The newfound team, now officially known as the Wildcats, started their basketball journey with a mix of eagerness and anxiety. The community center’s basketball court became their arena (竞技场), a place where failures were just stepping stones to success, and every dribble (运球), pass, and shot was a lesson in disguise.
Under Mr. Jordan’s guidance, practices became more than just learning how to play basketball; they were about discovering the strengths within and the power of unity. He had an approach to seeing the potential in every player.
One afternoon, as the team gathered around Mr. Jordan, he introduced a new drill that focused on passing and communication. “Basketball is a language,” he explained. “If you can’t communicate, you can’t win. This drill will help you understand each other without words. ”
The drill was a disaster at first. Passes went wrong, and frustration mounted. Jasmine’s quick passes were too swift for Mia, and Lucas’s attempts at humor during the drill only led to more confusion. Eli, ever the observer, noticed the tension and suggested a simple system of hand signals they had discussed in a previous practice. Gradually, the team began to find their rhythm, learning to anticipate each other’s moves and communicate more effectively.
It wasn’t just basketball skills that the Wildcats were developing; it was a sense of belonging and trust in one another. Each practice ended with a team gathering, where Mr. Jordan shared stories from his coaching days, emphasizing the lessons learned from losses more than wins.
注意：(1)续写词数应为150左右；(2)开头已给出。Paragraph 1: Soon came their first real game against a more experienced team.
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Paragraph 2: The second half saw a different Wildcats team.
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I love to watch my father paint and I love to hear him talk while he paints. The words always come out soft. As a mason (泥瓦匠) , he doesn’t have a studio, and I’ve always felt a little sorry for him, having to paint in our backyard, which is not exactly picturesque. Dad doesn’t seem to see the backyard when he’s painting, though. It’s not just the canvas he sees either. It’s something much bigger. He gets this look in his eye like he’s gone beyond the yard, the neighborhood, the world.
“A painting is more than the sum of its parts,” he would tell me, and then go on to explain how the cow by itself is just a cow, and the meadow by itself is just grass and flowers, and the sun is just a beam of light, but put them all together and you’ve got magic.
I understood what he was saying, but I never felt what he was saying until one day when I was up in the sycamore tree (梧桐树) . I’d never seen a view like that! I got the feeling that I was flying above the earth. The view from the sycamore was more than rooftops and clouds and wind and colors combined. It was magic. It wasn’t long before I found the spot that became my spot. I could sit there for hours, just looking out at the world. Sunsets were amazing. Some days they’d be purple and pink, some days they’d be a blazing orange, setting fire to clouds across the horizon.
Then came the day. When I was sitting in the branches of my tree, I found two trucks parked right beneath me. Four men came out of the trucks, and started unloading tools, gloves, ropes and saws (锯子) .
Pretty soon they spotted me. One of the men called, “Hey! You’d better come down from there. We gotta take this thing down.”
I managed to choke out, “The tree?”
“Yeah, now come on down.”
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: My heart was crazy with panic.
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Paragraph 2: When I was locked up in my room mourning for the loss of the tree, my father came in with a painting.
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When I was young, I always dreamed of playing the piano and giving performances to a large audience in a concert hall. However, I struggled to understand the musical notes and the theory. Despite my parents’ encouragement and offer of piano lessons, I pretended not to be interested, too afraid to try.
Many years passed until one day, at 25 years old, I heard that a new piano studio had opened in my neighborhood. The teacher was recruiting (招收) new students. My childhood dream came flooding back.
I remembered I had initially feared becoming a teacher after graduation. However, I overcame those doubts. I refused to let fear hold me back any longer, so I walked into the studio.
The teacher, Deb, welcomed me warmly. I was relieved to find we were contemporaries (同时代的人) and expressed my desire to play the works of Bach and Beethoven if I could overcome my fear. Deb understood and seemed sincere, so I signed up for 3 months of classes. Still doubtful about my commitment, I bought a small, tabletop electric organ to practice with at home. It wasn’t the same as a real piano, but enabled me to learn some basics.
Week by week, I attended lessons in Deb’s studio. I often passed young students on their way out from their lessons before mine. One day, noticing the textbooks in my bag, a child stopped me and asked, “Where’s your boy?” After some hesitation, I finally answered I was the student. The children then welcomed me and I sat in the studio and listened to a piece a child was working on.
Soon, I gained confidence and upgraded to a full-size piano at home for daily practice. After three rewarding years of lessons with Deb, she announced it was time for me and other students to prepare for a recital (钢琴演奏会) on stage. I was thrilled at the chance to finally fulfill my childhood dream, yet also anxious at the thought of performing before the audience. But Deb believed in me. “Look how far you’ve come,” she encouraged. “It’s time to share your gift with others.”
Paragraph 1:I shook my head and told her, “No, thanks.”
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When I finally finished my performance, I faced the audience and bowed.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I loved the spelling bee (拼字比赛). I trained every day after school, the dictionary pages rippling softly in the breeze. But I had never thought my arch-enemy in the spelling bee could become my friend.
Opening my eyes on Friday morning, I felt the hairs on my arm stand up. I glanced at my alarm clock — it’s only 6:27. I usually woke up at 7:01, which meant I had an extra thirty-four minutes to study. I was the best spellers in my class. I wanted to win the bee at Meadowbrook Middle School and beat my arch-enemy, Nathan Fortescue.
Nathan just read many science and math books. Really, he wasn’t a speller at heart — he’s a mathematician. Nathan and I had nothing in common except being good spellers, but since he’s a good speller without even trying, it didn’t count.
I walked into the kitchen, finding Dad cooking breakfast. He served me some porridge. I thanked him and told him the spelling test and my anxiety. My father gave me a quiz. Those words “dexterous, sesquipedalian, truncate” didn’t trouble me at all. Finally came the word “judgment”. “Easy, J-U-D-G-E-M-E-N-T.” I answered quickly, without any thought.
Dad shook his head. Not believing in him, I headed for my room, referred to the dictionary and marched back with a frown. Before parting, he told me that I should thank him, because I would probably get the word in the test.
As soon as I shut the classroom door behind me, I heard a voice from the back of the room. “You are looking pale now, and I’m afraid that you may miss the spelling bee.” Nathan smiled as he closed a giant book with dancing numbers on the cover.
“I bet a literature word will make you out on the first round.” I replied.
As Ms. Hawking walked into the room, she explained the rules—one missed, and you were out—and the spelling test began. After four rounds, only Nathan and I were left. “Olivia, your word is ‘algorithm.’” said Ms. Hawking. I hadn’t heard that word before, but I spelt it A-L-G-O-R-H-Y-H-M.
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。
Ms. Hawking frowned and said that’s incorrect.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________After class, I sobbed when I felt a hand on my arm.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Harry, from Chesterfield, is going to be 11 years old. He always wants a proper birthday party but it’s always been difficult to arrange because he is an autistic (患有自闭症的) boy. It is hard for him to understand how other playground he might smile. He’s not evil-minded. It’s just his face and feelings do not match up. Unless you know him, you can’t understand the thing he does. He’s a really good kid, just misunderstood. Because of autism, he’s not been invited to a party since kindergarten, which makes him seem to be left out.
In order to make Harry not feel lonely, this year, his mother Hannah, 31, put an appeal for birthday cards for Harry on her social media because she wanted Harry to feel “included” and “less alone”. Much to her surprise, more than 200 cards flooded in her mail box within a week, some from as far as Dubai. With more arriving every day, she felt crazy and overwhelmed.
When Harry said that he wanted to have a party for his 11th birthday, his parents felt surprised but delighted. Because it meant their son was willing to deal with different people, which was a big step for him. The parents took action again. At first, no one but his family had planned on coming, they even couldn’t fill one lane. Struggle d to get more people to come, the mother turned to social media once more and the result never let her down. More and more people sent cards and some of them started offering to come to the party as well. It turned out that people with children Harry had never met responded by helping to fill the venue.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好。
Paragraph 1:
On Harry’s birthday, about 30 children in total attended the party.
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The party means a lot to Harry who was scared and nervous but also excited.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________It was a lovely summer morning, and all the world was bright and fresh, filled with pleasant smell of flowers and trees. How sweet!
Allen’s heart was overflowing with joy at the thought of his daughter, Jessie. “She is just as lovely and shining as the sunshine.” he said to himself.
As a father of a young daughter, Allen was always employed in making the ends meet and hardly could he spare time for his daughter. Today, he turned off the phone, setting aside a whole for the joy of parenthood in the park.
On arriving at the park, Jessie ran through the pathways, giggling for all the fun it was to run in such green grass. The deep-green tree leaves shone in the summer morning breeze and the birds and butterflies danced in the air as if saying: “Allen, you have a perfect daughter!” Allen chased after the little angel, heart filled with happiness.
Suddenly, Jessie discovered a vendor(小摊贩) selling apples. She turned around, using her puppy eyes and adorable face to beg her father to buy an apple. Allen didn’t bring a lot of money but it was enough to buy two apples. So he bought two apples for his daughter without any hesitation, thinking “she deserves everything I could afford.”
Jessie held an apple in each hand excitedly. And at the same time, Allen lowered himself, joking: “Would you like to share an apple with Daddy?” Out of Allen’s wildest expectation, hearing this, his daughter quickly took a bite from an apple before her father spoke anything more. Unbelievably, she then also bit the other apple. The father was speechless, frozen with sadness on the spot, not knowing what to do next. He wanted to know what mistakes he had made in raising children, making his dear daughter so greedy. His heart was filled with deep sorrow. “Maybe I just thought too much. My daughter is too young to understand sharing and giving.” Allen tried to comfort himself but with the smile disappearing from his face.
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。
After several more bites, however, Jessie held an apple in one hand, saying “father, eat this one.”
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____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Tom could communicate well with other people through the computer or even on the phone, but when it came to making public presentations, he was hopeless. He was aware that people at conferences would count up the times he said such things as “what I really meant to say was” when he got nervous.
Tom was an expert in Reality Robotics Company. His boss had asked him to do something that he was absolutely scared about. The next month he would be presenting on behalf of his company, and there would be a lot of people, and his boss, who had never attended Tom’s presentations, wanted to impress the audience with the innovative work that the company was doing. Tom knew his boss’s respect for him would plummet (坠落) if he said that he could not do it. So, he worked like crazy on the task.
One day, he felt a great need to relax. He turned on the TV. He laughed, and smiled through the first show, making him feel a little better. But it was the second show that really got to him, where the ventriloquist (腹语术者) Arthur worked with his dummy (假人) . This really provided him with an inspiration for how he was going to make his much-feared presentation a success.
The next day, he organized a meeting of the people that had the skills he needed, and, of course, his boss. When he explained what he wanted to do, he could sense that everyone was with him on this plan. But a lot of work had to be done for the object of the plan to be completed.
It was the day of the presentation. Tom was somewhat nervous, but nowhere near to the extent that he usually was for just such a situation. And they had to get to their destination early, for what needed to be done had to be completed before the audience knew what was going on.
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: The much-anticipated presentation started.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2: Tom walked onto the stage, looking exactly the same as the presenter.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Michael and Greg were brothers and they lived in a family with a tight budget. They both missed the field trip last year because they could not cover the extra fee. This year, Michael’s class would arrange a field trip to the city museum and he really wanted to go. So he was trying to earn some pocket money.
On this cold autumn morning, Michael gathered the last of the leaves into a small pile. There weren’t even enough to jump in. “Mom and Dad are never going to pay me for gathering this little bit of leaves.” “What are you talking about?” Greg asked, walking up behind him. “I’m trying to do some housework so I can make enough money to cover my field trip to the city museum, but there’s nothing to do around here.” Michael sighed and looked around.
“You could offer to wash Mom and Dad’s cars,” Greg said.
Michael’s face lit up. “That’s a great idea.”
“I bet some of the neighbors would pay you to wash theirs, too. It’s getting colder and no one wants to wash the cars themselves.” Greg looked his brother in the eye.
Michael nodded. The air was cold. He shivered（打寒颤）at the thought of washing cars and getting wet in this cold weather. “Maybe this isn’t a good idea.”
Greg placed his hand on Michael’s shoulder. “I have some golf gloves that are designed for wet, cold weather. I’ll loan you a pair, and I’ll even help you wash the cars.” “Really? You’d help me and let me keep the money?” “Sure. Golf season is over. I won’t need the extra cash for a while.” Greg disappeared inside the house.
Michael asked his parents if he could wash their cars for a small fee. When they agreed, he asked some neighbors, too. Three more agreed. Michael got a bucket, some sponges（海绵）, towels and soap. Greg came back outside with the gloves. “Here you go. They’ll keep your hands warm and dry.” “Thanks.” Michael still couldn’t believe his brother was helping him earn the money like this. He had to think of a way to repay him.
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。
With these tools, Michael started to work.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________To Michael’s surprise, he found he earned more money than expected.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I started in on Winn-Dixie right away, trying to clean him. First, I gave him a bath. The whole time I was working on him, I was talking to him. And he listened. I told him how we were alike. “See,” I said, “you don’t have any family and neither do I. I’ve got the preacher, of course. But I don’t have a mama. I mean I have one, but I don’t know where she is. She left when I was three years old. I can’t hardly remember her. And I bet you don’t remember your mama much either. So we’re almost like orphans (孤儿).”
Winn-Dixie looked straight at me when I said that to him, like he was feeling relieved to finally have somebody understand his situation. I nodded my head at him and went on talking.
“I don’t even have any friends, because I had to leave them all behind when we moved here from Watley. Watley’s up in north Florida. Have you ever been to north Florida?”
Winn-Dixie looked down at the ground, like he was trying to remember if he had. “You know what?” I said. “Ever since we moved here, I’ve been thinking about my mama extra-extra hard, more than I ever did when I was in Watley.”
Winn-Dixie twitched (抽动) his ears and raised his eyebrows.
“I think the preacher thinks about my mama all the time, too. He’s still in love with her; I know that. He’s still hoping she’ll come back. But he doesn’t tell me that. He won’t talk to me about her at all. I want to know more about her. But I’m afraid to ask the preacher; I’m afraid he’ll get mad at me.”
Winn-Dixie looked at me hard, like he was trying to say something.
“What?” I said.
He stared at me.
“You think I should make the preacher tell me about her?”
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。
Winn-Dixie still looked at me. “I’ll think about it,” I said.
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It was the first time that I had a heart-to-heart talk with my dad-the preacher.
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I stood in front of the house, waiting for Grandma’s box of cookies. Every Saturday, a box of cookies would arrive on our doorstep tied with a brown string. As far as I could remember, Grandma, carrying the box, was always there on time.
Jack, my younger brother, had always been fonder of the cookies. He was still childish, maybe not understanding the value of time with family. As for me, I was always Grandma’s little girl, and possibly she loved me more than Mom. There was something about Grandma that made her so special. In fact, seeing her every Saturday was the happiest thing all week for me.
Jack played in the yard and picked flowers for the dinner table. Mom always wanted the prettiest ones, and Jack just knew which ones she would love most.
“The weather report says today will be a rainy day. So will Grandma still come?” Jack asked.
“I’m not sure,” I answered, looking up at the sky. The clouds were dark gray and thick, which just made me more upset. However, Jack didn’t seem too excited about the cookies this time. He was arranging his flowers attentively.
“You’d better come in! I can feel a few raindrops on my head,” Mom shouted. Jack quickly ran towards her, carrying many flowers. Some even slipped out of his hands, creating a colorful trail behind him.
“I brought you some roses, Mom!” Jack said, shoving (猛推) the flowers into her hands. I found he left some flowers in his hand. Who was he going to give them to? Mom then looked back at me. “Would you rather be outside in the rain?” she questioned. I shook my head. “It’s just a box of cookies. I can get it next Saturday,” I thought. However, I knew it was more about the cookies — it was a lot of love from Grandma.
Mom gave me a small smile and repeated, “I knew you wouldn’t want to get wet. Come in, baby.” I was about to step inside when a familiar voice came, “Jenny, I’m coming!” I turned back and saw Grandma shuffling (拖着脚走) towards me.
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 rushed towards Grandma with open arms.
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“Grandma, you brought the cookies again!” Jack said happily.
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