2025-2026学年上海市行知中学高三上学期期中考试英语试题
第I卷（共65分）
I. Grammar and vocabulary
Section A
Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.
In recent months, everywhere I go, there’s been one accessory on everyone’s lips and bags. ____1____. I wanted to grab one myself, the truth is, they are harder to buy than you think. ____2____ viral products of the past (remember the Stanley craze ), they sell out in seconds just to pop up on resale sites for five times the original price tag.
Now let’s get into the history of these popular Labubu dolls. They ____3____ (originate) in Hong Kong in 2015, a time when designer toys were beginning to capture global attention. ____4____ (refer) to as elves (小精灵) set them apart from their popular predecessors (Hello Kitty and other plush characters). They came to fruition in a Nordic-inspired picture book that artist Kasing Lung created. After the initial release of the book, the popular toy company Pop Mart created the first collectible collection for sale in 2019, and since then, sales have soared as new collections ____5____ (release).
The Labubu creatures are a part of a tribe ____6____ (perceive) as “The Monsters,” and other members of the group include Zimomo, Mokoko and more. From collection to collection, each can be seen wearing various outfits. different facial features and fun accessories, due to ____7____ each drop seems unique. But don’t let the naughty smile make you think Labubus are evil. Lung says they are well-natured little creatures who have nothing but good intentions and ____8____ they sometimes inevitably end up in a difficulty.
Now, what makes Labubus so popular, besides the obvious cute charm, is that they are collectibles and hard to get, so it adds to the excitement of the hunt. They also come in blind boxes so the hunt becomes ____9____ (hard) if you have a particular color or Monster in mind. Because of mystery of the blind boxes, the reveal can be a surprise which is why many fans record their first impression of their creature ____10____ (capture) the moment. This excitement transcends age groups and communities, with everyone from pop stars to middle school students wearing the bag charms.
Section B
Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.
A. interpreted B. supervision C. conflict D. stranded E. pursuit F. critically G. established H. peacefully I. obedience J. portrays K. harmony
Lord of the Flies
Lord of the Flies is a 1954 novel by Nobel Prize-winning British author William Golding. The book focuses on a group of British boys ____11____ on an uninhabited island and their disastrous attempt to govern themselves.
The novel has been ____12____ well received. It was named in the Modern Library 100 Best Novels, reaching number 41 on the editor’s list, and 25 on the reader’s list. Time magazine named it as one of the 100 best English-language novels since 1923.
The book takes place in the middle of an unspecified nuclear war. A plane carrying a group of British schoolboys is shot down over the Pacific. The pilot of the plane is killed, but many of the boys survive the crash and find themselves deserted on an island, where they are alone without adult ____13____. Some of them arrive as a musical choir under a(n) ____14____ leader , while others are ordinary students. The book ____15____ their gradually becoming extremely cruel and violent. Left to themselves on a heavenly island, far from modern civilization, the well-educated children return to a primitive state.
Golding wrote his book as a counterpoint to R.M. Ballantyne’s youth novel The Coral Island (1858), and included specific references to it, such as the rescuing naval officer’s description of the children’s ____16____ of Ralph, one of the kid leaders on island, as “a jolly (pleasant) good show, like the Coral Island”. Golding’s three central characters — Ralph, Piggy and Jack — have been ____17____ as exaggerated versions of Ballantyne’s Coral Island leading characters.
At an allegorical level, the central theme is the ____18____ of human desire for civilization and social organization — living by rules, ____19____ — and for the will to power. Several themes are revealed in the book, including the tension between groupthink and individuality, between rational and emotional reactions, between ____20____ and aggression, and between morality and immorality. How these play out, and how different people feel the influences of these form a major subtext of Lord of the Flies.
II. 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.
Smartphone ownership and screen time are increasing across the world. In recent years, the widespread ____21____ of mobile phones has extended to even the youngest members of society. Research conducted by Ofcom (英国通信管理局) has found that a surprising number of three-and four-year-olds have their own mobile phones, with a fifth of them owning one. These young children are already using these devices to ____22____ various online activities.
The influence of YouTube among this age group is undeniable, with 51% of them using the platform’s ____23____ children’s channel, and 38% of them possessing their own ____24____ YouTube profile. One of the most popular YouTube channels for these young children is Ryan’s World, a highly successful unboxing and educational channel hosted by 11-year-old Ryan Kaji, boasting an impressive 34 million ____25____.
The implications of such early ____26____ to technology are a subject of great interest to educators and child psychologists. Nova Cobban a former primary school teacher who worked with five- and six-year-olds, noticed a clear ____27____ among her young students based on their access to smartphones. Children who had access to YouTube and gaming platforms seemed more ____28____ and tired compared to their peers who did not engage with such technology.
Dr. Pauldy Otermans, a senior lecturer in psychology at Brunel University London, believes that in the digital age, it is essential to teach children how to use digital tools ____29____. As mobile phones become increasingly prevalent in society, it may be ____30____ to expect children just a few years older than toddlers to have little to no contact with such devices. Proper guidance on their appropriate use becomes crucial.
The debate on the appropriate ____31____ for children to have mobile phones and access to screens is ongoing. In 2019, the World Health Organization recommended that children under the age of two should avoid screens entirely, and children under five should be limited to just one hour of sedentary screen time daily. Research has linked ____32____ screen time in young children to delayed development.
Despite these guidelines, there is no shared agreement among experts on how to respond to the growing prevalence of mobile phones among young children. The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health ____33____ the WHO’s advice, arguing that it overlooks families in situations where outdoor play is not ____34____ accessible due to housing constraints. ____35____, the UK government’s chief medical officers maintained it was not advisable to issue specific guidance on optimal screen time for young children.
21. A. rejection B. adoption C. submission D. accumulation
22. A. result in B. invest in C. specialize in D. engage in
23. A. dedicated B. changeable C. random D. flexible
24. A. simplified B. centralized C. personalized D. civilized
25. A. subscribers B. spectators C. bystanders D. listeners
26. A. limitation B. exposure C. response D. threat
27. A. division B. harmony C. argument D. friction
28. A. expanded B. bonded C. disconnected D. attached
29. A. sensitively B. actively C. collectively D. responsibly
30. A. sensible B. dramatic C. unrealistic D. feasible
31. A. age B. guidance C. platform D. response
32. A. limited B. excessive C. conventional D. accessible
33. A. confirmed B. approved C. challenged D. objected
34. A. readily B. reluctantly C. hesitantly D. hardly
35. A. On the contrary B. As a result C. In turn D. In addition
Section B
Directions: Read the following three passages. Each passage is followed by several questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that fits best according to the information given in the passage you have just read.
(A)
Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was affected with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death.
It was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken sentences. Her husband’s friend Richards was there, too, near her. It was he who had been in the newspaper office when intelligence of the railroad disaster was received, with Brently Mallard’s name leading the list of “killed.” He had only taken the time to assure himself of its truth by a second telegram, and had hastened to forestall any less careful, less tender friend in bearing the sad message.
She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms. When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow her.
There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul.
There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air.
Now she was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will — as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been. When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under the breath: “free, free, free!” The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.
There would be no one to live for during the coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature.
“Free! Body and soul free!” she kept whispering.
She arose at length and opened the door. There was a feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory. She clasped her sister’s waist, and together they descended the stairs. Richards stood waiting for them at the bottom.
Someone was opening the front door with a latchkey. It was Brently Mallard who entered, a little travel-stained, composedly carrying his grip-sack and umbrella. He had been far from the scene of the accident, and did not even know there had been one. He stood amazed at Josephine’s piercing cry; at Richards’ quick motion to screen him from the view of his wife.
When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease — of the joy that kills.
36. Why does the author include the detail about Mrs. Mallard’s heart condition in the first paragraph
A. To foreshadow the ending and make it believable.
B. To explain why she needed Mr. Mallard to care for her.
C. To alert the readers to the potential harm of heart attacks.
D. To reinforce the notion that women are weak.
37. The underlined word “forestall” in the second paragraph is closest in meaning to ________.
A. predict B. beg C. prevent D. propose
38. At the end of the story, we learn that Mr. Mallard ________.
A. was cheating on Mrs. Mallard with Josephine
B. made up the entire story to play a joke on his wife
C. jumped off the train before it crashed
D. was never even on the train in the first place
39. What might have led to the death of Mrs. Mallard
A. The excitement at the thought that she would soon enjoy freedom
B. The shock upon the sight of her husband walking in while she thought he was dead
C. The late arrival of the doctors who failed to save her in time
D. The sadness that struck her when she was informed of her husband’s deaths
(B)
You might have seen spies in movies, dressed in cool outfits and using high-tech gadgets, but did you know that spying has been around for thousands of years Check out this timeline to learn about spies from different periods in history.
1. ca. (大约) 3100 B.C. -332 B.C. Ancient Egyptian spies were some of the first to use poison to get the job done. To silence their enemies, they used killer methods which included poisons from plants and snakes.
2. ca. 1185-1600 The Japanese used spies called ninjas. These ninjas were experts in gathering secret information from enemies and competitors. They were trained since childhood in sneaking around and assassinating, but female ninjas would sneak into enemy locations by dressing up as dancers or servants.
3. ca. 1325-1521 Aztec spies, called quimichtin, lived in what’s now central Mexico. They were nicknamed “mice” because they worked at night to hide while spying. Their job was really dangerous, because if they got caught, they could be enslaved or even killed. That’s why they were paid more than most Aztec workers.
4. 1573 to 1590 Sir Francis Walsingham helped protect Queen Elizabeth I of England by creating a network of spies. They were skilled at reading coded letters and secretly opening and resealing envelopes containing information.
5. 1775-1783 Before he became president of what would soon become the United States, George Washington had a group of spies called the Culper Spy Ring during the Revolutionary War. One of its members, Anna Strong, sent coded messages through her laundry. She hung clothes according to color and number to tell soldiers where secret messages were hidden. For example, a black dress and two handkerchiefs might have meant “check the second closest river.”
6. 1861-1865 Harriet Tubman is famous for helping enslaved people in the United States escape North, where slavery was illegal. But she was also a spy during the Civil War. She made maps of the land so northern troops could safely travel through Southern states.
7 1960s During the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union (now Russia), spy activities on both sides increased. To help, intelligence agencies developed sneaky gadgets for spies to eavesdrop and collect information. One popular device was the buttonhole camera, which could be controlled from inside a coat pocket. It allowed spies to secretly take a photo by opening a fake button on the coat.
8. 1916 During World War I, there was a Dutch dancer called Mata Hari. She accepted an assignment to spy for France in 1916 but actually worked for their enemy, Germany. She was found guilty of telling the Germans secrets about a new weapon that the French were using—the tank— and was put to death in 1917.
9. 2025 Today, spies don’t even need to leave their homes to collect secret information. They use computer programs called spyware from anywhere in the world to track activity and access top-secret information on faraway devices such as computers, tablets and smartphones. Many companies consider cyber espionage to be their number-one threat.
40. Aztec spies were nicknamed “mice” due to their ________.
A. small and quick movements B. nighttime activities for spying
C. expertise in hiding in dark places D. use of underground spaces for secret operations
41. Which of the following spies used secret codes to send messages to fellow spies
A. Mata Hari B. Harriet Tubman C. Sir Francis Walsingham D. Anna Strong
42. What can we know about spies throughout history
A. Spying has been around for a thousand years.
B. Modern spies depend heavily on cool tools and outfits for the operations.
C. Different cultures had their own spies with unique methods.
D. The ways of spying have remained unchanged throughout history.
(C)
A theme at this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Switzerland was the perceived need to “speed up breakthroughs in research and technology.” Some of this framing was motivated by the climate emergency, some by the opportunities and challenges presented by generative artificial intelligence. Yet in various conversations, it seemed to be taken for granted that to address the world’s problems, scientific research needs to move faster. The WEF mindset is similar to the Silicon Valley dictate — to move fast and break things. But what if the thing being broken is science Or public trust
In recent years we’ve seen important papers, written by outstanding scientists and published in celebrated journals, retracted because of questionable data or methods, hence a question: Are scholars at supercompetitive places such as Harvard and Stanford rushing to publish rather than taking the time to do their work right
It’s impossible to answer this question scientifically because there’s no scientific definition of what constitutes “rushing.” But there’s little doubt that we live in a culture where academics at leading universities are under tremendous pressure to produce results — and a lot of them — quickly.
The problem is not unique to the U. S. In Europe, formal research assessments — which are used to allocate (分配) future funding — have for years judged academic departments largely on the quantity of their output. A recent reform urging an emphasis on quality over quantity allowed that the existing system had created “counterincentives.”
Good science takes time. More than 50 years passed between the 1543 publication of Copernicus’s On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres. And it took just about half a century for geologists and geophysicists to accept geophysicist Alfred Wegener’s idea of continental drift.
There’s plenty of evidence that scientists and other scholars are pushing results out far faster than they used to. Consider the sheer volume of academic papers being published these days. One recent study put the number at more than seven million a year, compared with fewer than a million as recently as 1980. Some of this growth is driven by more scientists and more co-authorship of papers, but the numbers also suggest that the research world has prioritized quantity over quality. Researchers may need to slow down if we are to produce knowledge worthy of trust.
43. WEF meeting in Switzerland advocated that ________.
A. WEF and Silicon Valley reach an agreement to move fast
B. public trust in science is not supposed to be easily broken
C. researchers need to achieve breakthroughs more rapidly
D. climate emergency and AI push scientific research hard
44. Which of the following examples fails to prove that good science takes time
A. High-profile scholars’ tremendous output. B. Publication of Copernicus’s theory.
C. Retraction of important papers. D. Acceptance of the idea of continental drift.
45. The underlined word “counterincentives” in para. 5 probably means ________.
A. measures to increase quantities of output B. contradictory motives for future funding
C. rewards for leading universities’ research D. discouragements of high quality papers
46. Which of the following is best title of the passage
A. WEF Coincides with Silicon Valley B. Trouble in the Fast Lane
C. Choice between Quantity and Quality D. Collapse of Public Trust
Section C
Directions: Complete the following passage by using the sentences given below. Each sentence can be used only once. Note that there are two more sentences than you need.
“Be present.” This is the slogan of mindfulness meditation and a supposed key to self-awareness and acceptance.
Mindfulness may have psychological benefits. Earlier this year, a synthesis of randomized controlled trials revealed that mindfulness-based interventions had small to moderate benefits for a number of health outcomes, including stress, anxiety and depression.
____47____ . That is, as we develop skills in complex tasks, we can perform them with increasing facility until attention seems to be unnecessary. Everyday examples range from riding a bike to chopping cucumbers-to brushing your teeth.
Forming this state of “automaticity” are mental processes that can be executed without paying attention to them. ____48____. We don’t perform all tasks automatically, but many can be performed this way once they are well practised.
To be clear, paying attention is important when learning a new skill. But research has also revealed that paying too much attention to what you’re doing can have damaging effects, particularly when you perform well-practised skills. In fact, this is one reason why some experts appear to “choke under pressure”: ____49____.
In a classic study, cognitive scientist Sian Beilock and her colleagues had skilled golfers attempt to sink putts (推球入洞) under different experimental conditions. In one scheme, the golfers were simply instructed to pay attention to the swing of their club and say “stop” when they finished their swing. In another condition, they were directed to listen for a target sound while ignoring other noises and say the word “tone” when they heard the target sound. Surprisingly, the skilled golfers performed considerably worse when they focused on their swing than when they paid attention to irrelevant sounds.
Nevertheless, the important message from this research is that focusing too carefully on the execution of well-practiced motor sequences can cause mistakes. ____50____. But there are situations where we should let automaticity take over. The next time you ride a bike or join in a sport, don’t overthink it.
A. In any type of mindfulness exercise, the goal is to perform routine activities with a heightened sense of attention.
B. Although mindfulness has its advantages, psychological research has also revealed that in some circumstances it’s important to be mindless.
C. They think too much about the mechanics of the task at hand.
D. Automaticity can be disrupted by explicit attention when the devotion of conscious attention to the pattern alters the content or timing of that pattern itself.
E. Of course we should not resign to go through life on autopilot, missing opportunities to make deeper connections with ourselves, one another and our environment.
F. These processes run off without conscious awareness — a chain reaction of mental events.
第Ⅱ卷（共50分）
III. Summary Writing
51. Directions: Read the following three passages. Summarize the main idea and the main point(s) of the passage in no more than 60 words. Use your own words as far as possible.
Public Opinion Counts
Modbury is a typical small town of the south of England with a population of about 1600. Typical, that is, apart from the fact that there are no plastic carrier bags in the town. None. Plastic bags have been well and truly dumped!
The removal of the plastic bags was the brainchild of Rebecca Hosking, Modbury resident and documentary-maker. Filming a documentary in the Pacific Ocean, Rebecca was horrified at the effects of plastic bags on the wildlife off Hawaii. Among other things, she saw seabirds fatally trapped in plastic bags that don’t biodegrade. When Rebecca returned to her hometown, she discussed this problem with people, including the shopkeepers and everyone supported her suggestion to make the town plastic bag free.
But for Rebecca’s concept, Modbury would still be an unremarkable little place. Now, however, shoppers take re-usable cotton bags shopping with them, or they buy biodegradable corn starch ones on the shops. The shopkeepers now wrap their goods in paper. To prove that the townsfolk are not only committed to reducing plastic waste, they organised a mass beach clean-up last year. Dozens of volunteers came to the beach on the appointed day to clean it up, taking the rubbish that visitors throw away and recycling it. And the greatest part of that rubbish was... no, not plastic bags, but plastic bottles.
Becoming the first town in Europe to ban plastic bags, Modbury is now harvesting the rewards of fame — reporters and camera crews from newspapers and TV channels across the world are coming to this mild town to find out its secret. And, contrary to some of the initial reports, it is a normal town, trying to live life in a slightly different way. As one resident put it. “We’re ordinary people, but we want to make just a little difference.”
V. Guided Writing
Directions: Write an English composition in 120-150 words according to the instructions given below in Chinese.
52. 假设你是明启中学的学生李宁，你正在一所英国高中游学，该校拟举办一个中英文化交流活动，名叫Cultural Workshop，介绍并现场演示中国美食、手工艺品或书法。你对这个活动很感兴趣，请你向组织者写一封申请信，信的内容包括：
（1）你想演示的项目及演示流程；
（2）你申请的理由。
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