2021-2022学年山东省济宁市兖州区高二下学期期中考试英语试题含答案

济宁市兖州区2021-2022学年高二下学期期中考试

英语试题

本试卷分第Ⅰ卷和第Ⅱ卷两部分，共12页。满分150分。考试用时120分钟。考试结束后，将第Ⅱ卷答题卷和答题卡一并交回。

注意事项：

1. 答题前，考生务必用0.5毫米黑色签字笔将自己的姓名、座号、考生号、县区和科类填写在答题卡和第Ⅱ卷答题卷规定的位置上。

2. 第Ⅰ卷每小题选出答案后，用2B铅笔把答题卡上对应题目的答案标号涂黑；如需改动，用橡皮擦干净后，再选涂其他答案标号。

3. 第Ⅱ卷答题卷必须用0.5毫米黑色签字笔作答，答案必须写在答题卷各题目指定区域内相应的位置，不能写在试卷上；如需改动，先划掉原来的答案，然后再写上新的答案；不能使用涂改液、胶带纸、修正带。不按以上要求作答的答案无效。

第Ⅰ卷（共95分）

第一部分听力（共两节，满分30分）

做题时，先将答案标在试卷上。录音内容结束后，你将有两分钟的时间将试卷上的答案转涂到答题卡上。

第一节（共5小题；每小题1.5分，满分7.5分）

听下面5段对话。每段对话后有一个小题，从题中所给的A、B、C三个选项中选出最佳选项，并标在试卷的相应位置。听完每段对话后，你都有10秒钟的时间来回答有关小题和阅读下一小题。每段对话仅读一遍。

1. Where does the conversation take place?

A. On the phone. B. In a hospital. C. In the street.

2. What is the probable relationship between the speakers?

A. Steward and passenger. B. Fellow passengers. C. Mother and son.

3.How many bags does the woman have?

A. 2. B. 3. C. 5.

4. What are the speakers mainly talking about?

A. Whether to take a test.

B. How to choose a major.

C. Whether to seize the opportunity.

5. What does the man think of his current life?

A. Disappointing. B. Just so-so. C. Satisfactory.

第二节（共15小题，每小题1.5分，满分22.5分）

听下面5段对话或独白。每段对话或独白后有几个小题，从题中所给的A、B、C三个选项中选出最佳选项。听每段对话或独白前，你将有时间阅读各个小题，每小题5秒钟；听完后，各小题将给出5秒钟的作答时间。每段对话或独白读两遍。

听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。

6. Who probably is the woman?

A. The man’s friend. B. A postal clerk. C. A shop assistant.

7. How much should the man pay?

A. $ 15. B. $ 6. C. $ 3.

听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。

8. Where probably are the speakers?

A. At a railway station. B. In an office. C. In a taxi.

9. What is the woman going to do next?

A. Pick up a person. B. See off a client. C. Go on a business trip.

听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。

10. What is the man doing?

A. Complaining about Anne’s behavior.

B. Asking for the woman’s assistance.

CGiving the woman suggestions.

11. What was Dave’s attitude towards Anne according to the man?

A. Impolite. B. Friendly. C. Unconcerned.

12. What will the woman do next?

A. Write a report. B. Send a form. C. Talk with Dave.

听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。

13. What do we know about the man?

A. He’s into sports all the time. B. He got hurt in the experiment. C. He’s thinner than before.

14. Who might Robinson be?

A. The woman’s classmate. B. A chemistry teacher. C. Nancy’s husband.

15. How long has Tom been married?

A. 10 years. B. 8 years. C. 2 years.

16. Where does the man live now?

A. In Houston. B. In San Antonio. C. In New York.

听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。

17. What makes running a school garden hard according to the speaker?

A. Lacking parents’ support. B. Lacking suitable space. C. Lacking money.

18. What does Susan say about school gardening?

A. It helps students calm down.

B. It involves various subjects.

C. It teaches students to treasure grains.

19. Who owns a non-profit project?

A. Susan Hobart. B. Ron Finley. C. Toby Adams.

20. Why does Finley support school gardening?

A. To make study interesting.

B. To promote a good hobby.

C. To call for respect for the planet.

第二部分阅读理解（共两节，满分50分）

第一节（共15小题；每小题2.5分，满分37.5分）

阅读下列材料，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该选项涂黑。

A

There are hundreds of non-profits welcoming students under the age of 18 as volunteers. In these activities, students can develop important life skills, cultural awareness and a lifelong passion for service.

Union Station Homeless Services

Whether you volunteer in our kitchens to prepare meals or in our offices to help with administrative projects, you will be a valuable member of our family. We do our best to match volunteers with a position that suits their interests and skills.

Minimum Age: 12

Call: 626-240-4550

Northeast Animal Shelter

The Northeast Animal Shelter, established in 1976, is one of New England’s largest non-profit shelters where the pets can be taken good care of. We have placed thousands of dogs and cats since we opened our doors. As soon as a dog or cat arrives, our staff begin searching for the perfect host for them. While waiting for a warm home, the dogs and cats receive the best of care.

Minimum Age: 16

Call: 745-988-8305

Needham Community Farm

The mission of Needham Community Farm is to deepen our community’s connection to nature and the food system by providing farm-based education, increasing access to healthy produce and encouraging environmental protection.

Minimum Age: 13

Call: 781-449-5300

Arlington Public Library

Serving more than 1.5 million people a year, Arlington Public Library holds more than 600,000 items, from books, eBooks, and DVDs, to digital photo collections and provides funded kits for parents and teachers. We only accept the volunteers with community service experience.

Minimum Age: 14

Call: 817-459-6900

21. Which non-profit cares for people in need?

A. Arlington Public Library.

B. Northeast Animal Shelter.

C. Needham Community Farm.

D. Union Station Homeless Services.

22. What will volunteers do for animals in Northeast Animal Shelter?

A. Cook healthy meals.

B. Build perfect homes.

C. Find adoptive families.

D. Search for their owners.

23. What is the requirement for volunteers in Arlington Public Library?

A. They are skillful at sorting out items.

B. They ought to be at least 12 years old.

C. They have experience in community service.

D. They should be capable of taking digital photos.

B

For eight-year-old Toby, who is deaf, watching films or TV can sometimes be a bit pointless, because so many of them don’t have sign language versions. “We have subtitles but it goes too fast,” his dad Jarod Mills said. But now, Toby has some help thanks to an app developed by a 17-year-old student, Mariella Satow, who created a signing app called SignUp.

She got the idea when she was teaching herself American Sign Language(ASL)—one of hundreds of sign languages used across the world. Manella wanted to watch TV shows to help her learn, and she was disappointed to discover how few had signed versions. It’s taken a year for Mariella to develop the technology, with lots of help from ASL teachers and the deaf community.

The app is available in the US as a browser extension—with an interpreter appearing in a box once the film starts playing. It only works on Disney Plus films at the moment, because that’s where Mariella thought she could help the most children. Jarod, who works at a school for deaf children, says it was “exciting” watching Toby use Mariella’s invention. He says, “Kids are getting information like any hearing child does.”

Deaf people in the UK face many of the same barriers when it comes to cinema and TV. “A hearing person can go to the cinema any time whereas deaf people have to make sure there’s a suitable viewing a time we’re free,” says 27-year-old Stacey Worboys from Cardiff. She has learned British Sign Language(BSL), and is comfortable using subtitles when watching TV shows and films. But she feels having an interpreter would make things “more inclusive”, especially for someone who might struggle with subtitles. Stacey and Toby aren’t the only people to be welcoming Mariella’s app. It’s now got thousands of users.

Stacey says a UK version of an app like SignUp would make films and TV “more accessible” for the deaf community. Mariella is up for the challenge—and hopes to make a British Sign Language version of her app for other streaming platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime. “There are more than 300 sign languages used worldwide, so it’ll take a long time to get all of those versions out,” she says.

24. Mariella created SignUp because of ______.

A. her awareness of Toby’s frustration B. the encouragement from her teachers

C. her childhood memories in a cinema D. lack of signed TV shows for the deaf

25. It can be inferred that Jarod holds a ______ attitude to Mariella’s invention.

A. negative B. favorable

C. neutral D. doubtful

26. What will be Mariella’s next challenge?

A. To design a BSL version of the app. B. To update the app for cinemas.

C. To promote the use of her app worldwide. D. To launch a universal version of the app.

27. Which of the following words can best describe Mariella?

ACurious and fearless B. Talented and humorous

C. Creative and caring D. knowledgeable and humble

C

It’s a sunny afternoon at the Bronx Zoo, in New York City. Children are excited as a female Asian elephant named Happy comes into view. Waving her ears from side to side and wrapping her trunk around the fence leisurely, Happy seems to be living a happy life.

The Bronx Zoo is one of about 60 zoos in the U. S. where you can see an elephant. With the number of Asian elephants declining every year—only about 50,000 are left in the wild—a zoo might be the only chance any of us will ever get to see one.

But the Nonhuman Rights Project(NhRP), an animal—rights group, says Happy is lonely. A fence separates her from Patty, another elephant. Contact through a fence isn’t enough, the NhRP says. Steven is the group’s president. “We understand what Happy’s life means to her,” he says, “which is almost nothing at all.”

So the NhRP is taking the Bronx Zoo to court. The group says Happy should be moved to a protected area where she can have space to hang about and interact with other elephants. The NhRP’s case against the Bronx Zoo is the first of its kind in the U. S. The group is relying on a legal order meant for humans. It says a person who has been unlawfully imprisoned must be released. The NhRP will argue in court that Happy should have that same right.

Experts say elephants are intelligent and thrive when they form social ties in the wild. Joyce Poole studies them in Africa. She thinks keeping elephants in a city is “a recipe for disaster”. “As you can imagine, if you were locked behind bars and lost freedom, would there be much you could do?” she says.

But the Bronx Zoo insists that Happy is well cared for according to animal protection laws Besides, some people claim removing animals like Happy from zoos would be a mistake because zoos reach more people than any other group involved with conservation. They believe if there’s a time when children can no longer visit zoos to grow up with a connection to the animals, it’ll come at a great cost.

28. What do the first two paragraphs mainly tell us?

A. Asian elephants are becoming extinct. B. Zoos allow people to bond with wild animals.

C. Zoos are the safest shelter for Asian elephants D. The elephants in zoos are disturbed by visitors

29. Why is the NhRP taking the Bronx Zoo to court?

A. The zoo breaks animal protection laws. B. They find Happy is suffering from ill health.

C. They think the zoo restricts Happy’s freedom D. The zoo fails to meet the visitors’ requirements.

30. What is Joyce’s attitude to keeping elephants in a city?

A. Opposed. B. Uncaring. C. Supportive. D. Cautious.

31. What can we infer from the text?

A. The court will stand by the Bronx Zoo. B. Children will have less access to nature.

C. More wild animals will be released from zoos. D. It will be challenging for the NhRP to win the case.

D

When people hear “Artificial Intelligence (AI),” many think of big data. The reason is that some of the most significant AI breakthroughs have relied on enormous data sets. But AI is not only about large data sets, and research in small data approaches in the past decade has grown extensively, with Transfer Learning (TL) (迁移学习) as an especially promising example, which is helpful in settings where you have few data on the task of interest but sufficient data on a related problem.

Small data approaches like TL offer numerous advantages over more data-intensive methods. By the use of AI with fewer data, they can facilitate progress in areas where few or no data exist, such as in forecasting natural disasters that occur relatively rarely. More importantly, TL is of great help in terms of generalization. A challenge in the use of AI is that models need to generalize beyond their training data — that is, to give good “answers” to a more general set of “questions” than what they were specifically trained on. TL models work by transferring knowledge from one task to another, so they are very helpful in improving generalization in the new task, even if only limited data are available.

AI experts such as Andrew Ng have stated that the approach will be the next driver of getting machine learning success in industry. There are some early signs of successful adoption and it has been applied for cancer discovery and much more.

Despite the increase in research, TL has received relatively little visibility. While many machine learning experts and data scientists are familiar with it, techniques such as TL do not seem to have reached the awareness of the broader space of policy makers and business leaders in positions of making important decisions about AI funding and adoption.

By acknowledging the success of small data techniques like TL and supporting their widespread use, we can help overcome some widespread misconceptions regarding the role of data in AI and promote innovation in new directions.

32. What does the author think of TL?

A. It is a potential technique.

B. It is of help in large data sets.

C. It is an important AI breakthrough.

D. It is a reliable solution to multitasks.

33. In which aspect does TL show its advantages?

A. Acquiring knowledge.

B. Discovering questions.

C. Collecting training data.

D. Improving generalization.

34. What does the underlined part in Paragraph 4 probably mean?

A. TL has little value.

B. TL is a heated topic.

C. TL draws public attention.

D. TL is not well recognized.

35. What’s the purpose of this text?

A. To clarify some misconceptions.

B. To introduce a small data approach.

C. To predict the promising future of AI.

D. To emphasize the significance of data.

第二节（共5小题；每小题2.5分，满分12.5分）

根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。

Sleep is very important for protecting and maintaining people's normal activities. It can supplement the energy of your body, enhance your resistance, promote the normal growth and development of your body. ____36____

The first step is to switch your pillow. The poor pillow deserves a rest if you're constantly beating it, turning it over and upside down. ____37____ And then you can put a sweet-smelling pillow towel on it and try again.

Choosing the right pillow is another choice. One Swedish study found that neck pillows can actually improve the quality of your sleep as well as reduce neck pain. ____38____ And it should provide neck support. A pillow with two supporting cores received the best rating from the 55 people who participated in the study. Another study found that water-filled pillows and pillows made of natural fibers provided a good night's sleep when compared to participants' usual pillows or roll pillows.

____39____ Even the barely noticeable light from streetlights, a full moon or your neighbor's house can interfere with the circadian rhythm changes you need to fall asleep. So it is necessary to block out some light with proper fabrics.

Besides, cleaning your bedroom and painting it comforting green are helpful. The more mess, the more distractions in the way of a good night's sleep. Instead, the smooth and clean surfaces act as a comfort to your brain, helping to smooth out your own worries and mental to-do lists. ____40____ It can relax you as you lie in bed reading or preparing for sleep.

A. You should find a new pillow from the closet.

B. However, oversleeping isn't good for you either.

C. The ideal neck pillow should be soft and not too high.

D. The comforting color provides a visual reminder of sleep.

E. It is very comfortable to enjoy some light in your bedroom.

F. But how can you get the sleep your body needs and deserves?

G. You'd better switch to heavier curtains over the windows and use them.

第三部分英语知识运用（共3节，满分30分）

第一节完形填空（共15小题；每小题1分，满分15分）

阅读下面的短文，从短文后各题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该选项涂黑。

Raden is a librarian in Indonesia’s Java island. She is ____41____ books to children in exchange for trash they collect in a(n)____42____ way to clean up the environment and get the kids to read more.

Each weekday she rides her three-wheeler with books for children in Muntang village to exchange for plastic cups bags and other ____43____ that she carries back.

She is helping inculcate（灌输）____44____in the kids and make them ____45____ of the environment. As soon as she ____46____, little children, many ____47____ by their mothers, surround her “Trash Library” demanding books ____48____.

They are all carrying trash bags and Raden’s three-wheeler quickly fills up with them as the books ____49____ out. She’s ____50____ the kids are going to spend less time on online games as a result.

She ____51____ about 100 kg of waste each week, which is then sorted out by her colleagues and sent for ____52____ or sold. She has 6, 000 books to lend and wants to take the mobile ____53____ to neighboring areas too.

Kevin Alamsyah, an 11-year-old reader,____54____ for waste lying in the village. “When there is too much trash, our environment will become dirty and it’s not healthy. That’s why I look for trash to borrow a book,” he says.

The literacy（读写能力）rate for above-15-year—olds in Indonesia is around 96 percent, but the pandemic will ____55____ more than 80% of 15-year-olds below the minimum reading proficiency（熟练）level.

41. A. publishing B. promoting C. lending D. recommending

42. A. fresh B. flexible C. old D. generous

43. A. gifts B. stuff C. waste D. issues

44. A. knowledge B. reading C. business D. writing

45. A. capable B. hopeful C. aware D. careful

46. A. shows up B. takes up C. shows off D. brings out

47. A. cheated B. accompanied C. forced D. organized

48. A. quietly B. hardly C. slowly D. loudly

49. A. run B. break C. give D. fly

50. A. generous B. doubtful C. grateful D. overjoyed

51. A. collects B. picked C. purchased D. ordered

52. A. showing B. recycling C. returning D. reserving

53. A. wheeler B. space C. service D. system

54. A. searches B. prepares C. provides D. wishes

55. A. desire B. leave C. design D. cure

第Ⅱ卷（共55分）

第二节单词拼写（共10小题；每小题1分，满分10分）

根据下列句子及所给汉语注释或词首字母，写出空缺处单词的正确形式。

56. This college has a good academic ______（名誉）.（根据汉语提示单词拼写）

57. This cellphone will be repaired free of charge when it is under g______ without human damage. (根据首字母单词拼写)

58. The whole experience was definitely more positive than n______.（根据首字母单词拼写）

59. Jenny has been ______ (虐待) by her father since she was ten, which did great harm to her. (根据汉语提示单词拼写)

60. ______（可持续的）development of society and environment is closely related to human culture. （根据汉语提示单词拼写）

61. The concert will be b______ live by the BBC. （根据首字母单词拼写）

62. More funds should be devoted to the ______ (保护) of freshwater resources and endangered species. (根据汉语提示单词拼写)

63. He had made a t______ investigation (调查). No wonder he knew so much about it. (根据首字母单词拼写)

64. His ______（申请）for the membership of the organization was turned down, which made him frustrated. （根据汉语提示单词拼写）

65. The ship got stuck and sank. As a result, they had to a______ the ship and camp on the ice. （根据首字母单词拼写）

第三节语法填空（共5小题；每小题1分，满分5分）

阅读下列各句，在空白处填入适当的内容或括号内单词的正确形式（有提示词的，答案不多于3个单词；没有提示词的只能填一个）。

66. There is strong and comprehensive evidence ______ the rise in temperature has led to an increase in extreme weather and natural disasters worldwide.（用适当的词填空）

67. I would advise people to think very carefully about ______(commit) themselves to working Sundays. (所给词的适当形式填空)

68. Maria has written two novels, both of ________ have been made into television series. (用适当的词填空)

69. ______ behalf of my whole family, I’d like to extend my sincere gratitude for your help. (用适当的词填空)

70. I am really exhausted. I ______(paint) the living room all day, but there is still much to do. (所给词的适当形式填空)

第四部分书面表达（共2节，满分40分）

第一节应用文写作（满分15分）

71. 假如你是李华，你于3月13日参加了学校学生会组织的植树活动，请你就此事写一篇英文日记。内容包括：

1.活动组织（参加人员、时间、地点）；

2.植树过程；

3.个人感受。

注意

1.写作词数应80左右；

2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。

参考词汇：树苗seedling

March 13. Saturday

Fine

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

第二节读后续写（满分25分）

72. 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。

It was a Saturday in June, 1988. Out of a 16-year-old's early summer boredom, I had set up a tent in our rural yard and intended to sleep in it, but I stayed in the house to finish watching the Lakers' play-off game. It was almost midnight and Dad had been asleep upstairs for hours when someone knocked at the front door. It never occurred to me not to answer it.

To my surprise, it was a girl about my age with a bloody cut on her forehead. “Hi. I'm Maria. What's wrong with you?” I asked her with concern. Awkward and embarrassed, she replied: “I'm Jane. I...”she hesitated and then asked me carefully, “May I stay here for the night? I'll be off tomorrow morning.” Seeing her uneasiness, I comforted her, “Take it easy, Jane. Stay with me tonight.” I invited her into the house.

Looking around, Jane appeared to have calmed down. “Let me treat your injury first,” I said and she agreed.

I cleansed and bandaged (包扎) her injured forehead and then gave her some bread and bacon to eat. “Want to sleep in my tent?” I asked her and she nodded. Having left her in the bathroom, I went to look for another sleeping bag. When I returned, Jane was seated on the sofa, her face clouded by sadness.

Walking across the dark yard, I accompanied Jane into the tent. We lay down side by side. Seized by curiosity and concern, I constantly turned over, wondering what had happened to her and how she came here. Jane seemed to have sensed that and started to speak.

Jane's father died of cancer years before. Her mother did odd cleaning jobs to raise her. Money was tight but her mother tried to do what she could to satisfy Jane. Several weeks before, Jane accidentally saw fancy white dress in the store window, which she fell in love with at first sight. She excitedly told her mother about that, who promised to buy it as her birthday gift. From then on, Jane was looking forward to it.

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。

Jane's 16th birthday came but her mother didn't get home until the evening.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Having told her story, Jane said she regretted being inconsiderate to her mom.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

参考答案

 1.A

 2.B

 3.C

 4.C

 5.A

 6. B7. A

 8. C9. A

 10. B11. A12. B

 13. C14. B15. C16. B

 17. C18. A19. B20. C

 21. D22. C23. C

 24. D25. B26. A27. C

 28. B29. C30. A31. D

 32. A33. D34. D35. B

 36. F37. A38. C39. G40. D

 41. C42. A43. C44. B45. C46. A47. B48. D49. D50. D51. A52. B53. C54. A55. B

 56.reputation

 57.guarantee##uarantee

 58.negative##egative

 59.abused

 60.Sustainable

 61.broadcast##roadcast## broadcasted##roadcasted

 62.conservation

 63.thorough##horough

 64.application

 65.abandon##bandon

 66.that

 67.committing

 68.which

 69.On

 70.have been painting

【71题答案】

        March 13, Saturday                             Fine

Today witnessed a rewarding activity—Tree Planting organized by the Student Union of our school.

Early in the morning, my classmates and I headed for a hill nearby with tools and seedlings. On our arrival, we got down to working together as planned. Some dug the pits and put seedlings in,

some filled the pits with earth, and others watered them. Through our joint efforts the hillside was lined with rows of seedlings, bathed in the sunshine.

Exhausted as we were, we tasted the joy of labor.

【72题答案】

 Jane’s 16th birthday came but her mother didn’t get home until the evening.Thirsty for the dress, Jane got extremely disappointed when seeing her mother back empty-handed. She stormed out before her mother could stop her. Jane walked angrily and aimlessly only to find herself in an unknown place hours later. Worse still, she fell down in the dark, hurting her forehead. Painful

and hungry, she came to realize she shouldn’t have been so willful, but there was nobody around she could turn to for help. So she had to move on until she saw the light from our house.

Having told her story, Jane said she regretted being inconsiderate to her mom. I kept comforting her until we fell asleep. When Dad awoke us and was told the whole story the next morning, he said to Jane seriously, “It’s dangerous to run away from home. Your mom must be anxious about your safety. I’ll drive you home immediately.” After an hour’s ride, we reached Jane’s home, in front of which stood a worried woman. Jane rushed over and hugged her tightly, saying tearfully, “Sorry, Mom.” Witnessing this, Dad and I breathed a sigh of relief.

听力原文

【原文】W: Hello, Dr. Lin’s office. How can I help you?

M: Hello, this is Tom Harris speaking. I need to make an appointment to see Dr. Lin.

W: How about 2:00 this afternoon?

M: Good, but can you tell me how to get to your office?

【原文】M: Excuse me, madam. Would you mind switching seats with me? I’d like to sit next to my mom. It’s the first time she takes a train. And my seat number is 15B.

W: No problem.

【原文】M: Do you only have two bags, madam?

W: No, I have three more in the car.

M: OK. Let me take all of your bags to your room.

【原文】W: Jerry, you’ve got a chance to go to college without taking a test, right?

M: Ah, yes, the news goes so fast. But I haven’t decided yet.

W: Don’t hesitate. That’s a very famous university.

M: Maybe. But the major is not fit for me.

【原文】M: I’m tired of everything in my life.

W: Why? How happy your life is! I do envy you sometimes.

M: I have been overprotected by my parents these years. I really need to live independently.

【原文】W: Good afternoon, sir. What can I do for you?

M: Good afternoon. I want to buy some postcards.

W: We have three different types of postcards: $1, $2 and $5. Which type do you prefer?

M: Can I take a look at these, please?

W: Of course, sir.

M: Are these postcards $2 each? I need three.

W: Okay.

M: Oh, wait a minute please. Are these $5 each?

W: Yes. Do you want to change them to this type?

M: Oh yes. Can I mail these postcards to my friends from this post office?

W: Sure.

【原文】W: Taxi!

M: Good morning, ma’am. Get in, please. Where’s your destination?

W: Please drive me to the railway station.

M: Okay, ma’am. We’ll arrive there within 10 minutes.

W: How exactly do you calculate the fare?

M: The first 3 kilometers are $10, and each additional kilometer is $2.

W: Okay, I see.

M: Do you go to travel? Or do you go for a business trip?

W: Neither. I’m going to collect an important client.

【原文】M: Hi, Vivian, do you have time to talk?

W: Yes, Nick. What’s up?

M: Before I begin, I want you to know that I’m not here to complain. I’m here to ask for your help.

W: Okay, what is it about?

M: It’s Dave. He has had bad behavior when working with the team.

W: Dave Burton?

M: Yes. He’s good at his job. But some of the things he did brought negative effects to the office.

W: Really? Can you be more specific?

M: Last week, Anne didn’t agree to his proposal in a meeting. So he spoke to her so rudely and irresponsibly. It was very unprofessional and affected other people.

W: Have you talked with him about this?

M: Yes, but it seemed my efforts were in vain.

W: Okay. Fill in this form to report. Then I’ll send it to Human Resources.

【原文】M: Hey, Cindy! It’s me, Douglas. We were classmates in high school.

W: Oh, Douglas! Fancy meeting you here. You look very different now. I almost didn’t recognize you.

M: No wonder. I was pretty fat. I’ve lost a lot of weight, since I’m into sports now. I wish I had been more involved in the sports clubs in high school.

W: That’s true. We had some fun times in high school.

M: I’m with you on that. Remember Mr. Robinson’s chemistry class that I had that funny accident?

W: You mean that explosion in the experiment?

M: Exactly.

W: Luckily, no one got hurt. Well, you didn’t show up at our 10-year high school reunion, so I haven’t heard from you since graduation.

M: Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to make it to the reunion.

W: I see. Did you know that Nancy married Tom 2 years ago?

M: That’s great.

W: Do you still live in Houston now?

M: No, I moved to San Antonio 8 years ago. What about you?

W: I still live here in New York.

【原文】W: School gardening has become very popular recently, with parents and teachers saying its hands-on lessons can be used to teach many subjects.

Finding the money to keep a school garden going can be tough. Some experts and teachers, however, are finding creative ways to make it work.

Susan Hobart is a retired elementary school teacher. She manages the school’s large garden with 12 raised beds. She said that the gardens help calm the kids and give them a whole different perspective they wouldn’t have just sitting at desks.

Toby Adams directs the New York Botanical Garden’s Edible Academy, where schoolchildren learn about growing food. He said that school gardens can teach lessons in health, science, social studies, and even arts classes. “For schools without space for even a small garden, turning to local botanical gardens and parks can sometimes be the answer,” Adams said.

Ron Finley supports teaching city kids about seeds and growing. His non-profit Ron Finley Project aims to “change the culture around food”. Finley remembered being amazed as a boy when he witnessed how “a seed destroys itself to become food”. “Having a garden in a school is just as important as any other education,” Finley said. Finley used the term reverence, or honor or respect that is shown, when talking about gardening. “If kids respect soil, they’ll respect themselves and this planet... Gardening is not a hobby but a life skill. I see this as one of the most valuable lessons of humanity,” Finley said.