Taylor opened her sleepy eyes and looked out the window at the foggy field below. “NO!” she cried, now fully awake. Buttermilk, the cow, was in Mama’s daisy(雏菊) field.
I must have forgotten to fasten the gate last night, Taylor thought as she pulled a sweatshirt over her head. Mama was planning to sell daisy bouquets at the fair next week. But Buttermilk was eating the flowers.
Taylor hurried outside and grabbed the lead rope hanging on the porch. “Why can’t you stay in the field?” she shouted at Buttermilk as she headed across the yard to the daisy field.
Buttermilk stood nipping (啃咬) tender flowers off their stems. Taylor leaped to her feet and rushed to the cow. Angry and anxious, she thought to herself: “When I grow up, I’ll be an artist and paint pictures all day. I’ll never own a cow. Too much trouble.”
Just as Taylor was about to snap the lead rope onto Buttermilk’s collar, the family dog, Red, rounded the corner of the house. The cow couldn’t stand Red.
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 latch (门栓).
She turned to look at the flower garden. Most of the daisies were either eaten or crushed.
Mama came out of the house. “What’s going on?” she asked. She looked sadly at her garden.
“I forgot to latch 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。
A painting on the wall caught Taylor’s eye. “That’s it,” she whispered.
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On the morning of the fair, Taylor said, “Mama, I have a surprise for you upstairs.”
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Yesterday a heat wave hit the town. “It’s too hot! Let’s go for a swim after we finish our chores (家务活) at home!” Joseph complained to his little brother, Loren. As the boys walked toward the Little Colorado River, they saw Sam and Frank, who ran to join them. “Swimming’s just what we need to cool off!” Sam said, kicking a rock.
“Sure it is,” Frank agreed. Then he looked at the field they were passing. There were many round watermelons in Farmer Davis’s patch (小块地). “Hey, Joseph” Frank said, “do you have the courage to climb over that fence and get us a ripe (成熟的) watermelon?”
“I don’t know. ” Joseph said.
Loren looked uncomfortable. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Come on,” Frank said, pushing Joseph toward the fence. “No one will ever know.”
Then Frank started to climb the wooden fence. Joseph felt bad but climbed the fence and jumped with Frank into the watermelon patch.
Joseph took the closest melon and raced back to the fence. The other boys laughed and took turns carrying the heavy melon as they ran to the river. Finally they broke open the watermelon. The sticky sweet juice was delicious! But Joseph regretted what they had done and wished he hadn’t taken the melon.
On the walk home, they finished off the last piece of the melon just as they passed the watermelon patch again. Joseph lowered his head quickly when he saw Farmer Davis in the field. He waved at the boys, who quickly threw the melon rinds (皮) to the side of the road. Davis looked upset as the boys hurried by. Joseph felt terrible. It was wrong to take the watermelon. He knew he had to tell Farmer Davis what they had done and ask for forgiveness (宽恕).
That evening Farmer Davis visited Joseph and Loren at their house. “One of my biggest watermelons went missing,” he said, “I was wondering if you boys happened to see anyone in my field as you passed by today.”
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。
Joseph looked at his shoes and said in a low voice.
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Farmer Davis thought for a minute.
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1. 未来机器人的发展；
2. 未来机器人在各领域 (日常生活；医疗领域；教育等）的应用；
3. 结束语
注意：1.开头已经给出，词数80词左右2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Hello, everyone,
I’m Li Hua, ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
4 . My best friend traveled to stay with our family last weekend. When she arrived, she went straight to the kitchen and, without asking, ate a spoonful of raspberry jam and some dried fruit. She wasn’t being rude. I knew she would do this. We’ve known each other for almost 20 years. She can eat anything she wants from my kitchen. Indeed, I bought her favorite fruits and snacks at the shop that morning.
Our long weekend together was luxuriously (惬意地) simple. I was recovering from surgery (手术) and couldn’t go to shopping malls. We passed the time running errands (做杂事), going to the post office and collecting dry cleaning. We drank way too many cappuccinos. But we talked about every little detail of our lives.
There’s never been a quiet moment in our friendship. We’ve lived in different cities for almost a decade. Reunions demand constant conversation. our personalities are matched, to be sure, and a shared history is indescribably valuable. We were competitors in high school before bonding over a bad experience. Then we discovered the many interests that we had in common. Our friendship cemented (巩固) itself quickly. We stayed companions through law school, through our first jobs and our first boyfriends. We supported each other through break-ups and breakthroughs. Ours is a friendship for the ages.
There is something special about friends who know everyone and everything about you. They are rare. These are the people you’ve chosen to witness your life. They have seen the bright lights of achievement, the depths of despair (绝望) and the boring routine (平淡乏味) of the in-between.
It’s special to unpack feelings and frustrations without wasting time filling in the blanks. As my long weekend shows, with such friends we don’t have to “do”, we simply have to “be”. We drop the act, the performance, the public version of ourselves.
The special friendships are those which never fail to delight, the continuation of which is worth the extra effort, despite distance and difference sneaking (溜进) into your separate lives. I had the very great joy of this reminder last weekend. I’m lucky to have found this friend, to see a future where her companionship remains. Being together is perfection.
1. What happened during her best friend’s visit?| A．They enjoyed an eventful long weekend. | B．They bonded by having long conversations. |
| C．They made their favorite snacks and coffee. | D．They talked about recent news events. |
| A．they help each other deal with the boredom of life |
| B．they prefer to witness each other’s lives from far away |
| C．they try to show each other their best selves |
| D．they are comfortable being themselves when together |
| A．Charm comes from differences. | B．Politeness brings best friends closer. |
| C．Good friendships last naturally. | D．Good friendships need devotion. |
| A．describe what her best friend is like | B．tell about the friendship she treasures |
| C．explore the key aspects of friendship | D．express thanks to her best friend |
5 . Which comes first, happiness or money? Are richer people happier ? And
The study
The researchers(研究者), from University College London and the University of Warwick, say that very depressed(沮丧的) teens, no matter how tall or smart they were, earned 10% less than their peers(同龄人),
Happier teenagers have an easier time
A report in June suggested that professional(职业的) respect(尊重) was more important than
If it is really true that happier kids
| A．if not | B．if so | C．if any | D．if ever |
| A．looked around | B．looked into | C．looked out | D．looked through |
| A．apologised | B．acquired | C．attended | D．tended |
| A．turned | B．grew | C．went | D．got |
| A．powerful | B．confident | C．delighted | D．depressed |
| A．while | B．when | C．as | D．though |
| A．right now | B．up to | C．right away | D．down to |
| A．getting off | B．getting through | C．getting out | D．getting on |
| A．simply | B．just | C．chiefly | D．only |
| A．jobs | B．dollars | C．friends | D．parents |
| A．gene | B．brand | C．character | D．nature |
| A．the best | B．the different | C．the same | D．the most |
| A．come up | B．end up | C．take up | D．turn up |
| A．first of all | B．for all | C．at all | D．after all |
| A．exists in | B．contributes to | C．results from | D．relies on |
It was not uncommon to see a person like me in an amusement park, who held purses, cellphones and sunglasses while others enjoyed themselves riding roller coasters. I admitted their courage, but refused to challenge myself.
One day when we were at the Happy Amusement Park in Seattle, my friends tried to get me to ride a roller coaster. But the click, click, click of the cars climbing up the tracks made me scared. The stop at the top, before falling with people's screams, seemed terrible.
My friends were still trying to persuade me, and I was saying no as usual, when I suddenly saw a familiar face, one I had never seen in real life. It was Raine, a popular young tennis star at the top of her game, who was my heroine. I pulled out a pen and the only paper that I could find and walked to her.
She was making her way through a rope that led to a ride called the Loudest Scream. I was running fast because I didn't want to miss the chance to meet her face to face, but I was also a bit nervous. So I waited at the exit to calm down and get closer to her as she came off the ride.
Several minutes later, she got out from the exit, laughing and talking with her brother. I focused on her walking toward me. She walked past. It was more difficult to talk to a star than I thought, but I had to take the chance. I called her name, not very confidently, but more like a question, “Raine?” She turned around. Our eyes actually met. “Would you mind signing for me?” I asked, handing the pen and paper toward her. Her hand wrote over the paper and she said, “You are the first person who has recognized me in the park so let's take a roller coaster together.”
Paragraph 1:
Her warm invitation actually filled me with mixed feelings.
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Paragraph 2:
My friend came up and asked, “Are you sure you will take the Loudest Scream?”
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7 . How to Feel Connected
It's easy to feel disconnected from what is going on around you in today's fast-paced world.
Consider why you feel disconnected. Knowing what is making you feel disconnected can help you choose the best ways to address it.
Interact with people in person. Technology is a great way to stay in touch, but sometimes you need to spend time with other people in person.
Your loved ones could feel shy, so you may never know how to improve your relationship unless you ask the right questions. Asking them to open the doors can give you some insight on what you can do. Learning this information can help to strengthen your bond.
Show your commitment to them. Simply showing up and being there for your loved ones says a lot about how much you value your relationships. Putting in the time shows them that you are committed and want to stay connected.
Show appreciation. A simple “thank you” goes a very long way. Unfortunately, it is something that people who are close often take for granted. Telling someone you appreciate their time, love, and efforts can strengthen your bond and help you to become more connected.
| A．Ask others what they need from you. |
| B．Sometimes you can feel isolated and distant from the ones you love. |
| C．Be brave to express your love. |
| D．Reach out to people to schedule a time to get together. |
| E．Attending family events, or simply visiting someone once a week can help to strengthen your relationship and keep it strong. |
| F．Targeting your efforts toward those issues allows you to close that distance more effectively. |
| G．You can have a gift delivered to friends on special occasions. |
8 . Babies are surrounded by human language, always listening and processing. Eventually, they put sounds together to produce a “Daddy” or a “Mama”. But what still confuses neuroscientists is exactly how the brain works to put it all together.
To figure it out, a team of researchers turned to a frequent stand-in (代替) for babies when it comes to language learning: the song-learning zebra finch. “We’ve known songbirds learn their song by first forming a memory of their father’s song or another adult’s song. Then they use that memory to guide their song learning,” said Neuroscientist Todd Roberts. “It’s been a long-term goal of the field to figure out how or where in the brain this memory is. This type of imitative learning that birds do is very similar to the type of learning that we engage in regularly—particularly when we’re young, we use it to guide our speech learning.”
Roberts and his team had a feeling that the interface (交叉区域) between sensory areas and motor areas in the brain was critical for this process, and they focused on a group of brain cells called the NIf.
“In order to prove that we could identify these circuits, we thought if we could implant a false memory.” First, they used a virus to cause the neurons (神经元) in the birds’ NIf to become sensitive to light. Then, using a tiny electrode as a flashlight, they activated (激活) the neurons. The length of each pulse of light corresponded with the amount of time the neurons would fire. And the birds’ brains interpreted that time period as the length of each note.
Soon enough, the birds began to practice the notes they had learned, even though they never really heard the sounds. Amazingly, the birds produced them in the correct social situations. The researchers say this is the first time anybody has found exactly a part of the brain necessary for generating the sorts of memories needed to copy sounds.
“This line of research is going to help us identify where in the brain we encode memories of relevant social experiences that we use to guide learning. We know that there are several neurodevelopmental disorders in people that have really far-reaching effects on this type of learning.”
1. The zebra finch is researched because its song-learning mode ________.| A．decides whether it will sing songs |
| B．helps it to say “Daddy” or “Mama” |
| C．is like the way babies learn speech |
| D．reflects its talent for imitating its father’s song |
| A．The interface in the brain. |
| B．Guidance from adults. |
| C．Imitative learning type like birds’. |
| D．The way of regular learning. |
| A．Scientists activated some neurons by using an electrode. |
| B．A bird only sings what it heard before. |
| C．The brain produces tiny electrodes. |
| D．Birds are sensitive to light. |
| A．A change in our way of listening and processing. |
| B．A chance to have relevant social experiences. |
| C．A better knowledge of the secrets of learning. |
| D．Identification of neurodevelopmental disorders. |
He met her at a party. She was so outstanding, with many boys around her, while he was so ordinary, with nobody paying attention to him.
At the end of the party, he invited her to have coffee with him. She was surprised, but out of politeness, she agreed.
They sat in a nice coffee shop. He was too nervous to say anything, and she felt uncomfortable, thinking, “Please let me go home.”
Suddenly he asked the waiter, “Would you please give me some salt? I’d like to put it in my coffee.”
Everybody stared at him. So strange! His face turned red, but, still, he put the salt in his coffee and drank it.
She asked him curiously, “Why do you have this hobby?”
He replied, “When I was a little boy, I was living near the sea. I liked playing in the sea, and I could feel the taste of the sea, just like the taste of the salty coffee. Now every time I have the salty coffee, I always think of my childhood. I miss so much my hometown and my parents who are still living there.”
While saying that he couldn’t hold back his tears. She was deeply touched. That’s his true feeling, from the bottom of his heart. A man who can speak out his homesickness must be a man who loves home, cares about home, and has responsibility for his family.
Then she also started to speak about her faraway hometown, her childhood, and her family. That was a really nice talk, also a beautiful beginning of their story.
They continued to date. She found that actually he was a man who met all her demands: he was kind-hearted, warm and careful. He was such a good person but she almost missed him.
Thanks to his salty coffee! Then the story went on just like every beautiful love story: the princess married the prince, and then they were living in happiness…And, every time she made coffee for him, she put some salt in the coffee.
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。
After 40 years, he passed away, leaving her a letter.
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Learning the truth while reading the letter,
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10 . We all experience “oh crap” moments. Running into the person you canceled a date with — while you’re on another date. Realizing you hit “reply all”on an e-mail that you’d do anything to have back. Whatever the situation, the first thing you probably do is freak out. Everybody does.
While many of us think that we’re cool in a crisis, science tells us that we seldom are. At the moment we need to be keenly aware of our surroundings, our attention can tunnel in on the scariest thing in the scene, leaving us unaware of the other sights, sounds, and even smells around us. Armed robbers go unidentified because witnesses remember little more than the guns. Our ability to remember the things we do notice also becomes compromised; we can be told something, and two seconds later we’ll forget. And we jump to conclusions. When we’re freaked out, we’re anything but at our best.
These normal human reactions can be reversed. Once you calm down, you’ll face the most routinely ignored challenge of any crisis situation — identifying what the crisis is really about. We tend to misdiagnose problems because we don’t practice for them. Do the thinking ahead of time so you can just find the solution when it’s showtime. This is why flight attendants suggest you find the closest exit before you depart — so you don’t have to go exit shopping after the plane has caught fire or is sinking into a river.
Performing in a crisis is becoming more important for all of us, for two reasons. Back in the good old days, the reliability of most anything we used or did was far less than it is today. Now think about what happens to our preparedness as the possibility of something bad happening shrinks. Unless we practice what hardly ever happens, our ability to respond when it does happen tends to slip away. Reliability can kill you. Also, the systems we use today are more complex. There are seldom moving parts in plain view that allow us to see when things are about to go wrong. When complex systems lack transparency (透明度,显而易见), serious situations can “come out of nowhere.” We should all learn to breathe, recognize the situation, and carry out the plan that we were smart enough to prepare well in advance.
1. What does the underlined phrase “freak out” mean?| A．Be at one’s best. | B．Calm down gradually. |
| C．Run away immediately. | D．Panic or be scared. |
| A．Because the witnesses jump to conclusions. |
| B．Because the witnesses focus on their scariest thing. |
| C．Because the witnesses forget what they have been told. |
| D．Because the witnesses are keenly aware of the surroundings. |
| A．Because of less reliability and less complexity. |
| B．Because of more reliability and more complexity. |
| C．Because of worse transparency and less preparedness. |
| D．Because of better transparency and more preparedness. |
| A．Taking a deep breath and dialing 119. |
| B．Staying cool and ignoring the challenge. |
| C．Calming down and remembering the situation. |
| D．Performing escaping and rescuing beforehand. |
