Grandpa’s Old Chair
It was the annual cleaning day for the family. John and his mom were busy cleaning the house. They cleaned upstairs, downstairs, inside and outside until everything was spotless. Exhausted, they sank into the couch. Just then, John’s mom noticed an old chair that was faded and worn. That chair was for John’s grandpa, who had lived with them since John’s grandma had died.
“John, come and help me.” John’s mom sprang to her feet. “We’ll take the chair to the curb (路边). The garbage truck is picking up on our block tomorrow.”
As they attempted to move the chair, John’s grandpa made his way through the door. Seeing what was happening, he quickly tried to stop them. “No!” he protested. “You can’t take my chair.”
“But it’s so old...” John’s mom argued. “We’ll buy you a new one.”
“No,” he persisted, trying to push his chair back into place.
John’s mom finally let go of the chair and left the room. With a sigh of relief, the old man sank into his chair and closed his eyes.
“Grandpa, why won’t you let us get rid of the chair?” John asked.
“You don’t understand, John.” His grandpa shook his head and said, “I sat in this chair with your grandma right here when I asked her to marry me. And I sat in this chair the night your father was born. Many years later,” Grandpa’s voice broke, “I sat in this chair when the doctor called and told me that your grandma was ill. I was lost without her, but the chair gave me comfort and warmth.” The old man’s sadness seemed to grow as he recalled that fateful day.
“I understand now.” John looked at his grandpa and said, “This is not just any old chair. It is more like a friend.”
“Yes,” he nodded. “We’ve gone through a lot together.”
However, that night, when John and his grandpa were asleep, John’s mom and dad carried the chair outside. It was a starless night. Snow fell silently from the black sky and covered Grandpa’s chair in a blanket of white.
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 next morning, John was woken by the garbage truck pulling up to the house.
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Hearing this, John’s mom looked at his grandpa and slowly walked towards him.
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My family moved in a small house in Brighton, Colorado on my seventh birthday. My first memory is our neighbor Bill, an old man, handing me strawberries from his garden through a hole in the chain-link fence. “We need to make the hole bigger,” he said jokingly. Later I knew that he lived alone.
Bill spent much time working in the garden, and I was always talking to him from our yard. I was a chatterbox. I think what drew me to Bill is that he never got tired of listening to me. I also think Bill saw a lot of himself in me — we were both lonely and anxious — and that may be why he always took the time to listen to me. It was a wonderful connection.
There weren’t any kids of my age in the neighborhood, and my parents were very busy, so I mostly played in the yard with my dog. I had a lot of imaginary friends — a whole family, actually, with a wife, children, a best friend... no joke. Weird kid.
One day, my parents asked Bill whether he’d watch me while they were away on business. This worked for everyone, so it became a somewhat monthly occurrence. Bill had a spare room in his house, which became “my” room.
Bill promised to teach me to drive the lawn tractor(割草机) someday and I was always looking forward to it. In winter, Bill would attach a snowplow(铲雪机) to the front of the dawn tractor. I seriously told him that I would invent a better snowplow when I grew up. “Sure you will. You’ll get a patent certificate. It takes a certificate to prove an important thing,” Bill said with a smile.
One snowy morning, an idea suddenly hit me. My parents were watching TV when I spit it out, “What if I adopted Bill as my grandpa?” My parents said I could go over and ask him.
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 knocked on his door, sat down in his living room, and asked, “Can I adopt you as my grandpa?”
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The next morning, while learning to drive the lawn tractor with a snowplow, I accidentally plowed down our chain-link fence.
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When she looked around her house, Betty Margaret saw lots of electronics. Along with the usual things like her laptop and smart phone, there were all of her kids’ electronic devices: cell phones, video game devices and more! There seemed to be more than enough ways for her and her three children to be online all day, every day.
Ms Margaret worried that her kids were becoming too dependent on the Internet and electronics. Then she began to reread one of her favorite books, Henry Thoreau’s Walden, which gave Ms Margaret an idea. Thoreau spent 2 years in a simple cabin without running such luxuries as computers and electronic devices for a while.
Ms Margaret talked with her kids and explained that she wanted the family to try living for 6 months without Internet, cell phones, TV, and video games. Ms Margaret writes articles for a newspaper in Australia, and had written several books as well. She told her children that if they agreed, she would write a book about their experience and they could go on a trip abroad with the money from sales of the book. Her three children agreed, and “the experiment” as Ms Margaret called, began.
Over the course of the experiment, the Margaret’s children had different reactions to life without electronics. Before the experiment began, Anni, the eldest of the children, read books more than her younger brother and sister. She therefore had a relatively easy adjustment to the family’s new lifestyle. Anni could also use the library’s computer for her homework. Bill, who loved to play video games before the experiment began, had to find a way to spend all of his new free time. He started to spend more time practicing his saxophone (萨克斯管). Susan, the youngest child in the family, had the hardest time adjusting to life without electronics. She felt restless for the first weeks and later, influenced by her elder sister, gradually began to find interest in the novel experiences brought by various books.
注意: 续写词数应为150左右。
Upon having their daily family gathering after dinner, Ms Margaret, wearing a mysterious smiles, announced the big news that they had come to the end of “the experiment”.
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The vivid description of their true and funny experience toward the new lifestyle undeniably contributed to the hit of the book.
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As a young boy, I was innocent. Every vacation I looked forward to two things-seeing my grandpa and hearing his wonderful stories. My grandpa was a very good storyteller. He had worked various jobs when he was young and wove ( 编 织)his adventures and misadventures into fantastic tales. These wonderful tales colored my childhood.
As I grew up, I had to admit that Grandpa's stories went on a little long, even a little boring and gradually lost their magic. However, not wanting to upset him, my brother and I would sometimes take turns sitting in the living room, listening to grandpa tell his stories.
When my grandpa was approaching 91, he suffered from serious memory-loss.It was kind of what doctors called dementia (痴呆),probably the earliest stage of Alzheimer's disease. Following the doctor's directions, we moved him into a Sunrise Assisted Living Community, where he could get a better care. After that,grandpa hardly came to our house.
One weekend before my grandpa's birthday, I came to visit him. Seeing grandpa sitting in his armchair, dull-looking, I was filled with mixed feelings. I wheeled grandpa to the sunshine in the courtyard, talking to him. He couldn't express himself clearly and spoke in short bursts, but I listened to him patiently and carefully just as I used to be a little boy.
It was then that I noticed a shadow box with some old and yellowish photos in it. I picked one up, in which my brother, several boys in our neighborhood, and I were playing basketball, wearing basketball jerseys (球衣), with grandpa cheering us on ten years before.
注意：1.词数150左右：
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
My mind flashed back to those beautiful memories.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________A bright idea for grandpa's birthday came to my mind.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________It was a pleasant sort of a Sunday as John walked in his uncle’s garden. His parents had moved to Delhi for work. “Your final examination is just a few months away.” Father had said, “We want you to stay with Uncle and Aunt, complete your exams and then join us in Delhi.” Uncle Tim was John’s father’s cousin. They had a Golden Retrieve called Oliver.
From the first day John realized that Oliver was unhappy. He was not given his meals on time, nor was he taken for a walk. Oliver was shouted at and treated badly all day. “Your uncle bought Oliver so that the dog could protect his house from thieves but actually neither he nor his wife loved him,” the gardener told John one day. John felt sad. At night he could hear Oliver whimpering (呜咽) in the cold. “Why don’t you make a coat for your pet?” John asked. “I have much better things to do,” answered his aunt.
One day John went out for a walk with Oliver when the sky suddenly became cloudy. As rain started falling, people ran everywhere for protection. John ran to take shelter in a sweet shop. A few minutes later, he realized Oliver was missing. John was sad and searched the entire place with the help of the shop owner, but failed.
John’s uncle put in an advertisement in the paper. After all he had spent a lot of money buying Oliver and did not want to lose him.
It was a half-an-hour ride by bus. The house was a beautiful brick colored structure. The middle aged lady who greeted Oliver was a motherly sort of a woman. She and her husband had answered John’s uncle’s advertisement in the paper. Since John’s uncle was out on an official tour, John had been sent to check on the dog.
“He is asleep.” said the lady, “Come and have a look”. Oliver slept on a small bed covered with a warm quilt (被褥). A pot of milk stood in a corner of the room possibly for Oliver’s next feed. “I found him on the back seat of the car. He must have hidden himself there from the storm. I had opened the back door of the car to put in the vegetables, which I was going to buy. However, because of the heavy rain I changed my mind and decided to do the shopping the next day. The poor dear was shivering (颤抖) with cold, when I first noticed him after arriving home.” The lady told John.
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.
John looked at the dog. Yes it was Oliver, his uncle’s dog.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________John smiled as he shook his head, “I am sorry to have troubled you. Sir, Madam. But this is not our Oliver.”
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The Perfect Christmas Tree
In our house in Middle Cove, Newfoundland, the tradition was to find the perfect tree before Christmas Eve. And this year, my brother Gilbert and I were being trusted to do it entirely on our own. And we took the challenge very seriously. So, axe in Gilbert’s hand, saw in mine, we set out for all the spots we imagined we might find a magnificent fir (冷杉树).
We were young, but we knew the rules. Trees could not be taken from personal land and not near any road.
We started out with the best of intentions. We were on Pine River Lane, and looking at the firs in the fields, but none of them looked quite good enough. It was getting dark but we still had no luck. On the way home, it was Gilbert who stopped, grabbed my arm and said, “I see it!”
“You see what?” I said.
“Right there, look. It’s perfect.”
And he was right. It was a young tree, two metres tall, standing alone. It was the classic Christmas tree. In all my years, I had never seen such a perfect one.
Perfect except for one small problem. The tree was pretty close to the road. Also, it was behind a fence, so the tree was in someone’s yard. And not just any someone. It was in the yard of Timmy Green, my best friend.
However, the chances of our finding another one like it were slim to none.“You stand guard,” Gilbert said. And with that, we were over the fence and on our bellies crawling toward the target. I lay in the snow and put the Greens’ house under surveillance (监视). I was to whistle or cough if I saw anyone coming.
Within a few minutes, it fell.
“Grab the end,” Gilbert said, and we lifted it over the fence. Now we were on the road.
注意：1.所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2.续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好；
Suddenly Gilbert’s eyes widened. “Our footprints!” he said.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________So it shocked me when I found Mr. Green in our house with my parents, drinking tea on Christmas Eve.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________It was the day of the big cross-country run. Students from seven different primary schools in and around the small town were warming up and walking the route(路线)through thick evergreen forest.
I looked around and finally spotted David, who was standing by himself off to the side by a fence. He was small for ten years old. His usual big toothy smile was absent today. I walked over and asked him why he wasn’t with the other children. He hesitated and then said he had decided not to run.
What was wrong? He had worked so hard for this event!
I quickly searched the crowd for the school’s coach and asked him what had happened. “I was afraid that kids from other schools would laugh at him,” he explained uncomfortably. “I gave him the choice to run or not, and let him decide.”
I bit back my frustration(懊恼). I knew the coach meant well—he thought he was doing the right thing. After making sure that David could run if he wanted, I turned to find him coming towards me, his small body rocking from side to side as he swung his feet forward.
David had a brain disease which prevented him from walking or running like other children, but at school his classmates thought of him as a regular kid. He always participated to the best of his ability in whatever they were doing. That was why none of the children thought it unusual that David had decided to join the cross-country team. It just took him longer—that’s all. David had not missed a single practice, and although he always finished his run long after the other children, he did always finish. As a special education teacher at the school, I was familiar with the challenges David faced and was proud of his strong determination.
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.
We sat down next to each other, but David wouldn’t look at me.
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I watched as David moved up to the starting line with the other runners.
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As a single mother, I’ve never doubted my daughter Jane’s dream to be a singer on the stage. At an early age, she was crazy about singing. Whenever she had a chance, she would sing to her heart’s content. Her sweet and charming voice tended to get people around attracted to her songs.
Living in a small city, I took several odd jobs, determined to do everything in my power to support her. Soon after Jane attended school, her music teacher Mary noticed her talent by chance and volunteered to give her some guidance on how to sing. Jane practiced so hard that before long she made great progress in singing.
Unfortunately, one noon a year later, Jane was crossing the street when a careless driver knocked her down. She was rushed to hospital. When I hurried there, the doctor told me that my daughter would probably not stand on her own feet. I froze with shock, feeling as if I had been thrown into a dark world. Weak and dizzy, I was about to fall to the ground when someone took hold of me.
It was Mary, who got the news and raced here. She comforted me, saying firmly, “Grace, Jane needs you. You must stay calm and strong.” I nodded. Having calmed down, I entered the ward with Mary.
That night, Jane recovered her consciousness (知觉) and opened her eyes. Holding her hand, I said, “My dear, everything would be fine.” Mary comforted her gently, “I know you are a strong girl, Jane. Don’t worry. We’ll be standing by you.” I was heartbroken to see tears streaming down Jane’s cheeks.
After two months, we returned home from hospital. Her teachers and friends frequently visited her. Jane eventually accepted the fact that she would have to get around in a wheelchair. Never did she refer to the subject of singing again. I knew she was a nice and understanding girl, who was afraid that talking about her original dream would upset the two of us.
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。
One day, however, Mary came with good news.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________When the host announced it was Jane’s turn, she was wheeled onto the stage.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________A farmer grew some vegetables in his garden. One day his wife was ill and he had no money. He had to sell some cabbages and carrots in the market. The next morning he took two baskets of vegetables to town. But it was raining hard that afternoon and there were few people in the street. When his vegetables were sold out, it was dark. He bought some medicine and hurried to his village. On his way home he saw a person lying on the snow. He placed his baskets on the ground and was going to help the person to get up. At that time he found it was a dead man and there was much blood on his body. He was so afraid that he ran away quickly, without taking the baskets with him.
The next afternoon the farmer was sent to the police station. Having shown the baskets, an officer asked, “Are these yours? ” “Yes, sir.” the farmer answered timidly(胆怯地). “Have you killed the man?” “No, no, sir.” the farmer said in a hurry. “When did you see the dead man? ” “About seven last evening. ” “Did you see who killed the man? ” “No, sir.” The officer brought out a knife and asked, “Have you seen it yet? ” “No, sir.” The officer became angry and told the policemen to beat him up(暴打) and sent him into prison. The officer wanted to trap the farmer into the confession(供认), but the farmer didn’t admit he was the murderer.
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The officer was so angry that he asked the policeman to beat him up again.
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The farmer was lucky. A few days later,
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Freddie woke up to see it was snowing-again. The world outside was white. Snow covered the roads, the cars, the houses, and even the driveway Freddie had just shoveled（铲）the day before.
“Ugh,” said Freddie. “No more snow!” He got out of bed and headed to the bathroom for his regular morning shower. As he reached for the taps, his mother appeared in the doorway.
“I’ve got news,” she said. “There’s been so much snow overnight that the roads are slippery and dangerous. I just heard on the radio that they canceled the school buses for the day.”
Freddie groaned（抱怨）. “Then how am I supposed to get to school?”
His mom grinned（咧着嘴笑）. “I guess you don’t. It’s a snow day!”
Freddie’s eyes lit up. He’d never had a snow day off from school before. What would he do first?
“I’m going back to bed!” Freddie headed back to his room and climbed under the covers. After a few minutes, he realized that it was too late. He was already wide awake. He headed down to the kitchen and then sat at the table, watching his father fry the eggs over in the pan and his mother pour juice and coffee. It was relaxing, thought Freddie.
After breakfast his mother suggested he go out and build a snowman. Freddie wasn’t too sure. He didn’t really like the cold and the snow. He’d rather stay inside and play video games.
“You can play afterward, but how about going outside for a little bit? It’s good to get some fresh air, and who knows, you might even enjoy yourself.” Freddie unwillingly put on the warm clothes and headed outside.
Standing alone in the front yard, with the cold wind blowing, was not Freddie’s idea of a good time. Knowing his mom meant what she said, the boy sighed, thinking the quicker he completed his snowman, the faster he could go back inside to his video games. He set to work packing up some snow into a large ball.
Moments later, he saw one of his friends appearing from his house up the street. Dion waddled（蹒跚行走）out in his big snow trousers and heavy overcoat. He waved to Freddie.
“Hey there! I saw you out here and thought you might want company. Snow days are awesome!” Dion laughed.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答案卡的相应位置作答。
Paragraph 1
Freddie was surprised but happy to see his classmate.
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Delighted at the idea, Freddie excitedly ran into his house.
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