湖北省武汉市武昌区2023-2024学年高二下学期3月月考英语试题

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Canada is diverse and vast, and the festivals celebrated there reflect this. Here are some exciting ones that attract visitors worldwide. 

Vancouver Celebration of Light

The largest fireworks competition in the world is held every summer in Vancouver. It consists of concerts, food stalls, and the Seawall Challenge, a popular urban adventure race. The festival, which lasts about a week, makes for a great way to get to know the city from a local standpoint. 

Edmonton Folk Festival

From its humble beginning in 1980, Edmonton Folk Festival has grown to be one of the world's famous folk festivals. Held each August, the lineup of the 10-day-long festival is always outstanding and ticket prices stay reasonable. Edmonton is also a gateway to Jasper and the Canadian Rockies, about two hours away in case you have extra time to explore after the festival.

Toronto International Film Festival

Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is one of the leading film festivals in the world, ranking closely with Cannes and Sundance. Films such as Hotel Rwanda, American Beauty, and The Big Chill made their premieres (首映) at this famous star-filled event held each September. The 11-day-long festival is also known as the kick-off of awards season, with many films that make their first public performance at TIFF going on to get nominated for Oscars and Golden Globe awards. 

Montreal Comedy Festival

Since 1983, Montreal Comedy Festival, or, Just for Laughs as it is more commonly known, has been inviting people to get together just for fun, just for entertainment-just for laughs. The festival, which takes place every year for two weeks in July, has grown in popularity and reputation and today features some of the world's greatest comedians and it also resulted in a television show that is broadcast internationally.

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About a decade ago, Lawson was at a beach in Virginia watching his kids build castles right next to the waves.

"I kept trying to get them to come back because I thought it was a terrible idea," he remarked. He wanted them to build their sandcastles closer to the dunes. But they found it more exciting to build right where the waves hit, seeing their sandcastles get destroyed, and then rebuilding them with whatever debris washed up from the ocean. "It seemed so symbolic, somehow, of how life works more than just building your perfect sandcastles," said Lawson. When he decided to turn that sunny day into a children's book, the idea came to just use pictures. "It seemed like it would work beautifully without words," he said.

A Day for Sandcastles is illustrated by Qin Leng. It's the second wordless picture book for Lawson and Leng since 2021's Over the Shop. Leng's illustrations stay pretty true to real life. Three siblings spend the day building sandcastles and watching them get destroyed by a flying hat. "To me it's a celebration of childhood and the simple joys of life. These are the things I like to capture," said Leng.

Leng spent part of her childhood in France, and she was inspired by European comic books "What I love to do when I illustrate a picture book is add side stories to the main storyline. I always think about the readers and the longevity of the book, and I want them to be able to discover something new every time they revisit the book," Leng explained.

At the end of the day, the sleepy-eyed kids pile into the bus that will take them home. "Those last pages are some of my favorite. They capture that feeling like at the end of the day on the beach, when it's getting dark and you feel completely exhausted," Lawson said. It must be a universal childhood feeling: happy with sand, sticky from the salt, hot from the sun, and ready to fall asleep the moment you get into the car.

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The recent reports of a 4-year-old girl on a Shanghai beach have gone viral on social media platforms, raising debate about whether China should criminalize neglect(疏于照管) in child supervision.

The father of the little girl claimed that he left her alone on the beach for about 12 minutes to fetch his phone. However, she was nowhere to be found when he was back. Surveillance (监控) videos show that she waited for about 10 minutes before walking toward the water's edge alone, and then disappeared into the water. Two weeks later, her body was discovered about 100 kilometers away in neighboring Zhejiang Province.

The core issue in this case is the father's leaving his young daughter unattended on the beach, causing her tragic death. Should such behavior, when it causes harm to a child, be seen as a criminal act? In an online survey, more than 90 percent of respondents insisted that the father be held legally responsible and face criminal punishments.

Nevertheless, according to Liu Chunquan, a lawyer, it may not satisfy the criteria for criminal neglect, since the primary focus of Chinese criminal law is on extreme cases of parental neglect, such as physical abuse and mental ill-treatment. Rarely do legal authorities charge parents; instead, they are just likely to face punishments consisting of warnings and fines.

In 2022, a 2-year-old baby drowned in a cesspool while in the company of his father. The court ruled shared responsibility between the father and the cesspool's owner, with a 7:3 proportion. The owner was ordered to pay 20,000 yuan to the child's family. Unluckily, similar cases do exist nationwide. Roughly, 100,000 children lose their lives in accidents annually in China, which is largely due to neglect, such as parents leaving their children unattended, either in locked cars or at home. Besides, drowning is now the main cause of death for children aged 1 to 14 years old.

It is no wonder that an increasing number of netizens request that specific laws and regulations be passed to ensure the safety of children and their well-being. Hopefully, criminalizing child supervision neglect in China can serve as a warning and precaution.

However, downsides of introducing such legislation may also emerge. For instance, it's difficult to distinguish between a regrettable accident and criminal neglect so that over-criminalization can arise, in which well-meaning parents making honest mistakes are charged with a crime.

Therefore, a more balanced approach to addressing the issue of child safety should involve a combination of new legislation, education and support services. The ultimate objective is to prevent similar tragedies in the future. We must recognize that children are not only their parents' offspring, but also the nation's future.

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Do you remember all those years when scientists argued that smoking would kill us but the doubters insisted that we didn't know for sure? That the evidence was inconclusive, the science uncertain? That the anti-smoking lobby（游说） was out to destroy our way of life and the government should stay out of the way? Lots of Americans bought that nonsense, and over three decades, some 10 million smokers went to early graves.

There are upsetting parallels today, as scientists in one wave after another try to awaken us to the growing threat of global warming. The latest was a panel from the National Academy of Sciences, enlisted by the White House, to tell us that the Earth's atmosphere is definitely warming and that the problem is largely man-made. The clear message is that we should get moving to protect ourselves. The president of the National Academy, Bruce Alberts, added this key point in the preface to the panel's report: "Science never has all the answers. But science does provide us with the best available guide to the future, and it is critical that our nation and the world base important policies on the best judgments that science can provide concerning the future consequences of present actions."

Just as on smoking, voices now come from many quarters insisting that the science about global warming is incomplete, that it's OK to keep pouring fumes into the air until we know for sure. This is a dangerous game: by the time 100 percent of the evidence is in, it may be too late. With the risks obvious and growing, a prudent people would take out an insurance policy now.

Fortunately, the White House is starting to pay attention. But it's obvious that a majority of the president's advisers still don't take global warming seriously. Instead of a plan of action, they continue to press for more research — a classic case of "paralysis by analysis".

To serve as responsible stewards of the planet, we must press forward on deeper atmospheric and oceanic research. But research alone is inadequate. If the Administration won't take the legislative initiative, Congress should help to begin fashioning conservation measures. A bill by Democratic Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, which would offer financial supports for private industry, is a promising start. Many see that the country is getting ready to build lots of new power plants to meet our energy needs. If we are ever going to protect the atmosphere, it is crucial that those new plants be environmentally sound.

阅读下面短文，从短文后的选项中选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。

How to Build a Natural Swimming Pool

Whether you like to practice your dolphin dives or idle away the day on a raft, swimming is one of summer's perfect pleasures. With a minimum of materials, you can create a cooling summer retreat in your backyard.

Though common in Europe, natural swimming pools, are in their early stage in the United States. You can ask most American swimming-pool contractors (承包商) to build a backyard pool.It may include rebar (钢筋), gunite (压力喷浆), fiberglass, and a filtration (过滤) system.

But in recent years, a few builders and a growing number of homeowners have learned how to build pools.They've found it's possible to construct pools that are more about building with nature and blending into the natural landscape. Natural swimming pools use stone and clay in place of concrete or fiberglass, and aquatic plants instead of harmful chemicals and complicated mechanical filtering systems.They also support beneficial bacteria that consume potentially harmful organisms, and give habitat to frogs, dragonflies, and other water life.A natural pool can be built for as little as $2,000 if you do it yourself, while conventional pools can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

Natural swimming pools requiring no harmful chemicals, are fairly low-tech. You won't have to drain the pool each autumn. Except for topping it off now and then, you'll fill the pool only once.

A．The plants enrich the pool with oxygen.

B．Chances are that they will roll out a long list of goods.

C．You can make your pool as shallow or as deep as you want.

D．And once established, they call for only a bit of management.

E．It is the most ecological and economic way to build a conventional pool.

F．The result is an ecological system that is relatively inexpensive to construct.

G．They don't rely on a mass of manufactured materials and chemical additives.

阅读下面短文，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项。

An extreme sport like BMX (Bicycle Motocross) may not be the first thing that comes to mind to help overcome a mental health condition. However, that is 1  what enabled Nikita Ducarroz to fight her fears.

As a child, Ducarroz spent every 2  moment on the soccer field. But at 13, the talented athlete began to suffer from 3  anxiety attacks that made it hard for her to leave home. When her mother told her she had to continue playing a sport, Ducarroz found BMX as a way to 4  that rule. Little did she know that BMX would soon 5  every aspect of her life, and become the reason she would push through her fears one step at a time.

The tale began when a BMX video on YouTube inspired her to try the extreme sport. She saved up for a bike. Then she began practicing 6  in her driveway. Soon, her excellent skills brought her enough 7  to ride at the local skate park. With that confidence, Ducarroz was 8  to ride in the competition in 2016, and she has not looked back since.

"The bike made me get out of the house, go to the skate park, and 9 get on a plane," said Ducarroz. "It 10 me to overcome all my fears."

The 26-year-old is now one of the world's best female BMX freestylers. Ducarroz now has her 11 set on the 2024 Paris Olympics. She says, "My goal in Paris is another medal. I can get that done with the training."

Though she still suffers occasional 12  attacks, Ducarroz now knows how to manage them. To help others with mental health conditions, Ducarroz has started an Instagram page called MindTricks. It is where people discuss their fears 13 .

"MindTricks started because of my own 14 that I was making on Instagram about mental health," she explained. "And I thought, ‘Why don't we create a place where others can do the same, a central spot where everyone can read about these stories and also feel 15 to share their own stories?'"

根据下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Volunteer travel involves taking a trip  all or part of the purpose is to participate in an arranged service opportunity helping others. Usually, these trips are arranged by church organizations, human interest groups,  non-profits.

Charitable interests often go far beyond national (boundary) and sometimes, donating money is not enough  (satisfy) the need to help. Volunteer travel is a way to combine a visit to a new location with meaningful work that has a direct impact  communities in other parts of the world.

This type of travel has been  option for many years.  (historic), church groups made up a large part of this market. Once a year a religious organization would organize a trip to another country. The primary purpose of the trip was very specific. For example, it would be to help build a school, dig wells or engage in hundreds of other projects that would impact those less fortunate.

As international travel becomes by far  (easy), volunteering in other countries has become as  (access) as browsing a website and signing up. This sort of volunteer travel  (refer) to as voluntourism or vacanteerism from time to time. 

假定你是李华，你的新西兰笔友Jerry对中国文化遗产很感兴趣，他在邮件中希望你为他推荐一两个你喜欢的名胜古迹，请用英语给他回复。内容包括：

1）简介你推荐的名胜古迹；

2）说明你推荐的理由；3）邀请他有机会来参观。

注意：

1）词数100左右；2）可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；

3）开头和结尾已为你写好，不计入总词数。

Dear Jerry,

Best wishes,

Li Hua

阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文

The Rude Boy

James Selton was one of the rudest boys in the village where he lived. If a person in the street was well dressed, he would cry out, "Dandy(花花公子)!" If a person's clothes were dirty or torn, he would throw stones at him, and annoy him in every way.

One afternoon, just as the school was dismissed, a stranger passed through the village. His dress was plain and somewhat old, but neat and clean. He carried a cane in his hand, on the end of which was a bundle, and he wore a broad-brimmed hat.

No sooner had James seen the stranger than he winked to his playmates, and said, "Now for some fun!" He then silently went toward the stranger from behind, knocked off his hat, and ran away.

The man turned and saw him, but James was out of hearing before the man could speak. The stranger put on his hat, and went on his way. Again James approached; but this time, the man caught him by the arm, and held him tightly. However, he contented himself with looking at James a moment in the face, and then pushed him away. No sooner had the naughty boy found himself free again, he began to throw dirt and stones at the stranger.

But James was very frightened when the man was struck on the head by a brick and badly hurt. All the boys ran away, and James slipped across the fields to his home.

As he drew near the house, his sister Caroline came out to meet him, holding up a beautiful gold chain and some new books for him to see. She told James that their uncle, who had been away several years, had come home, and was now in the house; that he had brought beautiful presents for the whole family; that he had left his carriage at the tavern(客栈), a mile or two off and walked on foot, so as to surprise his brother, their father. 

注意：

1.续写词数应为150左右；

2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。

Paragraph. 1

She said while he was coming through the village, some wicked boys threw stones at him.

Paragraph. 2

His uncle went up to him, but quickly stepping back, he cried, "Oh! It's you!"