When the bell rang for the end of the day, I hurried to the school gate where my parents usually waited for me. Looking around, I was surprised to see my new classmate, Rochelle, waving her arms round and making shapes with her fingers to a woman, who did the same in response.
“What are they doing?” I wondered. “Is she her mother and could she be deaf?”
The next morning, when I was memorizing this week’s new words on the playground, I felt a touch on my shoulder. Turning around, I found Rochelle standing shyly behind me. Rochelle only joined our class at the beginning of this week. It must be very hard to start a new school in the middle of the year.
“Shall we test each other?” she asked, pointing to my spelling book.
“Yes, of course,” I responded warmly.
But after we finished going over the new words, I asked the question that had been lingering (萦绕) in my head since yesterday.
“Umm…, what was that hand thing you did with the woman at the school gate yesterday?” I hesitated.
“Signing,” she replied briefly.
“Is it because she’s… deaf?” I asked.
“Yes, both my parents are deaf, so I communicate with them through sign language,” she said coldly.
I should have shut up at the moment, but one of the stupidest remarks slipped off the tongue, “Oh, I’m sorry. So, did your parents need someone to help them look after you when you were a baby?”
“Of course not,” Rochelle got really annoyed. “Why would being deaf mean they can’t look after their children? Being deaf doesn’t mean they’re stupid,” she was almost shouting at me. “In fact, they’re much cleverer than most people I know.”
Before I could apologize, the bell rang and she rushed to the classroom.
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。
After school, I saw Rochelle and her mother gesturing at the gate again.
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When I was at a loss what to do, I saw Rochelle coming over to me.
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Act of Memory
I was a young girl of eleven then, living in Brooklyn. My father had died unexpectedly that summer. Times was suddenly very hard for my mother, my brother, and me.
Papa had always made a big deal out of Christmas. Every Christmas, when we were about to decorate the tree, he would make a little ceremony out of taking a special little Kewpie-doll out of its box, holding it up in front of me, saying, “Maria, this doll is as old as you are.” Then he would hang it on the Christmas tree. Papa bought that little doll when I was born, and it had become a small tradition. But this Christmas we were to have no tree. My mother was a practical woman, saying it was a luxury. I thought, with quiet but strong bitterness and anger, that it had never meant as much to her as it had to Papa anyway.
We had been to church that evening and were walking back home in silence. All I could see were the tree-lit windows we passed. Their cheerful glow made my bitterness even more intense because I pictured happy families in those houses, sharing laughter, exchanging presents, talking, joking. I knew while arriving home, we would be greeted by darkened windows and endless emptiness.
As we passed my friend’s house, I asked my mother to please let me drop in for a while. She nodded. I waited until my mother and brother disappeared around the corner. Then I turned and headed for my friend’s house. Suddenly, a pile of abandoned Christmas trees from the store next to her house came into my sight. Surprised and excited, I dashed to the trees, picked out the best one and began half-dragging my treasure home. It seemed as if Papa was mixed up in this somehow. It seemed as if he was in the stars above me, in every lighted-house, in the very tree I was carrying.
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。
When I got home, I rang the doorbell and couldn’t wait to show them the tree.
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Before going to bed, I slipped to see my tree one last time but saw my mother standing in front of it.
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As I thought about the answer to a question, my teacher Miss Jackie’s voice suddenly cut through my thoughts, announcing (宣布) the school play.
With excitement, she said, “Jenna, you’ve been chosen for the lead role in the school play,’ The Girl in the Garden’!”.
Me, in a school play? I couldn’t believe it. How could I deal with this? I shared the news with my best friend Mia, who was super happy, but I wasn’t. I didn’t let on to Mia how I truly felt. I believed she’d worry about me. Instead, I told her how excited I was to be part of the play. What a lie that turned out to be!
Returning home, I was full of the upcoming play. The more I read my lines, the more nervous I became. The next school day, I intended to tell my teacher my unreadiness (没预备). However, before I could, Miss Jackie spoke up.
“Jenna, there’s exciting news for you! We’ve invited special guests, including members from the local theater. This could be a big opportunity. You need to be perfect!” she said.
Those words got me thinking. What if this was my breakthrough? What if I could truly shine?
On the day of the play, I was really nervous. As I observed the auditorium (观众席) filling with people before the show, fear overtook me. I hurried outside and sat down on a bench by the school lake for comfort. Before long, a tall person’s shadow (影子) fell over me.
It was Miss Jackie,
Seating herself, she spoke softly, “Jenna, you don’t need to be perfect. I realize I put too much pressure on you. You don’t have to go through with the play if you’re not ready. But I believe you deserve (值得) a chance to shine.”
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。
As she rose to leave, I took her hand.
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The play began.
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When I was in middle school, my family moved to Seattle, where my parents started their new business — a small grocery store downstairs my house. As a girl of shy and reserved nature, I had to take a fresh start to fit into the sophisticated city life.
One sunny day, my school announced an exciting event, a talent show for the local food bank. Students were encouraged to showcase their unique talents in front of the public in the city hall on National Day. A buzz of excitement fed the school as everyone began preparing for the big day. Deep down, I felt a spark of curiosity and a desire to participate. However, my self-doubt held me back, “I don’t have any special skills to share.”
Days turned into weeks, and the talent show drew closer. I couldn’t shake the upsetting feeling until one day, Emma, one of the most popular girls in my class, came to me while I was helping in the grocery store after class. “How about singing together in the talent show?” She grinned, “I heard you singing a tune, along the way back home. I can’t help following you here.” Gosh, I couldn’t believe my ears. Emma, with personality and popularity, acknowledged my little talent. Since Emma had the world’s prettiest voice, I felt like being favoured by fortune.
“You two? The talent show for the food bank?” My mum bent towards us and her face lit up. “A big occasion.” Then a light bulb seemed to go in her head. “Why not practise right now upstairs? I bet you’ll be a perfect match.” Winking at us, she seemed to know we were thinking alike.
Emma and I embarked on rehearsing almost every single day after school. We brainstormed, exchanged ideas and rehearsed the scene. As the days rolled by, I was feeling pretty good about our act. But the day before the performance, Emma called that she had an acute stomachache and was not in any shape to perform.
注意：1.所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Paragraph 1:
I was completely knocked out by the news.
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Finally came the big moment.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Being Planted
“106!” The cry of disappointment breaks the silence of the peaceful night.
In darkness, he stands still there, with tears dropping continuously from his eyes.
He is a 5th-year Ph.D. student majoring in biology. This is his 106th attempt to cultivate strawberries which could bear extreme climates. In his 105th experiment, he did all the pre-processes that he knew which could lead him closer to his goal. Every generation of the strawberry seemed to bring him closer to success, but every time the result was alike — failure, failure, failure. He has literally got used to it. But this time, he can hardly help feeling frustrated and angry.
“Who stole my experimental strawberry!”
Last night, when he got to the field, he was thrilled. Although most of the plants were obviously dying, one plant stood vigorously in the middle of the experimental field. The plant was labeled “Plant No. 106” . What a coincidence! In his 106th attempt, the 106th plant was finally mutating (变异) in its ideal way — the spark of hope, to him.
Last night, Plant No. 106’s fruit started to turn red. He was never so close to success. What he needed to do was to wait for several days to harvest that pink, shiny, attractive fruit.
But this night, the fruit disappears. So does his hope.
“3 years’ effort! 1096 days’ struggling! 13152 hours’ DNA editing and experiment. ALL GONE!” he murmurs to himself. He regrets that he didn’t get a small sample of the stolen strawberry last night.
Now he is using his fingers to dig the ground. He doesn’t know why he is doing so. He is well aware that the results of the past 106 attempts are all wasted because of the incident and his not taking the sample in time. He has no seeds left. At the present, he seems to have only 2 choices: to start from the very beginning, or to give up.
要求：
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 uses his finger to dig the soil of that inch of field which used to contain his hope.
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He is so excited that he bursts into tears.
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Vicky was a first-grade student in a primary school, but she did not feel happy there. Her parents wanted to cheer her up, so they sent her to start her second grade in a primary school nearby. She felt quite happy and wanted to make some new friends. However, she made a mistake. She wanted to become so popular that she ioined a group of students at school, but not in the right way.
Jenny, who was very nice at the beginning, became Vicky’s best friend. But Vicky did not realize that by joining up with her, she would suffer a lot later.
Jenny always acted in a proud and unpleasant wav. showing little thought for others. She did not want Vicky to have other friends. Jenny also enjoyed talking about others’ private lives. Vicky started to change as soon as she met Jenny. Her personality was not as sweet as before any more.
Time went by slowly. Vicky’s marks began to go down. Things got even worse. She hardly had any friends and she didn’t care about her friends at all. either. She always talked to her classmates in an impolite way instead of being nice.
After all that suffering, the day at last arrived when one of her classmates told her that Jenny was not going to be in the school next year as she was moving. Vicky said nothing but in fact did not believe it.
However, on the last day at school Jenny told Vicky that she was leaving. Instead of having a happy parting(分手) , Jenny told her that she never felt that Vicky was her true friend.
Vicky was quite surprised when she heard the news and started crying. When holiday was over, Vicky went back to school. telling herself that all the bad times she had suffered last year with Jenny were over, too. But she found out that her classmates had not forgotten her bad acts.
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。
Vicky couldn’t change this until Lily came to her.
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Finally, Vicky was accepted as a member of the class.
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I was eight years old when my family moved from Towoomba to England in 1950. My mother was suffering from a rare disease and had to take treatment in London. The day before we boarded the ship, Father sent his five-year-old red heeler (Australian cattle dog), Spider, who was loved by us all, to his friend Sandy, as Sandy was to be his guardian while we were overseas. We didn’t know how long my mother’s treatment would take or how long we would be away.
Six weeks later, an airletter arrived from Sandy, giving my father the news that Spider had run away just two weeks after we had sailed. I will always remember my father’s face as he read this news. My mother and I tried to comfort him, knowing in our hearts how useless this was.
Sandy had advertised constantly on the media. Despite many “sightings”, the dog was never found. It seemed Spider just kept running and searching for us. My father worried he would be shot or dead from starvation. But our family thought that Father held a secret hope that Spider was still alive.
We sailed back to Australia two years later and my father immediately began his own search for Spider. He repeated calls to the people who had said they had seen his dog, but it turned out to be clueless.
One cold winter’s Saturday morning, eight months after our return, my father had a call from Gin Gin, 375 kilometers from Toowoomba. An elderly lady living on her own was putting food out “for a very old yellow dog”. This had been going on for a few weeks. Immediately we set off.
Five and a half hours later, we found the old house beside the bush (灌木丛). Sadly, the lady told my father that the dog hadn’t been around for a few days. My father had an upset look in his eyes. He put two fingers to his mouth and did his special whistle for Spider.
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 there was a sound in the bush.
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