北京市2019年中考英语试卷

—It's 88 yuan.

—Yes, I can.

—He ________ my bike.

—Yes. She was going over our writing.

Run for Class President

    Two months ago, when our class election (选举) started, I decided to run for class president. I enjoyed speaking in public and got along well with people, so I felt it easy to win. But I was 1 that people would feel bad for me if I lost.

    I was busy preparing in the following week. My plan wasn't to make promises to do things I couldn't 2 but to show my class why I wanted to be president. I put up my posters in hallways and in the classroom. I also spent three hours writing my speech, saying that I was the one they could turn to whenever they had a problem. Since I was 3 prepared, I felt that my chances of winning were strong.

    However, when I gave my speech on Election Day, the response (反应) wasn't what I had 4. Few people actually listened. When it was my opponent's (对手的) turn, everyone was screaming his name. His speech was short, but all to the point. By then, I realized I should have made mine shorter and clearer.

    It was obvious who would 5. For the rest of the day, I felt like it was over. I wanted to just go home and cry, but I made it through.

    My 6 was right: I didn't win.

    The next day, people were still talking about the election. I just pretended (假装) not to hear. But later, things got better. People 7 about the election and talked to me just as they did before.

    I don't regret putting time and energy into the election because I've learned that things aren't always going the way I expect. And moments of failure like this build 8—since then I've learned to face disappointment and grown stronger.

Experiencing China

Blue Lightning

    Sally loved cars more than anything else. This spring she thought of building a go-kart to enter for the Go-Go Race. So she asked her dad for help.

    "Well," he said. "How about this: you do some research first and then come back to me with a design."

    A week later, Sally brought her notes and drawings to Dad. She named her go-kart "Blue Lightning". Dad looked over her work, thinking. "Well, that's interesting," he said. "Have a try. Just build Blue Lightning as you've designed."

    Over three weekends of hard work, Sally turned her design into a real, working go-kart and painted it light blue. Dad asked her to take it for a test drive. Sally agreed.

    After she did that, Sally drove back to Dad. "Well," she said. "Now I know why you wanted me to have a test drive."

    "Oh, do you?" he said. "Please share."

    "When I drove fast, there was a lot of pushback," she said. "I think it's because of the lightning bolt (闪电) shape."

    "Very good!" Dad said.

    "So, why didn't you tell me about that problem in the first place?" Sally asked.

    Dad laughed. "Where's the fun in that? If you give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day. But if you teach a man to fish, he'll eat for a lifetime."

    Sally said, "I see. Anyway, designing is half the fun!"

    Dad smiled. "Good. Sometimes, learning happens during the process. We learn how to do something right by doing it a few times first and making mistakes along the way."

    That encouraged Sally and she worked even harder. When she showed Dad her new go-kart, he nodded with pride.

    Finally came the race. Sally wasn't worried about whether she would win—in her mind, she had already won, by building something better than ever before.

    Sometimes it seems that time is flying. Perhaps it doesn't need to feel this way. Our experience of time can be possibly changed. By understanding the psychological (心理学的) processes behind our different experiences of time, we might be able to slow down time a little.

    One basic law of psychological time is that time seems to slow down when we're exposed (接触) to new environments and experiences. The law is caused by the relationship between our experience of time and the amount of information our minds process. The more information our minds take in, the slower time seems to pass.

    It follows, then, that we have different experiences of time in different situations. In some situations, our life is full of new experiences. Our minds process a lot of information and time seems to slow down. In other situations, we have fewer new experiences and the world around us becomes more and more familiar (熟悉的). We become insensitive to our experience, which means we process less information, and time seems to speed up.

    How can we slow down time? Here are two suggestions.

    Firstly, since we know that familiarity makes time pass faster, we can expose ourselves to as many new experiences as possible. We can give ourselves new challenges, meet new people, and expose our minds to new information, hobbies and skills. This will increase the amount of information our minds process and expand (增加) our experience of time.

    Secondly, and perhaps most effectively, we can give our whole attention to an experience-to what we are seeing, feeling, tasting, smelling or hearing. This means living through our senses rather than through our thoughts. For example, on the way home, focus your attention outside of yourself, instead of thinking about the problems you have to deal with. Look at the sky, or at the buildings you pass, traveling among them. This open attitude to your experiences helps take in more information and also has a time-expanding effect.

    To a certain degree, we can understand and control our experience of time passing. It's possible for us to slow down time by expanding our experience of time.

How Much Can We Afford to Forget?

    In 2018, Science magazine asked some young scientists what schools should teach students. Most said students should spend less time memorizing facts and have more space for creative activities. As the Internet grows more powerful, students can access (获得) knowledge easily. Why should they be required to carry so much of it around in their heads?

    Civilizations (文明) develop through forgetting life skills that were once necessary. In the Agricultural (农业的) Age, a farmer could afford to forget hunting skills. When societies industrialized, the knowledge of farming could be safe to forget. Nowadays, smart machines give us access to most human knowledge. It seems that we no longer need to remember most things. Does it matter?

    Researchers have recognized several problems that may happen. For one, human beings have biases (偏见), and smart machines are likely to increase our biases. Many people believe smart machines are necessarily correct and objective, but machines are trained through a repeated testing and scoring process. In the process, human beings still decide on the correct answers.

    Another problem relates to the ease of accessing information. When there were no computers, efforts were required to get knowledge from other people, or go to the library. We know what knowledge lies in other brains or books, and what lies in our heads. But today, the Internet gives us the information we need quickly. This can lead to the mistaken belief—the knowledge we found was part of what we knew all along.

    In a new civilization rich in machine intelligence, we have easy access to smart memory networks where information is stored. But dependency on a network suggests possibilities of being harmed easily. The collapse of any of the networks of relations our well-being (健康) depends upon, such as food and energy, would produce terrible results. Without food we get hungry; without energy we feel cold. And it is through widespread loss of memory that civilizations are at risk of falling into a dark age.

    We forget old ways to free up time and space for new skills. As long as the older forms of knowledge are stored somewhere in our networks, and can be found when we need them, perhaps they're not really forgotten. Still, as time goes on, we gradually but unquestionably become strangers to future people.

Huge Waves Destroying Arctic Ice Faster than Expected

    Ice covers much of the Arctic Ocean (北冰洋). Some pieces of ice are huge, like moving islands. As temperatures have increased, however, some of the ice has begun to disappear. Scientists have discovered huge waves (海浪) in the arctic waters.

    The waves were discovered by accident in May, 2010. Scientist Aleksey Marchenko and his students set out on a trip. They wanted to study the icy waters.

    On May 2, the ship traveled east and stopped next to a large chunk of ice around 50 miles from the small island of Hopen. Marchenko prepared to lead his students out onto the ice.

    "We were ready to go but when I went out, I discovered many cracks (裂缝) around," he remembers.

    He decided to move the ship deeper into the ice to keep safe. The farther in they went, he thought, the harder the ice would become. As they pushed forward, however, the ship experienced small waves, and then bigger ones. Soon, the waves broke up the ice around the ship into thousands of smaller pieces.

    Within an hour, Marchenko and his team saw a wave that was about 13 feet high. The ship's navigation (航行) system finally recorded the largest waves. They were more than 20 feet in height. The waves were so strong that they forced huge pieces of ice to jump up and down, breaking the ice into smaller pieces within just one hour. Scientists had never imagined that the process could happen so fast. The waves in these areas used to be small.

    The speed and force of the huge waves there makes it impossible to know in advance when they are coming. That could be dangerous for navigators and local communities who are unprepared for huge waves or depend on sea ice to protect them. Wildlife like polar bears and walruses that depend on sea ice to live is also in danger.

    Some scientists think people will soon see even bigger waves in these icy waters. As waves break up ice, the seas will become more open, and the waves will get even stronger. There are stormy times ahead.

请不要写出你的校名和姓名。

题目①：假如你是李华，你们学校正在开展"安全月"宣传活动，倡议大家制作关于安全教育的主题海报，你们班交换生Peter给你发邮件询问相关事情。请用英语回复一封邮件，告诉他海报上交的时间，并分享你设计海报的一些想法。

提示词语：design, safety rule, careful, protect, picture

提示问题：●When should you hand in the poster?

●What would you like to share with Peter about designing the poster?

题目②：自律，即自我约束，是自我提升的一种途径，有助于我们成长，促使我们不断前行。某英文网站正在开展以"自律"为主题的征文活动。假如你是李华，请用英语写一篇短文投稿，谈谈为了增强自律意识，你做过什么，以及这样做给你带来的好处。

提示词语：self-disciplined(自律的), plan, goal, habit, improve

提示问题：●What did you do to be self-disciplined?

●What benefits have you got from doing so?