上海市宝山区2018届高三英语上学期期末教学质量监测试题

II. Grammar and Vocabulary

Why My Best Friend Is a Book

Writing about beliefs is hard. It makes you reach deep into your soul and truly look at what is there. It requires time and effort, and then hits you in the face and someone in the background says “Oh, why didn’t you think of that before?” Beliefs change, they mature and grow just (21)__________a child. The best beliefs are the ones that (22)________( cherish) throughout a lifetime. One belief I cherish above all others is the power and enjoyment of reading.

Reading can be for fun and that learning is (23)_________(easy) when

you’re having fun. Being able to relate to the characters, imagine the conflicts in your head,and feel the characters’ sadness, as well as their joy, is the most amazing thing about reading. A chance to live another life for a short time, to be another person, Reading lends the soul and mind a place (24)_________(escape). I would much rather pick up a good luck than watch a television show.

Reading can teach us. Whether it’s a fantasy novel or a historical

account, you learn when you read. It provides grammar and (25)_______(write) language skills. Reading teaches us about emotion. Reading gives you new words and expands your vocabulary by forcing you to challenge yourself. In its own way it makes us feel the emotions of the characters. (26)________ ________ _________ you read, I believe you will learn, mind and soul.

Reading can bring people together. I cannot count the number of new friends and people that have entered my life because of books. My stepmother, grandmother,

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and I all rad the same books. (27)________ is better than being able to share the tense moments, near misses, and happy endings while (28)________ (drink) a steaming cup of coffee together with someone. Reading allows you to lower your walls and let people in to form genuine chains. Plus people (29) ________read impressive books are usually pretty cool themselves!

Over the years reading has been my companion. Always with a book in my purse, I have never faced the world without a best friend by my side. Books (30)________(help) me through difficult periods and applauded me in times of celebration. Books always make me smile. That’s the biggest reason I believe in reading, because it will make you happy.

Section B

Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in each blank with a proper word given in the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one more word than you need.

D. potential E. refreshinA.extent B.substance C.normal I.physicaG. function H.caused

The discovery builds on earlier findings showed that a class of genes called splicing (胶接) factors is progressively switched off as we age. The research team found that splicing factors can be switched back on with chemicals, making aging cells not only look ____31____ younger, but start to divide like young cells.

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The researchers applied compounds chemicals based on a ____32____ naturally found in red wine, dark chocolate, red grapes and blueberries, to cells in culture. The chemicals ____33____ splicing factors, which are progressively switched off as we age to be switched back on. Within hours, the cells looked younger and started to rejuvenate, behaving like young cells.

The discovery has the ___34_____ to lead to therapies that could help people age better, without experiencing some of the degenerative effects of getting old. Most people by the age of 85 have experienced some kind of chronic illness, and as people get older they are more prone to stroke, heart disease and cancer.

Professor Harries as saying, “This is a first step in trying to make people live

___35_____ lifetime, but with health for their entire life. Our data suggests that using chemicals to switch back on the major class of genes that are switched off as we age might provide a means to ____36____ to old cells.”

Dr Eva Latorre, Research Associate at the University of Exeter, who carried out the experiments, was surprised by the ____37____ and rapidity of the changes in the cells.

“When I saw some of the cells in the culture dish ___38_____ I couldn’t believe it. These old cells were looking like young cells. It was like magic,” she said. “I repeated the experiments several times and in each case the cells rejuvenated. I am very excited by the implications and potential for this research.”

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As we age, our tissues accumulate senescent cells which are alive but do not grow or ____39____ as they should. These old cells lose the ability to correctly regulate the output of their genes. This is one reason why tissues and organs become susceptible to disease as we age. When activated, genes make a message that gives the ____40____

for the cell to behave in a certain way. Most genes can make more than one message, which determines how the cell acts.

Splicing factors are crucial in ensuring that genes can perform their full range of functions.

III. Reading Comprehension

Section A

Directions: For each blank in the following passage there are four words or phrases marked A, B, C and D. Fill in each blank with the word or phrase that best fits the context.

Cameron Buckner, assistant professor of philosophy at the University of

Houston, argues in an article published in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research that a wide range of animal species exhibit so-called “ executive control” when it comes to making decisions, _____41___ considering their goals and ways to satisfy those goals before acting.

He acknowledges that language is ____42___ for some experienced forms of higher-order thinking, or thinking about thinking. But supported by a review of previously published research, Buckner _____43____ that a wide variety of animals -- -elephants, chimpanzees( 黑猩猩), ravens( 大乌鸦) and lions, among

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