Life is Good Clothing is a 100 million-dollar company run by brothers Bert and John Jacobs. Like any other businessmen, they went through a lot of failures. However, the idea
“Life is good” from their mother kept them going and inspired them to build a clothing company that is now very successful.
In 1988, Bert and Jacobs took a seven-week road trip from California to Boston. The brothers said this trip changed their lives forever as they looked back on their childhood. According to the Jacobs, their childhood was perfectly-imperfect. Their house did not have heating but they were taught to always see the good in things.
They remembered playing outside all day and when it was dinner time, they would gather around the dinner table. Their mother would say to them, “Tell me something good that happened today.” Their father had a near — death accident which caused severe damage to his right hand. The accident made their father develop a terrible temper （脾气），but their mother would always sing to them and read them children’s stories. “That optimism was something our family always had, even when we had little else,” the brothers said.
During the trip, they tried to figure out what they wanted to do with their lives and decided to run a clothing business. They started selling T-shirt designs in street fairs around Boston. Their design was just a simple drawing of a stick figure with the phrase “Life is good.”
Their small business didn’t turn out so well, but the two brothers did not give up. Then they changed their target audience. This time, they tried to sell their T-shirts to college students, going to different schools every night. Again it did not work. To figure out what they had been doing wrong, Bert and John held beer parties, where they asked their friends for their honest opinions. In return , they could enjoy free beer and amusing stories from the brothers. Again this did not seem to work and they were running out of money.
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。
However, they took the risk and held another party which they thought was the last.
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Finally, someone noticed their design and showed sincere appreciation.
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During my six years at the Boyd E. Smith Primary School, I was lucky to have so many great teachers who served as thoughtful role models. They were admirable characters who had far-reaching effects on me in more ways than I could have known. Among them who influenced me the most was my fourth-grade teacher, Mrs. Green.
The truth is that Mrs. Green was unlike anyone I had ever known. She had so much energy and passion for the world and for her students that she spent thirty years of her life at Boyd E. Smith. Mrs. Green taught maths. She devoted herself to her work. I would never have imagined that I would have left her class with so much.
Mrs. Green is everything that I want to be. The first time I met her, I knew she was someone special. Being young fourth-graders, we were taught to show respect to teachers as we learned to say “Thank you, madam” and “Yes, madam” on a daily basis. We did not complain about it. We knew she did it to make us better young adults that would carry on through life with respect for our elders.
Mrs. Green was an amazing teacher for many reasons, as she was intelligent and passionate about what she taught. She did not scold (责骂) us, but she taught us to recognize the difference between right and wrong and to be responsible no matter what we did. Looking back upon those days when I was in her class, I realized that she was teaching us qualities that were important to our characters. The most valuable lesson I learned from her was to live with honesty. I had no idea what this word meant until the incident (事情) in a math exam.
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。
I was caught in the act of cheating in the exam.
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Now I am also a primary school teacher like Mrs. Green.
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There were two men who occupied the same hospital room. One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour a day to drain (排除)the liquids from his lungs. His bed was next to the room’s only window. The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back.
The men talked for hours every day. They spoke about their wives and families and their jobs. And every afternoon when the man by the window could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window. The man in the other bed would live for those one-hour periods where his world would be broadened by all the activity and color of the outside world.
The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake, the man had said Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Lovers walked arm in arm, and a fine view of the city could be seen in the distance. As the man by the window described all this in detail, the man on the other side of the room closed his eyes and imagined the beautiful scene.
One warm afternoon, the man by the window described a parade passing by. Although the other man could not hear the band, he could see it in his mind’s eye as the gentleman by the window described it. Unexpectedly, a strange thought entered his head: Why could he look out of the window? Why should he have all the pleasure of seeing everything while I never get to see anything? It didn’t seem fair.
As the thought developed, the man felt ashamed at first. But as the days passed and he missed seeing more sights, his envy turned into hate and soon turned him sour. He began to find himself unable to sleep. He should be by that window and that thought now controlled his life.
注意：
1. 所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2. 应使用5个以上短文中标有下划线的关键词语；
3. 续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好；
4. 续写完成后，请用下划线标出你所使用的关键词语。
paragraph 1:
Late one night, as he lay staring at the ceiling, another man began to cough. __________________________
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paragraph 2:
As soon as it seemed reasonable, the man asked the nurse if he could move next to the window. ___________
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Having been teaching anthropology (人类学) at Dartmouth College for 15 years, I still remember the day when I first encountered the book Margaret Mead’s Coming of Age in Samoa, a very important book on the study of the social and cultural development of peoples.
When I was fourteen, I earned money in the summer by cutting lawns, and within a few weeks I had built up a body of customers. I got to know people by the flowers they planted, by the things they lost in the grass or stuck in the ground on purpose. I learned something about the measure of my neighbors by their preferred method of payment: by the job, by the month—or not at all.
Mr. Ballou fell into the last category, and he always had a reason why. On one day, he had no change for a fifty, on another he was simply out when I knocked on his door. Still, except for the money, he was a nice enough old guy, always waving his hat when he’d seen me from a distance. Sure, I kept track of the total, but I didn’t worry about the amount too much.
Then, one late afternoon in mid-July, the hottest time of the year, I was walking by his house and he opened the door, mentioned me to come inside. The hall was cool, shaded, and it took my eyes a minute to adjust to the dim light.
“I owe you,” Mr. Ballou, “but...”
I thought I’d save him the trouble of thinking of a new excuse. “No problem. Don’t worry about it.”
“The bank made a mistake in my account,” he continued, ignoring my words. “It will be cleared up in a day or two. But in the meantime I thought perhaps you could choose one or two volumes for a down payment.”
He gestured toward the walls and I saw that books were stacked (堆放) everywhere. It was like a library, except with no order to the arrangement.
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。
Mr. Ballou encouraged me to read, borrow or keep the books I like.
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To this day, thirty years later, I clearly remember this experience.
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Betty and Kate were two sisters. Kate was so stuck with her sister Betty that she always followed her elder sister everywhere. For example, when Betty was painting, she would paint by her side. Every time, Betty looked at her angrily and said, “Couldn’t you find your own thing to do?” This time, it was Kate’s first week when she learnt gymnastics, while Betty had done gymnastics for the past two years.
Betty sat on the gym floor, waiting for her turn to do somersaults (翻筋斗). She frowned (皱眉头) at her little sister across the room and thought why Kate couldn’t always find her own thing to do? “Betty, you’re up!” called Betty’s instructor, Miss Carol. Betty came over and pushed off with her legs and straightened her arms. She did one, two, three somersaults. Miss Carol clapped and said, “Perfect!”
Betty noticed that Kate had stepped away from the younger group to watch Betty’s somersaults. “Kate!” called Kate’s instructor, Miss Brown, from across the room. Kate didn’t seem to hear her. Not until she was called three times did she run back to her group. “Your turn to do somersaults.” Miss Brown put an arm around her. Kate walked to the mat with her face turning red like a tomato. She bent down to start a somersault. When she rolled, she fell heavily on the mat. Kids laughed in surprise at the noise.
Kate stood uncomfortably and then ran towards the restroom. She was gone from the gym. After telling Miss Carol where she was going, Betty hurried to the restroom. She found Kate crying hard. Betty put an arm around her sister. Seeing Betty, Kate cried even harder. Kate sniffed, “I don’t want to do gymnastics any more.” Kate wiped away the tears with the back of her hand. This was Betty’s chance. If Betty said nothing to her sister, Kate might quit gymnastics forever.
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。
Betty believed that she could persuade her sister to return to the training.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Betty realized it was so good a chance to encourage her sister.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Sometimes, life just throws a huge curveball at you, and you have to deal with it. For this girl, she kept going even though that curveball took away most of her.
Kate, 17, was riding home from Bear Lake with her families when they were hit by a truck. It was not a very serious traffic accident.
It was just a crash without causing any deaths. But it brought misfortune to Kate. She suffered the worst out of anyone in the car. In other words, she was the worst injured in her family.
Kate was badly injured from the waist down. There was no blood flow in her legs, and things weren’t looking good. She needed both legs amputated(截肢) above the knee and spent two months in the hospital. At that age, most of her classmates would be getting ready for college. But fate wasn’t so kind to her.
It was not easy to get back on track after such a misfortune, but life was still worth living on. At this time, Kate knew that she must encourage herself to be even stronger and fight with every challenge more bravely than before. She had to gain more confidence to shoulder the burden that nobody in her age had ever faced.
She was a cheerleader(啦啦队队员) at school, after all. She knew better than anyone that some encouragement and hard work can really make a difference. As a to-be adult, she also showed her uncertainty about her own future. She sometimes asked her mum whether she would ever drive or swim again. Her mother answered yes to everything she asked.
However, one thing was for sure: Kate would need a wheelchair for the rest of her life. What would you do if you had to live on a wheelchair? What would you do if you wanted to return to your stage? Luckily, Kate didn’t feel or do as you did.
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。
Kate had to relearn how to live on a wheelchair.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Then the last football game of the season arrived.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________It was July 1971. I was taking a summer class in Black-American literature on the campus of SUNY. Professor James walked into the classroom and announced that he had invited a special guest to class and he needed a volunteer to meet his guest in the hall of the administration building and ac company him here.
To my amazement, my right hand shot up as though it had a mind of its own. I never volunteered for anything. I was shy and uncomfortable meeting new people. Realizing I was absolutely the wrong person for this job, I pulled my hand down quickly, but it was too late. “Thank you, David,” Professor James said. “You’d better leave now. Hell be arriving any minute.” I reluctantly got out of my seat and headed for the classroom door. When I reached it, I stopped. I said, “If I don’t know who this person is, how will I recognize him? I’d hate to bring back the wrong guy.” Professor James laughed. He pulled me aside and whispered a name in my ear. “Alex Haley,” he said. “Really?” I said. I gave a thumbs-up to the class and left the room.
The hall was empty and Alex Haley was nowhere to be seen. My anxiety grew because I feared that I was about to embarrass myself in front of this famous gentleman by asking stupid questions, or worse, by falling unnaturally silent. As I paced back and forth across the polished floor, I realized why I instinctively (本能地) raised my hand to volunteer for this job. This man was what I wanted to be: a writer. He was living my dream. I could learn from him. But deep in my heart, I was worried about whether I had a gift.
It was then that Mr. Haley with a briefcase entered the building. He was a man in his forties, medium height, wearing a sports jacket over an open-collared dress shirt. After we introduced each other, I accompanied him to the classroom building. Across campus, I was struck by how approachable this man was.
注意：1.续写词数应为 150个左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
My fear was replaced by curiosity and purpose.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________That was an unexpected answer.
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