Two things changed my life: my mother and a white plastic bike basket. I have thought long and hard about it and it's true. I would be a different person if my mom hadn't turned a silly bicycle basket into a life lesson I carry with me today.
Managing the family budget(预算)must have been a very hard task,but my mother made it look easy. If we complained about not having what another kid did, we'd hear something like, "I don't care what so-and-so got for his birthday; you are not getting a TV in your room, a car for your birthday or an expensive birthday party. "We had to earn our pocket money by doing the housework. I can still remember how long it took to shine(擦亮)the legs of our coffee table. My brothers can no doubt remember hours spent cleaning the house. We made our own beds(no one left the house until that was done).We had to keep track of our belongings(物品),and if something was lost, it was not replaced.
It was summer and, one day, my mother drove me to the bike shop to get a tire fixed—and there it was in the window. White, shiny, plastic and decorated(装饰)with flowers,the basket winked(眨眼)at me and I knew—I knew—I had to have it.
"It's beautiful," my mother said when I pointed it out to her. "What a nice basket."
I played it cool for a short while. But then I guess I couldn't stand it any longer: "Mom, please can I please, please get it? I’ll do extra chores for as long as you say. I'll do anything, but I need that basket. I love that basket. Please, Mom. Please?"
"You know, "she said,gently rubbing my back while we both stared at(注视)what I believed was the coolest thing ever," If you save up you could buy this yourself."
"By the time I make enough it'll be gone!"
"Maybe Roger here could hold it for you," she smiled at Roger, the bike store Owner.
"He can't hold it for that long, Mom. Someone else will buy it. Please, Mom, please?"
"There might be another way," she said.
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。
And so our paying plan began.
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Days later, a neighborhood girl appeared with the exact same basket fixed to her shiny, new bike.
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One afternoon after school, Mary and his brother, Keith, were eating at a cafe near their home. That afternoon, they had to share their table with another person. That person was a young lady in her twenties. After eating, she went to the restroom. Without realizing, she had left her handphone on the table. Five minutes later, she came out and walked out of the cafe without looking back.
Mary saw the handphone on the table. She quickly told Keith, “Keith, the girl left behind her handphone.” Keith looked at the handphone. It was one of the latest models on the market. Looking very sleek, it was red in color with a black cover. The handphone must be expensive.
Keith had always wanted a handphone, But his parents refused. He stared at it for some minutes. Then he said slowly, pausing on every word, “I want to take the handphone,” Mary could not believe her eyes. She merely stared at her brother, “you can’t! What if the owner comes to look for it?”
Having made the decision, Keith quickly grabbed the handphone and put it in his schoolbag. Then, he took Mary’s hand and led her out of the cafe quickly. Outside the café, he ran to his bicycle. Mary had to run after him.
Once back home, Keith locked his house door with trembling hands. Looking at the handphone, he liked it so much. Now he had his own handphone. But Mary told him, “Keith, you cannot keep the handphone. What will you tell father about this handphone?”
Keith said quickly, “I will say a friend lent it to me.”
Mary said, “Now you are lying, too.” Oh dear! When had Keith turned so dishonest?
Then Mary saw a house phone number on the plastic cover of the handphone, “This phone number is the girl’s phone number. Why don’t we just call this number? We will talk to her and ask her to come and take back her handphone.” She was trying her best to talk some sense into him.
注意: 1. 所续写短文的词数应为150左右2. 续写部分分为两段,开头已给出。
Paragraph 1: That night, Keith couldn’t go to sleep, reflecting in bed.
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Paragraph 2: Mary was very happy to hear that.
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When I was twelve, my parents let me babysit for Mr. and Mrs. Joseph who lived down the street with their two little preschool girls. Most of my babysitting occurred during daylight hours while Mrs. Joseph went shopping. One day she asked if I could stay with her daughters in the evening, promising she and her husband would be home by ten p. m. After pleaded with (恳求) them, desperate to earn fifty cents an hour for six hours—three whole dollars!—my parents agreed.
At four o'clock, I knocked on the Josephs' front door, greeted the kids, and received detailed instructions from their mother. A few minutes later, the girls and I were alone. We played hide-and-seek, did some finger painting together, and I fixed them scrambled eggs (炒鸡蛋) and toast soldiers for dinner. Then, at about eight p, m., I gathered the two kids beside me on the sofa and began to read them a story.
I heard a soft click, as if the front door had been opened, and I stopped. “Go on,” said Melanie, the four-year-old. “Keep reading.” “Wait.” I put my finger to my lips, “I thought I heard someone come in.” I heard the click again, and the lamp beside me switched on. All three of us jumped. Then the drapes (帘子) closed across the big window.
I screamed, put a little girl under each of my arms, and ran upstairs to the bathroom. As I locked the door behind us, I heard music begin to play from a radio somewhere downstairs. The girls clutched (紧紧抱住) each other in fear as I calmed them down, saying, “There's a bad man in the house. You have to be perfectly quiet. ”
The three of us sat on the floor, ears pressed to the wooden door ... listening. Even two-year-old Tricia was very quiet. For two hours we listened to the music playing, but we never heard another sound. No footsteps, no creaking (嘎吱作响的) doors, or breaking of china. Definitely no one walking up the stairs.
注意:1.续写词数应为 150 左右;
2.请按如下格式在相应位置作答。
Then the front door opened with a bang and we all jumped.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Mr. Joseph explained he had bought a smart home device.
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以下片段选自某位名人给美国高中生毕业生的网上毕业演讲。请结合你生活中的例子,谈谈你对这段话的理解。
“If we’re going to get through these difficult times; if we’re going to create a world where everybody has the opportunity to find a job, and afford college; if we’re going to save the environment and defeat future pandemics, then we’re going to have to do it together. So be alive to one another’s struggles. Stand up for one another’s rights. Leave behind all the old ways of thinking that divide us﹣sexism, racial prejudice, status, greed﹣and set the world on a different path. ”
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The wilderness was green and large, and it was a dangerous place. The temperature could reach nearly 0°C at night, and there were wolves and bears in the forests. So when 4-year-old Karina Chikitova went missing from her remote village, Olom, and after nine days no one had found her, everyone was worried.
Karina had run after her parents that morning, who had set out for another village where there had been working for many years. The family depended on their wages, so after a week's rest at home, they had to go back to work. Afraid of her parents’ scolding, she did not dare to follow them too closely, with the result that her parents did not notice that their little daughter was following them. Her grandmother thought Karina was with her father; her father thought Karina was with her grandmother!
In fact, after following her parents for more than one hour, Karina failed to see them no longer. She wandered aimlessly kilometres into the wilderness. Fortunately, Karina had left Olom with her dog, Naida, so Karina didn’t panic. Instead of going into the centre of the forest, she walked along the river. However, she had no idea how to get home, When night fell, she curled up with Naida for warmth though there were a lot of wet mud on his paws(爪子).
The villages in the wilderness didn’t have the Internet and they often didn't have phones, so it was four days before Karina's family and the villagers realized Karina and Naida were missing. They started searching for them everywhere. Helicopters were even used in the emergency rescue. But a small girl and her dog in that landscape were hard to find. Five more days passed. Little Karina was terrified by now, but at least Naida was with her to keep her warm in the cold nights. One day, though, she woke up and found that Naida wasn't there. Karina couldn’t believe that her dog had left her alone.
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。
But Naida hadn’t abandoned her.
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Fortunately, Naida had left paw prints on the mud.
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I was in my room, slowly getting ready to head to the community theater with the rest of my family. I wasn’t in the mood for being onstage.
“Kate, come here,” my mom called from down the hall.
I found my mom outside the bathroom, holding a wet book. Henry, my new stepbrother, was working on a complicated string knot(结), as usual.
My mother gave the book a shake. “Henry’s book was in the bathtub. Did you put it there?”
“Not on purpose,” I said, “It was already on the edge, and it happened to fall in when I stepped out of the tub(浴缸).”
My mother glared at me, something she never did before I had a stepfamily. “You could have picked it up,” she said, “That would have been the kind thing to do.”
As Henry walked ahead of us to the car, my mom took me aside. “This is our corner of the world now, Kate,” she said, “Let’s try to make it a good one.” I nodded but sighed.
The community theater was busy when we got there. Theater used to be what my mom and I did together— one play a year for our special thing. With Henry involved, it didn’t seem so special anymore.
Henry’s dad, who had arrived earlier to help set up, was already in costume. Fortunately, I thought he was a nice guy even before he and my mother started dating. Unfortunately, I now had a stepbrother to deal with.
My mom helped Henry find his costume while I was left to look for mine on my own. Soon, it was curtain time(开幕时间). I peeked out at the audience and noticed that the darkened theater was full. My heart beat faster.
Before long, it was my turn. I went onstage, song book in hand. As we kids lined up before Henry’s dad, who was playing the part of our father, I realized how poorly I’d tied the string on my skirt which was over the leggings(打底裤).
注意:1. 所续写短文的词数应为150左右;
2. 续写部分分为两段,每段的开头语已为你写好。
Paragraph 1
And then, suddenly, the string knot came untied and my skirt began to drop.
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Paragraph 2
I shot him a grateful glance.
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Heiss, 61, and his wife lost their only child, a son. They had no grandchildren. Being around children at Christmas had been absent in their lives.
On December 12, Heiss was hiking there mote expanse of land behind his farm in Patagonia, Arizona, a town near the US-Mexico border, when he spotted a balloon on the grass. Heiss walked towards it with his dog, thinking he should pick up the plastic and throw it away. That’s when he noticed the balloon’s string was attached to a piece of paper.
“Dayami”, it read on one side, in a child’s writing, and a hand-drawn bow accompanied the word. Heiss turned over the paper. It was a numbered list, all in Spanish. Though he wasn’t good at Spanish, Heiss could see it was Christmas list. Heiss was attracted and suspected that a child named Dayami had tried to sent Santa Claus a Christmas wish list by balloon, which he used to do himself when he was a kid. Unfortunately, nobody had ever returned the letters he had sent.
Heiss wondered whether he could find the girl who had sent this paper. It would be difficult, but he had a few clues. About 32 kilometers to the southwest, just across the border, was the city of Nogales, Mexico, with a population of about a quarter million. With the help of wind, Heiss was pretty sure the balloon came from the southwest city, Nogales.
Heiss brought the note home to his wife who was fluent in Spanish and helped him translate the list. They determined that Dayani, probably a girl, had asked for dolls, clothes and art supplies, among other things. Heiss then post on Facebook about his search, attracting photos, hoping people in Nogalesmight know the girl’s family. A few days passed with no leads. Heiss worried that time was running out before Christmas.
On December 19, Heiss sent a private Facebook message to Radio XENY, an AM radio station based in Nogales. The next morning, Heiss awoke to a message from Radio XENY. They had located Dayami, an eight-year-old girl, and her family, who indeed lived in Nogales. Best of all, they were willing to meet at the radio station.
注意:
1. 所续写短文的词数应为150左右;
2. 续写部分分为两段,每段的开头语已为你写好。
“It just changed my entire day,” Heiss said.
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On December 24, the Heisses were decorating the Christmas tree when they heard a knock on the door.
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