.

A. pilot B. access C. facilitate D. detect
The school has received a(n) ______ of $5,000,000 to update the library.

A. tuition B. expense C. expenditure D. endowment

Part III. Expressions（2*5, 5 minutes）

Directions: Select a proper phrase from the box for each incomplete sentence. Two phrases must be left out. Each choice in the box is identified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on the Answer Sheet.

A. a blob of

B. snuff(ed) out

C. off the hook

D. miss(ed) out on

E. usher(ed) in

F. at random

G. plough(ed) into

In the study, subjects were phoned ______ and asked the same questions.
China is determined not to ______ the golden opportunity on artificial intelligence, 5G, and the digital Silk Road.
The upshot of all this research is that in order to rid the world of prejudice, we can't simply ______ overt racism.
A huge sum of money is ______ China's aid to Africa.
She squeezed ______ toothpaste onto her toothbrush before starting to brush her teeth.

Part IV. Reading Skills（2*5, 15 minutes）

Directions: Choose the best answer from the four choices marked A, B, C or D. Then Mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet with a single line through the center.

But a particular way of categorizing can be inaccurate, and those false categories can lead to prejudice and stereotyping. Much psychological research into bias has focused on how people “essentialize” certain categories, which boils down to assuming that these categories have an underlying nature that is tied to inherent and immutable qualities. According to the paragraph, what of the following statements is NOT true? A. Categorizing is as harmful as essentializing. B. Stereotyping may result from false categories. C. Inherent and immutable qualities don't easily change. D. Cases of bias are found to involve essentializing.
Wind velocity also increases with altitude and may cause serious stress for trees, as is made evident by the deformed shapes at high altitudes, Which sentence best expresses the essential information’ . A. Because of their deformed shapes at high altitudes, trees are not likely to be seriously harmed by the strong wind typical of those altitudes. . B. As altitude increases, the velocity of winds increases, leading to @ serious decrease in the number of trees found at high altitudes. . . C. The deformed shape of trees at high altitudes show that wind velocity, which increases with altitudes, can cause serious hardship for trees. , D. Increased wind velocity at high altitudes deforms the shapes of trees, and this may cause serious stress for trees.
In fact. we humans will frequently divide ourselves into in-groups and out-groups even when the perceived differences between the specific groups are completely arbitrary. In one study, subjects are asked to rate how much they like a large series of Paintings, some of which are described as belonging to the “Red” artistic school and others to the “Green” school. Then participants are randomly sorted into two groups, red or green. In subsequent tasks, people consistently show favoritism toward the arbitrary color group to which they are assigned. According to the paragraph, which of the following statements is NOT true? A. Subjects in red and green groups show prejudice in the rating of paintings. B. The division of groups distracts participants from making fair judgments. C. The underlined word “arbitrary” is close in meaning to “randomly”. D. In the study, what is used to categorize doesn’t follow a regular pattern at all.
Local safety record with school buses is generally a good one, but of course this record is only as good as the school bus drivers themselves. Which of the following statements can be inferred from the sentence? A. In spite of a generally good safety record, school bus drivers can improve their skills. B. Local school bus safety record won’t be good if their school bus drivers are not good. C. With better school buses, drivers will be able to maintain better safety records. D. Local safety record with school buses has improved as better drivers have been hired.
The fact that electronic computers are now used for data processing has led the general public to believe that it is a mysterious, complicated science and that the computers are giant brains. Both of these ideas are false. A computer is basically just a high-speed adding machine that performs the functions it is told to. The business operations it performs are impressive only because of the extremely high speed of manipulation, but most of these operations have been used for decades. Unlike man, the computer performs repetitive calculations without getting tired or bored. Which statement best expresses the main idea? A. A computer is superior to human beings. B. A computer is complicated science. C. A computer is a high-speed processor. D. A computer is never tired or bored.

Part V. Reading Comprehension（3*10）

Section A. Fast Reading (15 minutes)

Directions: For questions 36-37, choose the best answer from the four choices marked A, B, C or D. For questions 38-41, judge whether the following statements are True or False. Then Mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet with a single line through the center.

Using dogs to pull goods began ______.

A. some 35, 000 years ago

B. 1,000 years ago

C. before 1,000 B.C.

D. in 1908

Which of the following is NOT an important factor for sled dogs?

A. Speed B. Gender C. Temperament D. Endurance

T/F Mushers start training their dogs to pull light loads for short distances in a team at around 12 to 16 months old.

T/F Rigging includes the tow line, tug lines, neck lines and reins.

T/F A musher says “come gee" to make his or her team turn 180 degrees right.

T/F This passage mainly centers on the breeding, rearing and training of sled dogs for the race.

Passage

They're physical wonders--able to endure extreme conditions for extensive periods of time while running fast and pulling more than their own weight. Sled dogs have been around for generations, and today they remain a large part of a dog driver's life.

In Arctic regions, some 35,000 years ago, Eskimos’ dogs bred with wolves and other dogs. Their offspring were well-adapted to the cold and snow. There's no saying exactly when someone thought to have dogs pull sleds, but it was well before 1,000 B.C. that dog sleds provided a means of transportation and a way to haul goods. Dogsled racing in Alaska formally began in 1908, when sled dog owners in Nome, Alaska, held the first All-Alaska Sweepstakes, a 408-mile race from Nome to Candle and back. And in 1973, the inaugural Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race took place on a route covering more than 1,000 miles in Alaska.

Stamina and Strength

Many breeds of dogs are used to pull sleds, including official American Kennel Club breeds such as the Siberian husky, Malamute and Samoyed.

Sled dogs are bred for their speed and endurance as well as leadership qualities. They are big dogs with thick coats and wide, flat feet. They sleep with their tails covering their noses to keep warm. Dogs that weigh around 40 to 45 pounds are the ideal size to pull sleds, but some may weigh as much as 85 pounds.

Young dogs that are enthusiastic runners, easy-going and mentally tough are good choices for sled dogs. A dog's gender matters little and both male and female dogs are considered equally.

For racing, the most intelligent and fastest dogs are picked to be lead dogs and run in the front of the pack. Behind them run swing dogs. At the back of the dog team are the wheel dogs or wheelers.

Becoming a Sled Dog

Dog owners start training their dogs to pull sleds at a very young age. When they are a couple of months old, they may be fitted with a harness and collar, just so they get used to wearing them. As they get older, a small object may be attached to the harness to practice pulling weight. Mushers also start teaching the dogs verbal commands.

When dogs are ready to train alongside a team, at around 6 to 8 months old, they start by pulling light loads for short distances. Over time, they build up their strength and stamina and are able to go farther and pull more.

Sled dogs that are well cared for and loved by their owners are quite friendly and gentle. While they may fight with other dogs, it is rare that a sled dog would be aggressive toward people. Mushers have been quoted as saying that they take better care of their dogs than themselves, and that the dogs eat better than they do. Relationships between dog and musher vary, but most mushers consider their dogs family.

Getting Ready for the Race

In the Iditarod, the dogs are attached to the sled with a series of lines called rigging. This includes the tow line (or gang line), tug lines and neck lines. Each dog wears a collar and a harness. The tow line connects the dogs to the sled, and a tug line rigs the dogs' harnesses to the tow line. The dogs' collars are attached to the tow line by the neck line. There are no reins, and dogs respond to the musher’s vocal commands.

A musher says "hike," “let's go," or "all right,” to get his or her team going; “easy” to slow down; "gee" to turn right; "haw" to turn left; "come gee" or "come haw" to turn 180 degrees right or left; "straight on" to go straight ahead; and "whoa" to stop.

Section B. Excerpt from Textbook (15 minutes)

Directions: Choose the best answer from the four choices marked A, B, C or D. Then Mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet with a single line through the center.

The Asian Advantage

So the Asian advantage, Nisbett argues, isn't intellectual firepower as such, but how it is harnessed.

Some disagree, but I am pretty sure that one factor is East Asia’s long Confucian emphasis on education. Likewise, a focus on education also helps explain the success of Jews, who are said to have had universal male literacy 1,700 years before any other group.

Strong two-parent families are a factor, too. Divorce rates are much lower for many Asian-American communities than for Americans as a whole, and there’s evidence that two-parent households are less likely to sink into poverty and also have better outcomes for boys in particular.

Lee and Zhou, for their part, think that positive stereotyping may be part of an explanation for the success of Asian-Americans in school. “They are like, ‘Oh, you're Chinese and you're good in math," the book quotes a girl called Angela as saying. “It’s advantageous when they think that.”

Of course, positive stereotypes create their own burden, with sometimes tremendous stress on children to earn those A’s, at the cost of enjoying childhood. And it can be hard on Asian-American kids whose comparative advantage isn’t in science or math but in theatre or punk rock. Among Asians, there’s sometimes concern that there’s too much focus on memorization, not enough on creativity.

Another factor in Asian scholastic success may be the interaction of social stereotypes and self-confidence. Scholars like Claude Steele have found that blacks sometimes suffer from “stereotype threat”: Anxiety from negative stereotypes impairs performance. Lee and Zhou argue that Asian-Americans sometimes ride on the opposite of “stereotype threat”, a “stereotype promise” that they will be smart and hard-working.

Lee and Zhou also say the success of Asian-Americans, far from revealing a lack of discrimination, is in part a testament to it. They say Asian-Americans work hard to succeed in areas with clear metrics like math and science in part as a protection against bias -- and in any case, many Asians still perceive a “bamboo ceiling” that it's hard to break through.

To me, the success of Asian Americans is a tribute to hard work, strong families and passion for education. Bravo! Ditto for the success of Jews, West Indians and other groups that have shown that upward mobility is possible, but let's not exaggerate the lessons here.

According to the author, Asian advantage is NOT for children ______.

A. who study under the influence of the Confucian priority on education

B. whose parents stay married and away from impoverishment

C. whose comparative disadvantage is in science or math

D. who are considered intelligent and diligent by their teachers

Which of the following is closest in meaning to Claude Steele’s viewpoint?

A. Blacks’ academic underdevelopment results in their anxiety and negative stereotypes. B. Negative stereotypes against blacks lead to anxiety and that harms their performance. C. Blacks’ anxiety resulting from “stereotype promise” impairs their performance.

D. Blacks’ academic failure at school is largely affected by the negative stereotypes.

In the underlined sentence, what does the word “it” refer to?

A. Discrimination. B. A lack of discrimination. C. The stereotype promise. D. A protection against bias.

Which one is most likely to be the main topic in the next paragraph after this excerpt?

A. The success of Asians in other fields. B. Jews’ triumph in math and science. C. The upward mobility of other races. D. The still lingering discrimination.

Part VI. Summary Writing

Section A. Summary Completion（3*5）

Directions: Read the following passage and fill each blank with only ONE word in the summary. For each word, the initial letter has already been given. Write the COMPLETE word in each blank, including the initial letter.

Passage

Is comprehension the same whether a person reads a text on screen or on paper? And are listening to and viewing content as effective as reading the written word when covering the same material? The answers to both questions are often "no." The reasons relate to a variety of factors, including reduced concentration, an entertainment mindset and a tendency to multitask while consuming digital content.

When reading texts of several hundred words or more, learning is generally more successful when it's on paper than on screen. A large amount of research confirms this finding. The benefits of print reading particularly shine through, when experimenters move from posing simple tasks -- like identifying the main idea in a reading passage -- to ones that require mental abstraction-such as drawing inferences from a text.

The differences between print and digital reading results are partly related to paper's physical properties. With paper, there is a literal laying on of hands, along with the visual geography of distinct pages. People often link their memory of what they've read to how far into the book it was or where it was on the page.

But equally important is the mental aspect. Reading researchers have proposed a theory called "shallowing hypothesis." According to this theory, people approach digital texts with a mindset suited to social media, which are often not so serious, and devote less mental effort than when they are reading print.

Audio and video can feel more engaging than text, and so university teachers increasingly turn to these technologies - say, assigning an online talk instead of an article by the same person. However, psychologists have demonstrated that when adults read news stories, they remember more of the content than if they listen to or view identical pieces.

Digital texts, audio and video all have educational roles, especially when providing resources not available in print. However, for maximizing learning where mental focus and reflection are called for, educators shouldn't assume all media are the same, even when they contain identical words.

Summary

Comprehension is often affected by the way in which information is presented, with studies indicating that reading on paper leads to better understanding than reading onscreen or consuming content through a______46______ and video. Factors such as reduced concentration, an e______47______ mindset, and multitasking while engaging with digital content contribute to this difference. Research has shown that when readers tackle longer texts, print reading allows for greater s______48______, particularly for tasks requiring mental abstraction, like drawing inferences. The physical properties of paper aid memory retention by providing a sense of l______49______ on the page. Additionally, the "shallowing hypothesis" suggests that digital reading encourages a more superficial approach similar to social media. Although audio and video can be engaging and serve educational purposes, educators should not assume that all media offer the same learning benefits, particularly in terms of mental focus and r______50______.

Section B. Paragraph Summary（5*2）

Directions: Sum each paragraph up in ONE sentence with no more than 30 words.

Paragraph 1

The program involved trained parent-educators visiting the parents' home and working with the parent, or parents, and the child. Information on child development, and guidance on things to look for and expect as the child grows were provided, plus guidance in fostering the child's intellectual, language, social and motor-skill development. Periodic check-ups of the child's educational and sensory development (hearing and vision) were made to detect possible handicaps that interfere with growth and development.

Paragraph 2

As autonomous vehicles become more popular, they present legal challenges that demand urgent attention. First, existing traffic laws may need change to accommodate the behavior of self-driving cars, which operate differently from human drivers. There are also concerns over data privacy, as these vehicles collect vast amounts of data on users and their surroundings. Furthermore, the integration of AI in these vehicles raises ethical questions about decision-making in critical situations, such as choosing whom to protect in the event of an unavoidable accident.