It’s just a small, white envelope stuck among the branches of our Christmas tree. No name, no identification, just a short note inside which says what we have done to celebrate Christmas. It has stuck through the branches of our tree for the past 10 years or so.
It all began because my husband Mike hated Christmas—oh, not the true meaning of Christmas, but the commercial aspects of it—the overspending, the anxious running around at the last minute to get a tie for Uncle Harry and the dusting powder for Grandma—the gifts given in desperation because you couldn't think of anything else.
Knowing he felt this way, I decided one year to avoid the usual shirts, sweaters, ties, and so on. I reached for something special just for Mike. The idea came in an unusual way.
Our son Kevin, who was 12 that year, was wrestling (摔跤) at the junior level at the school he attended. Shortly before Christmas, there was a non-league match against a team supported by an inner-city church. These teenagers, dressed in sport shoes so ragged (破烂的) that shoestrings seemed to be the only thing holding them together, presented a sharp contrast (对比) to our boys in their stylish blue and gold uniforms and new wrestling shoes. As the match began, I was alarmed to see that the other team was wrestling without headgear, a kind of light helmet designed to protect a wrestler's ears. Obviously, the poor team could not afford.
Well, we ended up defeating them. We took every weight class. And as each of their boys got up from the mat, he walked around in his rags with a kind of steet pride that couldn’t acknowledge defeat.
Mike, seated beside me, shook his head sadly, ‘‘I wish just one of them could have won, "he said "They have a lot of potential, but losing like this could take the heart right out of them. ’’
注意∶1. 续写词数应为150左右;
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡相应位置作答,
Paragraph 1:
That’s when the idea for his present came.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2:
For each Christmas, the envelope has become the tradition of our family.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________相似题推荐
My grandmother died when my mother, Laura, was only five years old. The year was 1945 and life was extremely hard. As the youngest child, Laura was surrounded by the love of her father, brothers and sisters. However, it could never take the place of that of a mother’s. Worse still, as money was tight at that time, her family could not even afford her a doll for Christmas.
Later, Laura got married and set up her own family. In my mother’s life, her father, her husband and then her three children and then her grandchildren were the main focus of her life. She felt that she could make up for her sad childhood through her devotion to her family, but deep in her mind there was a dream waiting to be realized.
One afternoon in December, I was working in the bank as usual when I caught sight of the beautiful handmade dolls in one of my customers’ hand. She was taking orders for the coming Christmas. The dolls looked cute and adorable （可爱的）. Without hesitation, I decided to get one for my five-year-old daughter, Kelly. Suddenly, an idea occurred to me. I asked my customer if she could make a special doll for my mother-one with grey hair and glasses: a grandmother doll. Having learned the past life experience of my mother, the doll maker accepted my request gladly, though it seemed to be a challenging job to her. So besides the Christmas tree, I also placed my order for two dolls: one blonde an one grey-haired.
Several days passed. I was expecting the arrival of the festival as well as the gifts when a friend visited and told me that his dad, who played Santa Claus, would make a visit to our town on Christmas morning. Knowing that my parents would also come to my house, I called his dad and asked him to deliver the gift to my mother. To my joy, his dad kindly agreed.
Everything was in place and I eagerly expected what was designed to be a most memorable moment in my mother’s life.
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。
Christmas Day arrived and so did Santa Claus at the appointed time.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Never will I forget my mother’s reaction when she got the present.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
My brother Joe and I no longer live in the same state, but I make sure to give Joe a call every Christmas. In fact, I will never forget a Christmas when I was seven and Joe was five. I’ve kept a secret about that Christmas for 20 years. Now hearing Joe’s voice makes me feel guilty (内疚的) about it all over again. I think he probably doesn’t even remember it.
When we were kids, Joe almost drove me “crazy”! If Mom brought home my favorite yogurt, Joe would make sure to eat it before I got a chance. When our parents gave us each our own basketball, Joe insisted on playing with mine instead of his own.
That Christmas when I was seven, I was determined to teach him a lesson. At that time I was old enough that I no longer believed in Santa, but I knew Joe did. I couldn’t stand him thinking Santa had put him on the “nice” list when I knew he’d been naughty (淘气的) all year.
One day before Christmas, I put on my winter jacket and headed over to our neighbor’s backyard. It was filled with rocks. To me they really looked like coal (煤炭). I was sure that they’d look like coal to Joe too. I filled a lot of the rocks into the pockets of my winter jacket, brought them up to my room and hid them under my bed. Then I waited.
That morning, I got up early, went downstairs secretly and put the rocks into the red stocking with Joe’s name on it. I watched Joe take down his heavy stocking, lay it on the living room floor.
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。
Looking at the gift inside, Joe’s smile disappeared suddenly.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I said on the phone, “Hey, Joe, do you remember that Christmas morning when you were five …your stocking…”
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The family had just moved to Rhode Island, and the young woman was feeling a little sad on that Sunday in May. After all, it was Mother's Day—and 800 miles separated her from her parents in Ohio.
She had called her mother that morning to wish her a happy Mother's Day, and her mother had mentioned how colorful the yard was now that spring had arrived. As they talked, the younger woman could almost smell the tantalizing aroma of purple lilacs (紫丁香) hanging on the big bush outside her parents' back door.
Later, when she mentioned to her husband how she missed those lilacs, he popped up from his chair. “I know where we can find you all you want,” he said. “Get the kids and come on.” So off they went, driving on the country roads of northern Rhode Island. Eventually, he stopped the car.
“Come with me,” he said. “Over that hill is an old cellar hole, and there are lilacs all around it. Go pick a few.”
There, on the top of the hill, were the towering lilacs bushes. While the man examined the cellar hole and tried to explain to the children what the house must have looked like, the woman had been cheered up, drifting among the lilacs. Carefully, she picked some out. She was in no hurry, admiring each blossom as a rare and delicate treasure.
Finally, though, they returned to their car for the trip home. When they were almost home, she suddenly shouted to her husband: “Stop the car. Stop right here!”
In a second, the woman was out of the car and hurrying up a nearby grassy slope with the lilacs still in her arms. At the top of the hill was a nursing home and, because it was such a beautiful spring day, the patients were outdoors, walking with relatives or sitting on the porch (走廊).
注意：
（1）所续写短文的词数应为l50左右；
（2）至少使用5个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: The young woman went to the end of the porch, where an elderly patient was sitting in her wheelchair, alone.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2: Curiosity was aroused among the kids and the husband.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A Community Puts on a Dazzling Display of Support
In Sara’s family, putting up Christmas lights was always a big day of celebration. Every year, just after Thanksgiving Day, her dad Anthony, 70, would visit local stores to check out new decorations and then excitedly string lights and hang decorations in and out of the house. The dazzling (绚烂的) display made him a hit in the community.
On 2020 Christmas Eve, as usual, the whole house twinkled with lights, and gifts were piled under the tree. While everyone was looking forward to enjoying another Christmas together as a family, Sara, got a call: the whole family had tested positive for COVID-19. Their Christmas celebration had to be canceled.
At first, everyone’s symptoms (症状) seemed manageable. But right after the new year, Anthony started having trouble breathing and unfortunately passed away two weeks later, though the rest had recovered from COVID-19. The following week of planning the funeral was the worst for Sara and her husband, Frank. Sorrow left them doubled over in pain. The saddest of all was that no neighbours attended her father’s funeral. Only the twinkling Christmas lights at night brought them a little bit joy. The lights were one of the last moments they had of their beloved father, so they kept them up.
One morning in February, Sara received an envelope. “Take your Christmas lights down! It’s Valentine’s Day!!!” the unsigned letter read. Sara looked at the paper in shock. Then she got angry. She could have bottled up that anger, but she decided to write about it instead. She logged on to a local community Facebook group and shared the letter. She ended the post with this: “We all had a tough year. Be kind to people because you never know what they are going through.”
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。
Half an hour later, Frank rushed into the room excitedly, with his phone in the hand.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
When night fell, Sara and Frank were surprised by what they saw outside.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
On one stormy afternoon last year, I was running home from school with my umbrella when I heard a bird start to sing. Out of curiosity, I went to have a look. Then I saw a brightly colorful bird nesting in a big tree. But the nest suddenly fell off.
With mercy and love, I decided to see if the bird had a chance to survive. Just as I went closer, I noticed a little head sticking out of the nest. I found that it had a wet broken wing, so it couldn’t fly. It looked so weak as if it were dying. So I placed it gently in my hand and covered it with my umbrella.
I carefully took it home and thought down the road how to explain this to my parents. What if they would not want it and throw it away? I could not take that chance, so I went out and put it in the back garden and gave it a warm blanket for the night.
In the following days, I went to school as usual, but somehow, I fell in love with biology class, especially when the teacher explained something about birds. I learned to feed the bird, and I hurried to care for it when the school was over. It was slowly recovering and growing. Holiday came at last. I couldn’t help telling my good friends about it. Then we secretly went to the back garden to look at my lovely bird. However, we were amazed to find that it had been missing.
Just as I thought where it had gone, a great surprise came all of a sudden. I found it staring at my cat in the distance. Catching sight of my appearance, it turned and came towards me. So I went to get it some water and birdseed. It was then that I found it grew into a big bird like a phoenix(凤凰) in the fairy tale. My friends all praised it, “What a beautiful bird it is!” Hearing their words, I felt truly proud. Fortunately, my care was not in vain but paid off.
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, my parents appeared in the back garden.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Some days later, my friends and I wondered what to do with the bird.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Johnny was sound asleep when he was awakened (唤醒) by a loud noise. He opened his eyes and lay listening. He could hear shouts and cries coming from the outside. He quickly threw on his T-shirt and put on a pair of jeans, and rushed out of the house.
A huge number of people stood at one of the houses further up the street. The house was on fire and thick clouds of smoke were floating (漂浮) up into the clouds. Johnny went back into the house and made a call to the fire department. Then, he ran out again towards the house on fire.
It was Mr. Smith’s house. Mr. Smith and his wife were safely out of the house but their young daughter was still caught inside the burning house. The neighbors were using buckets of water to put out the fire but it didn’t work. John could hear the cries of the girl inside the burning house.
注意：
1. 续写词数应为80左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Without thinking twice, Johnny broke into the house.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
