He woke suddenly and completely. It was 4 a. m. at Christmas, the hour when his father had always called him to get up and help with milking the cow. Strange how the habit of his youth was with him still, even his father had been dead for 40 years. The magic of Christmas for him was a long childhood past, and he was wondering why he felt so awake when his mind went back to his teenage years.
He was 15 years old then and still on his father’s farm. A few days before Christmas, he heard what his father was saying to his mother.
“Mary, I hate to call Rob in the mornings. He’s growing so fast, and he needs his sleep. I could manage alone.”
“Well, you can’t, Adam.” His mother replied. “Besides, he isn’t a child anymore. It’s time to take his turn.”
When he heard these words, something in him woke: his father loved him so much as had never been thought before. Now that he knew so, there would be no more lying in the mornings waiting to be called. He got up and pulled on his clothes.
On the night before Christmas, he lay thinking about the next day. They were poor, and most of the excitement was in the turkey raised themselves and the mince pies made by his mother. His sisters made presents, and he always saved and bought something for parents.
However, he wished, that Christmas he was fifteen, and that he had a better present for his father than before. He looked out of the window and saw Dad working in a stable. Then a thought struck him: why should he not give his father a special gift out there in the stable? He could get up earlier, quietly go into it and get all the milking done. Then when his father went in to start the milking, he’d see it all done.
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。
He had woken up twenty times in the night, looking at his watch for a proper time to start.
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He went back in his bedroom with only one minute to jump into bed before hearing his father get up.
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When I was about four years old, I started washing my face on my own. However, I always ignored the area behind my ears on purpose though my mom would often remind me.
One summer, in July of that year, my mom drove me to my grandparents’ house for our annual summer holiday visit. When we arrived, I was told that Grandma had gone on a trip with her friends and wouldn’t be back for another two weeks. Feeling a bit down, I went to the yard to play while my mom and grandpa caught up on some things. Although I couldn’t hear their conversation clearly, I had a strong feeling they were talking about me based on their gestures and expressions. Later, my mom returned home, and she would come back to pick me up two months later.
After dinner that night, Grandpa asked me to take a bath before going to bed. Since I loved taking baths, I happily agreed. With the bathtub (浴缸) filled with water, Grandpa reminded me, “Just make sure you clean the area behind your ears really well. You wouldn’t want potatoes to start growing there, would you?”
“Potatoes?” I stopped in my tracks and turned back to look at him. “Yes, potatoes. If you don’t clean the dirt behind your ears, potatoes might actually sprout (发芽) and grow there,” he explained, causing my eyes to widen in surprise. “But I don’t have any potatoes behind my ears, Grandpa,” I said as I ran my fingers along the back of my ears. He took a quick glance and replied, “Oh, I see a couple of sprouts: starting right there!” He urged me to get into the bathtub immediately and scrub (擦洗) them away thoroughly.
I nodded, still in disbelief. This was the first time I had ever heard such a thing. Why hadn’t my parents warned me about this before? I wondered, but couldn’t find an answer. Nonetheless, I felt shocked by Grandpa’s warning.
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 hurried to jump into the bathtub, carefully scrubbing behind my ears.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________“What are you looking at behind your ears?” Grandma asked me curiously.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________My son Ben had hardly heard of his cousins Marcia and Juli before we moved to their hometown. Since we’d become neighbors, I thought he should get to know them. So, I invited the cousins over for a meet-and-greet one afternoon.
When the bell rang, Ben rushed to open the door. In came Marcia, a chatty, retired schoolteacher in her 70s. Dragging behind her, relying heavily on his walking stick, was her over-eighty-year-old husband Juli, who used to be a sports lover. Not having seen him since I’d become a mom, I wondered whether he was kid-friendly. With one glance, I quickly decided that he probably wasn’t.
After the introductions, we sat down to have a chat. Ben, who was 4 at the time, stared curiously at the cousins. Suddenly, he eyed Juli’s walking stick, which stood right beside his chair. “Why do you have a stick? ” he asked abruptly.
Juli paused for a while as he hadn’t expected my son to speak to him. Then he seemed pleased that Ben had noticed something about him. He briefly explained, and invited Ben to try out the walking stick. Excited, Ben stepped up, took it in hand and walked with it around the room. The serious look on Juli’s face softened as he watched. That afternoon, Ben jumped in and out of the room several times to have fun with his new friend. Toward the end of the visit, Ben sneaked over to Juli, wordlessly climbed onto his lap and gave him a hug. After a little surprise, Juli’s lips curved into a subtle smile.
During the following two years, Juli often came to babysit Ben. The two would call each other buddy and laughed loudly together, even though one was much older.
One summer evening, unexpectedly, I received a painful call saying that Juli had just passed away, which came as a shock to me. I gently told Ben about the terrible loss, explaining that Juli was 85. “That was so young!” Ben shouted between tears.
Paragraph 1:
The next day, we decided to visit cousin Marcia.
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Before we left, Marcia told Ben that she had something special to give him.
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An 80-year-old man was sitting on the sofa in his house along with his 45-year-old highly educated son. Suddenly a crow (乌鸦) landed on their window.
The father asked his son, “What is this?” The son replied, “It is a crow.” After a few minutes, the father asked his son for the second time, “What is this? The son said, “Father, I told you just now. It’s a crow.”
After a little while, the father asked his son the same question for the third time, “What is this?” At this time, some expression of anger was felt in the son’s tone when he said to his father. “It’s a crow, a crow.” A little while later, the father again asked his son for the fourth time, “What is this?”
This time his son shouted at his father, “Why do you keep asking me the same question again and again although I have told you so many times ‘IT IS A CROW’? Are you not able to understand this?”
A minute later the father went to his room and came back with a diary, which he had kept since his son was born. On opening a page, he asked his son to read that page: Today my little son aged three was sitting with me on the sofa when a crow suddenly landed on the window. My son asked me 23 times what it was, and I replied to him all 23 times that it was a crow. I hugged him lovingly each time he asked me the same question. I didn’t at all feel angry, but instead felt affection for my innocent son.
Paragraph 1:After reading the diary, the son was filled with tears and began to reflect on the days when he used to sit together with his father.
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Feeling ashamed, the son got down on his knees before his father.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The e-mail request came into Ekiben restaurant late on a Thursday afternoon in March. Brandon Jones, the man who sent the e-mail didn't actually want the food himelf. He was writing on behalf of his mother-in-law, Shirley, who loved the broccoli（西兰花）dish with fresh herbs and cucumber vinegar. He went on to explain that she was now in the final stage of lung cancer at her home in Vermont and that he was hoping to get the recipe（烹饪法）to make it for her there. Steve Chu, one of the restaurant's co-owners, read the e-mail and quickly replied, "Thanks for reaching out," he wrote. "We'd like to meet you in Vermont and make it fresh for you."
Brandon was shocked. "I emailed back, saying, 'You do know that this is Vermont we're talking about, right?'" says Brandon. "But Chu responded, 'No problem. You tell us the date, time and location and we'll be there."
For the past six years, every time Shirley visited Baltimore, the first place she wanted to go was Ekiben so she could order that dish. "She loves that broccoli, and I really wanted her to have it one more time," Brandon says.
"She had always told us, 'When I'm on my deathbed, I want to have that broccoli,'" recalls Brandon's wife, Rina Jones. That Friday after work, a day after receiving Brandon's e-mail, Chu loaded his truck with a hot plate and a cooler and then headed for Vermont with his business partner, Ephrem Abebe, and an employee. They stayed overnight in a tent and drove the next day to the small town where Shirley lived.
As soon as Chu and his team pulled into the parking lot, they got to work. They pulled down the gate of the pickup, fixed the hot plate on the truck's power port, and started cooking and deep-frying. In addition to broccoli, they made tofu with peanut sauce and fresh herbs and some steamed rice. After neatly boxing everything up, they knocked on their customer's door.
注意：
1.续写词数应为150左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡上的相应位置作答。
"Go ahead and answer," Rina told her mother.
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The Joneses invited Chu and his team to join them for dinner.
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Josie and I wanted a dog more than anything else. Whenever we had time, we’d sit together and talk about dogs. “You’re so silly, Jake,” Josie would say. “Bulldogs (斗牛犬) are scary.” “Hah. Golden retrievers (金毛猎犬) are scary,” I’d say. We had this ongoing argument about what our ideal dog would be. But it made no difference—any dog would do, as long as it had a tail to wag and a friendly face.
One summer night, as we sat together beside the window, Josie saw something. “What’s that?” she said, pointing to a dark shadow on our driveway. The moon was up and everything looked either black or milky. At first all I saw was darkness. Then the shadow moved and I heard the sound of metal. Then the shadow flowed out onto the silvery driveway. With a little fright, we found ourselves stepping down to the front door. There in our yard stood a dog—a big, black dog with long, shaggy (蓬松的) hair.
Josie made a little kissing noise and held out her hand. “Here, boy!” I said. And the dog came to us slowly, taking a few steps forward, and then a step back, not sure whether to trust us. When close enough, it had a doggy smell that always made me think of dirt and grass and piles of leaves. “Don’t say ‘Here, boy’,” said Josie. “She’s a female.” Pulling back and looking, I said, “I wonder what her name is.” I felt for her collar while she sat patiently. I found no tags, but just a chain with a small old bell on it.
“I bet she’s hungry,” said Josie. “I can feel her ribs.” I ran my hand through her fur. The dog was so skinny that you could feel every bone, and her coat was twisted and full of dirt. If she belonged to someone, they weren’t taking good care of her.
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2. 请按如下格式在相应位置作答。
“What can we give her?” Josie asked me.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The dog did something completely unexpected.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________At dawn, Taylor opened her sleepy eyes and looked out of the window at the foggy field below. “NO!” she cried, now fully awake. Buttermilk, the cow was in Mama’s daisy patch (雏菊地).
I must have forgotten to lock the gate last night, Taylor thought as she pulled a sweater over her head. Mama was planning to sell daisy bouquets (花束) at the fair next week, but Buttermilk was eating the flowers.
Taylor hurried outside and grabbed the lead rope on the wall. “Why can’t you stay in the field?” she called to Buttermilk as she headed across the yard to the daisy patch.
Buttermilk still stood there chewing flowers. Annoyed, Taylor thought to herself, “When I grew up, I’ll be an artist and paint pictures all day. I’ll never own a cow. Too much trouble.” In truth, even at her tender age, Taylor showed promise as a little painter. It was moments like these that fueled Taylor’s dreams of becoming an artist.
Just as Taylor was about to throw the lead rope onto Buttermilk’s collar, the family dog, Red, rounded the corner of the house. Startled, Buttermilk took off, tearing through the daisies and across the yard. She finally ran through the open gate and into the field.
“Thank goodness!” Taylor said as she closed the gate and secured the lock.
She turned to look at the flower garden, where most of the daisies were either eaten or trampled (踩踏).
Mama came out of the house. “What’s going on?” she asked. She looked sadly at her garden.
“I forgot to lock the gate,” Taylor said. “I’m so sorry.”
“I know you are.” Mama sighed and gave Taylor a hug. “You learned an important lesson today.”
Taylor’s heart was heavy as she went back into the house. She had to think of a way to make it up to her mother.
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。
Suddenly, a painting on the wall caught Taylor’s eye.
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The morning of the fair, Taylor came downstairs to invite Mama to see the surprise.
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