Bill McDonnell, who was a soldier when young, was a 92-year-old now, still healthy and strong. He loved hunting very much. On December 15, Bill decided to go hunting in Shenandoah Mountain the next day as the deer season had begun. His wife Joanna McDonnell intended to let their son Bill McDonnell Jr. accompany him, but Bill Jr. had a football game that day. Bill McDonnell said he could manage all by himself. Joanna then required Bill to be out of the woods by 2 pm and home by 3 pm, plenty of time before sunset. She added, “ Do take some necessities like a flashlight, just in case.”
The next morning, Bill woke up at four, grabbed his muzzleloader (前装枪), and steered his Jeep toward Shenandoah Mountain. At the end of the old Laurel Run logging road, he began to walk. It was about 7:30 am and 25 degrees when the sun peeked through the trees.
Not long into the hike, he came upon a path he didn't remember. Maybe this was a secret route to the king of all bucks (雄鹿). He took it. Then, around 11 am, he came into a clearing (林中空地) along a ridge line (山脊线). He had walked farther than he had expected. It seemed that his path up the mountain had meandered quite a bit. “Where am I now?” he muttered. Bill figured he could drop into the valley, hunt a bit and then go back home. But when he snaked down through the forest, he found there was no path at all. The forest was thick. It was hard to tell the direction now.
By around 2 pm, Bill stopped at somewhere in the valley, exhausted. “I’ll get it figured out,” he said to himself. He took out his phone to call his wife, but the phone had died. He dug into his pants for the GPS device he always brought in case of emergency and pushed the “on” button. Nothing. He had forgotten to charge it the night before.
“No, I’m not lost,” he told himself. His eyes caught a stand of tall trees. He remembered admiring the line of fantastic oaks and pines earlier. Reach them and the car wouldn’t be that far off. It meant he would have to cover some ground.
注意:续写词数应为150左右。He was moving slower and slower, Joanna‘s 3 pm deadline having passed.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________It was about 9:45 pm when Bill heard the whoop-whoop-whoop of a helicopter.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________When I was a child, I was particular about food. It was Aunt Nelda that changed my habit of being a picky eater.
As far as I could remember, on a Friday night, when Dad and I arrived at Aunt Nelda’s house at dinner time, she prepared a big meal for us. Though the dishes smelled delicious, I didn’t feel like eating some of them. I took several bites of the sandwich and then laid it aside. Dad wanted to kick me under the table to remind me to finish all the food, but drawers (抽屉) between us protected me.
Looking at those drawers, I had a good idea. When Dad got up to refill his soup bowl, I pulled the bottom drawer open. It was full of cloth napkins (布餐巾). I put my sandwich under them and shut the drawer quickly. A plan for my rest food at Aunt Nelda’s emerged.
The next morning, I did the same to the food which I hated to eat. When Aunt Nelda saw my empty bowl, she gave me some sweets and said, “Good job, Jodi. You like my cooking just as much as your father.”
On Sunday, the food under the napkins continued growing, but somehow more slowly. Aunt Nelda was actually a pretty good cook. At noon, her children were coming for lunch. I offered to help set the table.
“Jodi, get the cloth napkins out of the bottom drawer,” she said. My heart began to beat fast. It was not because of the bottom drawer or the cloth napkins, but because of the left food.
“No, let’s use these!” I said, grabbing a handful of paper napkins. Aunt Nelda reached for the drawer. “My children prefer cloth napkins!” she said. I held my breath, waiting for the horrible scene. However, I couldn’t believe that she handed me some neat napkins.
“I’ve already cleaned them up,” she said. “It was so strange that there was much food under the napkins. I hadn’t seen mice for years! Guess what? They were back again. A long time ago, they made a nest and carried the food all over the house.”
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。
Aunt Nelda’s words made me feel relieved but ashamed.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Hearing what I said, Aunt Nelda opened her mouth wide.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________A woman remarried a man from Mexico. She already had a 16-year-old daughter named Bethany, while her husband had a 14-year-old daughter named Maria. Maria and Bethany had been in each other’s lives since they were children. Their relationship as stepsisters was good until recently.
The entire family was busy planning Maria’s Quinceanera (成人礼). The woman’s husband and his ex-wife joined forces to get her a beautiful dress to celebrate the occasion. In total, the dress cost $3,000.
Bethany made it clear that she was jealous (嫉妒的) of the party. Her mom had to make her understand that in Mexican culture, a Quinceanera was a great deal, just like how she had a sweet sixteen party. However, Bethany kept comparing her party to that of Maria’s. It was a massive issue for her, and it reflected in the way she behaved around everyone at home.
Knowing how it made Bethany feel, the mom tried to spend more time with her daughter to assure her that she wasn’t being disregarded. They even got her a lovely dress for the Quinceanera, but much cheaper than Maria’s dress.
Two weeks before the big day, Maria and Bethany got into an argument regarding the TV. Bethany retaliated (报复) against her stepsister by tearing off the back part of her Quinceanera dress. After finding out what Bethany did, everyone was angry. The mom couldn’t believe what her daughter did and quickly gave her husband and his ex-wife money to get a new dress.
The mom told Bethany that she needed to get a job to pay back the total price of the dress. It was her punishment for such an unreasonable act against her stepsister. However, Bethany claimed her mom was unfair by choosing Maria over her. This made the mom question whether she was in the wrong for giving her daughter no choice but to find a job. She wrote about the story online, hoping to get opinions from others on whether what she did was wrong.
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。
To her surprise, she got everybody’s support.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Finally, the mom was determined to teach her 16-year-old a lesson.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The woman speaking to me at the basketball game looked quite familiar. She said, “Joe? Is that you?”
“Marci?”
“It is you!” she said, smiling widely, “It’s good to see you again!”
It was good to see Marci, too. Off and on during the past tens of years, I’d wondered about her. I almost tried to find her a few years ago, after a friend told me that Marci had been going through a hard time. So running into her at the basketball game was, at the very least, unexpected.
We spent a few minutes catching up on the business of our lives: kids, work, houses, education and hobbies, etc. We played a little “Have you seen...?” and “Did you know..?” And we talked about the old days, both good and bad.
Then Marci grew quiet for a while, looking out over the people moving around. “You know, Joe,” she said, “I’ve always wanted to tell you...how...you know...how sorry I am for the way I treated you.”
I felt a little uncomfortable, remembering how Marci had broken up with me without any warning.
“It’s okay,” I said. “No big deal.” At least, I thought to myself, not anymore.
“But I was such a bad person,” she continued, lowering her head.
Yes, you were, I thought, “We were both pretty young,” I said.
“I know,” she said. “But that’s no excuse for ...” She hesitated (迟疑), and then continued: “I’ve always regretted it, remembering how mean I was to you. And I’ve wanted to tell you that I’m sorry and ask for your forgiveness. So ... I’m sorry.”
The smile on her face was warm and sincere. And there was something in her eyes — it looked a lot like relief (解脱) — that washed away my anger and hate that may have built up within me during the years since she had broken my heart.
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。“Okay, apology accepted!” I said.
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We all bear wounds that others have caused us.
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It was the middle of July when we drove way up into the mountains and backpacked up a stream. The banks were lined with old trees. We waded (涉水) through the cold water, our backpacks balanced on our heads.
We set up camp on a sandy flat beside a pool. What a swimming hole! My brother and I swam, diving and playing in the clear water. We-hiked upstream, against little rapids. Suddenly we heard a roaring sound, and as we came around a bend, we saw what was causing it.
A huge waterfall! It rose high above us. “Wow!” I said. “Let’s climb it!” “No way,” said Dad. “End of the road.” We turned back but I couldn’t stop thinking about the waterfall and how much I’d like to climb it. Later, lying in my bag, I thought of the waterfall, wondering what was on the top... then finally I fell asleep.
The sun was hot as a bonfire. We cut leaves as wide as elephants’ ears, and tied them on our heads to keep us cool. Then we waded against the little rapids deep into the stream. I was the first one to the waterfall. “Let’s go up. I think there must be something unique out there,” I said. My brother smiled. “If you go, I will,” he said.
I found a way alongside the falls, and then we climbed like mountain goats. Mom shouted, “Be careful!” And we inched our way up and up—the tips of our toes gripping thin ledges (岩石突出部分), our fingers finding cracks. Sometimes rocks were unstable, but we clung (粘住) like glue. We had to.
The waterfall roared by our ears. “I’m scared,” said my brother. I said, “Just don’t look down.” Near the top, a tree grew out of the rock. It was just what we needed. When we stood at the top, we clapped our hands and shouted down, “Hey Mom, Dad! It’s like a whole other world up here! Come on up! You can do it!” And I did a little dance.
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。
Mom looked at Dad and Dad looked at Mom.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________“We did it!” Mom shouted, breathing hard.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Tomato Changed My Life
Doing things-without being planned was never my strength.
As a 14-year-old, I would refuse to go for walks around the block with my friends if I was the least bit behind in my schoolwork.
Unlike most teenagers, I lived not in my room, but in an unused kitchen upstairs where I spread my books and papers on a large round table. I spent considerable time there, working continuously for hours, and my mother worried. She would try to lure (引诱) me away. “Come and watch the parade!” she would call from downstairs. “All neighbors are out there!” She thought of all kinds of tricks-the swimming pool, ice cream, stray cats and turtles-to remove me from my -studies, but nothing ever worked.
Later, in college, the pattern continued. The library and my college dorm replaced the unused kitchen at home. When spring came along friends would stop by my dorm or peer into my library room to persuade me to play Frisbee on the lawn. “No, I would almost always say.” I have too much to do.
My college study days were gone, but not my need and love for schedules. My friends and sisters tried to keep me away from my plans, but they were hardly ever successful.
This summer, though, while house sitting for my parents, I was persuaded to change my plans in the most unexpected way. The sight of tomatoes growing in my mother’s garden lured me out of my tightly scheduled world. They drew me with the power of a lover’s gaze. Hundreds of them were turning ripe and red by the minute, decorating the garden like decorations on a Christmas tree.
“If I have time, I’ll make tomato sauce (番茄酱).” I told myself. But my long week in the house by myself was already filled with things to do: writing, and finishing a project that I brought home from the office.
Then, watching the fascinating tomatoes continuously falling to the ground in ever-greater numbers, again I mentally argued about all the things I had planned and needed to do.
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。
Finally, I gave in.
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A month later, my parents came back.
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James Bradley had developed a strong passion for skiing. On a freezing cold Sunday in 2019, James, then a 16-year-old boy, headed to Aspen Mountain with his father to go skiing. They took a cable car to the top of the mountain and conquered the most challenging part of the long trail. Afterwards, they decided to follow different trails to go down the mountain respectively. That was when everything started to veer off course.
In the late afternoon, after finishing the final run through the side trial, his father arrived at the parking lot. Anxiously, he had waited here for his son for several hours. However, James never showed up.
It turned out that a fierce snowstorm had swept into the area as James was on his way down. Unable to see far and clearly, he turned off the path by accident and got lost. The dreadful snowstorm coupled with strong winds gained strength and enveloped everything, blocking his way back to the ski trails.
Before long, James slid down the mountain slope on his skis and stopped at the bottom of the mountain in the valley. Thanks to the thick snow, James didn’t get hurt and the winds weren’t as strong in the valley as they were up on the mountain. Looking around, he saw nothing but the branches of trees and the pure white snow. James had no idea where he was. Worse still, the sun began to sink and he was getting colder by the minute. Most worrisome of all was that he didn’t have any food or water with him, let alone his mobile phone or other supplies.
Standing alone in the wild and holding his large skis, cold and thirst, he couldn’t help thinking about the survival show Man vs. Wild that he used to watch. In the show, Bear Grylls was abandoned in a wild area like this and had to help himself out by using all sorts of survival skills. Yes! It was time to put the tips he had learned to use.
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。
Without hesitation, James took action immediately.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Two days later, James saw several figures approaching his shelter.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Growing up, I rarely heard people in my family say, “I love you.” We’re the kind of people made uncomfortable by expressions of love.
Recently, I took my ten-year-old daughter and fourteen-year-old son to visit the great grandma in the nursing home and on the drive there I shared stories about her with the kids. I told them how Great Grandma was bright but grew up in a time and place where women, especially women from rural Tennessee, had few opportunities.
Great Grandma was kind and generous, but I told my kids she could be competitive, too. For instance, when I was a kid, she never let me win at cards.
The Great Grandma I described, the one from my memories, is a stranger to my kids. To them, she’s a small, white-haired woman with dementia (痴呆) who eats only chicken noodle soup and can still kick their butts (屁股) at Scrabble but needs to be reminded of their names and to turn on her hearing aids. We’re all fond of the current version of Great Grandma, but visiting her in a nursing home feels foreign to me. She’s weak and dependent, and I’m surprised at the situation because she’s no longer like the version of her that I know.
On the day of our visit, Great Grandma expected company, so she opened her door as soon as we knocked, greeting us with a big smile, telling us to come in even if she wasn’t certain who we were.
She began our visit by showing us pictures of blankets she gifted to others, and proudly showed us a blanket she was working on now. After that, we took Great Grandma out for a lunch of chicken noodle soup.
At the car my son helped her into the front seat, asking gently, “Are you in?” Then he shut the door and carried her wheelchair to the trunk of the car. When we returned from lunch, perhaps inspired by her brother’s concern, my daughter offered to get Great Grandma’s walker when my son volunteered to help Great Grandma out.
Back in Great Grandma’s room, the kids began to chat with her.
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。
Paragraph 1: When we said goodbye to Great Grandma, both of my kids hugged her.
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Paragraph 2: To my surprise. Great Grandma was excited to receive love.
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9 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。
Every time I think of the card attached with a picture, it reminds me that success is important, but why not sometimes just admit the journey, regardless of success or failure, and show our approval? Our approval may bring us another story, while for others, another chapter of life.
One month ago, I was temporarily appointed to be in charge of a class, when they just finished an important exam. A boy walking out of the classroom with his friends greeted me happily. The sunny smile on his face showed his confidence in the exam. He was Mark, a top A student. During the following days, Mark impressed me with his optimism in class and after class.
One Monday morning, as I rushed towards my office, I encountered Mark. We greeted each other, but his “good morning” face wasn’t as bright as usual. “Maybe he doesn’t like Monday as much as I do.” I thought jokingly.
At the office, Mark’s less-than-enthusiastic look reminded me of his sunny smile. Recalling the first time we met, I drew a boy with a broad smile and sparkling eyes. As a new teacher, pupils like Mark were my favourite. Personally, they learned by heart, and always met our expectations. Moreover, they were easily satisfied. Even a simple “Well done!” could brighten their day. To encourage students, I had my own award system, including empty cards, where I would write three or four sentences of encouragement based on students’ individual situations.
As I enjoyed the pleasure of getting a new idea, I heard a knock at the door. It was Mark, dragging his feet with his head down, “Madam, I’m upset.” His words amazed me. What could make such an excellent student so down? I asked if he had problems with his friends, but he shook his head. Concerned, I inquired if he was being bullied, but received the same response.
“Do your parents put pressure on you?” I wondered. As for this question, Mark’s voice began to tremble and he lowered his head again, whispering, “They trust me and expect me to get better and better. I had been doing my best but I got the third place in the 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。
Hearing his words, I was lost in thought.
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With my encouragement, Mark opened the card.
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When Mrs. Russell finished one of her lessons, she was out of breath. A sudden burning stomachache started but she hoped her students wouldn’t notice.
“You look pale, Mrs. Russell, are you alright?” a kid, Tony, asked. Mrs. Russell tried to explain everything was alright, but the words just wouldn’t come out. She became unconscious and fell down in front of her class, and there were red and blue lights, many adults, and the sounds of children crying. An oxygen mask was then put on her.
“We’ll see what we can do for Mrs. Russell. Now all of you have to go back to class and listen to whatever Ms. Hanson tells you,” Mr. Roberts, the headmaster, tried to ask Mrs. Russell’ students to leave the office, but they wouldn’t move. Tony and Hannah were at the front of the pack. They were told Mrs. Russell needed surgery, and hospitals cost money.
“We want to have Mrs. Russell come back! She’s the best teacher ever. Please help us, Ms. Hanson, ” Hannah said, and all the kids nodded. “Kids, let’s go back to the classroom and brainstorm together about helping Mrs. Russell,” Ms. Hanson guided them back to the classroom and she instructed them to write a greeting card to Mrs. Russell.
“A card is not enough to save Mrs. Russell. She needs money to afford the surgery. We need a grown-up to help. ”Tony told his classmates at break. All the kids were thinking hard, and suddenly, Asher spoke up. “My big sister is a senior in high school. Well, I think she can make a link on a website or something. Then we can raise the money needed and help Mrs Russell!”
All the classmates agreed and went home to tell their elder brothers or sisters about this idea. Asher’s big sister, Dianne, started an online group, and she made an internet link immediately with her parents’ approval.
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。
The link and the group were shared throughout the community quickly.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Mrs. Russell was back at school two months later.
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