上海市嘉定区2022-2023学年高二下学期期末统考英语试卷

Most underrated pleasures of one's life

One of the biggest drivers of good relationships in our lives is a developed level of understanding in those relationships. The relationships  this understanding end up creating too much maintenance work. So it becomes more like luggage or at least something that needs attention or care rather than fun.

I realized it with a couple of friends of mine. Recently my "friend ecosystem" had a sudden change. A couple of them (leave) although I still have a couple around. I am also adding a couple of new ones.

The whole change made me thoughtful. I started to think about the cause of being better friends with some. It turns out that among the large number of other factors, one of the key ones is  (understand). It can then be extended to personal and even business relationships.

While  (hire) a key employee, one can be sure that it will work well if the other person enjoys and understands you well. It will be far  (productive) as the relationship related maintenance is low and you can focus on actual output. It  help you even when you are looking for funding partners, seed capital or business joint ventures (企业).

Finally, how do you ensure you are understood? To start with, make sure that the people who  (matter) to you in any capacity like business, managerial, personal or family have an open relationship with you. Creating an open environment  others can discuss constructive aspects or difficult discussion is important.

Being caring and respectful to and being truthful are two different things. Truthfulness is as important as being respectful and caring. In the long term, truthfulness will result in a caring relationship, you are understood well and have an open relationship, you can't be truthful.

When you get to that level with the person where you are completely understood, it will be an awesome feeling!

Why different species start looking exactly the same

Is it better to stand out from the crowd or be similar to the background? For birds, the answer is complicated. While peacocks (孔雀) show off their brightly colored feathers to attract mates and ward off predators (捕食者), other birds find it  to hide themselves by imitating the looks of other birds.

Groups of birds flying together often come from the same species, making it hard to one from another. However, some groups of birds including two or more species take on similar , which is an uncommon phenomenon. "They all share random features, like feathers on head or yellow bellies (腹部), which makes them almost . You can't really tell them apart without looking at their ." says Scott Robinson, a famous scholar. His new study suggests another bird's appearance is not a coincidence (巧合) but rather an evolutionary method to increase their chances of survival. Looking like a bird from a dominant specter helps reduce attack from other members and appear more to potential predators.

"In imitation, you often want to look like something because there's an advantage to being that other thing. You want species to think you're or low-profitable target" says Rebecca Kimball, a professor of biology. "In grouping birds, one idea is that this has more to do with a predator's ability to a target. When there are a group of birds moving around, it may be easier for predators to identify an individual that has a distinct color pattern."

While it may not seem like it at first, imitating other birds is helping to create more  species. Not only do birds imitate more than one species as they grow up, but their appearance varies over time.

Most people have seen animals solve problems in one context or another Whether it's a dog getting food out of a puzzle toy, a squirrel (松鼠) breaking into a "squirrel-proof, bird feeder, or — in what is hopefully a rarer experience — a bear opening a door to get to the food inside!

Do all individuals within a species come up with1 solutions to problems? Or are some individuals more innovative than others? In ungulates (for example, goats and horses), social outsiders are more likely to innovate than their 2 groupmates: if an individual spends time on the outer areas of their group, they are more likely to succeed at a problem-solving task.

3 , in some species of primates (灵长类动物) and birds, it has been shown that individuals with low social standing — that is, those who regularly lose fights, and who don't have 4 of access to valuable resources — tend to innovate more.

The above examples tie into the theory that the individuals who are least able to gain access to good quality 5 , such as food and shelter, are the most likely to innovate. This "bad competitor" theory suggests that individuals innovate because they must do so to 6 . Imagine you're a goat who can't get access to the feeding container because you're not in the in-group. You'd probably be more 7 to figure out how to open a container with food inside than your more popular (and well-fed) groupmates.

However, while there is support for this theory in some species, many species show opposing patterns.8 , being a "bad competitor" doesn't seem to be a general driver of innovation across species.9 appears to have a more general influence on animal innovativeness. A meta-analysis (综合分析) across 37 studies of animal innovation found that being brave (that is, approaching 10 objects and exploring new environments) was linked to innovative behavior. For example, brave Carib grackles (a species of bird) and ungulates are more likely to innovate than their more easily frightened groupmates.11 has also been linked to innovation in a variety of species, from zebra finches (斑胸草雀) to Asian elephants.

Both make instinctive sense. The more likely an individual is to 12 with a new problem (that is, the braver they are, and the more time they spend trying to solve a problem (that is, the more persistent they are), the more likely they are to find a(n)13 .

Regardless of the reason individuals innovate, once an individual finds a solution to a problem,14  a problem involving resource access, their behavior can spread like wildfire. Other individuals pay attention when a groupmate innovates, and 15 the problem-solving behavior.

A schoolgirl has created a solar-powered backpack that filters (过滤) out air pollution after being inspired by her asthmatic (患哮喘病的) mother.

Eleanor Woods, 12, from a town in northern England, entered the "Backpack to the Future" competition after her mother put the application form in her room. She went on to win the award for her innovative bag.

The "Backpack to the Future" competition was launched to change perceptions, encourage more diversity within engineering and to show children how they could combine an interest in fashion with a career in STEM (science, technology, engineering or maths).

Powered by green energy from solar power and a dynamo—a machine that changes mechanical energy into electrical energy—the backpack filters polluted air before fanning out cleaner air nearby.

"I have an air filter at home because my mum has mild asthma. My Breathe Better Backpack is all about keeping my friends, family and classmates safe using an air filter. It looks cool and will help get kids outside and fight off colds," said Eleanor. "The first thing that came to mind is that blue is one of my favorite colors and blue feels clean and the bubbles on the outside have a clean theme for breathing."

The pandemic encouraged Eleanor's awareness of how pollution affects a person's health and the spread of diseases. Spending a lot of time with her asthmatic mum over several lockdowns gave the 12-year-old food for thought. The schoolgirl added, "My generation is really aware of pollution, and we have lessons on it at school along with diseases spreading, and this is another reason I designed this, because it is getting much worse." The young designer said she is becoming increasingly aware of the pollution that surrounds her, as she lives on a main road. Eleanor said, "I walk to school, next to the road, and can taste the petrol when buses come through."

Speaking after winning the competition, Eleanor said the impact of her backpack will he far- reaching. "If just a few people start using it, it could be really good for the planet," she said.

As plastic waste increases rapidly around the world, an essential question remains unanswered: What harm, if any, does it cause to human health?

A few years ago, as microplastics began turning up in the organs of fish and shellfish, the concern was focused on the safety of seafood. Shellfish were a particular worry, because in their case, unlike fish, we eat the entire animal — stomach, microplastics and all. In 2017, Belgian scientists announced that seafood lovers could consume up to 11,000 plastic particles (粒子) a year by eating mussels (贻贝), a favorite dish in that country.

By then, however, scientists already understood that plastics continuously fragment small pieces in the environment, tearing over time into fibers even smaller than a strand of human hair — particles are so small that they easily fly in the air. A team at the U.K.'s University of Plymouth decided to compare the threat from eating polluted wild mussels in Scotland to that of breathing air in a typical home. Their conclusion: People will take in more plastic by breathing in or taking tiny, invisible plastic fibers floating in the air around them—fibers from their own clothes, carpets, and soft covering on furniture — than they will by eating the mussels.

So, it wasn't much of a surprise when, in 2022, scientists from the Netherlands and the U.K, announced they had found tiny plastic particles in living humans, in two places where they hadn't been seen before: deep inside the lungs of surgical patients, and in the blood of unknown donors. Neither of the two studies answered the question of possible harm. But together they signaled a shift in the focus of concern about plastics toward the cloud of dust particles in the air, some of them are so small that they can get into deep inside the body and even inside cells, in ways that larger microplastics can't

Dick Vethaak, a professor of ecotoxicology (生态毒理学), doesn't consider the results alarming, exactly—"but, yes, we should be concerned. Plastics should not be in your blood." "We live in a multi-particle world," he adds, referring to the dust, pollen (花粉), and smog that humans also breathe in every day. "The trick is to figure out how much plastics contribute to that particle burden and what does that mean."

Texting or Talking?

The telephone was an amazing invention. People could finally speak to each other instantly from one home to another. The mobile phone took this technology further, meaning we could make contact with people to and from almost anywhere in the world. 

I don't mean we have taken up letter writing again. Although a handwritten letter has a personal touch, sending it by post is too slow to satisfy our desire to keep in touch immediately. A study in the UK a few years ago found 49 per cent of teenagers preferred to send a text rather than speak to someone.

Certainly sending an SMS, text or message through a chat app means we can compose what we want to say, and we can be more efficient in saying it — especially if we express ourselves by using emojis (表情符号). Text messaging also allows privacy — other people can't overhear your text if you're in a public place such as on a train.

We may even forget the art of pleasantries (客套). A text can be misinterpreted too because you miss out on a speaker's intonation (语调). We always speak with melody and intonation to our voice… you take that channel of information out of communication, you lose another way that sense is being conveyed.

假设你是明启中学的学生李华，你校图书馆打算开展一次主题为"阅读的力量"的读书活动，现向全校学生征集活动方案，写一封信给图书馆，推荐活动方案，内容须包括：
1. 具体的活动安排；
2. 活动的意义。