2020-2021学年延庆区第二中学高三英语期中考试试题及答案解析第一部分阅读（共两节，满分40分）第一节（共15小题；每小题2分，满分30分）阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中选出最佳选项AOlder adults who sleep six hours or fewer a night may have elevated risk for dementia(痴呆症) and other cognitive (认知的) issues, a new study finds.Researchers at Stanford University measured seniors' (ages 65 to 85) dementia risk and cognitive abilities, finding higher risk in those patients who regularly slept six or fewer hours compared to those who slept seven or eight hours. Those seniors who slept nine or more hours also had lower cognitive functions and other health issues, but the researchers didn't find the same high dementia risk in this group.The findings demonstrate how important it is for adults to maintain a healthy sleep cycle, especially as they get older.As adults age, it's common for their sleep patterns to change or becomedisrupted— leading to longer, shorter, or more irregular sleep. This disruption may be linked to Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia, impacting seniors' ability to remember information, problem-solve, and go through everyday behaviors. Sleep disruption can also be caused by or heighten depression, cardiovascular disease（冠心病）, and other conditions.A recommended sleep time for seniors is seven to eight hours, the researchers said. Six or fewer hours corresponded to short sleep, while nine or more hours corresponded to long sleep.The Stanford researchers measured levels of beta amyloid, a protein in the brain that is typically found in high levels when a patient develops Alzheimer's. In addition, the researchers used several tests for memory, attention, spatial skills, and executive function to identify patients' cognitive abilities. Those patients sleeping for six hours or fewer a night were more likely to develop dementia, the researchers found. The low-sleep patients had higher levels of beta amyloid.The Stanford researchers found that patients with lower sleep also performed worse on memory tests, while those with higher sleep (more hours) performed worse on executive function tests，which measure the brain's ability to switch between different tasks.―The main takeaway is that it is important to maintain healthy sleep late in life, Winer told CNN.1. What does the underlined word “disrupted” in paragraph 4 mean?A. difficultB. disorderedC. dissolvedD. different2. According to the findings, which of the following is NOT related to the disrupted sleep?A. It is more likely to cause old people to have bad memories over issues.B. It may contribute to dementia, cardiovascular disease and other illnesses.C. Some daily behaviors perhaps differ from those whose sleeping is normal.D It tends to bring all the old people to undergo brain scans and cognitive tests.3. What can we infer from the study?A. A proper sleep time for seniors is seven to eight hours.B. Low and high sleep patients were both poor at memory tests.C. Executive function test is applied to measure the capacity of brain.D. Keeping a healthy sleep for older adults late in life is crucial.BNot long after the first fitness magazine was published, a list probably followed soon after, ranking the best fitness equipment. This tradition has continued, with the implied message: usethisand exercise willbe yours.And that's part of the problem, says Dr. Lieberman, a professor of Harvard University. There isn't one “best” anything to achieve fitness. Besides, people understand exercise is good for them. Knowledge about exercise still doesn't motivate.Before you can answer why, it helps to look at history. Before the Industrial Revolution, people fetched water and walked up stairs because they had to. But then technology made life and work easier. Exercise has become something that people have to carve out time for. “It's a fundamental instinct to avoid physical activity when it's neither necessary nor rewarding,” he says.It would seem like being healthy would qualify as necessary, but a doctor's prescription to exercise “can make it like taking cod liver oil,” Lieberman says. “Sometimes it works, but more often than not, it doesn't. And it's still coming across as an order, and “not having a heart attack in five years is not an immediate reward,” says Dr. Beth Frates, assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.People might not want to exercise because it's never been enjoyable. Most of us probably have memories of gym class, not being picked for a team, or being in a fitness center that's filled with in-shape people. The majority don't feel excited. They feel that exercise isn't for them, but it can be. Coaching people in an empowering and motivating way can work much better than ordering someone to exercise. It starts with an expanded definition of what counts as exercise, and an injection of what's rarely used to describe exercise, but is certainly allowed:namely, fun.4. What does the underlined “this” in paragraph 1 refer to?A. The magazine.B. The tradition.C. The equipment.D. The message.5. What can we infer about technology?A. It improves life quality.B. It saves people's time.C. It drives social progress.D. It makes exercise less likely.6. Why does the author mention “cod liver oil” in paragraph 4?A. To attach importance to health.B. To present a doctor's prescription.C. To explain exercise is considered inessential.D. To introduce the latest medical application.7. What is the main idea of the last paragraph?A. Exercise should be made more joyful.B. It's more fun to work out with others.C. We may encounter bad workout experiences.D. Orders work well to motivate people to exercise.CScientists have long sought to prevent sharp memories from dulling with age, but the problem remains unsettled. Now research published in Scientific Reports suggests virtual reality might help older people recall facts and events based on specific details.The study involved 42 healthy older adults from the San Francisco Bay Area. Half spent a dozen hours over four weeks playing a virtual-reality game called Labyrinth; they wore headsets and walked in place, walking virtual neighborhoods while completing small tasks. The other half, in the control group, used electronic tablets to play games that did not require recalling details. After 15 sessions (期), the latter performed roughly the same as before on a long-term memory test. But the Labyrinth players gain an improvement in memory through the VR game. A scientist Peter Wais of the University of California said the improvements brought them up to the level of another group of younger adults taking the same memory tests.Meredith Thompson, an education researcher, studies learning through VR games but was not involved in the new study. It would be great to actually follow people over time and see what this type of game does forlong-term memory. She says, adding VR can provide greater involvement than other games. Wais's team is now investigating how long the observed effects last and which elements of the training have the most impact.A cognitive (认知)psychologist, Daniel Simons, who was also not involved in the study, notes experiments with other games that claim to train the brain have often failed to evaluate this. And it remains unclear how test performance in a laboratorysetting might translate to real-world situations. The outcome, Simons notes, “needs to be repeated, ideally with a much larger group, before it’s treated as a strong finding.”For now, Wais says, the team hopes its studies with similar-sized groups will help draw funding to test the game in a larger pool of participants.8. What is the passage mainly about?A. People's memory gradually fails as they age.B. People of different ages should play VR games.C. Virtual reality changes people's memory.D. Virtual reality improves older adults' memory.9. What is Meredith Thompson's attitude toward the research?A. satisfied.B. enthusiastic.C. cautious.D. concerned.10. According to the scientists, the research needs to be improved due to ________.A. the lack of financial support.B. the limited pool of participants.C. the unsatisfying test performance.D. the impractical application in real world.11. Where may the passage come from?A. A novel.B. A review.C. A magazine.D. A guidebook.DContrary to the long-held belief that plants in the natural world are always in competition, new research has found that in severe environments adult plants help smaller ones and grow well as a result.The research, led by Dr Rocio, studied adult and seedling (幼苗)plants in the ecological desert in the south-east of Spain. Dr Rocio said, “If you're a seedling in a poor land — the top of a mountain or a sand hill, for example-and you’re lucky enough to end up underneath a big plant, your chances of survival are certainly better than if you landed somewhere on your own. What we have found, which was surprising, is an established large plant, called a ‘nurse’, protects a seedling; it also produces more flowers than the same plants of similar large sizegrowing on their own.”Other benefits of nurse-seedling partnerships include that more variety of plants growing together can have a positive effect on the environment. For example, vegetation areas with nurse plants with more flowers might be able to attract higher numbers of pollinators(传粉者)in an area, in turn supporting insect and soil life and even provide a greater range of different fruit types for birds and other animals.“The biggest winner for this system of nursing a plant is biodiversity(生物多样性),” Dr Rocio said. “The more biodiversean area, the greater number of species of plants, insect life, mammals and birds, and the better the chances of long-term healthy functioning of the environment and ecosystems. ” This system is win-win for adult and seedling plants in unfavorable environments.The research is of value to those who manage and protect plants in tough environments. Most home gardeners and farmers plan to ensure their soil and conditions are the best they can be for plant growth, but the findings might be of value to those who garden in bare places.12. What is a common understanding of plants?A. They can help each other.B. They can survive ill conditions.C. They compete with each other.D. They grow well on their own.13. What will happen to seedling plants if they grow under adult plants?A. They will produce more flowers.B. They will die owing to competition.C. They will make adult plants larger.D. They will get support from adult plants.14. What is the effect of the nurse-seedling partnership?A. It leads to unfavorable environments.B. It produces long-term healthy chances.C. It attracts higher and larger pollinators.D It provides a more variety of plant types.15. Who will benefit from the new research?A. People studying organic farming.B. People protecting plants on sand hills.C. People wanting to change biodiversity.D. People keeping more animals on the farm.第二节（共5小题；每小题2分，满分10分）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。
