“Number 7, Jobie Nymble, takes the lead,” cried the announcer. “Just one more hurdle (跨栏) and —” Cheers erupted. “Jobie Nymble from Riverside Middle School takes first place in the girls’ 100-mcter hurdles!” The crowd went wild as Jobie’s teammates screamed and yelled.

Determined to go all the way to County Championships, Jobie patted her worn neon-green track spikes (钉鞋). They were bursting at the seams (接缝处), but she didn’t care. They were her lucky shoes and she loved them. “Next Saturday, we’re taking home the gold,” Jobie whispered to her spikes, excitedly retying them. “Don’t forget, guys,” said one of her teammates cheerfully. “My birthday party is next Friday at Hidden Park.” “Beep. Party recorded in calendar,” joked Jobie in her best robot voice.

Jobie brimmed with excitement all week long. At track practice, she leaped over those hurdles faster than she’d ever leaped before. The day of Marisol’s party, Jobie put on her favorite outfit: her fancy blue shorts, an old track T-shirt from her dad, and her lucky spikes. The party was in full swing when Jobie arrived at Hidden Park. Music and the smell of grilled food filled the air. Two of Jobie’s teammates rushed toward her, breathless and barefoot, asking her to try the slide. Jobie’s eyes darted toward the party area. Suddenly, she saw it. The BIGGEST inflatable (充气的) slide she had ever seen was on the far side of the park. Smiling kids zoomed down the slide at unspeakable speeds. Without thinking twice, Jobie took off her spikes and rushed toward the slide. Its ladder stretched to the sky like Jack’s magical beanstalk, but she reached the top in no time. She sat down, slipped to the edge, and closed her eyes as she let go. Jobie couldn’t get enough, conquering the slide over and over again. When it was finally time to go home, she reluctantly made her way back to the track where she’d left her shoes.

As she eyed the area from a distance, panic set in.

The next day, without her lucky spikes, Jobie was among the best track teams gathering for championships.

A little bird landed on the tree branch outside Lisa’s bedroom window. It sang energetically as the first pale yellow rays of sunshine appeared.

“Oh, my god, what is that noise?” Lisa complained to herself, pulling her bed sheets over her head to ignore the sound. It was no use, and she knew it. The loud sound showed the coming of the day. Lisa’s mom knocked twice on her door, and then came in with a smile. “Time to get up, Sleepyhead,” She whispered. “The early bird catches the worm, you know.”

“Ugh,” mumbled (含含糊糊地说) Lisa into her pillow. “What does that even mean?”

“It’s just an expression, Honey”, her mom replied. She gave Lisa a kiss on the cheek and urged her to get out of bed. Lisa rolled over and slept for a few more minutes.

With her mom’s repeated urging, Lisa had no choice but to get herself dressed. She went unwillingly downstairs for breakfast, ate slowly, and missed her bus. When she finally got to school, she failed to get a place in the Chess Club. She also missed the first part of math class, so she didn’t understand the lesson and had to get extra help at lunchtime. Her teacher gave her extra homework to make sure she knew it. As a result, she missed her favourite library time. This day was no fun.

The next morning, Lisa was woken up by the same loud noisy song. Instead of ignoring it, today Lisa walked over to the window and opened the curtains. “Well, hello there, little fellow,” she said when she saw the pretty bird outside, still singing happily. As she watched, the bird stuck its beak (喙) into the wet ground, and pulled out a wiggling (不停摇摆) worm for breakfast.

“Today I am going to be the early bird,” thought Lisa.

At lunchtime, Lisa finished her lunch early and had time to go to the library. 

4 . 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。

Catherine was the coolest kid in her class. Whenever she went, she was in the spotlight, with a bunch of kids following her and doing everything she did.

Her deskmate, Landy, however, was not in the cool kids’ group. Being the tallest kid in her class, she was teased by her classmates, who were always chanting “Landy, Landy, long as spaghetti (意大利面 )”. Every time Landy heard those silly chants, she could feel her face burst into flames. God knew how she wished the ground to crack and swallow her!

Catherine didn’t really like it when the kids chanted “Landy, Landy, long as spaghetti”. But she never told them to stop either, and nor did she ever talk to her. She liked being popular.

One weekend, Catherine went over to her grandfather for Thanksgiving. Her grandfather lives on a farm at the opposite end of town, where he keeps chickens. While helping to feed the chickens, Catherine noticed a peculiar one. Curling in the corner, it looked smaller than the others and was almost half-bare!

“What’s the matter with it?” She asked her grandfather, with a puzzled frown on her face. Her grandfather told her how chickens could act. “They have a pecking (啄) order,” he explained, wrinkles of concern spreading around his forehead. “If one chicken is different, the others will push it away and keep pecking it. Sometimes they peck it so much that it dies.”

“Oh, what a poor little thing!” Catherine let out a sigh as she scooped the frightened chicken up in her arms, whose heart was beating fast in the bony little body. Suddenly, she thought of Landy, the girl being “pecked” by her classmates. “I’m going to take it home and take good care of it,” she said with a determined look.

Back in school, Catherine told the cool kids about the chicken. “It’s looking healthy,” she said proudly. “It’s fatter and its feathers are growing. Even the cat likes it. She carries it around the garden, and...” Everyone was entertained by Catherine’s story of her lovely chicken, laughter lingering around the classroom.

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. Then Catherine spotted Landy sitting by herself in a corner.

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Paragraph 2. But Catherine walked directly toward Landy, regardless of what they said.

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When I was four, my seven-year-old brother received a baseball glove for his birthday. Every night. as we went to sleep. I’d listen to him throwing a ball into the glove over and over to soften the leather. I wanted a glove so much that I almost cried. But, back then, girls didn’t play sports; they played with dolls (洋娃娃).

Fast-forward twenty-six years. Now a thirty-year-old mother of two boys and a girl, I happened to sec a notice in my local paper: “Women’s Baseball League opens soon. Anyone interested, sign up at the community service center.” I cut it out and set it on the kitchen table, Could I? After all these years?

I looked at that notice on my table every day. l thought of a thousand reasons I couldn’t play. But the idea of playing baseball stuck in my head and wouldn’t go away. Finally, 1 gathered up my courage and signed up. Since I wasn’t a member of any team, they told me I’d be assigned (分配) to one. Two weeks passed before they gave me the name of the team to look for. Since my husband worked Monday nights, I arranged for a babysitter. It was a luxury (奢侈) but, at that moment in my life, a necessity.

On Monday, heart pounding, I walked through the park filled with women of all ages practicing. It took me a while to find my team. They were all high-school girls, seventeen and eighteen years old! I waited a couple of minutes before approaching the coach. He had put together top athletes for his team, and he didn’t want some old lady messing things up. He looked me over. His girls had fine gloves and metal cleats (棒球钉鞋). They looked like players. I had no glove and wore an old T-shirt and gym shoes. I didn’t care. I wanted to play. That first day, he had me run bases (跑垒). I never got a chance to bat or play the field. I just ran bases all night. The next morning, I could hardly stand.

When I showed up the next Monday, the coach was clearly surprised.

“Impressive catch!” my teammates cheered for my performance after the training.

One afternoon after school, Mary and her brother, Keith, were eating at a cafe near their home. That afternoon, they had to share their table with another person. That person was a young lady in her twenties. After eating, she went to the restroom. Without realizing, she had left her cellphone on the table. Five minutes later, she came out and walked out of the cafe without looking back.

Mary saw the cellphone on the table. She quickly told Keith, “Keith, the girl left behind her cellphone.”Keith looked at the cellphone. It took his breath away. It was one of the latest models on the market. Keith had always wanted a cellphone. But his parents had told him, “You don’t need one. You can always use the house phone.” He stared at it for some minutes. Then, he said slowly, pausing on every word, “I want to take the cellphone.” Mary could not believe her ears. She only stared at her brother, “You can’t! What if the owner comes to look for it?”

After making the decision, Keith quickly got the cellphone and put it in his schoolbag. Then, he took Mary’s hand and led her out of the cafe quickly.

Once back home, Keith locked his room door with trembling (颤抖的) hands. Inside his room, he took out the piece of beauty. Oh, he liked it so much. He had his own cellphone. Soon, he was polishing it happily. But Mary told him, “Keith, you cannot keep the cellphone. What will you tell our father about this? He will ask you how you got the cellphone.” Keith said quickly, “I will say a friend lent it to me.” Mary said, “Now you are lying too. Oh dear! When had Keith turned so dishonest?”

Then, Mary saw a house phone number on the cover of the cellphone. “This is the girl’s phone number. Why don’t we just call this number? We will talk to her and ask her to come and take back her cellphone,” she was trying to talk some sense into him.

That night, Keith turned over in bed from time to time.

Mary was very happy to hear that.

Once there was a little girl named Emily. Although her singing was very pleasant to hear, lacking of courage, she never dared to sing in front of strangers.

One summer, the neighborhood where she lived would hold a singing competition. Her best friend, Lucy, came to invite her to participate in the competition, but Emily said, “I’m afraid to take part in it.” Her mother said, “It’s okay; just do it bravely.” Emily followed her mama’s advice and decided to give herself a try. The day came. Emily and Lucy went to the competition site. But she was too timid (胆小的)to walk onto the stage. She had been waiting until others finished singing. She shakily (颤抖地)forced herself to stand on the stage. She started to sing,but her voice was so low. What’s worse, she was so nervous that she forgot the lyrics (歌词)after singing a few words. Being laughed at by others, embarrassed and shy, she ran away from the stage.

Some naughty boys ran after her and said, “Emily, coward (胆小鬼)!Emily, coward!” Emily didn’t argue with them. What she wanted was to go back home as quickly as she could. Finally, she rushed into the house, hugged her mom and cried sadly.

“Well, my poor girl, don’t cry. Tell me what happened to you,” asked her mom. Emily looked up at her mother and told her what she had experienced.

Listening to her, her mom cupped her face and said, “It doesn’t matter, girl. As long as you practice singing more in front of strangers, you will become braver little by little. So, my girl, don’t be beaten by a failure.You can go out to practice singing every day. No matter who is listening to you, go on singing and never stop. I believe there will be a harvest for you.”

Emily listened to her mother carefully and followed her mom’s suggestion.

Going on singing,she walked into the park,where many people were singing and dancing.

Many organ transplants (器官移植) come from those who are blood relatives or close friends. It’s rare for a person to make a living organ donation to a stranger. Not surprising when you consider the operative risks and other potential problems.

That’s what Paul Wagner thought until he read an article about matchingdonors.com, a website that connects people who need transplants with those willing to be donors (捐赠者), Paul grew up in a poor family and admits to making many mistakes in his youth, including using drugs. “But I always got another chance,” he said. Paul said help came when he needed it most, and because of that, he wanted to give someone else a chance.

That someone turned out to be former opera singer Gail Tomas, who was suffering from kidney (肾) failure and badly needed a new kidney. But her hopes for a donor were so slight because of her O⁺ blood type. Paul, also type O⁺, emailed Gail, offering to donate his kidney to her. He said, “It would be wrong of me not to help.” That attitude, however, was not shared by most surgeons, who refused to participate. The surgeon who agreed only did so after long interviews with Paul to be certain about his motivation. The transplant finally took place on National Donor Day.

Afraid that Gail and her family would feel tied to him merely out of appreciation, Paul made it clear to Gail that he didn’t want to get to know her. But Gail insisted on making friends with him and was trying to find an opportunity to break down the barriers to their friendship.

Then Gail’s first birthday after the transplant was approaching and she got an idea.

Their friendship started after the birthday party.