上海市嘉定区2021届高三下学期英语质量调研卷

Why Acting Is So Much More Than It Appears to Be

For many people, acting appears to be people talking while getting emotional, which is why so many people think they can do it. No one imagines waking up one day and being a professional singer or pianist. But for actors, they say, "acting is hard only one has to memorize lines, if I could remember, I could be an actor, too."

But acting isn't just about memorizing lines and talking in conversational reality. As Meisner said, "Acting is doing things truthfully under imaginary circumstances." If (understand) correctly, this definition is an ambitious and remarkable thing to strive for.

To do things truthfully, actors must acquire many challenging skills . these skills, the script will remain flat on the page, despite being recited out loud. To make a script come to life in a believable way, the actor make active choices.

Imagine for a moment how many different ways there are (deliver) one single line. Even something as simple as "close the door" can mean so many different things and (express) in so many different ways. The words are the writer's, but the behavior brings them to vivid life? That is the actor.

The goal of great actors? That's to act naturally. Good quality acting must always come down to a kind of naturalness that makes those acting skills (visible) to the audience. In other words, a good actor must not appear to be acting at all.

So do not be fooled into thinking that can read and speak can be an actor. The naturalness displayed by great actors is exactly what makes you think that way, but it took them years of training to get to this point. It is so much more than you know.

What Is a Paragraph Break?

It is one of the most important punctuation marks. A paragraph break is an indentation (缩造) or a single line spacethe division between one paragraph and the next in a body of text.

Generally, paragraph breaks serve tothe transition from one idea to another in a stretch of text, and from one speaker to another in an exchange of dialogue.

Few readers would think of the paragraph break as a punctuation mark, but it certainly is. In ancient times there were no paragraphs. Sentences simply flowed into one another without.During medieval (中世纪) times, the mark evolved into the paragraph symbol and eventually became the modern-day paragraph break, which isnow only by a line break or indentation.

Today, the paragraph break is used to give readers a break. The art of creating paragraphs is called paragraphing, theof dividing a text into paragraphs. Paragraphing is a kindness to your reader because it divides your thinking into manageable bites. Paragraphs that are too longreaders with dense blocks of text to read through, while more frequent paragraphing provides readers with convenientpoints at which to take a break and relaunch themselves into thinking.

To fully understand when to insert a paragraph break, it's helpful to know that a paragraph is a group of closely related sentences that develop a central idea. Therefore, each paragraph discusses onetopic. Also, a paragraph break is cmploycd before each new topic is introduced. In this way, the writing will flow, and readers will be able to proceed through the writing in a logical fashion instead ofall the way to get to the last line.

Paragraphs used to be longer, but with the development of the Internet, which gives readers access to literally millions of sources of information, paragraphs have become increasingly. The style for many websites, for example, uses paragraphs no more than two to three sentences.

There have been many times during my travels when I've needed something repaired, from broken zips to memory cards that have lost data. From India to Ethiopia, I have had 1 trouble in finding menders to repair what is broken. But in rich countries, such items would often be 2 and replaced with new ones.

Now the idea that something that works fine should be replaced is now so deeply-rooted in our 3 that few people question it. We are increasingly convinced by manufacturers to 4 replace a product. The earliest example may be the so-called "lightbulb scheme", in which a group of companies signed an agreement that 5 each other to sell lightbulbs with a longer than 1000-hour lifespan (寿命), even though bulbs lasting more than 100000 hours 6.The result was that households needed to replace their bulbs regularly, greatly 7 the consumer market.

This way of selling more products by designing products that 8 fail, cannot be repaired, or have a set lifespan is known as “planned obsolescence (报废)". However, it is not just a way for 9 to increase profits, many politicians believe it to be a societal necessity. During the 1930s Depression in the US, it was seen as a way to get the 10 moving again by urging people to buy more stuff. By the 1950s, it had become the dominant practice in large-scale production with things no longer built to 11. Clever advertising persuaded people to shop. Consumer culture was born.

Some industries, such as fashion, rely heavily on "planned obsolescence" with items being made to last a single season or less. Other industries are 12 fashion to bring out products that will soon appear dated. For example, 13 lifespans are programmed into chips (芯片), so that printers will stop working after a preset number of pages.

14, some consumers are starting to hit back, advising people on the Internet how to find and remove the printer chip. They began taking apart computers and other equipment, getting around the copyright protection. People like them are contributing to a 15 of the consumer culture. Instead of being driven by it, they choose new products based on how long-lasting they are and how easy they are to be repaired. Perhaps, "planned obsolescence" will begin to see its end.

On Monday, a scientist and doctor Robert Winston is to formally ask a question in congress about what assessments the government has made "for requiring adults riding bicycles in city centres to heave a licence and third-party insurance". The letter below is the entirely imagined response I would like the government to make to him.

Dear Robert,

You ask what assessments we've made for your proposal about obliging cyclists to have licences and insurance. The brief answer is: none. Nor do we have any plans to do so.

Why? Again, the short answer is this: it's a silly and pointless thing to suggest, as evidenced by the fact that practically no countries or territories anywhere in the world require cyclists to be licensed, or to have compulsory insurance.

I suppose it's only fair if I explain why I think it is such a non-issue. It's pretty simple: such a plan would achieve pretty much nothing, while causing significant problems. More widely, any sensible governments will do everything in their power to get more people cycling, not to put pointless obstacles in their way.

Let's just take one example. As I'm sure you know as a doctor, one of the problems facing our nation is that the National Health System is likely to collapse under the caring for an increasingly overweight population. Inactive living is central to this. Even a fairly brief daily bike trip can have miraculous benefits for people's health.

Next, how would such rules even work? Would the licensing and insurance be just for adults, or also children? How would the system even be enforced-would it also require all bikes to be registered with number plates?

Finally, what would you hope to achieve by this? If you believe licensing transport users stops wrongdoing, can I point to you the data showing how a third of drivers admit to using handheld phones while driving, despite the law forbidding it.

So, to summarize：your plan would be to introduce a hugely new administrative scheme that would most likely have limited effect on the behaviour of averagely law-abiding (守法的) transport users who rarely harm others, while putting people off from this beneficial type of transport.

I'm afraid I just don't get it.

This document sets out the display standards for Glasgow Museums. This guide will help exhibition planners provide access to exhibitions in our museums. Glasgow Museums' aim is to improve access to collections by having as many items as possible on display and without physical barriers. We also try out best to protect these objects without limiting access to them.

Object Placement

·Don't place objects in such a way that they could present a danger to visitors.

·All object displays, cased or otherwise, must be viewable by all, including people who are small in figure or in wheelchairs.

Open Display

·All objects on open display must be secure from theft and damage.

·All objects identified for potential open display must be viewed and agreed on an object-to-object basis by the Security Manager of the museum.

*In some cases, 600mm may be acceptable, provided the plinth height is above 350mm.

Cased Objects

·All cased displays should fall within the general optimum（最优的）viewing band of 750-2000mm. Ensure everything is visually accessible from a wheelchair.

·Position small objects or those with fine detail in the front part of a case, with larger items behind.

·Position small items or those with fine detail no higher than 1015mm from floor level. Objects placed above this height are only seen from below by people in wheelchairs or people who are small in figure.

Gottfried Wilhelm von Liebniz was a philosopher and mathematician in search of a model. In the late 1600s Leibniz decided there was a need for a new, purer arithmetic than our common decimal (十进制) system. He got his inspiration from the 5000-year-old book that is at the heart of Chinese philosophy: the I-Ching, or Book of Changes.

This ancient text was such an influence on Liebniz that he titled his article on the new arithmetic "Explanation of a new arithmetic and the ancient Chinese figure of Fu X". Fu Xi was the legendary first author of the I-Ching. The arithmetic that Liebniz described was binary (二进制) code, which is used in almost every modern computer, from iPhones to China's own Tihane-2 supercomputer.

To figure out what Liebniz learned in the I-Ching, we need to understand something that most of us have taken for granted. When we listen to an MP3, look at a digital photo or watch the latest TV drama, we are experiencing a digital representation of reality. That representation is basically just a string of binary signals that are commonly known as 1s and 0s. What Liebniz's gained from the book was that even the most complex reality could be represented in the binary form as 1s and 0s.

In the philosophy of the I-Ching, reality is not entirely real. It is something more like a dream. This dream of reality arises from the binaries of Yin and Yang, as they play out countless combinations, practically everything in the universe. It's not surprising then, from the l-Ching's perspective, that anything in the dream of reality can be represented in a string of 1s and 0s, processed by a computer.

The I-Ching was far more ambitious than the current practical applications of binary code. It is claimed that the I-Ching represents nothing less than the basic situation of human life itself. As a system for predicting the future, the I-Ching might disappoint, but as a way of questioning your own unconscious mind, it can be remarkably useful.

The I-Ching's teachings also contain warnings about our digital revolution. Binary code, powered by modern computers, has an amazing capacity to represent reality. However, the ancient authors of the I-Ching might have understood its potential-and its dangers-even better than we now do.

So when scientific thinkers ask whether computers can create "virtual realities" or "artificial intelligence", they are missing the point. Of course, we can create ever deeper and more complex layers of the dream of reality. The real question is, can we wake up from the dream we're in already?

Discovering the Lost City

Sixty miles south, in Cusco, Hiram Bingham gazed thoughtfully at the old Incan stone wall. He had come to this place in search of Vilcapampa, the lost city of the Inca. But right here was the most beautiful stonework he had ever seen-huge stones cut so perfectly that not even a razor blade could be slipped between them.

The Inca had no iron tools to carve them, no wheel or animals to move them. The wall had endured time and earthquakes.

It was a mystery.

He walked through the cobbled streets of the old capital, Cusco. The Spanish had come to this city, conquered the Inca, taken their gold, and built churches over their temples. Suddenly, he stopped. Before him was the famous Temple of the Sun. He placed his hands on the sun-warmed stones so beautifully carved, as if they had grown together.

Would it hold gold and riches like the Spanish had found in Cusco? More than ever he was determined to find that city.

The next day Bingham began his search. He would look for ruins-that might be the key. He and his party, accompanied by the military man Sergeant Carrasco, left for the holy valley of the Urubamba River. They came to the sleepy old village in the valley, long ago an important city.

"Are there any ruins nearby?" Bingham asked. "Do you know of the lost city of Vilcapampa?" No one knew of it. Traveling north, the adventurers came upon a remote and wild canyon. In the distance were snowcapped mountains over three miles high.Bingham's determination to find the lost city grew with each turn of the increasingly wild path.

Far below in the valley, Bingham's party camped on a sandy beach alongside the thundering rapids of the Urubamba River. Days had gone by. No one knew of any ruins.

This time, through the interpreter, the farmer said, "Yes. There are very good ruins on top of the mountain called Machu Picchu." The farmer pointed straight up.

"Can you take us there?" Bingham asked.

...

A. Hidden in the mountains, the lost city would be built of stones like these.

B. What could he be thinking!

C. But now the adventurers aroused the curiosity of a local farmer named Arteaga.

D. How had they built them!

E. Cliffs rose thousands of feet above the roaring rapids of the Urubamba River.

F. Suddenly, the clouds drifted away and there it was.

Whatever happened to the fight of carbon capture?

Debates have been going on around the subject of carbon capture. Scientists, especially engineers and geologists, have strongly criticized green groups who claimed that carbon capture and storage (CCS) schemes are costly mistakes.

The scientists insisted that such schemes are vital weapons in the battle against global heating. They also wan that failure to set up ways to trap and store carbon would make it impossible to meet the emissions target by 2050." CCS is going to be the only effective way in the short term to prevent our steel industry, cement manufacture and many other processes from continuing to pour emissions into the atmosphere," said Professor Stuart Haszeldine, of Edinburgh University. "If we are to have any hope of keeping global temperature increases down below 2 degrees Celsius, we desperately need to develop ways to capture and store carbon dioxide."

Green groups claimed CCS would not make "a meaningful contribution to 2050 climate targets". They say CCS was not a reliable way to decarbonize the energy system and that CCS has a "history of over-promising and under-delivering". Instead, they urged the construction of more renewable energy plants to be given priority.

But the claims were dismissed by engineers and geologists, "These claims are quite unfair" said Michael Stephenson, director at the British Geological Survey. "The technology behind carbon capture and storage is fully mature. It offers us a genuine solution to some of the problems we face in trying to deal with global warming."

A government spokesman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change said, "We are committed to meeting our climate change targets in a way that is affordable and provides secure energy to families and businesses. We are considering the role that CCS could play in decarbonization of the UK. But we also need to take government spending into account. CCS had better come down in cost."

在成长过程中，人们常会被贴上各种标签，如“乖巧听话”（obedient）、“有个性”（cool）、“书呆子”（a nerd/geek）、“00后”（post-millennials）等。校报特辟专栏对此进行讨论，请以李华为名投稿，内容需包括：

1）描述自己或他人曾经被贴过的标签；

2）你对“贴标签”（labelling）的看法。